We had a long bus journey to the beautiful city of Medellin. It’s famous for art which centres around Botero, famous for his paintings and sculptures of oversized bodies.
We took many modes of transport to cross the city including Metro, Gondola, and Bus.
We took a walking tour of Communa 13. This district of the city is infamous as the first area to be retaken by the government from the guerilla groups including FARC and drug gangs. There were two major operations including tanks and black hawk helicopters. Many civilians were killed as the guerillas were interspersed with the civilians. Although it was horrendous, things are much better now. It’s amazing how things have progressed in only a few years. The government has invested in things like the Gondola city transport system, outside escalators, colourful paint for the houses, etc.
The story of the military operations is captured in the art around the Communa.
We had a local guide who grew up in the Communa.
The government built outside escalators to make it easier to get up and down the hill.
