We arrived in Medellin on the night bus. We staggered into the terminal, tired and without much of a plan for the day. Less than three minutes later, a woman approached us, "Are you lost ? Do you need help ?" We told her we were thinking of maybe, perhaps, going to the Botanical Garden. "Oh," she looked us up and down, "if you go in there with your backpacks, you won't be leaving with them." Then she offered to bring us home with her...and feed us...and let take showers...and let us sleep in a bed. It was an offer we couldn't refuse. We were certainly interested in keeping our backpacks. So we spent the day with Andrea and her sister and mother and had a great time.
This is an extreme example, but this happens over and over in Colombia and Venezuela. Anytime we spend more than two minutes at a street corner contemplating which direction to take, there's always a local who notices and offers help and advice.
In fact if you want to find the nicest people in a 50-meter radius, anywhere in upper South America, here's what you do : stop moving, pull out a map or guidebook, look at it upside down, and scratch your head. Get ready, someone's coming to help.
Its amazing how the most humble people who have very little are sometimes more willing to share the little they have than the rich who have it all. It warms my heart :)
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