A day of contrasts

I woke at 4am and didn’t get back to sleep but it hardly mattered as breakfast was at 6.30 and we had to have our bags out then and get on the bus at 7 as we had a tight schedule to see everything in the morning. It had rained a lot in the night and was damp and drizzly when we set out.

There was a problem with the transport which didn’t come till 7.15. The aim was to give the historical perspective behind Pablo Escobar’s residency in Medellin. First stop was the Parque Memorial la Inflexion, built where the Monaco building , Escobar’s property, was located until its demolition in 2019. Here a huge granite wakk had 46,912 holes in it to commemorate all those killed by cartels, victims of the narco traffic in Colombia. The park, which had separate blocks to commemorate the politicians, judges and journalists murdered by Escobar for daring to challenge him, was built in their memory.

We next drove to Comuna 13, the area built initially up the steep hillside by people whose land had been taken by the drug trade. They built illegally and then the cartels followed to use it as a conduit into the mountains to reach Panama and out. Only local traffic can get in as the narrow concrete tracks as so narrow so Andres had organised 2 vehicles to take us done way up, after which we walked as only motorbikes could get access. It was full of houses and shops and businesses piled precipitously on top of each other in various stages of construction. There was wall art depicting the story of the commune. Then we descended by a series of outdoor escalators. We had to gate crash a crowd of breakdancers to reach the proper streets and find our bus.

By then people were getting twitchy about getting to the flight on time but the local guide said we should go to Botero Square where the artist had donated 23 of this statues to the city where he was born. Because of road works and traffic we had to run round them for a quick look before jumping on the minibus.

We got through quickly then had a wait for boarding. The flight to Cartagena took under an hour. A vehicle met us and took us to our hotel 3 Banderos in the old town. It’s a pretty old building with the open central courtyard typical of central America. Our room is very small with 2 narrow single beds and no window which makes me feel a bit claustrophobic. However the air con is most efficient thankfully as it is 28 and humid now we are on the Caribbean coast.

At 4 we all joined Andres for an orientation walk. It’s all very pretty and old Spanish style but full of gold and emerald shops and designer clothes - it’s a huge cruise ship destination and it was very busy - a tourist hotspot. He took us to a roof top bar overlooking the sea for a sundowner. Our margaritas were over £10 each and it took forever to get the bill. We hurried back to the hotel in the dark as Andres said he’d meet us there at 7.45 to go out for a meal. This was in a restaurant with such a loud band nobody could talk and it was 10pm before we got back. Phew.

A chilled day tomorrow!