Posted in: Music Making by odoursea on May 5th, 2011 | 0 Comments
Cable Cars servicing a thriving city- not just the Swiss Alps.
Cable Cars- A scene that you would expect to see at the snow, not in a tightly packed one colour city. Right??
There are two cables car routes, both incredibly modern and very state of the art. Both trips from start to finish take about 20 min, with stations in between. The Metro cable is apart of Medellin’s amazing metro system, so one ticket still covers both your train and cable car travel. The cars were built to service the harder to get at, poorer neighborhoods (barrios) up the sides of the surrounding mountains. A great initiative to encourage workers to come down and work in the centro with ease.
Both routes give a phenomenal view over the entire city-much like how the circling condors would view it. Speaking of birds- You also get a birds eye look into how the majority of people in Medellin live.
Obviously the further from the city, the poorer the Barrios become. It also seems the steeper the incline, the more precarious the houses are built and cling to the mountain sides by their fingernails. It almost seems they have built so tightly packed together in order to provide structural support for themselves and the the 6 other houses they are somehow connected to. Quite the engineering feat!
As the cable car flies at what seems only about 10 meters over the houses, It is interesting how strategically placed rocks, bricks and other weights are used to keep the sheets of corrugated iron and other coverings in place. Laundry is done, and laid flat on the roof tops for drying, as washing lines need the luxury of space.
The northern Metro Cable also connects to a privately owned and operated cable car system. This one takes you up, up and over the lip of the mountain and totally leaves the city behind. About 10 min is spent cruising over lush vegetation (with the surprise of Eucalyptus trees scattered throughout), and the odd die-hard house every now then.
At the end of this trip, you reach the newly opened (and still under construction) Parque Arvi, Medellin’s newest national park.
