MEDELLÍN
Here are pics from Medellín, the second largest city in Colombia. It's located almost a mile above sea level in a valley surrounded by mid-sized mountains. Climatically, it is very mild, having highs around 80 and lows around 65, year-round. Do a Google search of Medellin and the letter E, and "Medellin eterna primavera" shows up automatically!

First some pics of the skyline...

The skyline viewed from a steep hill above the city (albeit with a lot of haze)...



Part of the skyline viewed from the south...



A bit closer (viewed from a metro stop)...



And regarding the metro...a couple pics of the main elevated metro line which runs through downtown...





The plaza at the heart of downtown...Parque Berrio...



Basilica de la Candelaria, next to Parque Berrio...



Going from the reverent to the irreverent...a naked fat statue called simply "La Gorda" (and it's wet, as well!)...



Parque Bolivar--this one is indeed more of a park than a plaza (note the gay pride march sign)...



Street vendor (with CD decorations but selling miscellaneous other stuff) in Parque Bolivar in front of Catedral Metropolitana...



A typical busy street scene downtown...



A little bit of Hollywood...in Medellín!



A view of a housing development on a steep hill outside of downtown (the same hill from where the first skyline pic was taken)...



Another view (though not looking towards downtown) from that steep hill...



Now...for some pics from the Medellín Botanical Gardens (unlike its counterpart in Bogotá, this botanical garden had a lot of non-native plants)...

First...a rainforest (planted/simulated) within the gardens containing native and non-native plants...



Well-known house plants Dieffenbachia (dumb cane) and Philodendron in that simulated rainforest...



A small lake in the park...



Some really nice red pineapples (Ananas bracteatus)...





A spectacular Bromeliad (possibly Aechmea mariae-reginae)...



Some succulents were grown in Medellin (despite the moderately high rainfall--some had some artificial protection from the rain)...



The gardens had a butterfly section (and a butterfly house, which wasn't open that day)...which included this butterfly partaking in some nectar...



A couple other animals in the gardens...first, a mystery bird (possibly a finch)...



And a mystery (and very colorful) duck...



An unusual purple blossom for some type of banana (and a bee)...



An Alpinia (a type of ginger) in the gardens...



Here's (probably) some Aiphanes palms (possibly Aiphanes grandis, native to Ecuador)...



And now a few notable plants outside the Medellín Botanical Gardens...

First, a large breadfruit tree, Artocarpus altilis (with fruit!), in Zona Rosa--this is easily the highest (at almost a mile high) breadfruit tree I've ever seen (and Medellín has one of the highest average annual temperatures for any city in the world close to a mile high--72)...



One of the most common shrubs in Colombia...Tibouchina mollis (one of the "glory bushes")...





All of the above pictures on this page were taken in June 2009 by Brandt Maxwell.

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