• Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
facebook twitter instagram
Let's Just Travel
  • Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
Home  >  Colombia • Medellin  >  Margarita Mayo Comes to Medellin!
ColombiaMedellin

Margarita Mayo Comes to Medellin!

Allison Sherman Posted onMay 23, 2018 Comments are off 1554 Views

My sister Margaret May (name in Spanish is a very festive sounding Margarita Mayo) has arrived! We are so happy to have her visit, as usual. This is the FOURTH country she has met us in during our travels. She is my original Worldschooling Partner, since we lived in Spain together with our parents in 1983.  She visited us in Cancun in 2016, then Spain later that same year, then in Netherlands last year at this time and now she gets to join us in Colombia! She appreciates the shorter flight and minimal time zone changes this time. She does not appreciate that 75% of her allotted luggage was taken up by our Amazon mule.

Ironically, the one place she did not visit us was when we lived in Panama. We talked about it a lot but I felt like it was not a great fit for her interests and it was not as easy to introduce her to our lives there, given how far we lived from the airport and how little there was to do for a tourist in Pedasi. Also, there’s the heat. Yeah, it’s just so hot there. Not her favorite. However, when booking her flight to Colombia we noticed the itinerary could easily include a layover in Panama City, so we booked an extended 24-hour layover to give her a chance to meet our good friend and tour guide Marc Vargas and do a quick city and canal tour.

Margaret’s Day in Panama City

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to give Mar the layover on the way TO Colombia. The suitcase(s) she was hauling for us included a jigsaw puzzle, tons of candy, some electronics for Dan, a menstrual cup Haley was giving to a friend (the gift that keeps on giving) and some tailor-made eye pillows for Jamie, since she keeps stealing mine for her headaches. It was a crazy combo of items, only to be topped off by a brand new gaming laptop for Zoe, which had to be hand-carried and fretted about for the entire trip.

Marc picked up Margaret at the airport and in true “you never know what’ll happen” Worldschooler fashion, on the way to her hotel they witnessed a bus being held up by some thugs youths. Evidently, the technique is to throw rocks at the bus until it stops, then rob everyone on board. Good times. By the time Marc and Margaret arrived on the scene the police were arriving and there was a commotion at the back. They moved on. First impressions are everything. Well, I guess the first impression is when Mar walked out of the airport and her glasses fogged up. She’s like “is it always this hot???” Shermans: “Yep”.

Marc is always reliable and a great host to any visitor to the city!

The next day Marc picked her up at 8 a.m. I guess he felt like he had a lot of things to show her. I think she felt slightly differently, but 8 a.m. it is! They had a great day touring the city, going to a nearby Panamanian village (Margaret was willing to give Marc a big tip if he could produce a sloth but he was unable), seeing the canal and then having a typical Panamanian lunch.

If there’s a colorful country side, there’s a photo opp.

 

The Panama Canal – of course! Sorry… the photo was really dark and in trying to lighten it, we gave a skin disease to everyone.

Finally after a day of sweating adventuring, Margaret was back at the airport, ready to get to us in Medellin. A short flight and she arrives, with all the treasures. We all know Zoe was happy to see her beloved Aunt Mar, but for some reason (read: computer) she was looking forward to seeing her aunt with even more enthusiasm than usual. Not gonna lie, 3 months of Zoe without her own laptop… well, we were happy to see Aunt Margaret as well.

Door signs welcoming our visitor are obligatory. Note the Colombian flag!

Day 1: Junin

Margaret likes to shop, and not at a mall (although that works too) but more for little treasures. So I asked some friends where to take her and got some good suggestions for a market and some authenic Colombia treasures. My friends did not disappoint. Not only did a friend tell me where to take her, but she suggested that she would go with us, to show us the way! This was a great help and very typical of the Colombian hospitality. Off we went in a taxi, who deposited us at a park where they were having a monthly craft market. THIS is why I plan ahead – so we can hit the park and craft market at just the right time!

We wandered the market, thinking this was why we came, but then my amiga Conny said “ok now it’s time to go to where I told you about”. What? More treasures? This is awesome. We walked down a pedestrian-only street that was filled with little shops. We discovered a 5000-peso store, (which is about $1.75 and just doesn’t have the same ring to it as “the dollar store”), a Colombian leather store, lots of street vendors, bakeries, restaurants, cell phone cases and pretty much everything in between. Just when we thought we’d seen all there was, Conny led us into what looked like a hallway but it turned out to be a big indoor market of nothing but Colombian momentos. This is fabulous! We had a great time shopping and learning about all the items and their significance to Colombia. Conny is a great teacher.

Jamie, Margaret, Me and Conny, at the market at Parque Bolivar. Conny is the true Colombian, wearing way more clothes than the rest of us could tolerate given the outside temps. (Low 80s so not super hot, but hot enough.)

