Medellín has turned out to be one of the friendliest places that I've encountered yet... this amazing city used to be run by the drug cartels and was one of the bloodiest places in the world to be but not so any more! The city leaders have built a beautiful subway system that spans the city and incorporates several cable car links that connect the poorest neighborhoods to the city and the poor people of the barrio have responded by cleaning up their neighborhoods and putting a stop to the crime that previously plagued them. I spent the day wandering the Barrios and met some of the friedliest people who were all extremely concerned that I had a good impression of their city and country. They insisted on treating me to a local juice and then some local street kids gave me a tour--- in ENGLISH... I was quite impressed.
On the way back to towards my hostel I decided that it might be fun to go wander around the local university to see if there was anything exciting going on there and WOW... what a treat I got! Turns out that Colombian students love riots and protests and it turned out that they were celebrating El Dia del Estudiante Caído which is the day of the fallen student in honor of a student who died at the hands of the police 5 years ago. After that there was an agreement put in place that the police won't go onto university campuses... they use private security which is similar to the university police force in the US. Anyhow... on to the riot! When we got to the main gate there were armoured police vehicles and riot police everywhere so I was trying to be extremely cautious until some of the police notice me (not sure why i'd stand out) and started joking with me in English and asked if I wanted a picture with them. They explained that although they were shooting tear gas and shock grenades at the students and the students were lobbing massive rocks back it was mainly a reenactment for dramatic purposes... the students like rioting and so they let it happen as a form of expression. The police would fire there water cannons at the students and push them back into the interior of the campus and then after about 15 minutes they'd pull back and let the students get back out to the fence and repeat. Although bizarre, what a fun concept...
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