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Narco City
Medellin, Colombia |
Medellin, Colombia
Leaving the lovely Cartagena we didn’t really know what to expect of Medellin. In 1991 Medellin witnessed around 7,000 violent murders making it the murder capital of the world. Not a title that you would ever associate with this beautiful city if you saw it today.
One important thing that you need to know about Medellin to ensure that you fit in right away is how to say its name. It looks obvious but the pronunciation is actually Med a-jiin.
Our first night, unsure of just how safe the city was we set off around the block from our hostel with no phones and just enough money for dinner as we didn’t want to lose any of our valuables this close to the end of our travels. We found a pizza restaurant just a block from our hostel which served pizza by the slice at £2 each which seemed expensive, until we ordered a slice and we realised that the slices were the size of an actual pizza, amazing.
The next day we joined the free walking tour and after our disappointment in Cartagena, Medellin restored our confidence and gave us the most amazing tour of down town Medellin and left us feeling safe and confident to walk the streets in this now transformed city.
The tour was 4 hours and we sat for most of it getting an overview of the history of the country and what the people of this city endured during the 80’s and 90’s living in fear due to the horror that the cartels and Pablo Escobar inflicted on the city. There is little in the city that would make you think that it was once the murder capital of the world. The streets were buzzing with tourists, locals, people selling everything from fruit and drinks to t-shirts and dog clothes. The main plaza is filled with huge sculptures by a famous Colombian artist from Medellin called Fernando Botero who is renowned for exaggerating the proportions of his sculptures to make them instantly recognisable as his. In 2000 when Medellin was beginning to regain control Botero donated 119 items of his work and personal art collection to the Museum of Antioquia and of those items 23 of his huge bronze sculptures were placed in the plaza outside the museum attracting hundreds of tourists and locals alike. This once dangerous square is now a hive of activity buzzing with tourists admiring and posing for photos with these incredible sculptures.
One of the most fascinating and horrifying sculptures by Botero stands in a plaza in the centre of Medellin, it has for a long time been one of the most popular places for social gatherings and concerts. There are two versions of Botero’s ‘The Bird’ one which is perfect and immaculate like his other sculptures and one which has a hole through the middle and is blown apart. This sculpture was the location of a bomb in 1995, which exploded during a music festival in the plaza which killed 30 people including women and children and injured over 200. The artist insisted that the sculpture remain in the plaza as a reminder of what the city has endured. It was both beautiful and terrifying to really get a glimpse of the history of the city.
Our guide was very open and honest and told us that Columbians and Paisa’s (people from the area) have a tendency to forget the bad things that have happened in the past as a way to get over it. Most people do not mention Pablo Escobar and the history of the cartels is not taught in schools. What is amazing to us is that having been to other countries and cities which have endured war and horror and still show their scars, these people don’t look like they have endured nearly 30 years of terror. They are sweet, calm, kind and so happy to have tourists visiting their city. One thing that our guide told us that just seemed so poignant was that Colombians tend to hold on to good memories and celebrate them, one example being a goal scored in the 1990 world cup where Colombia equalised with Germany. They didn’t win but they drew. Still today this goal is one of the most played memories on Colombian TV and it still gives Colombians goose bumps. Regardless of how Colombia deals with the past atrocities they are some of the most beautiful people we have met, so kind, friendly, open and happy. The Bird sculpture is such an important piece of history for locals and tourists alike to really understand the day to day terror that the people in Medellin faced.
I am sure that most of you are familiar with the name Pablo Escobar, whether you are an avid Narco fan or just associate him with Colombia. His name is now sadly synonymous with the country, with Medellin and with cocaine.
Escobar was born in Medellin on the 1 December 1949, the third of seven children. He was born to a poor but hard working family and his criminal career started as a child. It seems that Escobar was always entrepreneurial and had he been born in a different country in different circumstances he may well have been an Alan Sugar, a Donald Trump or a Steve Jobs, but it was not to be. Escobar apparently as a child used to steal grave stones sand off the names and resell them, he also used to steal car parts and sell them on. He then progressed to trafficking contraband alcohol and cigarettes in coffins and later started to import cocaine paste from Peru which was refined in his own laboratory in Medellin and smuggled to America in plane tyres. Escobar’s childhood ambition was to be a millionaire by the time he was 22 and there is no doubt that he well and truly fulfilled his dreams.
