Medellin. WOW!!

---

---

The journey from Medellin airport to the city takes about 40 minutes in a cab.

As we reached the top of one mountain the city stretched north to south along a deep valley below. A vast city, not as big as Bogota, but buildings constructed high into the mountain side. Countless high rise buildings constructed amongst a green, lush countryside. With a clear blue sky above it looked an amazing sight.

I'm staying at a hostel in Parque Lleras, in the Poblado district, one of many areas built on the side of steep hills.It's in the heart of the action with numerous bars and cafés surrounding it. The parque is lit with Christmas lights still. The hostel also boasts a piano. Result. My first impression of Medellin then is as Joe described. Awesome. A busy, vibrant and safe place.

Two travellers recommend the city walking tour and so it was, at 8.55 the following morning, I found myself stood outside Poblado Metro station waiting for my guide.

It was here that I also met Adriana. A delightful, pretty and charming young woman aged around 30yrs, from Bogota. She was visiting the city for the weekend, having won a competition through her employer to a weekend away
in Colombia.

Although I believe in making your own luck, someone must've given a helping hand that day. For Adriana made a great weekend into a amazing and fun time.

The city tour was informative, educational and enlightening. Our tour guide, Juliette, spoke with such passion and warmth about her city.
How the city was founded by Jews and Basques fleeing persecution. In a deep valley surrounded by the high Andes it was the perfect hiding place. The city became rich through coffee, a railway and pure business savvy. Political violence changed everything but now,through a security platform, democratic art and positive education, Medellin is no longer a city living in fear but a city living in hope. A fragile hope maybe but hope nonetheless.

Following the assassination of the peoples champion Gaitan in 1948, and the subsequent political violence and riots the centre left and right agreed to swap the role of president every 5 years to try and bring calm.

This, in hindsight was democratic madness. With no chance of the people ever voting an unpopular party out of power the far right formed their own army, the paramilitaries, to protect their interests and fight the government. So did the far left with the guerrillas. FARC being the most well known to me. Thus three armies, the Governments', the Guerrillas and Paramilitaries were fighting each other. Thus began the Colombian conflict. The CIA hiding in the shadows and between the lines protecting American interests but as usual making things worse. Everyone living in fear. I'm told not one person in Colombia hasn't been touched in some way by the fear, kidnapping and murder that ensured over the decades in some way. A fate for the people worse than death. A life without hope. Whole villages slain for supporting one side or the other. Children of the rich, abducted, tortured and murdered on a routine basis. Politicians, businessmen, entertainers slain for speaking out.
Enter then the fourth element around 1980. Cocaine. With the cartels getting richer, predominantly the Cali Cartel and the Cartel run by Pablo Escabar around Medellin, the violence increased almost relentlessly. Millions of dollars in drug money supporting the far left and right armies. The drug cartels playing one side off against the other whilst living in a bizarre luxury of haciendas and zoos. Escobar imported his own zoo, giraffes, hippopotami etc. The cartels paying for the protection of the cocoa leaf plantations the government, supported by the USA, were trying to destroy. Political assassinations on a daily basis. Every police officer had a bounty on his head. The dollars rolled in as the demand for Colombians biggest export grew, making at one time Escobar the 7th richest man in the world. Whilst the States and The West partied hard, fuelled by use of cocaine, the population of Colombia lived in a unimaginable fear. A fear that still exists today but is now destroying Mexico and soon, I suspect, Peru.
Colombia may be on top of the problem but it's just displaced elsewhere.
Escobar arranged for a bomb to explode in a plane with over one hundred people on board just to kill one man. That man, who was standing for president on an anti-drugs platform, wasn't even on the plane. He was later assassinated in Bogota.
The fear and lack of hope made Medellin the most dangerous city in the world, and Colombia the most dangerous country.
In 1993 Escobar, by now an obese man as fat as his favourite hippopotamus , was found and was shot dead on the roof of a safe house in Medellin. The president, who was the press secretary of the man Escobar tried to blow up in a plane, used every resource available, both national and international to locate and capture him.
The violence continued though. Bombings, kidnapping and murder.
The president offered money to his soldiers for every guerrilla or paramilitary killed. This led to the 'falsos positivos'. (False positives)
Thousands of entirely innocent young men and women were shot and killed. Stripped of a possessions and clothing, then dressed in a guerrilla uniform, a picture was taken of the dead 'enemy' and the reward claimed. Thousands of Colombian youth murdered for a paltry reward.
And yet despite this Medellin tried to progress. Against all the odds a fast an efficient Metro system was completed in 1995, the same year a bomb detonated at a festival for music. Planted in a metal statue of a bird by the city's famous artist, Fernando Botero, it killed 23 young people, including a child aged just 7yrs, and maimed numerous others. The mayor was to remove this damaged statue and scrap it. A phone call from Botero himself forbid this action and the bird remains with the names of those killed on a plaque underneath. A reminder of that day and the fear in the daily lives of the citizens.
Next to it now is a new statue of a bird, the symbol of hope. For in 2002 a security platform was built upon involving thousands of police and soldiers. Old bombed and burnt out building, home to crime gangs, prostitutes and the underworld were demolished. Through art projects and education, order and safety to downtown Medellin slowly returned. Botero donated numerous works of art and statues to the city.

