Comuna 13, More Pablo and Our Goodbyes

Today was our final day in Colombia and we had the privilege to sleep in for an extra hour! We began our exciting day at the cable cars which is a form of transportation. We traveled through a very deprived area but at the top there were very nice condos for the Colombian National Soccer Team. The cable cars were built so that the people in the deprived areas did not have to travel two hours walking to work. 

The next portion of our day consisted of the graffiti tour in Comuna 13 which used to be the most dangerous city in Colombia. It used to have a death rate of 12,000 people a year and has improved greatly to only 700 a year. The graffiti came about when they wanted the city to be a less violent area and wanted to bring more positivity. They added art, music and dancing to draw people into the neighborhood since it had such a bad reputation. Also, the people from that area were being exposed to better opportunities while being able to share their talents.

We then drove to the spot of Pablo Escobar’s death. We learned that the reason Pablo was found was because he was on the phone with his son and the call got intercepted by the Colombian government which led them to his location. They then went to the scene and went to the wrong house. Pablo’s worker went to the market but never returned. Concerned, he opened the door leading to him blowing his cover. 

We learned that Pablo’s autopsy showed a bullet entering the right side of his ear which was not visible by the Colombian army at the scene. Also, the bullet was a 10 mL bullet and the government uses 40-65 mL bullets. Our guide Carlos (known to us as Los) educated us on the three myths of how people in Colombia believed Pablo died. One was that the Colombian Army shot him. Another was that the Pepe’s (army that worked against Pablo) killed him. Lastly, our guide strongly believes that he committed suicide due to the autopsy and the way he was running from the building he escaped. 

We then traveled to our final destination on the metro, the Viva Mall. The biggest mall in South America. We met our friends from Ninos del Sol to play in the arcade and took them to Frisby chicken for dinner. We then said our goodbyes to our friends and our loving, passionate, amazing tour guide Carlos. It was an emotional farewell at the mall and back at the Foundation receiving our goodbyes and appreciation.  The owners of the orphanage thanked us for our financial donation and told us to please keep in touch.

- Emily