Escobar’s success was mind blowing, at the height of his career he was smuggling 15 tons of cocaine per day worth more than half a billion dollars. He had six helicopters, a leerjet, an island in the Bahamas, an airstrip, a hotel, numerous houses around Colombia, boats, a refrigerated unit to store the cocaine and even a zoo. It is alleged that he used to spend $1000 per week on elastic bans to wrap the stacks of cash and he had to write off an average of 10% per year due to spoilage by rats chewing the notes.
However with drugs and corruption comes violence and his rise to power as one of the world’s wealthiest men soon had its consequences, he was caught in possession of 18 kilos of white paste and when he failed to bribe his way out of court he had the arresting officers killed to get the case dropped. In 1982 he was elected as a member of the Colombian Liberal Party, apparently if you are a member of government in Colombia you are immune to extradition, and this may well have been Escobar’s reasons for standing or it may well be that he had a genuine interest in politics. He certainly knew how to win voters and he did a lot to look after the poorer Colombians, building social housing, football stadiums and handing out $100 bills to gain popularity and votes. He saw himself as a Robin Hood character stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor, sadly very little of Escobar’s riches actually went to the poor.
As the cartel grew and the demand for cocaine in the USA grew the Medellin cartel controlled by Escobar was controlling 80% of the worlds cocaine market. Escobar increasingly had to deal with law enforcement and government. The way that Escobar dealt with these agencies was known as ‘Plata o Plomo’ literally silver or lead; pay money or receive bullets. The violence associated with Escobar lead to hundreds of deaths of civilians, policemen and states officials and the 1991 murder statistics were directly attributed to Escobar’s offer of rewards for his hitmen who killed police officers. At the height of his quest to get elected he is said to be responsible for the murder of three other elected candidates and on the 27 November 1989 was also responsible for the bombing of Avianca flight 203 which resulted in the deaths of all 107 passengers onboard. The target of the attack another presidential candidate was not on the flight. This attack was going to be the undoing of Escobar as two American citizens were on the flight and this prompted the Bush Administration to commence Intelligence Support which in
cluded communication monitoring and apparently it was this surveillance which located Escobar at home on the phone to his son on the 2nd December 1993.
The death of Escobar did lead to the eventual loss of power by the Medellin cartel which was soon taken over by the Cali cartel however Medellin was still a war zone with various paramilitary groups such as FARC, ELN and CAP attacking the city.
The main hub for all the paramilitary groups was an area of Medellin called Comuna 13, it was as a result by far the most dangerous place in the city. Much like the favelas of Brazil the Comuna’s are built into the hill sides, a mix mash of ramshackle buildings and basic services. In 2000 the Security Forces of Colombia began to clampdown on the various revolutionary groups and various ‘clean up’ campaigns were mounted in the guise of Operation Orion. The culmination of the operation was in 2002 when a door to door search commenced in Comuna 13 and anyone in anyway related to any of the paramilitary groups was taken from their homes. The official figures of this operation claim that 17 people were killed, 30 were wounded and 400 were arrested but in reality it is believed that over a thousand people were killed.
We took a tour to Comuna 13 which is now one of Medellin’s most changed neighbourhoods and something that they can be proud of. Comuna 13 has a series of escalators that replaced hundreds of narrow steps up through the Comuna making it far more accessible for many of the residents. Comuna 13 is the home to some of Medellin’s best graffiti and is a fascinating place to visit. Our guide first took us on one of Medellin’s cable cars over the comuna’s to give us some history and it was so sad when the raw emotion of telling us about Operation Orion caused her to break down and cry. She was so embarrassed but it just amplified that the atrocities that happened here are still so fresh and whilst the Colombian people we met were so happy and upbeat and content, there is undoubtedly raw sadness is buried below those smiles. Whilst from one view point in comuna 13 you could see for miles over the city from the other side you could see a beautiful mountain range which seemed to have a scar. That scar is the mass grave from Operation Orion which is currently being excavated to get a true figure of how many lives were lost in the operation.
