One man and his drug

Medellín is synonymous with the name Pablo Escobar, one of the most notorious criminals that ever walked the earth. Supplying cocaine all over the world, he became a billionaire several times over and left a permanent scar on Colombia’s colourful tapestry.

Escobar offices in the centre of the city

At the height of its power, his Medellín drug cartel was smuggling 15 tons of cocaine a day, worth more than half a billion dollars, into the United States.

As a result, Escobar is regarded as the richest and  most successful criminal in history. In 1989, Forbes Magazine listed him as the seventh wealthiest man in the world with an estimated fortune of $9 billion dollars. The truth is, he probably had a lot more.

As you wander through the leafy streets of Medellín, brushed with the breeze of its eternal spring, it’s hard to imagine that this city was once the stronghold of this notorious criminal and his followers.

Still owned by the Government

But Pablo Escobar and his Medellín cartel once ran these streets using a mix of intimidation, bribery and violence, resulting in the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians and many police and government officials.

Though he was eventually killed by Colombian police in 1993, his legacy is still felt by the people, forever etched into their city’s cultural memory.

One of the things we wanted to do in Medellín was to gain an understanding of where he operated, his influence on the city, how people view his legacy and the truth behind his pseudo-celebrity reputation.

However, having spoken to a Colombian friend who said her mother would disown her if she went on a tour about “that man”, we were in conflict. We also heard that one of the two companies running the Escobar tour is probably giving money to Pablo’s brother to do a ‘meet and greet’ with tourists.

I didn’t want to fund anything that continued to glorify and exasperate the problem of “that man” and what he did to this beautiful country.

Where's Pablo? Never hiding away from recognition

After asking around, we decided to go with the Paisa Road organisation, which donates a percentage of its profits to fund social projects in some of the areas where Pablo’s bitter legacy still has a stranglehold. So, we headed out to see the sites where the evil-genius operated with impunity for so many years.

What stunned me the most about the entire tour was that he didn’t operate in the far perimeters of town or in the jungle, he ran everything right in the beating heart of Medellín. He wanted everyone to know the face of Pablo Escobar.

We stood outside various buildings, his home and the offices where he ran all his legal and illegal business operations, all distinctly white and boastfully opulent. And yet, left abandoned and to rot, you would never know that these greying structures once housed one of the world’s most powerful criminal enterprises.

We discovered that these buildings are still all owned by the government and police, who don't want to sell them as this would mean giving a percentage of the profits to the community. Cocaine may have had its day in Colombia, but corruption is still rife.

Pablo & son by the White House - they were looking for him

Inside these walls, Pablo worked to build his “Robin Hood” reputation, by building football fields, churches and housing for the poor. The man who started his criminal dealings by robbing gravestones to polish and re-sell, transformed himself into a knight in shining armour for many of the poorest neighbourhoods in Medellín.

Undoubtedly an elaborate exercise in PR and manipulation, Escobar procured support for his Medellín cartel, befriended the police and military and even found his way into the government in 1983.

Pablo will pay more to keep you quiet

It is easy to be blinded by his showmanship and ability to make friends in high places, but Escobar was responsible for horrible atrocities, corruption and intimidation, he was a known paedophile with mistresses as young as 14, and had an effective, inescapable policy in dealing with law enforcement and the government, referred to as "plata o plomo," (money or bullets).

Escobar was allegedly responsible for the murder of Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, one of three assassinated candidates who were all competing in the same election, as well as the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 and the DAS building in Bogotá in 1989.

His legacy of money, drugs and bullets is undoubtedly one that many Colombians still live with every day. In fact, on the tour we were driven through Barrio Triste (which literally translate to “Sad neighbourhood”), where empty shells of human beings sit on street corners, victims of the enormously addictive “Bazuco” drug – cocaine before even the first “cut” has been made.

Pablo brought this ugly, debilitating drug into the hands of vulnerable Colombians, and it is still only 50cent a gram.

Apt street art outside the house where Pablo was killed

Pablo’s successful transporting of drugs to North America, his involvement in politics and his high life with exotic, Brazilian dancers and hippos (which were left to escape – Colombia now has the second largest population of hippos in the world) in his ostentatious home couldn’t last forever, and eventually the Colombian government buckled under pressure from the US after the assassination of Luis Carlos Galán. Still, Pablo was allowed to build his own “prison”, known as La Catedral, complete with huge T.V. and bar.

