ï»ï»ï»If there is one thing that the people of Medellin can pride themselves on, its that they are good at business.

Colombias second city – and the hometown of Pablo Escobar, the biggest drugs lord in history – is a dynamic place; home to 2.5 million people living in a wide Andean valley, where the pleasant subtropical climate has earned it the title City of the Eternal Spring. It bustles with innovation, drive and ingenuity.

"But sometimes," admits Aníbal Gaviria, mayor of Medellin, "weve been business leaders in the wrong sense."

At the height of what is referred to as "the dark days", Medellin was the centre of an illicit empire that supplied 80 per cent of all Americas cocaine – making Escobar, who was shot dead by the citys police in 1993, the second richest man in the world, with an estimated fortune of $30 billion (£18bn).