A fragile peace, with hope of a lasting one now talks are being held to establish calm once and for all. Tourism is back in Colombia and money from that is starting to effect the mindset of the inhabitants got the better. Sure Medellin has areas of poverty and crime, and there are still places in the country far too dangerous to venture, but it's a city and country on the up, and the movement for a permanent change from fear to hope is strong.

As Juliette so aptly put it. The fact that I and my fellow travellers and tourists were in the city at all was proof, if it were needed, of that.

My message to her with a small token of my appreciation of that morning was 'good luck when you're Mayor of Medellin'

After the walk Adriana and I went for a beer and lunch. She, being Colombian had done her research into the city. We travelled the metro system visiting areas and in particular district 13 which is accessible by cable car. Flying over a poor district, houses clinging onto the sides of steep hills, sat on wooden poles. Life was clearly hard here.

At one cable car station I persuaded Adriana to get off with me and buy an ice cream. I could tell she was scared of this idea initially but eventually we left the well policed metro system and sat at an ice cream shop perched on the side of a hill with a ratio 1:2.
It was so steep and yet people and vehicles over the centuries have traversed these roads. Young men and women helping their elderly grandparents up and down the steep gradient. The population here must have legs of wood and stamina of steel.

I asked her how come there were so many police and auxiliaries about. She told me that it's compulsory for kids who leave school to do a year as a police officer to try and stop them joining the paramilitaries. To some degree it's working but it's harder to do this in the countryside and many youth are joining the outlawed armies still. Every metro station has two officers posted there and there are cops on every corner. Thousands of officers patrol the streets, their uniform and presence a clear reassurance footprint in the city.

Later that evening I met Adriana near my hostel . She was with friends and we went to a nearby Salsa bar. A hot, humid room with the rhythm of Salsa booming from the speakers. Everyone inside was dancing. All of my Colombian friends were amazing dancers and persuaded this old fool to have a go. After a few drinks, and some lessons, I was still bad, but we all danced the night away to the wee small hours. What an amazing day. What an amazing city. Thanks Joe. I owe you a beer when we meet again for the Balearic Cup in May.

---

Photos

Downtown
Medellin

Artwork
Outside City Hall

Lights of hope
Where once gangster ruled the roost.

Old building
Converted to education centre

Inside old palace of justice
Now a market selling every counterfeit item known to man

Juliette.
Our guide in full flow and passion about her city

Bomb damaged bird
A reminder of fear.

New bird
An image of hope by Fernando Botero

Adriana and me
In the cable car. So lucky to have bumped into her.

Comments

[Brian]

Love your work Mr, great to be able to keep pace with what you are upto. Love the old building shot, the pic of the new bird did not come through so I was wondering what might appear.
Comment above.