Medellín - The city of the eternal spring

It's well known that Colombia is THE country of  drugs, especially for cocaine.

The legendary Pablo Escobar, the King of cocaine, lived in Medellín and made it the capital of smuggling.

We followed his footprints and had an amazing trip with Sebastian in Medellín and in the Comuna 13 which was once one of the most dangerous neighborhoods.

Besides discovering Medellín, we also visited Guatapé, a beautiful village with a 200m high granite monolith, Santa Fé de Antioquia, a lovely old village with colonialism charme and the Parque Arví, a cloud forest, thousand meters higher han Medellín.

The highlight of our trip in Medellín, was a tour with Sebastian Castro Ayala, a 23 year old Colombian who grew up in the most dangerous neighborhood in the world, called "La Comuna 13".

12 years ago, people who didn't live in that part of the city and entered without any reason were killed just because they weren't from there. In 2011, more than 1600 people were killed. Since some years, the quarter calmed down and is open for the public.

Today, Sebastian has a icecream shop and offers tours to show how the life in the neighborhood is like. Furthermore, he showed us the old house of the legendary drug boss Pablo Escobar, where he got killed and where his grave is now. He explained us what Escobar did for the poor people in the city, how they see him and showed us the neighborhood he founded. 

First of all some information about Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviri:

He was born 1.12.1949 at a ranch farm in Rionegro, near Medellín and was later on known to the world as the "King of Cocaine". Escobar ruled the cocaine transport, the Medellín-cartel and "los Sicarios", contract killers on motorbikes. At the height of his career, about 80% of all the cocaine which got smuggled into the USA was ruled by him. With the drugs, he earned about 21,9 billion each year. Therefore, he was the seventh richest man in the world.

He used most of the money for exploring the drug production, the transport and protection of the cocaine and bought politicians, the police officers or bodyguards for his own protection . But he also used this money to build hospitals, schools and buildings for the poorest in the city and gained their respect and their support. Furthermore, he built offices, apartments, a football station, discotheques, restaurants and he payed a lot to those who produced the drugs for him.

The story about the drug war in Colombia is huge and worth reading. Pablo Escobar or "El Señor", how the people call him in his neighborhood, died one day after his birthday on the rooftop of his house, killed by Colombian-American forces.

The first destination of our trip was the old house of Pablo Escobar. He lived on the first floor and got killed on the roof by the Colombian-American special forces, one day after his birthday.

The second stop was in the barrio Pablo Escobar or "La Milagrosa", a quarter of the city which has been build because Pablo Escobar offered money and work to the people who had absolutely nothing. People finally had a place to sleep and to establish a family.

The third destination of our tour was the cemetery and the place where Pablo Escobar's grave is now. He was like a hero, like "Robin Hood" for those people who had nothing and they still come to his grave, put flowers down and think of him. The grave of Pablo Escobar is big and different to all the others there. But like Sebastian said: -At the end, it doesn't matter how rich you were or who you were. At the end, we all end in the same place, under the earth.-

Our last and most interesting stop was at the "Comuna 13" or "San Javier".

It was the most dangerous quarter of Medellín the world but also home of Sebastian. He grew up in those streets and already saw things which nobody of us can imagine. But he never lost his motivation to live, like everyone in this neighborhood.

During our tour he motivated us to have fun, to smile, to enjoy everything and not to have any fear. He showed us his neighborhood, the place where children play football and he showed us what the people did to make their quarter prettier.

If you have a look at Medellín, almost every building has the same colour, boring orange. But, the walls and houses in the Comuna 13 are different. On every corner there are big graffitis with important meanings to the residents and colorful houses. Every graffiti has an own meaning, like the elephant, which stays for strength and the fact that the whole neighborhood is holding together like an elephant family or a graffiti of a woman with all the elements in it and all the characteristics of Colombian people. All this gives hope to the people and reminds them of what happened. Sebastian explained them all and was very proud to show them. Another special effect is that, from far away, the neighborhood looks like a colorful heart in the boring orange buildings.

Besides the graffiti, Sebastian also showed us his home, the electrical steps between the tiny streets and offered us a tasty icecream made of Mango, lemon juice, sugar and salt.

Interesting information: Some of Pablo Escobar's family members are still alive and live in the exile in Argentina.

After he died, a big war started to control the drug traffic. One who won is El Chapo. Before, he was one of the middle men of Pablo Escobar.

The point of interest in Guatapé is the 200m high monolith of granite, "La Piedra del Peñol'. After climbing up more than 700 steps, very close to each other, there is a fantastic view over the lake. The area looked similar to Austria to me.

On the way down, the very narrow steps were difficult to manage.

Afterwards, we went to the city Guatapé which is very beautiful. All the houses, in the middle of the city, have colourful and nice "zocalos", artful bas-relief on the cladding.

We were very afraid during our drive to Santafé de Antioquia.

The minibus driver drove like crazy down the mountain, from 2000m to 600m. With over 100km/h he passed cars or trucks which were too slow, no matter if there was a speed limit, no passing allowed, a bend or another vehicle coming.

We were more than happy when we arrived in the city and left the vehicle.

The old historic part of Santafé de Antioquia is small. In the middle of the town was a little street market and all the house still have their colonial charme and are still very beautiful. It was nice to walk around, discover all the little streets and observe the Colombian life in the streets.

This fantastic park lies at 2500m, 1000m higher than Medellín. It's much cooler on the top and the landscape remembered me of a tropical Black Forest, so I sarted missing European forests.

Actually hiking around in he park is somehow only allowed with a guide and for each part you have to pay a fee. However, we had a short 4km hike without guide and enjoyed the trip.

More exciting is the long way up. The teleferic is going over the dangerous quarter "Santo Domingo" and in the teleferic you have an awesome view over Medellín.

We visited two museums in Medellín, the "Casa de la Memoria" and the "Museo de Arte Moderno". 

The memorial museum had free entrance and was very interesting. It tells the story of the last decade in Colombia, especially about Medellín and the war against the drugs. It's showing documents, pictures, old papers and much more of the horrible story. They have big screens with contemporary witnesses who tell their story, several artefacts which show what kids saw in the streets and how they believe their future will be!

The art museum was interesting. The art on the lower level was very strange and kind of disturbing. The upper floors were more interesting for me. Besides the art, it's also possible to watch movies.