(scroll down for video…you don’t want to miss it!)

Here is how NOT to start your first paragliding excursion:

1. Be picked up from hotel a half an hour late by what you hope is an ‘official’ paragliding company.
2. Be picked up NOT in a tough-looking jeep or truck or even a bus with company logo, but in a beat-up, old, unmarked Renault.
3. Leave town to head to the canyon and return to town about one minute later to drop off one guy and pick up another random guy. While you wait in hot, dusty car, driver goes to corner shop to buy himself some snacks and drinks.
4. Leave town again. About five minutes later car engine chokes and dies. Car has run out of gas.
5. You run out of confidence.

Yes. This is how it went for me. It was a very auspicious beginning to my paragliding adventure in San Gil. I have to admit, this seemingly crazy, tape and band-aid operation wasn’t giving me the amount of confidence I wanted in the people that were about to have mi vida en sus manos.

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Fernando Botero is perhaps Medellin’s most famous son (well, besides that dead Pablo guy).  Most known for his paintings and sculptures of rotund people and animals, he has achieved international recognition and has exhibitions across the world.   One of the best places to check out his work for free in Medellin is at Plaza Botero which is full of his gorditas.  People love to pose next to and touch the fatties.

Enjoy the sights and natural sounds in this virtual tour of Medellín:

Medellin, Colombia Highlights from Lisa Lubin on Vimeo.

(to enjoy the full HD video in best quality click on “Medellin, Colombia Highlights” link above and watch in HD with ‘scaling off’)