Pablo Escobar's Abandoned Secret Island Mansion Barú, Colombia

Table Of Content

• Life-Changing Lessons We Learned in 2023
• Personal life
• Casa Malca was once a mansion owned by the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
• There's an Abandoned Futuristic Fort in Portland, Maine
• This unofficial museum details the rise and fall of Colombia's most notorious narcotrafficker, Pablo Escobar.
• In Colombia, Tourists Spy on Hippos, Dinosaurs at Drug Kingpin’s House
• General Court confirms that PABLO ESCOBAR is contrary to public policy and accepted principles of morality

He soon graduated to setting up a distribution channel for cocaine himself while establishing smuggling routes to the United States. Mr. Escobar lived for years in the Monaco Building, a white, six-story edifice with a penthouse apartment on top and his family name still inscribed in fading letters on the exterior. Last Tuesday, a white or cream-colored package, about one foot long and wrapped in plastic with metal seals on the ends, was also found. Forensic tests by Miami Beach police determined it did not contain drugs. The safe was hidden beneath the entrance of what had been a large pink mansion consisting of four bedrooms, a pool, six bathrooms and a garage.

Life-Changing Lessons We Learned in 2023

Everyone needs a place to get away, and violent cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar was no exception. The spot he chose was on the shores of the Peñol Reservoir in the idyllic resort town of Guatapé. There, Escobar built a lavish estate called La Manuela (named after his daughter) that would be the scene of one of the most dramatic episodes in his downfall. Beyond the swimming pool, a series of broken-down chalets overlooks the ocean. As with the larger structures, the individual chalet apartments have long since begun to deteriorate at the hands of the relentless Caribbean trade winds, while for the people of Isla Grande, life carries on much as it did before Escobar arrived. My guide Jesús put a cautionary hand on my arm signaling me to be quiet.

Personal life

During one of his prison stays, he was partially blinded by a letter bomb that exploded in his face. Roberto’s blue eyes are now covered with a transparent, gray film, and he occasionally takes out a small bottle of artificial tears to moisten them. Escobar is said to have dedicated much of his energies into making the isolated plot of land in the wilderness his own private playground.

Casa Malca was once a mansion owned by the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

With more than 300 rooms for guests and party-goers, no expense was spared, even down to the gold shower heads in the bathrooms. Escobar’s playground resembled a strip from Miami’s South Beach in its 1980s heyday. For his party home on La Isla Grande, Escobar’s plans were no less ostentatious. He commissioned a giant complex featuring a mansion, waterfront apartments, a palm court centered around an enormous swimming pool and helicopter landing pad. With over 300 rooms for guests and party goers, no expense was spared, even down to the gold shower heads in the bathrooms.

Attorney Roger Schindler bought the home from the U.S. government in 1990 for $915,000. In 1987, U.S. authorities confiscated the property, along with $20 million in properties the Colombian drug dealer owned across Florida. Escobar bought the mansion in March 1980 for $762,500, according to Miami-Dade County public records.

This unofficial museum details the rise and fall of Colombia's most notorious narcotrafficker, Pablo Escobar.

His stock piling of cash was such that his brother Roberto Escobar estimated they were spending around $1,000 a month just on rubber bands to wrap around the never ending piles of money. His policy for smuggling cocaine into the US was based on what he called “plata o plomo,” meaning “silver or lead”; that is, accept the bribe money or face the bullets. By 1989 he was worth an estimated $30 billion, with Forbes magazine listing him as one of the world’s ten wealthiest men. And Escobar was as ruthless as he was rich; from his stronghold fortress in Medellín, he fought a deadly drug war with the rival cartel de Cali, the Colombian government and the CIA. In recent years, Colombia has undergone a marked renaissance, especially where tourism is concerned. After his death, the Hacienda Napoles fell into the hands of the Colombian government.

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It was staged under the auspices of Medellín, Abraza Su Historia (Medellín, Embrace Your History), a branding campaign launched by Gutiérrez. The Monaco also served as the starting or ending point for many of the city’s popular narco tours—including one led by Escobar’s brother. The mansion in La Isla Grande, now government owned, has steadily fallen into ruin. Like some kind of coke-fueled Xanadu, the sprawling complex is already being reclaimed by nature. Stepping into the main mansion—it had been decorated with white tile and marble—the cracked walls still show the 1980s color schemes of pastel blue and coral pinks. The lobby leads to an immense courtyard, shaded with palm trees overlooking the Caribbean sea.

