The Murder Capital of the World
Well, not anymore at least. In 1988 Time Magazine dubbed Medellín, Colombia as the most dangerous city in the world. But a lot can change in 25 years.
Who would’ve thought, I went somewhere else this month. Literally 4 days after coming home from the coast, the family took another trip; this time to Medellín. The purpose, once again, was for the parents’ work, but we got to tag along and turn it into a vacation. Tuesday morning (June 18th) we left bright and early. Bogotá and Medellín are both within the Andes Mountains, but are separated by a huge valley where the mountain range splits. This made the two-lane roadway super long and dizzyingly winding for the majority of the time, and kind of like a video game to pass the slow semi trucks without getting hit by oncoming traffic. It was stressful to say the least. The only things that made it better were the amazing views and clean mountain air. The environment was a mix between jungle and forest, and there wasn’t a single hill not covered in greenery. 4 hours into the car ride, we arrived to our first destination. Hacienda Nápoles is a huge theme park/zoo settled in the hot valley about halfway between the two major cities. Back when Pablo Escobar was in charge, he brought a whole bunch of wild animals over from Africa just because it was illegal and he could, and basically made himself a personal zoo. The hippos have actually become a huge issue because they wandered off and are taking over other natural habitats. Here’s an interesting video that talks about it. Once he was murdered and the government took control of all his assets, they converted it into a theme park/zoo. Among the many animals we saw were hippos, tigers, lions, flamingoes, crocodiles, elephants, leopards, pumas, monkeys, and ostriches. There was a butterfly house, where I successfully got a butterfly to land on me, and I pet zebras and touched an anaconda. Don’t worry, I didn’t hold it; those things will kill you. It was tucked up in the corner of its habitat, so I touched it through the fence. The natural beauty of the valley was stunning enough. I saw a two foot long iguana just chillin in the middle of the road, and I don’t think he was part of the zoo. There were even parrots, red green and blue like in the movies, just flying around all over like they would in the wild. It made me think they actually are, and I was in their wilderness. This place was insane. Although the entry wasn’t cheap, it was worth it. Honestly you could spend several days there and not get bored. My favorite animals were the monkeys. There were so many, and they were so cute and little, walking around and swinging in the trees. It’s hard to get a good look at the animals at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake, but here you can get relatively close and there aren’t such intense barriers. We spent a couple hours driving around and seeing the animals, but it was blistering hot so we didn’t linger too long. Our pass gave us access to the “pool” (as they called it), so we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there. I was expecting just a normal pool with maybe a slide, but this place was a full blown waterpark. Just to stress the size of Hacienda Nápoles, you need to get around by car to see all the animals, there are two hotels within the park (about a dozen more outside and in the town) plus a campground, they have a helicopter painted in zebra print to take tours in, a cartel-era plane runway, two museums (again, in the park), and two waterparks. This place is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my life. One of the two waterparks is mostly kid-themed, so we didn’t stop by that one. Oh, I almost forgot. They have a Jurassic-themed section similar to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point too. Anyways, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the waterpark, and it was kinda the best day of my life. They had a bunch of slides, dozens of pools/hot tubs, a lazy river, restaurants, a massive waterfall cascading into the main pool, and even caves with ceiling-high fish tanks acting as a barrier between you and another pool. Click here to see some photos, but know that this is one of the rare cases where it looks better in real life than online. We ate lunch and bought some juices from Cosechas (Colombian Jamba) and really just lived our best lives.
