This is the entrance to the Museum and we visited the museum today and it was a visit that was hard to forget. It was well laid out and with videos of interviews of many of people that had lost family members, was sexually assaulted, terrorised, etc. This initiative seeks to strengthen the collective memory about the events developed in the recent history of violence in Colombia and take actions to restore the dignity of the victims. Unlike other memory museums in the world,

This is the entrance to Botero Museum. Fernando Botero was born in 1932 and is still alive. If we talk about living national pride, we can safely refer to Fernando Botero Angulo, that man who, together with Gabriel García Márquez, are considered the most universal Colombians of all time. Lefty and his gang, were politicians with a shady background. All the paintings and sculptures of people have all the same shape . This is a miniature of a sculpture by Botero that is now in

Medellin has expanded considerably over the last decade, after the cartel was moved out. The expansion has been further up the Aburra Valley and higher up the mountains. All of these four pictures are from the eastern part of the valley, outside the downtown of Medellin. Having the population moving further up and down the valley and higher up oil the mountain sides brings certain problems for the municipality, public transportation, environmental issues, water and sewages,

This is a clear illustration of how important wall paintings are in Medellin. Please notice the men (three of them) busy painting and below you will see the layout for the rest of the wall painting. Another colourful wall painting A colourful old house with a wall painting in progress behind the house There are two things that we noticed in our walks on the side walks. How clean all the streets are, very seldom that you see a papper cup or newspaper crumbling on the streets

Medellin has expanded considerably over the last decade, after the cartel was moved out. The expansion has been further up the Aburra Valley and higher up the mountains. All of these four pictures are from the eastern part of the valley, outside the downtown of Medellin. Having the population moving further up and down the valley and higher up oil the mountain sides brings certain problems for the municipality, public transportation, environmental issues, water and sewages,

This is our hotel, EPIC Hotel Boutique. They did a major renovation a couple of years ago and the result is fantastic and well laid out. All empty spaces are made fully useful. I counted 32 restaurants/pubs/breakfast places in two blocks around the hotel. Price per night CA$81.00 This is Botero Plaza and one of the 23 sculptures he made. Fernando Botero was a master painter and a museum was created for all his 100 pieces of artwork. Behind is Rafael Uribe, Uribe Palace of

The following three "paintings" were on a street very close to our hotel. This painting really impressed me, notice how skilfully the details of the face and the beard of the painter himself was prepared, it looks more like a photo. This one was on a wall facing a private garden. I have never seen this before. The artist's rendering of the old Medellin was painted on the ceiling, underneath the elevated foundation for the metro railroad in downtown Medellin. The artist show

I We flew yesterday from Cartagena to Medellin via Bogota. Medellin has been known for fantastic Christmas decorations. That unfortunately was stopped when Medellin was under the control of Pablo Escobar. The Medellin Cartel was a Colombian criminal organization dedicated to the trafficking of cocaine, terrorism, among other activities, being one of the main actors in the Colombian armed conflict in the 1980s and 1990s. Escobar is in prison and the Christmas lights are bac

I could not help it, I had to make another walking tour to the Old Town. The house on the right is the Town Hall. The color combination in most of the streets made it difficulty for me to stop taking pictures. The Wall is surrounding the Old Town and there are old canons on the top of the wall. The construction of the wall started in 1586 and did not end for another 200 years. In 1985 the wall and the Old Town inside were designated UNESCO World Heritage site.

I took a walk this afternoon, in spite of 32 degrees C and very high humidity, in the streets that surrounds our hotel. Believe it or not I came across exactly the same flowers as I saw in early January five years ago. I stood there for more than half an hour - taking pictures.