The next day we flew to Medellin, what used to be the drug capital of Colombia or even the world. It is an amazing city, showing true socio-economic diversity, from ritzy suburbs with lush green lawns and immaculate houses to dodgy, dirty and very poor slums. We were staying in quite a nice area so we were paying the high prices but felt safe at all times. After giving up on the cabby being able to find the hostel, we said we would just walk from here but when he asked us for money to pay him his price now was very different to the one he said when we got into the cab – 20,000 pesos difference (about $13, which is a lot when u are on a budget). After arguing for while in the cab, and the driver calling someone who apparently spoke some English to try and sort it out we threw the money at him got our bags and walked away. We understand that generally people here have less money than us, and so the motivation to drastically increase the price for us gringos, but this had been happening to us so much that it was just wearing thin.
Finally finding our hostel we sat down and had a good stiff drink to let the anger settle a little. We ended up having some drinks with a group, a pommy girl and 4 Irish guys, heading out and seeing the nightlife of the city. We went to a rock club called Blue, to Doodles delight as we walk in, Rage Against the Machine comes on, the club went crazy everyone head banging (even Boos Boos), it was a great atmosphere, dancing till the wee hours of the morning.
For those of you that don’t know in the 60's, 70’s and 80’s the biggest drug lord, Pablo Escobar, lived here in Medellin until his death in December 1993. There are two guys with a small van that do a Pablo Escobar tour around the city, taking you to buildings that he owned (you can still see bullet holes from attacks) which are all white to represent cocaine, with his favourite palm trees on site and to his grave site. This was an amazing experience, although mostly we were just looking at buildings that are now used for other reasons (such as a drug rehabilitation centre and U.S Government anti drug department, a little ironic don’t you think?) just to be there and learning of this past was a powerful feeling.
Back in the day it was a pretty horrible place to live, with Pablo and the Police constantly at war setting off countless number of bombs all over the city. It is unsettling to learn how many people died due to Pablo’s dealings, a significant number of them being policemen. We were also showed the planes that he used to smuggle cocaine into the US, each plane could take 500 kgs and they would do the trip 6-7 times a week – that is a shitload of drugs!
Many authorities were after him in the end including the US. There was a picture taken of Pablo on holidays outside the Whitehouse, while they were actually looking for him back in Colombia! The strangest yet most powerful site was where he was finally taken down.
He was hiding out at his Aunty’s house when he was tracked down, there are several stories about who actually killed him as so many authorities were after him, of course the US say it was them, but it is also said that in the very end he actually shot himself. Although he was a horrible person it was so great to learn the history of Colombia’s biggest drug lord in such a way. We now have a little obsession with him, purchasing a book written about him to learn more. If anyone else is interested it is called "Killing Pablo" by Mark Bowden.
We were told of a water park nearby and thought we would go check it out. We took the metro to the end of the line, we were like little kids getting so excited hoping for this type of slide or for a whirlpool. We were then meant to catch a bus the rest of the way, but no bus would take us they all just shook their head and said no. We were very confused, until a man waiting for a bus finally told us that it was closed that day so no bus was going there. Like a young child being told Santa is not real we were absolutely devastated! So we got back onto the metro to go home. To deal with the pain Boos Boos did some serious shopping!
Over the weekend that we were in Medellin there was a public holiday, making flights more expensive. Waiting for the prices to come down we spent more time than planned here so we were keen to move on. Next we were heading to the Caribbean coast, to two towns, Taganga and Cartagena.
Beach here we come!
Peace and Love
Doodles and Boos Boos
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