Escobar day and Orphanage.

After a day jam packed with activities, chapter three of seven here in Medellín has closed. Wake up call was a tad after 7:00 AM. Breakfast, again, was pretty simple, consisting of cereal and peanut butter toast. Shortly after showers and breakfast we took off for Pablo Escobar's tomb. Pablo Escobar, as you all know, is a notorious drug dealer from Colombia. His tomb is still one of the most visited tombs in the world, even 26 years after his death. His tomb, surrounded by his family members, was littered with bouquets of flowers brought to the tomb by people who love him. We also saw the tombs of people like Griselda Blanco, who was another drug lord from Colombia. Her nickname was the Black Widow, because she killed four of her husbands. We left Escobar's tomb at around 9:15 and headed to see his prison. Escobar convinced the Colombian government to allow him to build the prison for himself and to secure it with his own men. During his stay at this "prison" we learned that Escobar had the Rolling Stones perform for him, and he had the Colombian national soccer team play a game for him on the prison grounds. While at the prison, better known as the Catedral we had our first indulgence into the nature of Medellín which consisted of a hike on Pablo Escobars escape route which weaved through the jungle. We left Escobars prison a little bit before noon and departed for lunch at a restaurant called Rancherito. It served traditional Colombian dishes that were perfect after a busy morning. After lunch we left for the orphanage. We arrived there around three o'clock and would stay until about 6. The main activity of the day at the orphanage was painting a mural on the outside wall. Every kid, accompanied alongside one of us, picked one thing to draw. The mural took on a life of its own and by the end was blanketed with creative paintings by the children. We then headed home and prepared dinner for ourselves. We cooked pasta as a group. The night is being capped off, fittingly, with episodes of Narcos, a TV drama about Escobar. Tomorrow we will tour Guatapé on a boat and climb the famous rock which is about 740 steps to get to the top. 

Samuel R.