Comuna 13 is just 2.7 square miles and has a population of 134,000 residents. Even in 2010 there were 243 murders in the comuna which makes it utterly astounding that we can now walk safely here just 5 years on. There was a small section in the Comuna where someone has replaced a set of stairs with a slide and obviously Tim was first in line for a turn. What he didn’t count on was this being the fastest slide in Medellin, after the first bump he had taken off and we all stood at the bottom covering our eyes waiting for him to crash at the bottom. Luckily he survived with just a skinned elbow.
There are still gangsters in the comuna, but they now operate more on the level of micro-extortion so any business that affiliates itself with a walking tour soon has to close down as the gangsters can’t bear to see anyone being successful. But considering how much comuna 13 has changed in just a few years, there is a lot of hope that these people can grow and take full control of their neighbourhood and profit from the new found tourism that is heading their way.
After a couple of days touring the city and getting to grips with the history and terror it was time to head out to the countryside to a little town called Guatape, however this was no ordinary tour to Guatape, we were going via one of Escobar’s old mansions. Manuela named after his only daughter was the second largest of his mansions the biggest being a few hours away and consisting of a zoo amongst other things. This mansion sits on the side of the artificial lake and like most of his other properties has been bombed, torn apart by Narcs and left in wrack and ruin as technically the government took the properties after his death but realistically they have mainly been boarded up and left.
This mansion was awesome to see, the main house has a series of holes in the walls where people have been searching for drugs, money and weapons, the pool is still in all its former glory although it now looks like a swamp. Overlooking the pool and the lake is a small tower which is said to be where Pablo would go to smoke. Despite his cocaine empire apparently he never used cocaine, only marijuana.
The mansion had it all, a sauna, a football field, a guest house, a nightclub and an amazing view over the lake which served as an airstrip for his seaplane.
The lake itself is completely artificial it was built in the 1960’s as part of a project to create a hydroelectric dam. The original town of Guatape was sunk in the lake and now all that remains of the town is the spire from the church that protrudes from the lake. Apparently at the right time of year when the water is clear you can still see rooftops below. The lake became the ‘Las Vegas’ of Colombia with all the wealthy paisa’s having luxury mansions on the shore of the lake. It is still now a weekend getaway from the city and there are plans to create an artificial beach on the shores of the lake.
The new town of Guatape is just stunning, it is small and quaint and pretty. We originally planned to stay here a night or two and in retrospect were glad we didn’t as you can see pretty much everything you need to in about an hour. Saying that it would be a lovely place to while away a day or two if you had them spare.
Towering over Guatape is ‘El Penol’ also known as the Rock. This was declared a national monument in Colombia in 1940 and stands at 2,135 meters tall. The Rock has a stair case to the viewpoint on the top which consists of 740 lung breaking steps. Adamant that we needed to get to the top to see the view we persevered through the pain and the fact that our lungs were trying to climb out of our mouth for some air and we made it. Boy was it worth it. The view was mind blowing. Quite possibly more beautiful than places like Halong Bay, the small islands popping out of the artificial lake were breathtaking (or was that the altitude, ha ha).
The problem with The Rock is that the only way down is back down the 740 bloody stairs. Whilst it was much less intense on the lungs by the time we got to the bottom our legs were visibly shaking. Seriously will someone put a cable car here please!
