Date of Entry: January 4th 2017
Date of Writing: July 24th 2017
After an incredible day in Guatape to kickoff our Colombia/central america trip, our second day in Medellin is spent chasing the history of Medellin’s most famous resident, Pablo Escobar. Last time I was here I did next to nothing connected to him, but Renata finds the man fascinating and so with the help of our hostel we’ve found ourselves a place on the Pablo Escobar tour run by some of his former bodyguards and one that lets us go met his brother Roberto Escobar.
We leave the sugar cane hostel early in the morning and are accompanied by the lovely German owner of the hostel and his wife, who have both never done the tour before. We’re picked up by our friendly young bilingual guide and Pablo’s former bodyguard as our driver and then it’s off to our first stop, a Hotel where Pablo lived for many years and a building that was bombed on several occasion’s by rival cartels.
Our next stop is more interesting to me and takes us on a long winding drive up into the hills that surround Medellin towards the Escobar family graves, including the grave of Pablo himself. Renata is super excited and has to be careful not to be overly enthusiastic. Pablo Escobar is still a sensitive subject in Colombia, some people love him, some people hate him, families made fortunes through him, while others lost loved ones because of him. It’s a tough thing to talk about and while Renata loves him she does a semi good job keeping calm and not being overly animated as we walk towards their beautiful grave plots looking down on the city.
Back at the white minibus our driver has set up a few different souvenirs he has for sale, mostly connected to his time serving under Pablo, he also shows us some candid snaps from his time with Pablo which are pretty crazy to see and as the tour continues for the day we get more and more stories from him and his memories working with someone who for a long time was one of the most notorious men in South America. We also get some midmorning refreshments and Renata opts to buy a photo of Pablo to remember the day. By the smile she’s really enjoying herself and even I am finding it fascinating to hear more personal takes on Pablo and all that he did.
Our next stop is the one that sells the tickets to the tour, a guided tour of Roberto Escobar’s current home up in the hills of Medellin, filled with Pablo’s belongings and so much history, and if we’re lucky, Pablo’s brother might even be there during our visit.
We ring up through a heavily camera monitored driveway and the heavy duty gate swings open and we drive up towards the house. Over the years there have been multiple different attacks on Roberto’s home and for this reason security is serious business around here.
Before we get into the house we find out we’re lucky and Roberto is home as he comes out to greet us briefly before dissapearing inside but promising to come see us again before we leave. Next is a real treat as we get to see some of Pablo’s cars and even climb in for some photos. While Im not a huge fan of the cartel tourism that is so prevalent in Colombia I will admit it’s pretty cool to be sitting in the same seats this complicated, charismatic historical figure of Colombia sat in.
But Pablo knew how to live like the rich and famous man he is so it’s not just cars with bulletproof windshields. There’s also a motorbike and a jet ski for our fun photo-ops.
The fun vehicle photos done we head into the house which is half private residence and half museum of the Escobar’s families past. This includes Pablo’s signed football shirt collection, so many photos from the days when Pablo was numero uno in Colombia. Hidden Compartments, women in bikini’s counting drug money, visits to the white house and everything else you could imagine.
We head out to see the sprawling view of Medellin below us and some of the original wanted posters back when the F.B.I. C.I.A. and Colombian police were desperately fighting Pablo for control of Colombia.
Next Roberto comes out and has some other souvenirs for sale, more personal photos and lots of stories, he also offers to sign and fingerprint anything we buy. It’s strange to me just to stand there talking to him, as Roberto was quite connected to Pablo and did many things that would likely be considered criminal. But here we are getting his autograph, still I insist Renata buys one, knowing she will love it.
The last few minutes spent at Roberto’s house are another photo op, this time taking pictures with him. Renata has trouble containing her excitement and it looks pretty funny with her beaming and towering over this small old Colombian man. He is a wonderful host and we even snap a photo with the three of us in front of his old wanted poster.
From there we head back to the hostel and hangout a bit before catching an Uber out to the airport where we are flying to Santa Marta and the Caribbean coast of Colombia with so many more adventures to come. It was a great second full day of our trip and one I’m pretty sure Renata will always remember. A great start to rediscovering Colombia, the amazing country that first welcomed me with open arms to south America back in 2014.
