Manizales: Bien pueda

'Manizales, el mejor vividero del país.' So runs the slogan on the city's tourist map. It basically means it's the best place to live in Colombia.

It's a bit of a statement to make in a land that has an abundance of natural beauty spots. What Manizales claims to have, however, is more than just the impressive, hilly, landscape it's set in.

Hilly setting.

As one of Colombia's more moderately-populated department capitals, getting around the place doesn't tend to be a headache. 

Indeed, it can be navigated easily enough on foot, if you don't mind the steep inclines and declines, that is. (On the commuting front, a city that has a cable car service incorporated into its public transport system is always a little special for us.)

Its location in the country's famed and relatively well-developed Coffee Region (Eje Cafetero) boosts further its quality-of-living index. It's not an isolated outpost. Word on the street is that there's money floating about the place, there are employment opportunities, framed in a limited Colombian context as they must be.

Another bonus is that many everyday things are cheaper here compared to Bogotá.

On top of all this, not only are many of the locals friendly — something which can be said about many places in Colombia — the city also has, for the most part, a safe feel to it. This can't be said about some of the other big urban centres here.

For those who feel more at home living the 'high life' in the hills than by the beach, as we do, at 2,200 metres above sea level, Manizales certainly ticks that box.

When the sun shines it can get up to a satisfying 24 degrees Celsius or even a little more. At night, the temperatures don't drop as low as they generally do in the slightly loftier Bogotá.

As well as being in the Eje Cafetero, Manizales is also in Paisa Country. The home of the Paisas, those recognised as Colombia's more business-minded and industrious types, is regarded as Medellín.

We had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the country's second city, so it could be said Manizales offers Paisa living without the Medellín drawbacks.

The musical Manizales accent is, as far as we're concerned anyway, another pull factor. It's rather enticing.

City-centre cathedral. 

It could be said it has some sort of an Italian flavour to it. Whatever the case, it's certainly quite distinct from the plainer Bogotá tones.

On that Italian front, the fact that meatballs — albóndigas in the local tongue — are a staple cuisine here, might suggest some sort of previous connection. (A tenuous link it may be, but the Manizales and Italian flags use the same colours, albeit in a different order and direction. The city's football team, Once de Caldas, however, displays the green, white and red on its crest in the same way as Italy.)

Granted our week-long visit was over the Christmas holiday period, the city still seemed quite busy, yet with a relaxed vibe to it. We were assured this is how the place typically rolls.

Indeed, if one was considering a move out of the mayhem of Bogotá, Manizales doesn't seem like a bad option at all.

As the locals would say themselves to such an idea, 'bien pueda'. 'Well you can', indeed. 

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At home with the Escobars

He has the blood — indirectly at least — of thousands of people on his hands. His business interests arguably ruined the lives of millions of families across the globe. He once had a bounty of US$10,000,000 on his head and spent twelve years in a maximum security prison. 

Yet today, for little over €20, you can "relax", have a coffee and spend an evening with this man in his middle-class Medellín estate.

Roberto Escobar may not have been ‘at the muscle end of his family’ — to paraphrase a quote from The Godfather movie, a very appropriate one considering the subject — but there is no doubting the significant role he played in helping Colombia's Medellín Cartel become one of the most powerful criminal gangs in the world. 

While it was his brother, the infamous late Pablo that was ‘El Don’, Roberto was the vicious drug lord’s accountant, PR man and lieutenant. 

Those heady days may be behind him, but Roberto is happy to talk glowingly about them to anyone who feels comfortable enough to listen. And there are many willing to do just that. 

It is testament to the global reach of the Escobar Empire that a tour bearing Pablo’s name and officially sanctioned by the family itself is one of the biggest draws on the tourist scene in Medellín these days. 

For many it is a chance to step inside a surreal world that you only ever before got glimpses of through books, movies and the like. 

When you first see Roberto shuffling his way to welcome you to his home-cum-museum, those familiar with the Italian-American mafia drama The Sopranos will be instantly reminded of the character Junior Soprano. 

Resemblances aside, the fact that Roberto is half-blind and half-deaf following a letter-bomb hit two weeks after his brother’s death in 1993 means he moves just as slow as the elderly Soprano, but not without an air of authority. 

World's Most Wanted - Roberto Escobar & Wrong Way with Pablo's first mugshot.

The house — Pablo’s last residence before he was killed — is best described as a shrine to the man who terrorised the lives of thousands of Colombians in the 1980s and early 90s. 

From his bullet-proof, made-to-order Chevrolet jeep to the glamorous portrait of his prized show horse Terremoto de Manizales, you get an idea of the lifestyle Pablo ‘enjoyed’ as head of what was once the world’s biggest cocaine-exporting mob. 

Of course, you cannot run a proscribed group without having a residence equipped with hidden chambers — for both human and monetary purposes — and this dwelling doesn’t disappoint on that front. Alas, any hidden money is long gone. And just to keep things current, the bullet holes from a 2010 failed kidnapping attempt on Roberto and his son have been left in tact by the family. 

Interesting as all that is, the biggest draw of the tour has to be Roberto himself, the man who knows Pablo as good as anyone. The chance to chat one-to-one and have your photo taken with the right-hand man of one of the worlds most notorious criminals is quite an experience, whatever your moral viewpoint on the subject. 

Indeed, if you are a little uneasy about such a tour, we have been assured that profits are put into community projects in the poorer barrios of Medellín, ensuring the Robin Hood image Pablo liked to portray remains alive and well. 

Now, you might think Roberto — who first came into the public domain as one of Colombia’s best cyclists — would use such an opportunity to show some remorse for the many crimes directly linked to the Escobar family. Not so. 

In our questions-and-answers session, afforded to all visitors, he tells us that his family were as much victims of the drugs war as anyone else. That viewpoint might be a bit hard to swallow for some. 

It’s quite obvious from the way he talks that he still has the utmost respect for his brother. 

Yes, Pablo did some very positive work for many of Medellín’s impoverished, maybe more so than the Government ever could – but you can also say that Hitler vastly improved the lives of many Germans in the 1930s. 

Unsurprisingly, Roberto believes that all drugs should be made legal. Not a unique view that, but maybe a tad ironic considering that the legalisation of cocaine would possibly have been the single biggest measure to curb the rise of the Escobar empire. That’s a debate for another day.

As for the letter-bomb attack on him in prison shortly after Pablo’s death, Roberto believes it was the Government that carried it out. Indeed, he puts the administration of that time as bigger enemies than the Cali Cartel, their chief rivals in the drugs trade. 

What about the whereabouts of the unaccounted millions of dollars made during Pablo’s prime? That information is gone to the grave with him, of course. 

There was never going to be any other answer than that. But it does open the door for the next novelty tour, ‘Finding Pablo’s Millions’. Remember where you read it first.