to move up and down
El Cupolog
Pan-american Transmissions : The Road to Tierra Del Fuego
Moving to the country
Salento, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Zona Cafetera
Salento, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Traveler’s Fungus
Cheap Motel in Armenia, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Glue Process
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Clases
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
The old and the homeless
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
The young and the stylish
El Poblado - Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Los Desplazados
Medellin isn’t necessarily poor, it claims to be Colombia’s most progressive city, but for this reason the poor, the displaced, and the homeless all swarm to Medellin.
The streets are full of families from the south that lost their homes due to ongoing guerrilla warfare and widespread fumigation to eradicate coca plantations. The war forces them to pick sides and the fumigation spoils their soil so most residents just pack up and leave. Some to Ecuador, others to the north.
Colombia has an estimated 4-5 million internal refugees. Second only to Sudan.
And the effects are obvious in cities like Medellin.
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
One Foot
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Hand Gestures
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Medellin Girls
In most conversations, at one point or another, local men would tell me I’d find Colombia’s best women in Medellin.
When I got there, I mostly found men dressed as women.
Ania and I spent our first few nights in a red light district motel. Sure, there were half-naked tranny’s at the doorway and junkies in the hallways, but the room cost $5 a night and the Italian owners seemed to keep business under control.
As much as they could, of course.
There was a fight in the front one afternoon. Ania and I were next door buying moldy carrots when it happened. A tranny in a bath towel came running out the door with a long piece of wood in her hand. She chased a black woman across the street and threw the piece of wood at her, but missed badly.
The black woman started yelling, picked up the piece of wood and threw back at the tranny, but missed badly. And then the tranny tried throwing the piece of wood again.
But missed badly.
Eventually, the black woman started crying and the tranny went back inside. I asked around to know what happened and street vendor answered: “She didn’t want to pay.”
This happened in daylight. At night, Medellin’s red light district was one catastrophe of humanity after another. Drugs, sex and vomit. The most extreme poverty Ania and I had confronted during our journey.
We made the mistake of going out for bread one night and never did it again. The rest of our red light district evenings were spent in the hotel room watching Colombian television, second-rate action movies and Saturday Night Fever.
John Travolta in spandex. Colombian men with butt implants. It all fit together.
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Street Scene II
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
El Viejito
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
Death of Pablo Escobar by Fernando Botero
Fernando Botero is Colombia’s most popular modern painter and sculptor. His work usually includes fat, or “voluminous” as he likes to say, characters, animals and objects. Botero’s sculptures are found throughout Medellin, his hometown, and are on display in museums around the world.
Medellin, Colombia - © Diego Cupolo 2012