After playing hard all day, we went into Doradal, the little town nearby, to check into our hotel. Our hotel was relatively new so it had A/C and everything was nice and wellkept, but they didn’t have a parking lot. Their solution was to team up with a bigger hotel a couple blocks away, and we got access to that parking lot and pool. We ate dinner at this big open-air cafeteria/restaurant crossover, and went to the other hotel to drop off the car and swim. I might as well mention it was also the best/biggest hotel pool I’ve ever swam in. That night I slept like a baby. The next day we left after breakfast, and drove the other 4 hours to Medellín. Most people who have ever heard of this city only know of it because it was once infamously violent. So much so, that it was the murder capital of the world. Pablo Escobar made Medellin the base of his cocaine trade operation, and in the 1980s to 90s the drug war between cartels tore the city apart. A lot of people still have that image of violence connected to their idea of Colombia today, but really it all ended 30 years ago. The country is completely different now, but nobody in North America really knows it because the media only covered the violence but not the healing and recovery. Genuinely speaking, Medellín is my favorite city in this country. Tucked into the mountains, the city sprawls for miles. It is busy, but more organized, industrial, and modern than booming Bogotá. It has an established metro system that makes getting around a thousand times easier than any other big city, and even boasts lines of cable cars that give access to the poorer neighborhoods on the mountainsides. Since the drug crisis, homicide rates have decreased by 95% and extreme poverty has decreased by 66%. It was easily the cleanest big city I’ve seen in Colombia, and it was very green with trees on every block. Even the river was clean, which is (unfortunately) pretty rare here. We stayed with the mom of Andrés (the dad) in her townhouse. That night we just stayed in and ate dinner, and visited with their grandma and cousins, who also live there. The youngest was 2 years-old, and I swear the cutest baby I’ve seen in my life. She was super chatty and sweet and just agh SO CUTE!
The next day the parents had their seminar, so like normal we had nothing to do all day. The uncle took off work however, because he wanted us to see his city. After lunch, we took the metro to visit Comuna 13. It has a really long history, but because of its widespread poverty the neighborhood became the focal point of violence. In Operation Orion, the government came in and basically massacred hundreds of people. One of my absolute favorite YouTube channels, YesTheory, actually made a video on it. I recommend watching it. The city built escalators in an effort to better the standards of living (the hills are treacherously steep) and to bring more opportunities to the community. And it worked. The neighborhood has become a big tourist destination (when I went, there were waaaayyy more tourists than you see in the video) and it’s full of beautiful graffiti and other art. I even saw the same silver haired lady that they talked to in the video, and now she runs a successful business selling homemade popsicles. I ate three haha. It was really cool to see how much of a turnaround the community has gone through, and to see for myself just how much change is possible. 25 years ago, you never would have thought it could become what it is today.
We didn’t do anything else that day, except go home and eat pizza for dinner. The next morning we left after breakfast and I said goodbye to Medellín. I would’ve liked to see more of the city, but we weren’t staying for very long. Maybe I’ll just have to move here when I’m older and then I can see the rest of it hehe. I’m lowkey serious though, I would be down to live in beautiful Medellín. Anyways, we packed our bags and headed out to Guatapé. The most special thing about this town is it hosts one of the biggest monoliths in the world. This just means it has a big rock, but like, a rock the size of a mountain. I don’t know where it came from, but there’s just a giant hunk of marble sitting on top of a hill in the middle of this valley. It’s pretty whack. We climbed the 740 stairs to the top, and I took in the view of the most beautiful place on earth. Well maybe not most beautiful, but definitely in my top 5. Guatapé is too perfect to try to describe, so just click on the link and see for yourself. We ate lunch in a restaurant with a view of the reservoir, and afterwards took a tour on the water in a little boat. Our tour guide pointed out some of the abandoned estates built by Pablo Escobar, including his discoteca, and told us interesting stories about the history of the original town. There are loads of mansions on the waterside, and with good reason with a view like that. I would move here if I had several million dollars. Our tour guide told us even Dwayne Johnson has a house here, although I don’t know how accurate that is. We left after our tour, although I wish we’d stopped by
We drove back 4 hours, and stayed the night in the same hotel as before. This time however, we were too exhausted to swim. The next morning we planned to visit El Cañón del Río Claro and make it back in time to shower in our hotel before checkout. We were rushing out the door, but to our dismay the highway was closed due to a bicycle race. We were forced to wait an hour until the cyclists passed us and they opened the road back up, so we ate breakfast in the meantime. Once we were clear to go, we drove 20 minutes back towards Medellín until we arrived at the Canyon of the Clear River. We had to pay entry, but HoLy it was worth it! We were going to go river rafting, but couldn’t because we didn’t have enough time (thanks to the bike race). There were other options like ziplining and exploring partly-submerged caves, but we didn’t have time for really anything. It was chill though, the river alone was incredible enough. We walked a short path along the river surrounded by jungle (not quite rainforest tho) and stopped just around the riverbend (hehe) to swim. The water was so clean. Closer to the beginning of the path, the water appears a luminous blue, almost glowing. The colors in the picture are unedited. Where we swam, it was much clearer than blue, but looks beige because the riverbed shows through so much. In some parts it takes on a green hue due to the green marble slabs covering the bottom, but the majority of the rockbed are multicolored granite and marble rocks. I brought home a few that I found especially pretty. The water was cold, but not too much, and deep enough to really swim. And the surroundings were soooo prettyyyy. The different colored rocks and giant tropical plants were stunning under the blue sky and bright sun. Agh, but the water! I’ve never swam in natural freshwater so clear. I was able to open my eyes underwater without any pain and see perfectly! In. A. River! Okay, I think you get the point now: It was incredible.
