Medellin's remarkable metro--and where it goes

Grilling mushrooms at the top of the gondola

                                       

                                                    

                                                                      fruit merchant at base of gondola
I know a metro system sounds pretty dull, but Medellin has such an amazing system that so clearly meets the needs of all its citizens that I just have to describe it.

First, during the worst years of the drug cartels' violence, tens of thousands of people moved from the countryside to the cities, including Medellin, site of its own horrific cartel violence.  With no money and no jobs, they built shacks up the steep mountainsides surrounding Medellin, the poorest of all being higher up where there were no services, including no sanitation or water or electricity or roads. These people used footpaths to get to their jobs in Medellin, often muddy and slippery.  The entire area is very prone to big landslides because it is to steep.

As the violence in Medellin died down, the government began to provide basic services to the slum dwellers up the mountainsides.  A key one was public transportation.  The city now has a very good, clean, high performing metro rail system that goes N to S and E to W.  But what is remarkable is the way they service the tumbledown piles (literally--the houses are built one on top of the other as high as they can go) of homes on the mountainsides.  The city built a system of gondolas with stations at various places on the way up the slopes so that most people can connect to public transportation relatively near their homes.

Yesterday morning, we took the train to the northern part of Medellin and then the gondola to the crest of the mountains, to the northern reaches of Santa Elena, where we had been the day before to see the flower production.  The gondola ride took about 40 minutes, rising 2500 feet, taking us from the city center to a forest reserve at the top.  This is a big outing for families on week-ends.  At the top of this particular gondola, there is an array of vendors selling food, fruit, drinks and, recently, grilled fresh mushrooms, which are delicious.

From this point, public buses take people throughout the Santa Elena region.  When we return with a group, we will do a loop, taking the metro to the gondola (also metro), picking up our van at the top of the gondola, then driving south to the major flower production region for a tour and lunch before heading back to the city.  With a stop at the top for grilled mushrooms, of course.