Medellin Metro Tour-Medellin Spanish

Today we went on a Metro Tour of Medellin. This is a large city of about 4 million of just the city, not including outlying areas. They have a new train system, which we took from the center of the city to the north side of town where we took a cable lift system like at a ski resort that takes you up the mountain sides. At the other end of the cable ride that we went on is a new National Park (Arvi), which includes hotels and restaurants. We have been told that Colombia has a lot of natural resources, but they have not done enough with preserving and showing off those resources. What we went to today was a very positive step in the attempt to preserve and accentuate the beautiful mountain country areas of Colombia. On the way up the mountain, there are several communities that are called "comunas". These are poor communities, but do not lack resources. There are schools, and even a huge library that whose funds for construction were donated by the Spanish Crown. Throughout these communities we could see plantain trees, and small coffee groves right next to their homes as well as cows and horses wandering or grazing. Colombia seems to be utilizing its resources better than Mexico, because they are more interested in the social welfare of its people than Mexico which seems to just glorify how well some people work, or how hard people work. We saw some very poor communities but there are attempts to help improve their situation. An example we saw of this was that people who are living in handmade shacks,can give up their plot of land for a brand new apartment, which is usually in a multifamily dwelling. The advantage is that you utilize the land more efficiently for a growing population, while providing people with better living conditions.
We were prepared to do a number of activities at the park after lunch including, zip cable line, canoeing, butterfly and insect farm and a museum. One of the first things we saw was a typical countryside bus they call 'Chiva'. We went to lunch first because the girls were hungry. The service was super slow and then it started to rain hard, which is very common up in the mountains during rainy season. The temperature was probably in the mid to low 60s. Then when it rained it seemed to drop a little bit in temperature. Everybody but Alex was cold. While up at the park we had warm Mortino berry tea which was delicious. This is a berry that grows in high altitude. Very dark and tasted similar to a marionberry (Oregon people will know what I'm talking about), but not the Washington D.C. version. We did not use our vouchers for these activities, so we hope to go back another day.
The girls behaved well in crowded situations and stayed with us the whole time. This is not the first time this has happened, the girls have been wonderful when they are in crowded places.
One of the things that both of us have had to learn are words used by the girls that might be colloquial. Here are just but a few:
-chito- Be quiet
-Mami, chi chi- mom I have to tinkle or pee
-Mecatear-to snack
-Mutilar-to get a haircut
-tendido-sheets
-Sancionar-to punish
-chicles-leggins
-capul-bangs or hair in front of the face
-piscinear-going to the pool
-chocolatina-chocolate candy bar
-crispetas-popcorn


We'll have to think of other ones.. I will have to write them down.--MM, AA