Culture

The cultural center of Envigado is about a 15 min walk from where I’m staying. The building is a large,  beautiful traditional home with an open patio in the center, and auditorium and classrooms along the edges. I always stay in high rises near main roads and really enjoy the quiet and charm of the traditional neighborhood.

Many times a week they have live performances, movies, lectures and classes…

Lately on Friday nights they’ve been having musical performances early in the evening. Last week they had a group visiting from Spain performing Flamenco music and dance.

Both the women seated to my right and behind me were singing along until the group started playing Volero, and that’s when the entire place started singing. Rueda! It was a party!

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Most mornings the patio of Cafe Otraparte becomes a space for “gymnasio” and yoga. It’s around the corner from where I’m staying, so I go a few times a week.

Paisas (people from Medellin) sing along with any music that’s playing – in an exercise class, in a formal music performance…anywhere really – out loud, enjoying it for all it’s worth.

I think this song from Celia Cruz was playing when the woman in front of me, top right of the picture, starts embodying the soul of the song, doing her own dance, singing every word with all her heart. The class leader knows her name and cheers her on, the class starts clapping and whooping.

It’s a party now and we’re all singing and dancing and sweating!

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In El Centro of Medellin is a music and culture foundation called La Pascasia.

Most visitors don’t stay in the city center (it can be a bit sketchy, especially at night), but it’s worth a trip for sure – if just for La Pascasia.

Traditional and non-traditional music is offered, and it’s always a rueda (party!)- people love it. It’s jammed when there’s live music. There’s also a small museum and art gallery… and in the center is a garden with a tree. None of my pictures captured the loveliness, so imagine something lavish and tropical and you won’t go wrong.

At different points people from the crowd would randomly get on stage and start dancing.

My mind couldn’t get itself around this. Too many questions.

So much fun.

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