el metro y un museo

Every day, I venture further and further from home base.  The first day, I went to the closest market.  Yesterday, I had lunch with two of Mary Jo’s coworkers, and then she and I walked all around her neighborhood to find a place where I could buy a cheap cell phone before eating a delicious meal of sushi with some new friends.  TODAY!  Today, my friends, I walked so far I got a nice set of blisters on the heels of my feet.  And it wasn’t because I didn’t wear sensible shoes.  No, I most definitely earned these blisters.  Medellin is a huge, vibrant city.  True, there is a good amount of traffic, and the cars don’t like to stop for pedestrians, but there are also a ton of people walking, jogging, and biking at any time of the day.  The weather is beautiful.  Warm and breezy and not too humid.  Each morning has started with a haze, but by early afternoon, the sun peaks through.

Today, I visited Medellin’s Museum of Modern Art.  I had three options to get there:  walk, metro, or taxi.  I chose the metro.  It’s entirely above ground, efficient, and way more clean than any train I’ve become accustomed to.  Also, a round trip ticket is about $1.50.  Not bad, eh?

I must have asked for directions eight or nine times today.  I was so lost, but I didn’t care.  It gave me an excuse to talk with people, to practice hearing and speaking Spanish.  Each person I asked went out of his or her way to help me.  A women walked me to the closest store to ask someone else because she didn’t know.  Another man walked me to the actual building.  The doors were barred, and I found out that the location had moved to the other side of the city.  So I walked back to the metro and took it to the right stop.  Once I got off, I asked a woman to point me in the right direction.  She was walking the same way, so we walked together.  Can you imagine how much I appreciated that?  I’m falling in love with the gracious hospitality of the people here.

Super cool graffiti as far as the eyes can see….

El Museo de Arte Moderno was one floor with two rectangular rooms on both sides of a lobby.

Paintings by Colombian artist Débora Arango below.

On both sides of the halls of the museum were rows of simple vignettes like the two below.  A piece of art and a chair to take it in.

The walk back to Mary’s place is uphill, and quite far from the closest metro station, so I took a cab back.  I was sweaty, and the driver must have noticed because he pulled over and bought two ice creams on the way, one for him and one for me.  He also pulled out a children’s book in English and Spanish from his glove compartment and explained that, for him, it was the easiest and most fun way to learn another language.  I totally and completely agree.