HACIENDA NAPOLES, Colombia — The scavengers have come and gone. The lookout tower sentries have disappeared. The main house lies in ruins. And adorning one decrepit wall are three photos of the ranch's former owner and infamous drug lord.
One was said to be Pablo Escobar's favorite picture. He is dressed like Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary, wearing a sombrero and with a bandolier stretched across his chest while cradling a rifle.
In the second photo, a mustachioed Escobar stares out from a ''wanted'' poster. The third snapshot shows him barefoot and sprawled face-down — dead, the image taken minutes after Colombian authorities gunned him down on a rooftop in Medellín 15 years ago.
In a land that has served as the setting for the surrealistic novels of Gabriel García Márquez, it doesn't get much weirder in Colombia today than the Hacienda Napoles. What was once the weekend hangout of the world's most notorious outlaw has become a strange, fledgling tourist attraction in central Colombia.
A private company now manages Hacienda Napoles and in December opened it as a rustic theme park.
Read the full story at miamiherald.com.