We barely made it back to our hotel with time to shower, although after swimming in such clean water I didn’t feel the need to. We changed, loaded up our suitcases, and left for home. We stopped on the way in La Vega to use the bathroom and eat pastries in a popular postrería. Their avena drink was too good. After 5 hours on the road we finally made it back to freezing cold Bogotá. The next day we went to church and had a day to unwind and get back to normal after weeks of vacations. Well, them. Not me. The next day I left for FSY (EFY) where I spent all of last week. And it was awesooooome. But that’s another post, coming soon (probably without so many links).
It’s weird that I have less than two weeks left in Colombia. I arrived almost a year ago, and it’s really crazy how the time flies. It feels like I’ve only been here a few months. I’m sure these last few days will pass in the blink of an eye, and I’ll be back in Utah before I know it. I want to save all my progression and emotions for another post where I can talk really in depth, but en pocas palabras, I’m excited, anxious, and really really sad to be leaving. It’s not easy, but I don’t really have any choice but to go with it. Oh, and happy Fourth of July yesterday. I celebrated by watching Stranger Things, writing this blog post, and rewarding myself for writing with another episode of Stranger Things. Talk soon, and stay chévere.
Who would’ve thought, I went somewhere else this month. Literally 4 days after coming home from the coast, the family took another trip; this time to Medellín. The purpose, once again, was for the parents’ work, but we got to tag along and turn it into a vacation. Tuesday morning (June 18th) we left bright and early. Bogotá and Medellín are both within the Andes Mountains, but are separated by a huge valley where the mountain range splits. This made the two-lane roadway super long and dizzyingly winding for the majority of the time, and kind of like a video game to pass the slow semi trucks without getting hit by oncoming traffic. It was stressful to say the least. The only things that made it better were the amazing views and clean mountain air. The environment was a mix between jungle and forest, and there wasn’t a single hill not covered in greenery. 4 hours into the car ride, we arrived to our first destination. Hacienda Nápoles is a huge theme park/zoo settled in the hot valley about halfway between the two major cities. Back when Pablo Escobar was in charge, he brought a whole bunch of wild animals over from Africa just because it was illegal and he could, and basically made himself a personal zoo. The hippos have actually become a huge issue because they wandered off and are taking over other natural habitats. Here’s an interesting video that talks about it. Once he was murdered and the government took control of all his assets, they converted it into a theme park/zoo. Among the many animals we saw were hippos, tigers, lions, flamingoes, crocodiles, elephants, leopards, pumas, monkeys, and ostriches. There was a butterfly house, where I successfully got a butterfly to land on me, and I pet zebras and touched an anaconda. Don’t worry, I didn’t hold it; those things will kill you. It was tucked up in the corner of its habitat, so I touched it through the fence. The natural beauty of the valley was stunning enough. I saw a two foot long iguana just chillin in the middle of the road, and I don’t think he was part of the zoo. There were even parrots, red green and blue like in the movies, just flying around all over like they would in the wild. It made me think they actually are, and I was in their wilderness. This place was insane. Although the entry wasn’t cheap, it was worth it. Honestly you could spend several days there and not get bored. My favorite animals were the monkeys. There were so many, and they were so cute and little, walking around and swinging in the trees. It’s hard to get a good look at the animals at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake, but here you can get relatively close and there aren’t such intense barriers. We spent a couple hours driving around and seeing the animals, but it was blistering hot so we didn’t linger too long. Our pass gave us access to the “pool” (as they called it), so we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon there. I was expecting just a normal pool with maybe a slide, but this place was a full blown waterpark. Just to stress the size of Hacienda Nápoles, you need to get around by car to see all the animals, there are two hotels within the park (about a dozen more outside and in the town) plus a campground, they have a helicopter painted in zebra print to take tours in, a cartel-era plane runway, two museums (again, in the park), and two waterparks. This place is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my life. One of the two waterparks is mostly kid-themed, so we didn’t stop by that one. Oh, I almost forgot. They have a Jurassic-themed section similar to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point too. Anyways, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the waterpark, and it was kinda the best day of my life. They had a bunch of slides, dozens of pools/hot tubs, a lazy river, restaurants, a massive waterfall cascading into the main pool, and even caves with ceiling-high fish tanks acting as a barrier between you and another pool. Click here to see some photos, but know that this is one of the rare cases where it looks better in real life than online. We ate lunch and bought some juices from Cosechas (Colombian Jamba) and really just lived our best lives.
