In the early morning I met up with my Y' again for breakfast, and take a short stroll around Chipichapi Mall again, as all the nearby restaurants from my hostel were not open this early in the morning.
I got back in plenty of time to check out and get a taxi to the airport, but the rain had started and when it rains in Colombia, few people walk, so the taxi took almost half an hour to arrive and by the time that it got me to the airport my flight was already checking in and letting you go direct to the gate in preparation to board.
Cali airport is a little on the small size, and I found very little to do once I had checked in, and with no obveous wifi stations I was prepared to just wait when a friendly German hairdresser started to chat with me for the duration. In no time at all we were old friends and a few times he started talking in German, then checked himself and apologised but said that I looked German so his brain just assumed it before he put his brain into gear.
Sadly we were not seated together on the small propellar plane from Cali to Medelin, but we had already agreed to split the cost of the taxi fare from the airport into the city centre, which would save us both around £6 so was well worth it.
On the way we chatted about lots of stuff and by the end I had given him my card and told him if he wants to meet up to email me as my phone is normally switched off, and he said that he might but if he did it would be from someone else as he didnt like computers very much and had nothing set up.
I arrived in the Hostel and found that it was a nice place, in the south, but with a good reputation and filled with English Speaking tourists, although for some reason I just wanted to get out and about and find a map, as typically they gave me one that was about 4 roads in all directions from their hostel, which is only good for directing taxis to but not much cop if you plan on journeying out.
I walked and walked and eventually came to a big shopping plaza that was just past McDonalds that was all geared up for christmas and luckily had city maps, so I bought a main one and a mini map for taking with me on excursions into the city.
Getting back was a bit more of an effort, as I tried to use the map I had just bough and found that it was a bit out of date, as there had been a lot of new construction in the last 2 years and now many extra turning and sidings were there that are not on my little map, thus taking the second left or right no longer was correct.
I did manage to make it back after dark, but I was extremely shocked and disturbed to see a couple of girls, no more than 13 get picked up at the end of the road, first one and then the other by the same large black 4x4, and I really disagree with young teenagers doing that sort of thing.
Back in the hostel I found that my friends here in Medellin were still in hiding, and with the weather very rainy that night I made my mind up to cut and run early instead of to stay for the full three days and try to make better use of my time in Manizales and Medellin where my friends were in regular contact and eagerly waiting to meet me.
At 11pm I was the first person to go to sleep in my dorm room, and also the first to wake up at 7am the following morning.
I had checked the weather forcast and it said that it would be hot and sunny during the day and only start chucking the rain down again at about 5pm, so I figured that I could get a good half day in the city centre before grabbing a long distance bus from here to Manizales.
I strongly suggest that all tourists use the metro to get around in Medellin, as it is cheap, fast, easy to use and best of all it is not underground but overground high above the streets and houses, with an impressive view of the city and a perfect place to take photos or to spot where you visit.
After reaching the centre I spend a good few hours walking around, taking photos, getting lost and then finding myself again somewhere totally different and I got so turned around that I picked up the metro to come back a good three stops away from where I arrived.
It is true that Medellin is the centre of the world and hub for all the most attractive looking women in the world, and I can see men come here to find girlfriends or wives as they were everywhere and I had a new favourite every few minutes. In fact I strongly was tempted to go high up in a restaurant, set up my camera on digital video and just let it run, but then that would be considered rude and intrusive.
As it was I just had to enjoy the view walking around the town, content that as this was the same the second time that I visited this city it is unlikely to be a fluke and there would just as likely be many attractive women the next time I come here when the weather would be better and so hopefully would my Spanish.
Having now been to several latin american countries I have seen, heard and witness a phenomenon enough time to know that it is genuine and not just internet hype or camp fire stories.
Generally Latin men seem to be very bad to their native women, both verbally, physically and dating several of them at once, that a growing minority of latin women are eager to find a suitable gringo and marry them instead. Of course, some tourists are taking unfair advantage of this, but most often the westerners are just astounded when these beautiful latin women are willing to bed and marry them, more so for their kind nature more than their wallets or passports.
In fact, the few that I have talked to are much more interested in finding a gringo that wants to move and live over in South America than they are interested in uprooting themselves and coming to live in Europe, and when you experience the weather and the cost of things you can see their point. Europe is no longer considered the ideal place to live and western men are no longer being so sought after just as a way of entering into the country.
The scary fact is that western women often find latin men attractive and exotic, so perhaps in future there will be many more mulatto babies and being of clear racial descendents will become much harder to prove.
Around 4pm I came back to my hostel to check out and grab a but before it got dark, but as it had just started to rain waiting for the taxi took longer than it should and I missed my bus by a few minutes, having to wait for almost an hour for the next one.
The bus was a six hour ride, and thankfully they showed a couple of movies, the first was Indian Jones 4, and the second was a strange Indian film about a boy who lost his sisters shoe and then all the fuss he has to try and get it back, to let her use his shoes to get to school an then he finally runs a long distance race and ruins them so that they both had no shoes to wear. I didn't really get the point of it, plus it was in quiet dubbed Spanish, so when it was over I was as confused as I was when it started.
The rain was really chucking it down when I arrived in Manizales around 11pm and thankfully the taxi driver knew where to go and I decided to splash out and treat myself to a private room for $30,000 pesos a night, which works to be around £8 for the privacy it was well worth it.
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