In 1978, a 28 year old self-described ‘businessman’ named Pablo Escobar walked into a real estate office in Puerto Triunfo, a small outpost on the Magdalena River. Young Mr. Escobar was looking to buy a large property adjacent to the river. Pablo was excited that the government had recently finished a two lane asphalt road between Puerto Triunfo and Medellin - the city where much of Mr. Escobar’s business was conducted. The real estate agent was eager to comply, and sold Escobar some 5,000 acres of land.
Over the next several years Pablo embarked on a remarkable building project on the land. He would build an airport runway, hangars, large storage buildings and other facilities critical to his business. And he built a lot of stuff that was less business essential like 27 manmade lakes, a large villa, a helipad, a bull ring and even a dinosaur theme park. At its height, Pablo’s compound had over 1,000 full time staff members.
Of all the things that Pablo Escobar (and his cocaine money) built, however, the one that has had the most lasting effect in Columbia was the zoo, particularly the 4 hippos (one male and three females) that Pablo brought from Africa to the zoo.
In 1993, the Colombian government (with a big assist from the CIA and DEA) killed Pablo in a Medellin shootout. Almost immediately after word got out, people began pouring onto Pablo’s land, searching for the money and guns he was rumored to have there. The zoo fell into disrepair. In 1998 the government transferred most of the animals that were left (many had gone missing) to zoos in Columbia. The Columbian authorities, however, decided that the hippos were too dangerous to move. That was a good call - hippos kill 500 people a year in Africa. The hippos couldn’t be cared for in captivity, though. So...