We met a friend, Flavie, in Merida and she is also staying in the Platapus hostel in Bogota. We all decided to do a city walk from the Lonely Planet, starting off with the National Museum of Police.
The Colombians have a long history in forward thinking progressive police work and the museum is an impressive celebration of 'protecting and serving' the people of Columbia.
Housed in a beautiful old colonial building behind Plaza Bolivar the star attraction for locals and gringos alike is the Pablo Escobar exhibit which takes up the whole of the basement floor.
Pablo Escobar was the worlds most wanted and notorious drug lord of the 80's cocaine boom. He sold enough to make him the 7th richest man in the world (Forbes 1989: personal wealth $25bn) and at one point he had more US bills $100 bills than they had in circulation in the USA!
He didn't want to be extradited to the US for prosecution so in 1991 he gave himself up. As a condition of handing himself in, he was allowed to stay in a 'home' jail. He chose his palace, and before moving in he had renovations which included a discotec, Jacuzzi and full bar. Whilst in 'jail' he continued dealing more drugs than ever and when the Colombian authorities decided to move him into a proper jail he escaped.
It took the Colombian police 499 days and 1500 men to capture and kill Escobar. Attached are a few pics - his beeper; guns, bloody jacket, scrambler phone, a device for creating blocks of cocaine with the cartels horse head motif, wanted posters and images of his most trusted henchmen - dead.
Was a really interesting museum tour, as it's all so fresh being less than 20 years ago
Its Colombia, not Columbia
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