LA MANUELA HACIENDA - HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
The estate viewed from the boat
While a lot of people are familiar with Escobar's more famous estates such as Hacienda Napoles and La Catedral, La Manuela is less heard of. Named after Pablo's Daughter this luxury lakeside property lies on the shores of Embalse del Peñol in Guatapé. In the 1970's the Colombian government created the Peñol reservoir and intentionally flooded the valleys in this region of Antioquia, requiring the several towns and settlements to be relocated. In the years following the new shorelines of this reservoir began to fill with luxury homes and estates built by Colombia's rich and famous. This of course later included Pablo Escobar who rose up to power with the Medellin cartel throughout the 70's and 80's.
I struggled to find a date on which this property was built unfortunately, perhaps I was told at the time by the boat driver we hired from Guatapé but I'd have to guess and say it was constructed in the mid to late 1980's during his "prime". I could not find any information online regarding this.
In 1993, during Escobar's magnificent downfall, the vigilante group by the name of "Los Pepes" attacked and successfully bombed and destroyed La Manuela with approximately 200KG of TNT explosives. Pablo received a tip off shortly before the attack and managed to escape unharmed in his usual fashion, however the estate was completely devastated. The atrium on the main house was the site of one of the explosions and completely caved in, they also ransacked the premises taking everything of value. Bullet holes and explosion damage were still extremely evident as I was walking around the estate over 3 decades later, as well as huge holes in the walls from people in the years since smashing through in hopes of finding one of Escobars stashes of cash hidden away.
In the decades following Pablo's death in 1993, the idea of Narcotourism boomed in Colombia, people around the world wanted to see and explore the remains of Pablo's drug empire. For quite some time this was allowed to continue and is significantly responsible for Colombia becoming such a tourism hotspot in South america, tour providers in Guatapé offered official trips to La Manuela where people would not only walk around the estate but also play huge paintball games, reenacting the Los Pepes siege in 1993 I suppose.
However over the 2010's the Colombian Government decided it was time to crack down hard on this trend. Certain places were turned into official museums, other places were destroyed or marked off limits, such as La Manuela. The premises was seized by the Colombian Government in 2019 after a long legal battle with Escobars former groundskeeper William Duque, and ever since it has been "somewhat" forbidden to enter the site.
THE EXPLORE
Throughout the Covid pandemic I was travelling around the world due to being put on furlough by my workplace in the UK, not wanting to sit at home in lockdown I was bouncing between countries with loose restrictions, mainly in east Africa. Fastforward to the end of 2021 and I read online about Colombia being one of the first South American countries to open their borders again, I booked a flight over there in febuary 2022. After a few weeks in hostels bouncing around the country I'd heard of this place several times over, hearing about boat tours around the site until I finally bumped into a lad in Medellin who claimed to have been inside after paying a local boat driver, after showing me pictures I knew I had to try to do the same.
I took his whatsapp number and headed off to Guatapé with a few people I had met over in Colombia with my sights set on this place, it was actually significantly easier than I had imagined. We met up with the boat driver, discussed payment and headed out the following morning. I know maybe this counts as "discussing entry" but I don't want people to think I James Bonded my way in or anything, it is extremely easy. Some part of me thinks I should almost mark this post as a permission visit lol.
After 15-20 minutes on the boat from Guatapé town we arrived at the pier below the disco building, and began exploring.
Approaching the peninsular in the boat
"The disco" - Also used as a bar during the Narcotourism phase
Heading up to the football pitch, also used as a Helipad.
The first complex, stables, garages and main house primarily housing Pablo's guards and friends
Stables
Garage
Main house
looking down from the main house to the mansion
Heading down from the main complex towards the Mansion
View from Pablo's master bedroom window
The pool & view from the watchtower
Under the patio
Heading back to the disco
Kinda had to peice this together half from memory and half from loose research online so apologies for any slip ups.
The estate viewed from the boat
While a lot of people are familiar with Escobar's more famous estates such as Hacienda Napoles and La Catedral, La Manuela is less heard of. Named after Pablo's Daughter this luxury lakeside property lies on the shores of Embalse del Peñol in Guatapé. In the 1970's the Colombian government created the Peñol reservoir and intentionally flooded the valleys in this region of Antioquia, requiring the several towns and settlements to be relocated. In the years following the new shorelines of this reservoir began to fill with luxury homes and estates built by Colombia's rich and famous. This of course later included Pablo Escobar who rose up to power with the Medellin cartel throughout the 70's and 80's.
I struggled to find a date on which this property was built unfortunately, perhaps I was told at the time by the boat driver we hired from Guatapé but I'd have to guess and say it was constructed in the mid to late 1980's during his "prime". I could not find any information online regarding this.
In 1993, during Escobar's magnificent downfall, the vigilante group by the name of "Los Pepes" attacked and successfully bombed and destroyed La Manuela with approximately 200KG of TNT explosives. Pablo received a tip off shortly before the attack and managed to escape unharmed in his usual fashion, however the estate was completely devastated. The atrium on the main house was the site of one of the explosions and completely caved in, they also ransacked the premises taking everything of value. Bullet holes and explosion damage were still extremely evident as I was walking around the estate over 3 decades later, as well as huge holes in the walls from people in the years since smashing through in hopes of finding one of Escobars stashes of cash hidden away.
In the decades following Pablo's death in 1993, the idea of Narcotourism boomed in Colombia, people around the world wanted to see and explore the remains of Pablo's drug empire. For quite some time this was allowed to continue and is significantly responsible for Colombia becoming such a tourism hotspot in South america, tour providers in Guatapé offered official trips to La Manuela where people would not only walk around the estate but also play huge paintball games, reenacting the Los Pepes siege in 1993 I suppose.
However over the 2010's the Colombian Government decided it was time to crack down hard on this trend. Certain places were turned into official museums, other places were destroyed or marked off limits, such as La Manuela. The premises was seized by the Colombian Government in 2019 after a long legal battle with Escobars former groundskeeper William Duque, and ever since it has been "somewhat" forbidden to enter the site.
THE EXPLORE
Throughout the Covid pandemic I was travelling around the world due to being put on furlough by my workplace in the UK, not wanting to sit at home in lockdown I was bouncing between countries with loose restrictions, mainly in east Africa. Fastforward to the end of 2021 and I read online about Colombia being one of the first South American countries to open their borders again, I booked a flight over there in febuary 2022. After a few weeks in hostels bouncing around the country I'd heard of this place several times over, hearing about boat tours around the site until I finally bumped into a lad in Medellin who claimed to have been inside after paying a local boat driver, after showing me pictures I knew I had to try to do the same.
I took his whatsapp number and headed off to Guatapé with a few people I had met over in Colombia with my sights set on this place, it was actually significantly easier than I had imagined. We met up with the boat driver, discussed payment and headed out the following morning. I know maybe this counts as "discussing entry" but I don't want people to think I James Bonded my way in or anything, it is extremely easy. Some part of me thinks I should almost mark this post as a permission visit lol.
After 15-20 minutes on the boat from Guatapé town we arrived at the pier below the disco building, and began exploring.
Approaching the peninsular in the boat
"The disco" - Also used as a bar during the Narcotourism phase
Heading up to the football pitch, also used as a Helipad.
The first complex, stables, garages and main house primarily housing Pablo's guards and friends
Stables
Garage
Main house
looking down from the main house to the mansion
Heading down from the main complex towards the Mansion
View from Pablo's master bedroom window
The pool & view from the watchtower
Under the patio
Heading back to the disco
Kinda had to peice this together half from memory and half from loose research online so apologies for any slip ups.
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