Medellin day 6

 I still haven't set any date to leave Medellin. It is so nice to have the time to be flexible.

I am thinking this will be the museum day that I didn't do yesterday. Biking will have to be put off another day. 

                  

I left the hostel after 9 am. There was no reason to leave earlier because museums and the like open at 10 am.

The walk along the road to Berrio and the Plaza Botero is lined with people with carts selling all kinds of fruits, fruit drinks, coffee and cloths. I stopped at a street side shop that sells Buñuelos. I tried one once before.  In Hawaii we called them fat cakes. Round donuts without a hole.

This shop sold buñeulos with optional fillings. They had 4 diffent fillings that could be injected into the buñuelos. Chocolate, a burnt milk type filling and 2 others. I will fill in the names as soon as I can find them.

I had the burnt milk filling, almost a caramel. It was nice. Nice enough that I was tempted to get a 2nd one, but I resisted.

There are many casinos around the city. I tried to take a picture of one when the door was open, but I got waved off by the door man.

Other sights I saw on the way to museum were the street typists. They set up with a chairs a small table and of course a typewriter. As with other things,  they set up in select areas. This makes it easy for people to find them to have documents typed or filled in.

I  arrived at the Museo de Antioguia located on the side of the Botero Plaza. The entrance fee for foreigners is 30,000 peso,  about $7.50 usd. It was well worth the entrance fee.

 

The 3rd floor is a permanent exhibition of the works of, guess who, Fernando Botero. But this collection was primarily his paintings. Many similar in style to his sculptures, exaggerated in size and proportions. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in this area of the museum. I found a few images on line of paintings displayed in the museum.

Some touched on events like ethe killing of Pablo Escobar and the horrible bom6bing in the streets of Bogota.

Still others related to religion, but these were limited. The first and second floors did not have photo restrictions, and for me more impactful.

What caught my attention here was that rooms that displayed religious paintings also included paintings of conquest and military figures.

I found this chair very interesting, it combined those 2 themes into one piece. 

On the back side is a religous painting.

From front, weapons and conflict are represented. The armrests are guns and a missle is painted on the back rest

As in Mexico, murals are very popular, both on the building exteriors, typically less sophisticated and in museums and public buildings that are more sophisticted and tell larger stories. There are several large murals in ths museum.

Many portraying the struggles of the people, political turmoil.

One room was dedicated to sexuality, and sexual fluidity historically.

Moving on there were more sculptures and paintings with less message. More art for arts sake.

I had to sit for awhile as I reached the end of my tour of the museum. I haven't represented here very well the emotional  impact this museum had on me. Both related to my personal life and the historical events of the past.

The plan was to visit the Modern Art Museum today, but I didn't want to do anything that would dilute my experience of touring this museum. The Modern Art Museum will have to wait until tomorrow.

Leaving the Museum just walking without any specific destination, I came across this scene. I saw this outside the oldest Iglesia in Medellin, in which a service was currently being conducted.

The side of the Iglesia seems to be a pickup spot for comfort of a different type. The street workers were lined up starting with the one of the corner with the white background of the church, lined up to the left continuing out of the frame of  the picture. There were at least a dozen. Take your pick.

I continued walking along the pedestrian walk. I was looking for a place to get some typical Paisa (local Colomian food). I settled on a restaurant, that was quite busy. Always a good sign. If you have a choice between and emtpy restaurant and a busy one. It is a pretty safe bet the busy on will have either better food or at least better food for the money.

I ordered a mixed bowl of sausage, beans, corn, avocato and other minced meat, with side salad and rice. I ordered the passion fruit drink for my beverage. The passion fruit drink was made with fresh mangos, not diluted. Perfect.  This was exactly what I was looking for.

After leaving the restaurant, I continued walking around the Metro and Berrio area. I had seen this scene before, every day I have been in this area and here it is again. It is a large group,  all men, every day. The only thing  I can see is that many are trying to sell others, mens rings, watches and other jewelry.  For me,  the scene, especially because it seems to be every day, is very unusual.

I am full from lunch, even so, I stopped to get a bag  of popcorn on the street to eat later in the evening. I got the "dulce" sweet one instead of the plain this time.

I then headed back to the hostel. I discovered the mistake I have made every day prior and didn't get  lost today. After getting back to the hostel I took m6y daily siesta and decided to stay in for the rest of the day.