Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.
In my opinion, the best way to think of Medellin’s terrain is as a piece of jungle lifted 5000 feet into the air. The altitude mediates and softens almost all of the jungle unpleasantness, but the place still has a lushness that can be just a little disturbing.
For instance: Medellin has almost no annoying flying insects. I saw no mosquitos, and very few stinging insects of any kind. It does, however, have some impressive flying beetles. What they lack in numbers or aggression they make up for in size. One of these guys got into my apartment, and for a moment I thought a small bird was flying around in there. Furthermore, at night the racket from the local variety of cricket can become a little intimidating.
I like Medellin, but my time there has pretty much convinced me to avoid any part of Colombia lower than Cali. (Including Cartagena: even though its terrain is probably more coastal than jungle, I bet it’s still brutally hot and humid.)
