Arrived in Medellin late evening on the 18th and checked into the Hotel Suite Comfort! Tried another gaff first - highly recommended by both Lonely Planet and Booking.com - but 61 Prado let us down: Dangerous Area + No Parking for Pablo + Dungeon Room with no Windows = Shop Elsewhere!!
Suite Comfort was as good as its name and after a gourmet breakfast we took the San Javier Metrocable (Cable Car) to float high above Medellin's roughest Barrios. Rough? Yes! But palaces compared the small villages we've driven through in the last few days!
After a hasty Alumerzo - 3 courses for 6.000 COP (one pound fifty) - we were picked up by Guide & Driver Camilo for our Pablo Escobar Medellin Tour.
First stop the Cemetery where Escobar and family graves take pride of place in a landscaped private plot - odd really for the Drug Lord whose Medellin Cartel murdered over 7,000 Civilians and 500 Police Officers during their reign of terror in the late 80's and early 90's! You'd think the local population would banish them!?
Camilo has mucho respect for El Patron de Mal and many contacts in the Narcos underworld - best friend from school Popeye - Escobar's Chief Sicario with over 300 executions to his name - just released from prison after serving 25 years, and back on Medellin's streets!!
Next we drive out of town (is that a Banksy graffiti?) to La Catedral - the Prison Escobar built for himself under a deal with the Colombian government in 1991 - more Private Estate than a Jail - Helipad, Nightclub, Football Pitch, Gym, 40 personal bodyguards, 60 Police Officers (hand picked by Escobar), and an arsenal of weapons - including surface to air missiles in case of airborne assault!
Last stop - Monaco Building - Esobar's family home in downtown Medellin built at the height of his Drug Lord career to house himself, wife and two children plus multi-million dollar car collection - and bombed by the rival Cali Cartel in 1988 in a declaration of war against Escobar and the Medellin Cartel - the building has remained empty since the bombing - and still has Escobar's furniture inside - the car collection was destroyed!
Fascinating stuff - 7th richest man in the world in 1990 with a net worth of US$30 billion! Supplying 80% of the huge US Cocaine trade - shipping 15 tons a day of white powder into North America.
Not a life to be proud of. Pure evil. Over 7,000 murders. Plus the pain and suffering of the end users!
"Do the people of Medellin see Escobar as a Good Guy or a Bad Guy?" I ask Camilo on the way back to Suite Comfort.
He avoids the question.
For me El Patron's prime graveyard plot says it all!
