6 Things You Will Find In Medellín, Colombia (And not in the US!)

Now time for one of my favorite types of blog posts – country comparisons! Here are a few things in Medellín, Colombia that stood out to me!

1. Street vendors with megaphones. Not all street vendors in Medellín push carts throughout the neighborhood streets calling out their items through a loudspeaker, but most of the fruit vendors that I’ve seen do! But hats off to them, on multiple occasions I’ve watched people lower a bag on a rope from their window and buy mangos without even leaving their houses. 
2. Motorcyclists carrying random items. There are a LOT of motorcyclists in Medellín. As one Uber driver told us, everyone in Medellín has two things: a dog and a motorcyclist. Since this mode of transportation is so common, we spotted a lot of motorcyclists with interesting luggage. In order of least exciting to most impressive:
   1. Children
   2. Bicycle
   3. Computer (CPU)
   4. Card table
   5. Mini fridge
3. Very few bugs. Remember my bug spray post? Ended up not being a huge issue. Up in the mountains, and the middle of the city, bugs aren’t quite as common. Our windows and doors were always open to let in the cool breeze and we never had a bug problem. (We did, however, gain a little lizard roommate!)
4. Very few white people. Of course, when walking as a group of 13 girls, we draw a lot of attention. But even when in smaller groups, we were always followed by long uncomfortable stares from individuals who rarely ever white people. Something we all struggled to get used to!
5. Bakeries. Something else we noticed is that Colombians REALLY like bread. There are Panaderías around every corner! But man do Colombians know how to make some goooood pasteles and café tintos!
   
6. Extremely kind and loving people. The last thing I’ll mention in this post is just the friendliness of people here. A smile given is almost always returned! Additionally, we met complete strangers who were more than willing to have a conversation with us and were graciously accepting our broken Spanish. 

As we fly back to the States today, our hearts are heavy with the goodbyes we had to say to the sweet people at the foundation. Our hearts are so touched by their kindness and love! If our team was able to have half impact on the lives of those living at the foundation as they have had on us, all of my hopes for this trip would have been more than fulfilled!

(Here’s a fun extra pic of mayo and ketchup flavored Lays featuring the beautiful Corryn!)