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| This is a swimming pool! With plants and all. |
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| Mis compañeras de viaje |
After playing hard all day, we went into Doradal, the little town nearby, to check into our hotel. Our hotel was relatively new so it had A/C and everything was nice and wellkept, but they didn’t have a parking lot. Their solution was to team up with a bigger hotel a couple blocks away, and we got access to that parking lot and pool. We ate dinner at this big open-air cafeteria/restaurant crossover, and went to the other hotel to drop off the car and swim. I might as well mention it was also the best/biggest hotel pool I’ve ever swam in. That night I slept like a baby. The next day we left after breakfast, and drove the other 4 hours to Medellín. Most people who have ever heard of this city only know of it because it was once infamously violent. So much so, that it was the murder capital of the world. Pablo Escobar made Medellin the base of his cocaine trade operation, and in the 1980s to 90s the drug war between cartels tore the city apart. A lot of people still have that image of violence connected to their idea of Colombia today, but really it all ended 30 years ago. The country is completely different now, but nobody in North America really knows it because the media only covered the violence but not the healing and recovery. Genuinely speaking, Medellín is my favorite city in this country. Tucked into the mountains, the city sprawls for miles. It is busy, but more organized, industrial, and modern than booming Bogotá. It has an established metro system that makes getting around a thousand times easier than any other big city, and even boasts lines of cable cars that give access to the poorer neighborhoods on the mountainsides. Since the drug crisis, homicide rates have decreased by 95% and extreme poverty has decreased by 66%. It was easily the cleanest big city I’ve seen in Colombia, and it was very green with trees on every block. Even the river was clean, which is (unfortunately) pretty rare here. We stayed with the mom of Andrés (the dad) in her townhouse. That night we just stayed in and ate dinner, and visited with their grandma and cousins, who also live there. The youngest was 2 years-old, and I swear the cutest baby I’ve seen in my life. She was super chatty and sweet and just agh SO CUTE!
The next day the parents had their seminar, so like normal we had nothing to do all day. The uncle took off work however, because he wanted us to see his city. After lunch, we took the metro to visit Comuna 13. It has a really long history, but because of its widespread poverty the neighborhood became the focal point of violence. In Operation Orion, the government came in and basically massacred hundreds of people. One of my absolute favorite YouTube channels, YesTheory, actually made a video on it. I recommend watching it. The city built escalators in an effort to better the standards of living (the hills are treacherously steep) and to bring more opportunities to the community. And it worked. The neighborhood has become a big tourist destination (when I went, there were waaaayyy more tourists than you see in the video) and it’s full of beautiful graffiti and other art. I even saw the same silver haired lady that they talked to in the video, and now she runs a successful business selling homemade popsicles. I ate three haha. It was really cool to see how much of a turnaround the community has gone through, and to see for myself just how much change is possible. 25 years ago, you never would have thought it could become what it is today.
