Medelin,Colombia

21 August 2008

I had wanted to visit Cartagena,on Colombia's coast, but the fare from Lima was more than I had bargained for, around $747. Which made me start thinking about taking a national flight south, to Tacna, and going by road to Chile. I just didn't care for the idea of going to Chile for a fourth time.

But Eugeene emailed me with a price of $425 to Medellín.

So, I left Lima at around 5:35 PM today and,after a stopover in Bogotá, arrived in Medellín at 10:40 PM.

I had heard that a cab would cost about $25, so was extremely pleased to find a small bus parked outside the terminal that cost 6,000 pesos (about $4). It was quite far to the city and I kept thinking, if I had taken a cab for that long ride, which seemed to be about 25 miles, that after paying, I would have had enough left to turn around and take the cab back to the airport.

When the bus arrived in town, I was pointed to a cab, and I gave the guy who ushered me to the cab, $1. We had a difficult time finding my hostel, partly because I wrote Casa Wiki, instead of Casa Kiwi. But something may have been amiss with the address, even though I wrote it down as I saw it on the internet. We finally got directions when I asked a guard to call the hostel, and we were about the drive past, after midnight, when I just spotted the name.

Not having one peso, I borrowed 5,000 pesos from the hostel, and paid the driver, along with $1 tip.

And I went to bed.