Formerly known as 'the most murderous city in the world', Medellin, Columbia

We were meeting our great pals Claire and Paul in Medellin in mid/late Oct so we spent a few days in Cali for a bit of heat (Cali is at a lower altitude than many other places in the SW of Columbia) and a bit of salsa time. There wasn't much else to do in Cali other than party, so everyone in the hostel was nocturnal, only appearing from their rooms as the sun was going down to begin once another night of hitting the rum and aguadiente (a strong white spirit similar in taste to Sambuca- not our fave tipple!). It was fun for a couple of days and gave us a taste of the Latin America that we'd been searching for - as travelling through Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador we'd heard a lot of pipe and flute music and spent a lot of time rugged up in some rather cold bars and restaurants.


We have so much luggage, however this did not deter us from cramming all 4 backpacks into the tiniest of taxis!

Arriving in Medellin early in the morning, we were not greeted with the 'eternal spring weather' that the city is renowned for, instead it was hammering down with rain! Perfect excuse for a 'recovery overnight bus ride' daytime snooze. We met up with Claire and Paul the next day and with beautiful weather we spent the day drinking beers in the park and catching up. Rather bizarrely, Claire & Paul are doing the reverse of our trip, commencing in N America and heading South on their way to living back in Oz!!


Trying the 'Tinto' coffee that the locals serve out of thermos' - definitely not the best coffee we've had and so so sweet

We headed out to the slums of Medellin taking a cable car all the way up there - definitely one of the swishest ways to travel to the slums. We wandered through the weaving alleyways and were greeted by chidren and adults waving and coming out of their shacks to chat to us.














Birthday time for Tom - Happy 34th!

And we couldn't come to Medellin without taking in a Pablo Escobar tour, the notorious drug trafficker who at the peak of his career in the 1980'S was traffiking 15 tonnes of cocaine a day into the USA - worth more than 1/2 billion dollars. Despite Escobar's business dealings, he supported the poor and was deemed a hero by many of the Columbian people at the start of his career - building schools, hospitals and churches. It is even alleged that he offered to pay of Columbian's debt to the USA. However, as the year's passed and the power went to his head, it is believed that he paid his hitmen a reward for killing policemen and was involved in many killings as a result of a war with the Cali drug cartel. As a result, Medellin was named the most murderous city in the world in the 1980's.


Many people believe that Pablo is still alive


Pablo's family home where he also held wild parties in the 1980's. It was confiscated by the Columbian government and now remains empty.


Pablo's grave