Medellin

Well I nearly missed my night bus from Bogota after some insane traffic, making it just in time to freeze my ass off for the overnight journey to Medellin, the home town of former drug lord Pablo Escobar. May Gringos find themselves stuck here for a lot longer than anticipated, very good things have been said about both Casa Kiwi and Happy Buddha Hostels in the touristic Pablito suburb.

Checking in to Geo Hostel, it felt more like I was walking in to a classy hotel than budget traveller lodging. The three story building includes a top floor apartment style common area with an astro turfed deck overlooking the street. Not far down the street a shake stand was set up with plenty of fresh looking Avocados and Bananas, a perfect combination!

A few of us from the hostel made the two hour journey on a train and bus out to Guatape. Here one of the countries largest lakes majestically winds itself amongst the shoreline and from the top of the 600 stair boulder you get a magnificent view over the surrounding areas. My decision to run up was worth the effort as I managed to escape just before the rains came rolling in.

The next day I moved over to Happy Buddha and locked in one of the citys controversial Pablo Escobar tours. A mini van picked us up from the hostel on what was coincidentaly the 20 year anniversary  Pablo's death. Our guide put on very interesting movie 'The Two Escobars', a documentary on the countries violent past and the attempt to win the soccer world cup, I was blown away that children of the star players were kidnapped in order to encourage them to play better.

This guy was totally insane, he actually imported animals from Africa to make a zoo on one of his many propertes and pretty much ran the Cocaine trade, sending 80 tonnes of the drug from Columbia to the US every month. Apparently the expenditure on rubber bands to contain his bundles of cash was estimated at $2,500 per month. Pablo ended up waging a war against his own country!

We visited the cemetery where Pablo Escobar is buried, the crowd of followers is not uncommon as he still remains a hero among some of the lower class, who replenish the flowers daily and morn the death of their hero. A few media vans were around waiting to capture and interesting moments.

Last stop was to Roberto's house, the brother and accountant of the drug lord. Here we saw pictures of lavish purchases Pablo used to spend some of his pocket change on. The house had been recently raided in the belief that money was buried on site, Roberto was lucky enough to hide in one of the secret rooms behind a false wall. I managed to snap a picture through a bullet hole as he walked past outside. Roberto's face showoes signs of disfigurement after a letter bomb made it through all the security checks to his prison cell while he was serving time.

One last stop which had been suggested as a must do was to ride the train out to the cable cars, from here you can ride a car up over the mountain with fabulous views of the city and the favela style living quarters below. I hopped off half way to visit the Sprain library, its striking design helped it to win an award in Lisbon in 2008 for for architecture of the year. After gliding over the forest for what felt like ages, well and truly outside the hustle and bustle of the city, we arrived at Arvi national park. A huge bag of Gooseberry's took my attention and I unsuccessfully tried to demolish the lot before stumbling off feeling very sorry for myself. Unfortunately the food section was the highlight of the park as I only managed a short walk, the free bikes which are a must can only be borrowed in exchange for a passport, which was conveniently in my locker back at the hostel.