I went to bed at 11:15 and slept through until about 5am
(yeah) and fell back asleep until 6:45.
My eyes feel better today than in many days.
I’ve started taking military showers on Mondays &
Fridays; that’s when I wash my hair with shampoo and use conditioner. I wash my hair with shampoo, rinse it and
turn off the water. I put conditioner on
my hair then suds my whole body down with soap.
Then I turn the water back on and rinse myself completely. If I don’t do it that way then the water at
some point gets cold on its own and I have to turn the shower off completely
anyway and start over a minute later.
I’m guessing today is a holiday as it seems to be unusually
quiet outside.
It was 9 weeks ago today I ordered Chess Strategy for the Tournament Player on Monday, June 17th. I’m still waiting…
9:30 and another dove just bounced off the balcony window. If it had been a little further to the right
it would probably be in the apartment now!
I signed up for a local English weekly newsletter called
MedellinLiving. This edition has an
article entitled “Laureles/Estadio: The Next Poblado”. For those of you who don’t recall the
geography here, “El Poblado” is considered the premier area of the city, and I
live in Simon Bolivar which is just west of Laureles which is just south of
Estadio. Anyway, here’s the article:
About a month ago, if you
were living or staying in the Laureles/Estadio comuna, you probably heard the
noise.
Atlético Nacional, maybe
the country’s most popular club fútbol team, returned from Bogotá, Liga
Postobón title in hand, ready to celebrate with the hometown fans. The party
raged until 5 in the morning.
This is the kind of rumba
scene synonymous with Parque Lleras, but lately Laureles/Estadio has been
making a case for the best place to live in Medellín.
I ranked it No. 1 in
Medellín in a story earlier this year, and while I love Belén, I’ve come to love Envigado, and I’m starting to
love La America,
at this point I’ll still leave Laureles/Estadio in the top spot.
The pretty meandering
streets have almost anything you could want, from entertainment to food to
trendy places to live.
I’ll tell you more about
all that here.
History of Laureles / Estadio
If you go to the museum
at Pueblito Paisa in Belén,
you’ll see some maps and blueprints.
They’re the plans for
Laureles.
You can see the area more
than 60 years ago, when German urban architect Karl Brunner teamed with famous
paisa artist Pedro Nel Gomez to create a unique area of Medellín.
A lot of the city, if you
look on a map, is a grid. Calles (streets) go east-west, Carreras (avenues) go
north-south.
Laureles is nothing like
this. Just look at the area bordered to the west by Carrera 80, to the east by
Autopista highway, to the north by the San
Juan (Calle 44), and to the south by Calle 33.
There are circulars and
transversals, snaking through the area to form a labyrinth for first-time
visitors. I remember getting lost here all the time when I first moved to the
area.
Gomez designed the
neighborhood this way because he used to study art in Italy and he
wanted to replicate the layout of some of the residential areas he saw while he
was there.
Get outside the box,
where you find the Bolivariana, San Joaquin
and Conquistadores neighborhoods, and the streets return to more of a normal
grid.
Points of Interest
The comuna is the home of
the city’s professional fútbol stadium, Atanasio Girardot, where
both Atlético Nacional and Independiente Medellin play matches.
The stadium is 60 years
old and its name comes from the man who played an important role in helping
liberator Simón Bolívar free Colombia
from Spanish rule.
But maybe the best part
about the stadium is the area outside it, the recreational quarters open to the
public such as basketball courts, swimming pools, a
skate park, even rooms for dance and fencing.
They even offer free
entrance for certain activities on specific days.
Right next to the stadium
is Estación Estadio, one of two stops on the Metro line in the comuna. The
other is next to the Suramericana neighborhood.
If you’re looking to
relax, a nice place is Parque Laureles 2, where the giant trees shade you from
the tropical rain or vibrant sun.
The Laureles/Estadio area
is also popular with foreigners taking Spanish classes, due to its proximity to Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB).
Food
After Poblado, Laureles
probably has your most diverse eating options.
You can find Italian at Il Massimo or Pomo d’ Oro, Mexican at Milagros or Orale, and sushi at Sushi House, Sushi
Light and Sushi Market.
There are also numerous
places for comida típica, such as Mondongos, to give you a taste of Colombia.
If you just want a snack, there are several places for that too.
Nightlife
La 70 is already popular
among the city’s many nightlife districts.
This section of Carrera
70, between Estación Estadio and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, is lined
with bars and restaurants.
The most famous is
probably El
Tibiri, the basement salsa club that almost every local knows. New
places such as Oye Bonita
and La Tienda de 70 draw quite a
crowd too.
But the best club is
probably Son
Havana, at Calle 44A and Carrera 73. It’s a salsa place with great
energy.
For a more laid-back
night, with maybe just a few beers or some live music, head to the north side
of Calle 33 where bars such as Underground and Wamba provide these
alternatives.
Shopping Malls
The best and biggest is Unicentro, where you can find
almost anything you want, including a movie theater.
Mall Laureles is another
option if you’re near Carrera 80, while there’s Centro
Comercial Guadalajara at Calle 50 north of the stadium, or the Multicine Carrefour shopping
center next to Estación Suramericana.
You should be able to
find almost anything you need in one of those places.
Safety in Laureles/Estadio
One of the first things
someone told me about Laureles is, “The streets get lonely late at night. Be careful.”
The twists and turns make
it easy for crooks to escape, especially on motorcycles.
That said, it’s very safe
most of the time. It’s like anywhere else. Use common sense, blah, blah,
blah, I’ve said it so many times on this blog I don’t think it bears repeating.
One funny story: I
remember when I used to walk through Parque Laureles 2, and there would be kids
smoking weed and looking at me hard like I was trespassing, but even that was
more a comedic nuisance than a threat — at least it was for me, because I never
planned to report those kids so I always got a laugh out of their stares.
Someone apparently did,
though, because police now monitor the park, to make sure no one is
intimidated.
One note: If you’re going
home from a night out at Son Havana, take a taxi. That area is especially
lonely, making for easy crime.
Cost of Living
It’s not cheap here.
If you’re planning to
stay long-term, and to furnish your own apartment, you’ll save money. You’ll do
the same if you find someone renting out a room.
But for the people
staying short term, people who want their own furnished place that includes
your utilities and Internet, you’re going to pay for it.
It’s not unusual for a
one-bedroom apartment like that to cost 1.4 million pesos ($740) per month.
Before you shout, “Gringo
prices!” let’s review something.
You’re living in one of
the best parts of the city, where you have every amenity you could want,
arguably even more than in Poblado. And the apartment owner, who furnished the
place, turned on the electricity, gas and water, and threw in the cable, phone
and Internet, didn’t waive a magic wand to make it happen.
All of that cost money
and is considered a service provided. In fact, good luck trying to get EPM to
turn your lights on if you don’t have a cédula (an ID).
So to sum up….
Laureles/Estadio is nice.
It’s full of things to do. And it’s quite safe.
No wonder it’s growing in
popularity.
Lunch was a FriSnack at Frisby for 8,900 ($4.68). No one came to play chess by 2:15 and it was
very busy because of the holiday so I packed up and left.
I stopped at Exito and bought another can of peaches for
3,290 ($1.73), a new Eterna sponge for the kitchen for 1,580 (83 cents) and a
hand towel for the guest bathroom for 4,900 ($2.58). I stopped at the corner store and bought a
bag of milk for a waffle for dinner tonight.
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