But the cocaine trafficker’s luck was running out and a group known as Los Pepes (translates as the People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar) started working with the Colombian government and military to get rid of Pablo, and his dirty drugs, once and for all.

The roof where he was shot

The final battle of Pablo Escobar’s life was on the roof of a humble home, his hiding spot, in the residential area of Los Olivos. It was here that he was trying to blend in as a normal citizen to avoid the blood-thirsty uprising coming in from the Colombian government, Los Pepes, US special forces and rival cartels.

Escobar suffered gunshots to the leg, torso, and the fatal one in his ear. It has never been proven who actually fired the final shot into his head, or determined whether this shot was made during the gunfight or as part of possible execution, and there is wide speculation about the subject. Some of the family members believe that Escobar could have committed suicide.

A well-tended grave

We rounded up the tour in the cemetery where Escobar and some of his family members are buried. The poetic irony of his own gravestone being stolen a couple of years ago wasn’t lost on us, after he stole so many from innocent people in his youth.

It was a shock to see flowers and children’s drawings laid on his tomb, and a man sat in quiet reflection – proof that some sections of Colombian society still hold a torch for Pablo.

However, I think Pablo Escobar’s torch is slowly being extinguished and his legacy won’t be my lasting memory of Medellín. It’s the dedication and optimism of the Paisa (indigenous) people that characterises the city.

Industrious and forward-thinking, Medellín owes a great deal of credit to the its population who have overcome adversity and sought to make their city somewhere to be proud of.

Olympic Medellín

The Olympic Games were a distraction, a massive one. In fact, Seb Coe should probably be on the phone to the city of Medellín to personally apologise for the lack of attention backpackers, particularly British ones, gave to the city during the first few days of the event.

Olympic fever - Murray wins gold!

We watched the opening ceremony in Salento, before arriving in the rather aptly named Medellín ((pronounced Med-i-geene, I'm playing with words here!). To say I was bursting with pride that afternoon in a small bar packed with Colombians would be an understatement. I was jumping with pride, laughing with pride and goosebumping with pride!

I’ve not been on British soil in eleven months and it was like receiving a big hug from everyone at home. Danny Boyle and La Reina (the Queen) – I salute you! And who knew Mr. Bean enjoyed such international fame? The Colombians certainly loved that part of the ceremony the most.

A message to the people above in the cable car

Our time in Medellín (which was, until quite recently, the drug and murder capital of the world) was splashed with Olympic sport and hurried sight-seeing that the time difference between us and London allowed.

Medellín is, in many ways, two different cities in one - and a place that faces far more nuanced challenges than its tarnished reputation implies.

Soaring high above the favela 

On the one hand, it is a city of beautiful, young socialites. The women here are simply stunning, and a night out in the Zona Rosa is enough to make even the staunchest objector consider the benefits of towering, white stilettos and plastic surgery.

Beyond la vida loca, Medellín offers a new and speedy metro system, drinkable water (hurrah!), police officers on every street corner and designer shopping malls too (the scene of only the occasional gang shoot out these days).

But then there’s the rest. Medellín is famous around the world for its involvement in the drug trade, for the violence that this illegal export inspired, and for guerrillas who have kidnapped more than just a few foreigners.

Generally speaking, those days are over. The Medellín of today is a much safer and more welcoming place than it was in Pablo Escobar’s heyday. That said, the city remains haunted by its past and seems uncertain of its new identity after the violence that has only recently come to an end.

Favelas squeezed together

And then there are the issues all too common in the developing world: unemployment, lack of access to healthcare and education, and high poverty levels. In fact, 47% of Colombia’s population falls below the poverty line.

This fracas, between old and new, poverty and glamour, hit me when we travelled on the gleaming silver cable car up across the favelas (cobbled together communities) to the national park.

There is barely space to hang out the weekly wash and the buildings are falling apart in their tiny, muddled rows, patched together with whatever is at hand. Every roof has huge bricks holding it down; some have car doors and old paint pots too.

One minute we were walking through the favela area, watching men selling bags of fruit out of a rusted wheel barrows and the next we were arriving at the Parque Arvi where families were dressed in their Sunday best - with sky-scraper heels (this is Colombia!) and designer labels to boot.

Of course, what unites these people is their heartfelt "Bienvenidos a Colombia" (welcome to Colombia) and delight that tourists are venturing to their country after so many years of turmoil.

After exploring the conflict of Medellín, it was back to some Olympic Medallin’!