Based on the recent data, there has been a significant increase in crimes against tourists in Medellin.

According to recent statistics, Medellín ended 2023 with 375 homicides. A grim number by any measure, but a far cry from the blood-soaked days when Pablo's boys were turning this place into a shooting gallery. The bean counters will tell you it's about 12 murders per 100,000 residents now. Better than Chicago on a good day, if you're keeping score.

The plate they brought out looked like something designed by a deranged carnival cook on a grease-fueled bender: a mutant slab of deep-fried pork fat the size of a small child's torso, floating atop a sea of fried rice like some kind of twisted culinary iceberg.

The economic transformation is as radical as the visual one. Tourist dollars have replaced drug money. Walking tours now cost more than what a hitman would have charged during Escobar's era. Local guides — many of whom lost family members to violence — now make a living telling the story of their own resurrection.

Comuna 13 wasn't just a neighborhood. It was a war zone disguised as a community, a vertical slum clinging to the mountainside like a desperate prayer.

Colombia: A Journey Through Paradise and Perdition, Exploring the Dark Underbelly of Colombia's Transformation

They're showing what happens when you strip away seventy years of Soviet supply chain problems and culinary oppression, revealing the magnificent food culture that existed before, and survived after.

Welcome to the Sanctuary of Truth, where madness meets craftsmanship in a dance that's been going on since 1981, and shows no signs of stopping. Bring water. And maybe your sunglasses. The truth can be blinding out here.

This is the real Bangkok, breathing and alive, existing in sublime defiance of the commercial chaos that surrounds it. I realize I've just witnessed something increasingly rare in our world: authenticity in its natural habitat. These people keep their doors open  because they've got – a shared commitment to preserving their slice of sanity in a city gone mad with tourism.

700 baht, about $21. In American money, that's barely enough to buy a decent bottle of Whiskey. But here in Pattaya, that same amount gets you into a wonderland of maritime excess that would make Poseidon himself weep with joy.