Colombia and the narcotours

A few days ago, the Argentine daily Clarin published a note on "narcotours." These guided tours in Medellin, where one can visit a number of places connected with the life of Pablo Escobar, the head of drug cartel who was known by the name of the city. An excerpt from the note:

In an English mixed with paisa (local accent), an enthusiastic guide the company tourism "Medellin Experience" began its tour of nine hours in the bowels of the places that marked the life of the great capo, considered in due course by the Forbes magazine as one of the ten richest men on the planet. The journey costs 139 dollars per person and includes transportation from the hotel, guide service, refreshments, lunch and medical card.

The full tour takes nine hours, according to columnist, is done almost exclusively by foreigners, which is not surprising if we check the price in dollars.

The "narcotour" is part of a long trend consolidated in the travel market: "turistificación" facts of politicians, police or war, which were formalized in terms of travel and certain places invested a very important symbolic value. In line with the tours to the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, at villas in Buenos Aires or the death camps in Cambodia, can not but be seen in such endeavors the manner in which the "experience" today is one of the most precious values of tourism and our daily lives. Of course, a task it would be interesting to look at how these experiences are built, and where we can analyze them. There are tips on interesting concepts such as "reflexivity aesthetics", posed Scott Lash and John Urry in his book Economies of signs and spaces, can be a good entry to an analysis that goes beyond the purely casuistic. spectacle. " Lash and Urry said:

For its stance, the world is, literally and metaphorically, a scenario (…) The stance known to be a tourist, and that tourism is nothing but a series of multiple sets of texts rather than a truly unique experience.

The theme, of course, gives much to the analysis, while turns upon certain terms that appear as obvious, but are rather vague-like "reality", "spectacle", "authenticity" and we can go a long while.

By the way: Does anyone has seen or read anything more information on the topic "narcotours" of Colombia?

The note by the Argentine daily Clarin can read this link.

The image of Medellin that opens this post was taken by jduquetr and published in Flickr licensed under Creative Commons Attribution.