But what’s a day without lunch!? Conny took us to a traditional Paisa restaurant (Paisa is the term for people who come from this part of Colombia) and she instructed us all on what was good to order. We had a great lunch, stuffing ourselves silly and enjoying the view from the 2nd floor restaurant. We even admired the little dishes the food came in and decided we’d try to find where they are made. This part of Colombia is very well known for their textiles so we figured they were not far away. #foreshadowing

Enjoying the street view and mild weather at lunch.

 

Conny roped an employee to take our picture from the street. Upon reviewing this picture I seem to be invading Jamie’s personal space. Sorry, Neighbor!

 

I had Bandeja Paisa – a very yummy lunch designed to feed the ranchers for many hours. Me: same.

We bid farewell and gracias to Conny, and headed home to our comfy apartment. The excursion was topped off by a hilarious taxi ride back to our house, with a driver who giggled incessantly at the 3 gringas who had all kinds of questions in very broken Spanish. We tried to get his phone number so we could call him again for another ride and he gave us a number, but turns out it was fake. Who does that to three fun/silly/annoying gringas???? Some dude name Leonardo, that’s who. At least I think that’s his name. #roood

Day 2: Market, Botero and Tesoro

On Day 2 of the Margaret May Does Medellin, we took her first to the farmer’s market just down the street from our house. We went there via the major avenue near our house that closes down every Sunday morning and invites walkers, joggers, doggies and bikers to navigate without fear of being run over by crazy drivers. We stopped for coffee at Starbucks (our first choice, the Colombian cafe, was closed on Sundays for all you Judgy McJudgersons) and then made our way to the market, where Margaret tried all kinds of  yummy Colombian treats.

Margaret had to get a picture of Haley and Zoe, to share with her daughters, the cousins. Who are these children who look so grown up!!???

 

Margaret and Haley got coffee at Starbucks and we showed her how they always write compliments on the side of the cup. Super sweet! But not so sweet? The single-use plastic. We are working on reducing/eliminating our consumption of that.

 

Not to be outdone by the coffee, Zoe got some fresh lemon / sugar cane juice to share with Margaret at the market.

 

On the way back to our apartment from the market it was uphill and getting warm. Mar took advantage of the fan near the door guards’ station. The door guards were still wearing jackets.

 

Haley was hot too but she preferred the “suffer for fashion with a jeans jacket” method.

Next we headed to Parque Berrio where they have the Botero sculptures. You’ve heard me mention Botero before so I won’t go into it again, but Margaret and I and Haley enjoyed the sculptures and subsequent museum.

This is Haley’s favorite Botero sculpture – a fat bird!

 

Margaret appreciated the kids’ area where she got to dress up like a Botero painting. Mar is such a good sport for all my picture ideas!

It started to rain, as Medellin is prone to do this time of year in the afternoons, so we hopped in a taxi, the driver of which was not nearly as fun as the last one. This taxi driver gal was new to Medellin and we were unsure if her taxi would actually make it up the hill to the nice mall that was our next destination. We had to stop and ask directions several times even with Google maps on. But we finally made it to the mall up the hill from our house and we enjoyed wandering around, checking out the stores and the people. Malls are very busy on Sunday afternoons here in Medellin. Families, and lots of dogs, all come out for a stroll. We wrapped up our excursion with burgers from our favorite place in the mall and I successfully converted Margaret to be a fan of michelada con soda which is a lime, carbonated water and salt-rimmed drink that is super sour and sweet and definitely tasty.

The view of Medellin from El Tesoro Mall is fabulous! The malls here are all indoor/outdoor (there are no doors) due to the weather always being in the 70s and 80s all year ’round.

So that’s a wrap on Day 1 and 2 of M4: Margaret May does Medellin in May. Her visit was 8 days long so you can do the math on how many more blog posts we have on our adventures. You’re going to want to clear your schedule this week in order to be available to read all the blogs! See you in a few days.

Previous Article Adventures in Colombian Catholic School
Next Article Margarita Mayo in Medellin Part 2

Related Posts

  • Reporting From Home Base

    February 19, 2020
  • Worldschooling Happy and Crappy

    December 11, 2019
  • A Weekend At Coco’s

    December 3, 2019
  • Worldschooling Game Changers

    November 27, 2019
  • Halloween and Day of the Dead in Mexico

    November 10, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 2

    October 13, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 1

    September 29, 2019
  • Life in PdC

    August 25, 2019
  • Mexico 2.0

    August 7, 2019
  • Random Tours in Europe

    August 2, 2019

Social Media

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2
facebook twitter

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2

Archives

  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
Order Dept, LLC © Copyright 2015