Paisa Road Tour Escobar

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We started Medellín with the Paisa Road Escobar tour, like proper cheesy tourists. Our guide Nicholas was brilliant.

Beginning at the block where Escobar lived with his family, and which was bombed in 1988 by the Calí cartel. This building sits in a very rich area but is barricaded and owned by the Colombian government, sitting empty. Many locals feel Escobar is being glorified with all these tourist tours, as a local walked past and made a comment. Nicholas reasssured her we all think he’s a criminal, doh.

Many of the buildings from that era stand out, with the architecture being named ‘Miami style.’

We then visited his grave, a bit morbid but interesting to see the amount of other leading figures from different cartels at the same cemetery.

We passed many other sites of note, concluding by heading the apartment where he was hiding (now a Spanish language school!) and then ‘the roof’ where he was supposedly shot. There are still many theories as to how he actually died that day. Shot by Agent Murphy? Suicide? Don Bernard’s brother? Our guide Nicholas believes strongly that he shot himself before anyone else did but that the Colombian government claim he was brought down claiming the ‘victory.’

The Narcos series requested to film on the actual rooftop, but the owners turned down a vast amount of money as they didn’t want to be associated with the filming. The neighbours 2 doors down however were happy to accept that cash, and so the final scenes were filmed there.

Our day ended with a manicure and a beer, and a tasty Peruvian meal.

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