Medellin - City of Colombia

Medellín is the second largest city in Colombia and is located in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northern regions of the Andes in South America. Medellín also serves as the core of the Metropolitan Area, the second largest in Colombia in terms of population with more than 3.2 million and the 95th most populous metropolitan area in the world.

Medellín is also regarded as important to the region for its universities, academies, commerce, industries, science, health services, flower production, festivities and nightlife. It is claimed that Medellín is a much safer city than previously in recent times. Partly thanks to this, it is one of the main tourist destinations in Colombia.

The Spaniard conquistadors of the valley found groups like Aburrá, Yamesí, Pequé, Ebejico, Norisco, and Maní that were in the valley since about the 5th century. The Aburrá people gave the name to the valley. They lived from agriculture, textile weaving and decoration, commercialization of salt and goldsmith. Under the Spaniard rule they lost the possession of the land and were located in mines and feudalist systems. Sickness brought by the Europeans, the heavy work and mistreatments caused their extinction, at least from the valley.

In August 1541, Marshal Jorge Robledo was in what is today Heliconia, when he saw at the distant what he thought was a valley. He sent Jerónimo Luis Tejelo to explore the territory and Tejelo arrived during the night of August 23 to a plain field. The Spaniards gave the name of valley of Saint Bartholomew that was to be changed for the Aboriginal one of Aburrá that is translated as the "Painters" due to the textile decorations of the natives.

Before the creation of the villa, the inhabitants were dispersed in the valley and there were only some families concentrated in the junction of Aná Stream and Medellín River and others were living in El Poblado San Lorenzo. With the royal edict, the settlers chose the Aná site as the heart of the future city with the Candelaria Church as the center.

Medellín is located at 5,000 ft above sea level, its climate is not as hot as other cities located at the same latitude near the equator. Because of its altitude above sea level and privileged location in the Andes Range, Medellín's weather is more characteristic of a Humid subtropical climate rather than that of a Tropical climate.The pleasant spring-like climate year round makes it known as 'La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera' or 'City of the Eternal Spring'. However, as the city is located in a Valley and many of its districts are on slopes, temperatures can be even cooler on its surrounding mountains.

Medellín became in the last decade as a main destination for national and international tourism. The city has the infrastructure to answer the exigencies of a tourist industry at any level. As a trade and industrial center, its tourism is rather of business, congresses, international and national meetings and the health tourism due to its world reputation in medicine and modern health centers. Plaza Mayor was built for congresses and expositions with all the facilities of any international space of such kind. Several hotels are specialized in this kind of events, most of them with halls and meeting rooms for conventions, seminars, rooms with offices, translation services and many other facilities for business people. In health service Medellín is leader in plastic surgery, organ transplant and health treatments related to cancer and circulatory .

Medellín is also home to over 30 universities that serve mainly the Antioquia State, the "Eje Cafetero" region and the Caribbean Coast. Among the most important are the public universities Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad Nacional and Politecnico Jaime Isaza Cadavid, and the private EAFIT University, Universidad de Medellín, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Universidad de San Buenaventura, Escuela de Ingenieria de Antioquia, Universidad Santo Tomas, Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje SENA and CES. There are also important technological centers such as the Metropolitan Institute of Technology.

Many NGOs and official organizations have very important nets in the city to support the development of children and youth from poor communities, for example Ciudad Don Bosco that cares for street children.The process of pacification of the city brought several organizations to the poorest quarters to work with youth that have been involved in urban violence in order to give to them better opportunities. In that process the Medellín universities, public and private, played a good role together with official institutions of the local and national level.

People from Medellín are actually called by their state denomination of Antioqueños as opposed to a city-derived nameof Medellinenses. They are also known as Paisas, which some suggest is derived from the coffee growers. The term Paisa comes from the word Paisano. They make up one of the five different regional cultures within Colombia, also called the Paisa region with the states of Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío and some towns of Valle del Cauca and Tolima.

The Paisa culture is made rather by Spanish background; evident Catholic traditions, business people and they are famous for being very welcoming and friendly. Paisas like Fiesta Brava, rodeo, music, poetry and soccer. They are very proud of their city, their success and future and they talk about that every moment.