Quite possibly the best city in Colombia

The hotel where we stayed had some amazing views of the city

Medellin is a city longed talked about in Colombian Culture as of course it was the city that Pablo Escobar ran him cartel out of which became popular by the series Narcos.

However this cities history and people go a lot deeper than this tragedy which many people are embarrassed by. The city has a rich culture of people and neighborhoods that predate Pablo Escobar and while some are extremely shy to talk about it, it is a part of their history. I went on a small Pablo Escobar tour to see different areas that surrounded his life. From the church where some of the hit men used to go to bathe their bullets in holy water, to his grave, to his prison that he made for himself, to the new park dedicated to his victims, and finally the house where he was shot and killed, this was a very interesting excursion to find out about him.

Commune 13 is one of the highlights of Medellin. Once one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city, this area has transformed itself to the premier area in Medellin. With apartment blocks built through the surrounding hills, the people of this area have transformed themselves into doing tours to look at the street art and walking down the narrow streets. They even have escalators put in so tourists can transverse the steep areas to see what this area has to offer. The street art here was amazing, and even though a lot of people were in the way as there were hordes of people on Sunday, I was still able to get a glimpse of a lot of it as well as going with our guide through some back alleys in order to see the non tourist areas. This is definitely a place I can keep coming back to over and over again….

One of the better times I have had while in Medellin was walking down Barrio Triste with an ex student of mine Franco Guillen. I taught him in Venezuela during my three years there and it was good to see him as he is now photographing and living in Medellin. Barrio Triste is a place where no tourists go as it is the industrial area with piles of car parts and engine blocks being worked on. Walking around here you get a sense of the rough lives that people have working in very crowded conditions but nonetheless people were friendly but curious on why we would be there.

Directly after to Barrio Triste, we were organized by Franco for a photo walk with a bunch of photographers in Medellin. Although it rained for part of the time when we started, we quickly got some great photos of the reflections. We then walked down the main street with oodles of people going about their daily lives, shopping and eating street food. A walk into the old National Palace which is now partly a mall and a brilliant art gallery had us scrambling through the different levels to see everything in there. We continued to one of the main squares near the museums to see people watching some dancing and enjoying their Saturday. This was another great highlight of this magnificent city that I will more than likely head back to…