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Having had an early-ish night I finished the book I was reading, "Marching Powder", which is a first hand account of the Bolivian jail system written by a guy named Thomas McFadden - a Brit who was imprisoned there for almost 5 years on drug trafficking charges. The book was written by a guy named Rusty who happened to visit Thomas whilst he was in the prison. The prison is the strangest and most corrupt in the world with prisoners having to pay an entrance fee, rent or buy their own "cells" and furnish them if they so wish. There are restaurants and shops inside and wives and children can live with their incarcerated husbands. So San Pedro prison in Bolivia is essentially a community for criminals and their families. The main business in the prison revolves around the production, trade and sale of cocaine - and all the guards are in on it often accepting bribes to turn a blind eye. The prisoners are allowed visitors and those visitors are allowed to stay the night, so eventually Thomas started sneaking in tourists and running tours of the prison for some extra money. Rusty was one of those tourists and decided to help Thomas write a book exposing the prison and its corrupt nature. The book was so interesting.
We had a wonderful day of doing nothing really. Medellin was once labelled the most dangerous city in the world on account of gangs and related murders, but since the death of Pablo Escobar in 1993 the city has turned itself around and it's now hard to believe it once had that reputation! Pablo Escobar is considered the most successful criminal there has ever been, a Drug Lord in the cocaine trade who was sought after by police and Colombian officials for years. Medellin is now the most innovative city in the world.
We explored the shops and went for a fabulous sushi lunch (a feast that cost a total of £5 each). The weather was perfect and it was really nice to just walk around - the best way to see a place I think! After we felt like we had seen everywhere we returned to the hostel and set up for a few hours playing cards and reading. Very relaxing. Medellin has been one of my favourite places so far and I'd love to come back. We left on a 17 hour night bus to Santa Marta excited to finally get to the coast and have some beach time!
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