{"id":201,"date":"2011-05-17T14:16:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T14:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=201"},"modified":"2011-05-17T14:16:32","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T14:16:32","slug":"rock-stars-in-medellin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"Rock Stars in Medellin"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Nicole and me, the travel destination of choice over the past few years has been Central America.\u00a0 The reasons are simple: 7-10 day itineraries are more suitable than longer ones while we have young children at home, and we can travel inexpensively in these areas that are rich with history, local culture, and adventure.\u00a0For the most part, we’ve been to travel destinations where they are well-accustomed to seeing people from the United States.<\/p>\n

But now we’re breaking the mold.\u00a0 Opting to bring the children, and to reach a little further south has rewarded us with something we craved at least a little bit… the awe of locals who’ve seen very few tourists over the years.\u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, Colombia and Medellin in particular, have a lively expatriate scene – Parque\u00a0Lleras\u00a0is lleno de gringos, but for the average Colombian, seeing a young family of blonde-haired, blue-eyed darlings\u00a0is more than they can handle.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More than once we’ve been asked to pose for a picture.\u00a0 Little girls\u00a0snap\u00a0cell phone pictures and put them as their screen-savers.\u00a0 Older women and younger men just gush over my\u00a0one-year-old, Claire.\u00a0 “Que belleza… que hermosura… que monita…” and the superlatives continue.\u00a0 We feel a little bit like rock stars… and the attention can be annoying, but we’ve decided to just appreciate it, because we really don’t have a choice.<\/p>\n

The people are incredibly friendly.\u00a0 For a country that’s been marred by some of the ugliest violence history has recorded, you’d expect people be more guarded and reserved.\u00a0 Yet, it’s very much the opposite.\u00a0 We’ve met people in supermarkets that instantly want to associate with us.\u00a0 They beg to hold our children and invite themselves to come visit us in our apartment.\u00a0 We’ve taken a liking to this opportunity to get a genuine sense for the people and their culture.\u00a0 All Colombians use the phrase “a la orden” as an integral part of their vocabulary… essentially saying, “how may I help you?”<\/p>\n

While it drastically conflicts the image of Medellin’s most infamous citizen, Pablo Escobar\u00a0-the\u00a0murderous godfather of South American\u00a0drug-trafficking,\u00a0 I believe it is a truer representation of who these people really are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Nicole and me, the travel destination of choice over the past few years has been Central America.\u00a0 The reasons are simple: 7-10 day itineraries are more suitable than longer ones while we have young children at home, and we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1DhXV-3f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}