"La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera" (The city of the eternal spring)
I just completed my first week in Medellin, Colombia and wanted to share my first impressions.
1. Weather is excellent.
I think this is as close as it gets to the "perfect weather".
I like the year-long spring and the lack of temperature variances. The average temperature is between 20 and 30 degrees everyday.
2. You really need some Spanish.
This is my main struggle so far. The only people who speak English are the ones I met on Couchsurfing and a few people from universities. I have yet to find a single person in the metro, market or bar who speaks English. This is good because it motivates me learn Spanish, but makes it extremely challenging to do daily stuff and have deep conversations with people. My recommendation: learn some Spanish before coming here.
3. People are very friendly.
There are very few cities in near history who suffered as much as Medellin. Paisas (people from Medellin) really want to forget what happened and welcome the new start. All the paisas I've met are very passionate about their city and seem to be happy living here. They are not only friendly, but also trying hard to make foreigners enjoy their stay in this beautiful city.
4. People love dancing.
Everybody dances. In the same night club, music might change between reggaeton, merengue, salsa, bachata etc. You will not enjoy the nightlife if you don't know how to dance.
5. Transportation.
Metro is clean, fast, safe and cheap (1$). Taxis are also in abundance and cheap. I usually pay between 3$-6$ for a cab ride.
6. Cheap.
Almost everything is half price of what I used to pay in Vancouver.
7. Most expats are male.
Probably 80% of the expats I met here are male. See #8.
8. Girls are beautiful.
Many people say Medellin has the most beautiful girls in South America. Many locals I've talked to agree that Medellin and Cali have the most beautiful girls in Colombia. Some argue that this is due to the fact that these two cities had the two major drug cartels for a long time, and narco-traffic somehow caused these high concentration of beautiful girls in these cities. Not sure about this.
9. Blackbery is everywhere.
Medellin seems like the last castle for RIM. More than 90% of the smartphones I've seen in this city are Blackberry. Apple doesn't exist here. I only saw a few iPhones/iPads at rich kids at a private university.
10. Plastic-filled boobs and butts.
I knew that the breast implants are VERY common in Colombia, but butt implants caught me off guard. It's interesting that in many parts of the world girls are spending hours in gym with complicated diets to make their butt smaller, whereas in here, they're paying money to inject silicon in their butt to make it bigger/rounder ! :)
11. Healthy lifestyle is a trend.
It seems like there are many fried foods and people drink beer a lot, but the most surprising thing for me was the lack of cigarette smokers. None of the Colombians I've met are smokers and you don't see many people in the street smoking. There are many gyms and swimming pools around the city.