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We enjoyed massages on the private beach, which was nearly empty.

Also at the lunch were the widow and children of Colonel Valdemar Franklin Quintero, the murdered commander of the Antioquia state police department. In 1989, when police were being picked off right and left, Colonel Quintero was a symbol of fearless incorruptibility. Eventually, however, Quintero concluded that his days were numbered, so he dismissed his bodyguards, telling them there was no reason their families should lose their fathers. One of his sons and a nephew also participated in the Medellín ceremonies. Medellín has Pablo problems in all strata of society, not just the poor neighborhoods. The current mafia headquarters, the Oficina de Envigado, is located in the rapidly growing nearby town of Envigado, where Escobar grew up.

General Court confirms that PABLO ESCOBAR is contrary to public policy and accepted principles of morality

But more than 25 years after Mr. Escobar’s death, the six-story building with a penthouse had still caused heated debate, as city officials weighed the potential tourist draw of the site against the urge to move on from a painful past. I was a 21-year-old Peace Corps volunteer when I fell in love with Medellín and the lush countryside that surrounds it. While there, I helped build a school near what would become one of Escobar’s hideouts, and in 2005 I founded the Marina Orth Foundation, an educational foundation for underserved kids. Today, we teach STEM, robotics, English, and leadership in 21 schools. I was just as thrilled (and surprised) when, during the ceremony, I was awarded a medal of courage from Gutiérrez as part of a group of Valientes who stood up for the city during its long ordeal.

In the 80s, more than 600 police officers were murdered after Esobar offered a bounty of over 2 million pesos for each one. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. While there have been some efforts to erase the drug lord’s name from the park, tourists still flock to the region because of him.

But he also carefully cultivated a Robin Hood image with the working classes of Colombia. He built deluxe soccer fields in the barrios, and organized teams and leagues for the children. The street vendors of Cartagena, las Palenqueras sell t-shirts bearing the face of El Patron alongside replica jerseys of the Colombian hero and Real Madrid forward James Rodriguez.

According to The New Yorker, Escobar had roads paved, installed artificial lakes, and a private zoo with hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras, and more. There was also a bull-fighting ring, swimming pools, stables, and a fleet of speedboats. By the time of his death, Brittanica reported that Escobar had collected around 200 animals for his private zoo, many of them native to Africa. The explosion was the centerpiece of a two-day, city-wide ceremony last February 21 and 22, aimed at changing perceptions among both Medellín’s residents and its rapidly growing contingent of some 90,000 annual foreign visitors.

The noise of dynamite on a sunny day blew out a host of buried memories, welcome and otherwise, among those who’d survived Medellín’s long years of violence. Aurelia Puyo, a female guerrilla who’d grown up upper-class before running away to join the guerillas, allegedly targeted the place in an effort to strike at the heart of the establishment. Escobar had phoned and threatened Horacio not to allow certain politicians into the restaurant.

The Hacienda also offers visitors a detailed history of Escobar's life and death, all documented through photos, newspaper records, and interviews with people who were close to him. Perhaps most striking is the famous 1993 photo of Escobar's lifeless body after the shootout with the Colombian government that ended his life now prominently displayed on a wall in his former home. At the far side of the island, hidden and secluded between the tropical forest and the Caribbean Sea, lies a grandiose complex of luxury buildings. At the height of his powers, Pablo Escobar was responsible for around 80 percent of the world’s cocaine. He headed the Medellín drug cartel, smuggling over fifteen tons of cocaine into the United States every day.

To what extent Escobar was a genuine benefactor for the working classes of Colombia, versus the hagiographical image he created around himself, is hard to judge. Certainly his public funeral resembled the passing of a popular king, and not a mass murderer. But his popularity in the working classes also benefitted him when he came to run for public office. Asking Jesús and other islanders on Isla Grande whether El Patron did anything for them, the answer was no. I was struck by the overt friendliness of the people of Orika and by the paradox of their island home. They’ve never had a police force  according to Jesús, yet through the forest was the fortress of the world’s most lethal drug baron.