Its Christmas time and Colombia is decked up with lights to welcome tourists

#christmas #colombia The city of Medellin in Colombia is decking itself up to welcome tourists for Christmas festivities. This city had been notorious for drug violence and has now made a turn around. It is now known for its spectacular Christmas light displays that veil churches, buildings, parks and even the Medellin River with glittering cascades of color.
The spectacle draws an estimated four million visitors, and can be seen in neighborhoods around the city every night until January 12, from 6pm to 1am. The scene resembles a carnival, with crowds of families on foot gazing in awe, street vendors and long lines of cars and tour buses streaming slowly by.
The displays change each year and are created by EPM, a state utility company that derives much of its power from hydroelectric sources. This company also produces light displays in the cities of Cali and Quimbaya and it conducted an open call for ideas for the light shows – the result was a whopping 1500 suggestions this year.
The lights are arranged in eight areas of the city and each of them displays a different theme – like animals, symbols of peace, flowers and Christmas trees.
Incidentally, the perceptions of the city as a center of drug violence are outdated because Colombia's most notorious outlaw, drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, was assassinated more than 20 years ago.
Anyway, the city of Medellin had recently been in the news due to reports of underage prostitution. Moreover, the taxi industry in the capital, Bogota, is plagued by robberies. In spite of these shortcomings, the tourism is on the rise and last year, nearly 1.7 million tourists had visited Colombia – this was over three times the number that visited in 2002.