Woke up at 6:30am, I tried to stay in bed longer, but my body just want to get out of bed even though my head you stay there a little longer there son of an itch. I pulled up the blinds, wow, the view from the Airbnb in the morning was amazing, there were some fogs along the hillside, the sky is cloudy but starting to break. I looked around online for my itinerary for today, I know I must visit Comuna 13 while I am in Medellin, so I looked and looked, most morning tours started 9:30am, it was a little tight for me, since I have walked the hill, struggled to catch a taxi to the metro station and take the metro to where the meeting point is. I could take a taxi straight to the meeting point, that would be my last resource I thought. I contacted the Zippy Tour, a friend recommended previously. Whatsapped the guy no response. Found their website and whatsapped another person at the same Zippy company, their walking tour start at 10am, I may have a chance if I move quickly. And I did, I did not even have coffee or breakfast, and just packed my bag and left the Airbnb. I walked the hill, trying to catch a taxi, finally one stopped for me, I said Poblado metro estación. Confirmed a few times, I hopped on his car, I said please meter, he said no, just 6000 COP (~USD 1.5). Sigh, whatever, I am in a rush. Got to the station, got my ticket to San Javier station where I will meet the walking tour at 10am, I arrived at 9:58am, and still had 2 mins to buy a crazy hot milk coffee in a plastic water cup, I can it milk coffee, it probably contains 70% milk, 20% water and 10% coffee, and I was amazed the cup did not melt. Yike!
There were many people gathering around waiting for the Comuna 13 tours, there were at least 5-10 different tour companies all with different color shirts and umbrella, and many tourists were waiting. For Zippy tours, they had many people waiting too, but most of them were for the Spanish tour, only 3 persons including myself were for the English tour. My other two tour comrades were from Florida, the girl was Asian. Her name is Joy. I talked to them a little bit as we walked to the Comuna 13, they apparently are coming to work in Medellin for a month and plan to travel in and around Medellin. We did talk about the new variants and COVID test requirement coming to US, the guy had absolutely no clue, he thought they were just doing some rapid tests at the airport. I said no, you better check before going back to US.
Our guide was named Stephen. His English was ok except at the end of each sentence, he added a “Yes” to it, probably because in Spanish, they may say Si, to see if you understand. That, at times, made it a little confusing. He told us that he only started to learn English 5 years ago though, that is amazing actually how much he spoke today, I would say I understood him 85% of the times. He grew up in Comuna 13, this neighborhood and this city Medellin have a very complicated history that involved drug trafficking, cartels, other terrorist groups, gang violence, and poverty. Like he said Comuna 13 was one of the most dangerous place in the world just 20 some years ago. Today it is filled with tourists. That transformation was fascinating. To read about the history of Comuna 13, you can check this website.
In 2002, the government has a number of military interventions in Comuna 13, the last and biggest one was in called Orión Operation bringing in more than 1,500 officers, two helicopters and one tank brought to Comuna 13. The whole place was in lockdown for 3 days, Stephan was still a kid and was inside Comuna 13 while his mother was working outside and could not return home to reunite. He described even you hid in the house, it did not mean you are safe, bullets flew right in. He showed us exact pictures and pointed us the location we see in the picture. It was very vivid. And he also talked about his growing up. When a kid (himself included) got to teenager years between 12 and 15, the gangsters would start recruit them to sell drugs and become a gang member, there were some invisible zoning between different cartels, or gangs. At times, they would be told that they are from now on forbidden to cross to a certain region, he had to change school once to a different district. He showed us some personal photos of him as a kid, and another two kids in the picture, one of them was shot when he reached 15-16. He was almost brutally honest about what happened before, and now.
The cartels, in fact, did not disappear. They are actually still there, but they have had some under the table “unofficial” deals with the government that they would keep the peace, and the government would turn a blind eyes on the cartels’ business. In a way, it seemed that this city and even country is very much run by cartels. With the new found peace, Stephen said, now we have many businesses in Comuna 13 and tourism, there are government facilities built inside the Comuna 13, there are new and better school for kids, there are better role models for children to look upon. Under the surface though, they all still have to pay a share of the earnings to the cartels, not only in Comuna 13, but based on him, up to 80% of the businesses in Medellin city did similar things as well. That is scary.
I did not like the fact the tips I would be rewarding Stephan for the tour (it is a free walking tour), 2% of that would go to the cartels. But Stephan said people at their community have had over half a century of violence, killing, and hunger, if someone came and said to you, if you pay 2% of your earning, you will be safe from now on. He said he would rather pay the money, especially when you have kids and family to look after. I see the attraction of that rationale. It is such a difficult problem to resolve. Part of me thought we really should not encourage this kind of illegal activities, but like he said, all they asked for is opportunities. If they don’t have the opportunities by means of earning some money via tourism or having a peaceful environment to allow more businesses to grow (hence providing jobs for people and safety to their children), what chances do they have. They would never uplift themselves and break out of the cycle of hardship. Very likely, they would have to continue working for the cartels to put foods to their children’s mouths. But then, we are supporting the cartels to run drug businesses. It is really a very difficult and convoluted situation. Only time will tell the fate of this community.
Half of the tour was on history, the other half was actually us walking down the streets in Comuna 13 to see graffiti art, rappers, hip hop and breakdancing performing. Graffiti and so was rapping is a way of expression from people to express what they feel. There are a lot of amazing works in Comuna 13. I could probably spent another half a day there. As our walking tour finished at the top of Hill 1, I briefly strolled around to the hill 2, and then walk back, and take their outdoor public escalator down. Forgotten to mention, part of the government strategy to connect the poor communities with people in the richer communities, they built these cablecar system (there were 6 lines in Medellin) that go and down the hills. In addition, mimicking Hong Kong’s central escalator, an outdoor covered escalator system, Comuna 13 also had an outdoor covered escalator. I wish they did not tell people that it was built by China, since China had nothing to do with the central escalator, it was built years before British left.
After I got back down hill and took a crowded bus back to San Javier Station, I took the cable car up the Comuna 13 hills again and back, just to see the neighborhoods from above. I have really enjoyed my visit to Comuna 13. I think it is totally worth it. You can see how much I have written about it. As a community, Comuna 13 have raised up and beyond. And as an outsider looking in, their drive to a better lives has reached people further deep inside.
All other photos from Day 10 in Comuna 13 area are here.
Additional Note (added on Day 15):
I think it may not be fair for me to say that this whole country is run by cartels. Maybe it is true for some specific area or region, but not the whole country. I think the cartels has very little to do the actual day to day lives of most Colombian people. From what I heard from my local friend is that the government may not have done enough for the people, and next year is going to be interesting, since they have an election coming. In any case, whichever party win, I hope it is for the benefit of the people.
