Sunday mornings in Medellín see a few selected bits of road closed off to traffic so that cyclists can enjoy them (pic) – a mini version of Bogotá's Ciclovia, which I blogged about on Day 4. Cyclists of Medellín, rise up! Make it bigger and better and more generous!
Anyway, I did a daytrip to the colonial town of Santa Fé de Antioquia, 90 minutes away by bus. SFdA was the old state capital before Medellín, and has all the nice olde buildinges and pleasante cobblede olde squares (pic) that Medellín doesn't. It also does a nice line in smoothies made from guanabaná, a kind of custard apple the size of a rugby ball. But rather nicer tasting.
Back in Medellín I took another cable car (a different line to yesterday) up to the hilltop parkland at Arví. It's an extraordinary journey, giving you astounding views of the city (pic) and the shantytown neighbourhoods that cling to the surrounding mountainsides, and today it took us above the clouds. It was more like flying.
Arví park is supposed offer free bike hire, but the system isn't operating at the moment, apparently. So instead I walked in the park for a bit, and saw this (pic). Now, some travellers, townies who know nothing about the natural world, wouldn't know what it is. But I knew straight away. It's a bird. 
I walked back to the park's cable car station just in time to miss a ferocious thunderstorm. The cable car was stopped for 45 minutes because of the lightning (with everyone en route stuck in mid-air, of course). Luckily, I hadn't quite got on it to go back yet. I had little option but to shelter from the rain in a marquee (pic) full of stalls selling papa rellenas and coffee and fruit juice and sausages and bowls of fruit salad in cream with nuts on top and everything cost like 30p. It rained for over an hour. Terrible, it was, having to wait. I must have spent nearly three quid.
Once the cable car restarted I made it back to the hostel without getting too wet, and managed to enjoy the lights of Poblado Square (pic), near the hostel, just before it started to throw it down again. Generosity: aha, that's a concept Medellín Cycle Campaign could appeal to, for getting better Cycling Sundays...
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