Back in the city we decided that it was only right given where we were to do the Pablo Escobar Tour by Paisa Road. There is another tour set up by Escobar’s brother but it didn’t have the best reviews so we went with the other one, which on reflection was a terrible idea and after searching harder had even worse reviews. The point of the tour is to see some of the locations which were important during Escobar’s life. One of his houses that was bombed and left his daughter with a permanent hearing problem, the house where he was shot dead and his grave. What we didn’t count on was the tour guide having the largest chip on her shoulder about cocaine and the cartels and giving us a 3 hour lecture about how bad cocaine is, how hard it is being a Colombian, how it is so wrong that tourists only know Colombia because of Escobar. What seemed a little ironic was that the one person making a living from the name of Escobar was the one person who hated him and everything he stood for. The tour was absolutely terrible and the guides anger and bitterness left us trapped in a very awkward mini bus for three hours. Strangely we were not even allowed out of the mini bus at the site of Escobar’s death, possibly the most important stop on the whole tour. Escobar was shot on the roof of his house having escaped out of the window. The official story is that he had been on the phone to his son and the secu
rity services had managed to triangulate the call to locate him. He was shot three times, once in the leg, once in the body and once in the head. Rumour has it that it is claimed that the final bullet to the head came from Escobar himself as he always carried a gun with one bullet for exactly this reason, but it is anyone’s guess who really made the kill shot. One very interesting fact about Colombia is as a result of Escobar’s death; did you know that outside of Africa Colombia is the only place you can see Hippos? Well after his death most of the animals in his provate zoo were relocated to zoos around the country, but some bright spark advised that the Hippos were too hard to move and would just die if left alone. They could not have been more wrong, apparently Colombian climate is just perfect for hippos and they bred and bred and bred and there are now close to 40 wild hippos in Colombia.
We had one last day in Medellin before our return flight to Cartagena and couldn’t leave with the bad taste of the Paisa Road tour in our mouths, after all the beautiful, interesting and wonderful people we had met we didn’t want to end on a low and so we booked ourself on a Fruit Tasting Tour. Colombia has some of the most fertile ground in the world, with the tropical rain and temperatures everything grows here and they have a phenomenal selection of tropical fruits. When I say tropical I am not talking mango’s, pineapples and kiwis, I am talking fruits that are strange shaped, odd coloured and some that a require a GCSE just to open them. After a near fail by ending up in a huge metro queue which meant we were never going to make the tour on time, we were rescued by a lovely Dutch couple that we had met a few days earlier who were also on the tour and had the foresight to buy tickets in advance and let us jump the queue with them. It turned out that the tour was just the 4 of us and we had the most amount of fun I have ever had in a fruit market. It is worth mentioning here that the Medellin metro is one of the few metro systems in existence in south America and it is of huge importance to the locals. The metro project was proposed in 1980 when Medellin was on its knees but work commenced despite the war going on it the city and the first journey was completed in 1995. The Metro is one of the most immaculately clean systems we have been on and there is not a mark or scratch or even a graffiti tag to be seen as the locals respect the metro as it was their sign of hope when times were at their very worst.
Markets around the world tend to be busy, smelly, fast moving and generally somewhere that you don’t feel at your most relaxed. Minorista Market could not have been more different. It was slow paced, it was peaceful, the people were happy and friendly and were so proud to pose for a photo with us or with their prize produce. The man with the giant carrot was particularly excited to come and show us, ha ha.
The tour was so well organised, we moved from stall to stall trying a different fruit each time, some were sour, some sweet, some stank and needed a hammer for entry. All in all we tried about 16 new fruits and could not wait to get to a market to buy some more now we knew what they were. Our favourite finds were Dragon Fruit which is the fruit of the cactus, similar to the ones that you get in Asia but yellow and sweeter and more juicy. But the prize for the best fruit went to the Granadilla, a type of passionfruit which you open by banging on the nearest head, then you peel off the skin and suck the juicy passionfruit type seeds from the white pod inside. At the end of the tour the guide gave us a whirlwind tour of the other sections of the market where seemingly there was not much that you couldn’t buy or sell from new and used tools, pets, clothes and even used toilets and bathroom suites.
We just had the best time and it was the perfect end to what had been a wonderful week in Medellin. Colombia had jumped to the top of the list of our favourite places in South America from our visit in this city. Everyone is so proud to have tourists visiting their city and whilst like everywhere else there is pick pocketing and other crime, you just need to keep your wits about you and be sensible.
We would return to Medellin in a second to see some more of the city, improve our Spanish and eat our way around that fruit market a few more times. But it was time for us to head back to Cartagena for a bit of sun and pool time.
Beans Around The World 