We didn’t do anything else that day, except go home and eat pizza for dinner. The next morning we left after breakfast and I said goodbye to Medellín. I would’ve liked to see more of the city, but we weren’t staying for very long. Maybe I’ll just have to move here when I’m older and then I can see the rest of it hehe. I’m lowkey serious though, I would be down to live in beautiful Medellín. Anyways, we packed our bags and headed out to Guatapé. The most special thing about this town is it hosts one of the biggest monoliths in the world. This just means it has a big rock, but like, a rock the size of a mountain. I don’t know where it came from, but there’s just a giant hunk of marble sitting on top of a hill in the middle of this valley. It’s pretty whack. We climbed the 740 stairs to the top, and I took in the view of the most beautiful place on earth. Well maybe not most beautiful, but definitely in my top 5. Guatapé is too perfect to try to describe, so just click on the link and see for yourself. We ate lunch in a restaurant with a view of the reservoir, and afterwards took a tour on the water in a little boat. Our tour guide pointed out some of the abandoned estates built by Pablo Escobar, including his discoteca, and told us interesting stories about the history of the original town. There are loads of mansions on the waterside, and with good reason with a view like that. I would move here if I had several million dollars. Our tour guide told us even Dwayne Johnson has a house here, although I don’t know how accurate that is. We left after our tour, although I wish we’d stopped by
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| This picture kinda freaks me out. I don't look like me. |
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| If you look closely you can see some mansions |
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| Bad quality (not my phone) picture of me and a big rock |
We drove back 4 hours, and stayed the night in the same hotel as before. This time however, we were too exhausted to swim. The next morning we planned to visit El Cañón del Río Claro and make it back in time to shower in our hotel before checkout. We were rushing out the door, but to our dismay the highway was closed due to a bicycle race. We were forced to wait an hour until the cyclists passed us and they opened the road back up, so we ate breakfast in the meantime. Once we were clear to go, we drove 20 minutes back towards Medellín until we arrived at the Canyon of the Clear River. We had to pay entry, but HoLy it was worth it! We were going to go river rafting, but couldn’t because we didn’t have enough time (thanks to the bike race). There were other options like ziplining and exploring partly-submerged caves, but we didn’t have time for really anything. It was chill though, the river alone was incredible enough. We walked a short path along the river surrounded by jungle (not quite rainforest tho) and stopped just around the riverbend (hehe) to swim. The water was so clean. Closer to the beginning of the path, the water appears a luminous blue, almost glowing. The colors in the picture are unedited. Where we swam, it was much clearer than blue, but looks beige because the riverbed shows through so much. In some parts it takes on a green hue due to the green marble slabs covering the bottom, but the majority of the rockbed are multicolored granite and marble rocks. I brought home a few that I found especially pretty. The water was cold, but not too much, and deep enough to really swim. And the surroundings were soooo prettyyyy. The different colored rocks and giant tropical plants were stunning under the blue sky and bright sun. Agh, but the water! I’ve never swam in natural freshwater so clear. I was able to open my eyes underwater without any pain and see perfectly! In. A. River! Okay, I think you get the point now: It was incredible.
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| Unedited |
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| Walking through la selva |
We barely made it back to our hotel with time to shower, although after swimming in such clean water I didn’t feel the need to. We changed, loaded up our suitcases, and left for home. We stopped on the way in La Vega to use the bathroom and eat pastries in a popular postrería. Their avena drink was too good. After 5 hours on the road we finally made it back to freezing cold Bogotá. The next day we went to church and had a day to unwind and get back to normal after weeks of vacations. Well, them. Not me. The next day I left for FSY (EFY) where I spent all of last week. And it was awesooooome. But that’s another post, coming soon (probably without so many links).
It’s weird that I have less than two weeks left in Colombia. I arrived almost a year ago, and it’s really crazy how the time flies. It feels like I’ve only been here a few months. I’m sure these last few days will pass in the blink of an eye, and I’ll be back in Utah before I know it. I want to save all my progression and emotions for another post where I can talk really in depth, but en pocas palabras, I’m excited, anxious, and really really sad to be leaving. It’s not easy, but I don’t really have any choice but to go with it. Oh, and happy Fourth of July yesterday. I celebrated by watching Stranger Things, writing this blog post, and rewarding myself for writing with another episode of Stranger Things. Talk soon, and stay chévere.
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