Medellín

After an overnight bus from Bogotá on which I froze my ass off due to blasting air-con at arctic temperatures, I arrived bright and early in the second biggest city in Colombia.  Most people know Medellín as the old stomping ground of Pablo Escobar, and where all sorts of killing and fighting went on between Colombia's drug cartels.  It's only fitting then, that one of the most popular things to do in this city is a tour devoted to the man himself.

Escobar was Colombia's most notorious drug lord, and over a couple of hours driving around the city visiting 3 main sites, the guide told my group about his early life, how he rose to power and obscene wealth and controlled cocaine trafficking, and finally his death.  We drove past the massive building he lived in with his family (a 5-storey building with one floor dedicated to 'recreation' and another a nursery for his kids) which has been abandoned for years and still has bullet holes in it and signs of the bombing by the rival Cali cartel; the house where he had been hiding out but was shot and killed by Colombian special forces in 1993; and finally to his grave in a cemetery on the outskirts of Medellín. I'm not a fan of tours, but this one was different and actually really interesting.  There are some tours that say you meet Escobar's brother at the end of the tour, but they charge about 5 times as much and I was sceptical about whether it was actually his brother or not.  Who would ever know?  So I decided not to chance it and went with the regular one.

Escobar's house

His grave

House where Pablo was killed

There's not really a whole lot to do in Medellín, but there were a couple of things similar to Bogotá.  I took a ride up the cable car which actually serves a purpose other than being a good way to view the city - it helps locals commute from their homes on the mountainside into the city at the bottom of the valley.  You get a pretty good view going up, but there's no viewing platform at the top to get out and take photos as it's not built for tourists.  Still, you can get most of the way up for free as it's included in the price of the metro. Bonus.

Medellín is also home to a lot of Botero's works, both in a museum and a whole bunch of his sculptures in a public plaza.  I decided to pass on the museum as we'd already seen a lot of his paintings in Bogotá, so I just wandered around the plaza checking out the sculptures.  I then walked over to a big church/cathedral, but for the first time I can remember I actually felt a bit unsafe so decided I was done for the day.

 

After a few days I'd done all I wanted to in Medellín, so it was time to head north to the coast.