the thing about medellin..

oh my god i am gonna miss medellin SO MUCH 😭. you know i’m not one to make any GRAND STATEMENTS but i think it may have been the best part of my trip. it’s so me, you know? high energy, adorable cafes, trendy bars, leafy streets, epic rooftops. latin vibes.

so much to say about this place.

okay at risk of sounding extremely uncultured, and maybe i am, but 2 things i am not super into when i travel are tours and history. i would take a sunrise hike or speakeasy hop over a walking tour any day. but medellin’s history is so prevalent and fascinating that tours are a must-do here, and it’s so important to understand the history from the people who lived it. this place requires context.

here’s the thing about medellin. and colombia in general. i am here because i knew it would be epic, but if i’m being QUITE honest, i am also here because i was obsessed with narcos. i loved pablo escobar’s character. the show glorifies him so he is just a badass drug lord, like breaking bad or scarface. the show makes medellin seem like a mysterious, wild place, and coming here i had chills. 

then i started to feel like an asshole. 

medellin’s history isnt some sensationalized netflix show. pablo’s not a glorified evil villain. he was absolutely ruthless in the violence he inflicted and it impacted everyone you see in medellin. people were scared to leave their house because of bombs. he set off 200 bombs in medellin alone. my guide’s mom quit her job because she was terrified to leave her kids and go to work every day. he heard a bomb set off and described the ringing in his ears. that is the shit you only see in movies. my other guide was shot twice in the leg when he was just playing soccer with his friends. this was just in the 80s and early 90s — in our lifetime, in the lifetime of most of the people i pass on the streets of medellin.

so how does that relate to tourism?

i was on a bike tour when i first arrived and asked my guide, “where’s the rooftop where pablo died?”

he replied, “it’s 2 blocks away.”

i was like what, so close, let’s go.

he was not down. he said police would be around, him bringing a bunch of tourists there would look suspicious. he wouldn’t budge.

then i thought about it.

if a gringo like me asks “where’s pablo’s house?! where’s the rooftop where he died?!” chances are i am asking someone who knows someone who was killed by him. do you think someone whose relative was killed by pablo, wants to show me where he ate dinner one night?

also, why do we care so much about this murderer? would you go to germany and ask to see hitler’s former home? would you go name dropping him all over town like he’s some celeb? the more i came to realize what pablo’s name symbolizes to most people in medellin, the more uncomfortable i felt about my narcos fandom.

that being said, pablo is regarded differently by some people. that’s where the fascination comes from. we drove through the neighbourhood he built, and my guide said everyone there loves him: he gave them a roof over their head, fridges, appliances, showers. of course this was all a strategy to gain support and power as he went into politics.

i ubered up to Casa Museo Pablo Escobar: his nephew’s house, which contains his first plane, his cars, etc. his nephew, Nicolas Esobar, was standing out front. how does he feel about his late uncle???

i did not pay any money or go into the house. there’s something very morally conflicting about paying $90k pesos to a family whose member had destroyed thousands of lives in that very city. even the gift shop gave me the creeps: pablo’s smiling mug shot plastered over memorabilia from coffee bags, to mugs, to heart-shaped bottle openers. have you ever seen a heart-shaped bottle opener of hitler’s smiling face?? 

but here’s the thing about colombians.

despite it being very likely that, at least in medellin, they experienced a bombing nearby, or lost a loved one to senseless violence, colombians are the nicest and happiest people i’ve encountered on my travels. they greet you with a big smile, are always wanting to help, their energy is amazing, they say “con mucho gusto” (“with great pleasure”) after you say gracias. i think that’s so sweet. us canadians are just like “no prob!”

my guide explained paisas (people from medellin) have selective memory about the events of the past: they remember it kind of like a horror film they once watched, and instead of relivinb and dwelling on everything that happened they choose to be happy and vibrant and dance salsa and drink coffee and enjoy their stunningly beautiful country. 

i know there are mixed feelings about pablo, and about narcos, and about how these things impact tourism. (side note, one local told me how they think narcos is very inaccurate: the accents are different with many actors being from Chile or Argentina and Pablo’s actor himself being from Brazil, and the show misses out a ton of info like how Pablo would bring in 13-14 year old girls for sex. don’t fact-check me, i was not there, but this is what he said).

i think the most important thing is to be aware that medellin’s history is not a netflix show, and the best thing we can do is ABSOLUTELY visit, experience for ourselves how the city has transformed in amazing ways, and be conscious and sensitive to the reality of the past that still exists today.

i’m going to post another blog about things to do/where to drink/stay etc in medellin, but that’s my rant for today, byyyeeeeee!!