• Homeless couple calls Colombian sewer home

    Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

    Miguel Restrepo, 62, looks up from his sewer home in Medellin, Colombia, Dec. 4, 2012.

    Albeiro Lopera, Reuters — Former drug addict Miguel Restrepo, 62, has been living in an abandoned sewer with his wife and dog Blackie for 22 years. Their home, fitted with a kitchen, fan, television, chair and bed, is a 64.5-square-feet tunnel that leaks when it rains and requires a manhole cover.

    In a video on the BBC website, Restrepo says that he lives better than the president of Colombia.

    Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

    Miguel Restrepo, 62, and wife Maria Garcia, left, prepare Christmas decorations outside their sewer home in Medellin, Colombia on Dec. 4

    Albeiro Lopera / Reuters

    Maria Garcia cooks in her sewer home in Medellin, Colombia, Dec. 4.

    Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

    Miguel Restrepo, left, rests with his wife Maria Garcia and their dog on a bed inside their sewer home in Medellin, Colombia, Dec. 4.

    A Colombian man claims he has lived inside a sewer for more than 20 years. NBCNews.com's Alex Witt reports.

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  • Colombian teachers and students march for improvements

    Luis Eduardo Noriega / EPA

    Students wearing costumes face riot police as hundreds of teachers and students march during a protest in Medellin, Colombia, Sept. 5, 2012. Demonstrators were demanding better pay conditions and rejected the privatization of education.

    William Fernando Martinez / AP

    Protesters spit fire during a march by teachers and students in Bogota, Colombia, Sept. 5.

    William Fernando Martinez / AP

    A riot police officer, with a helmet stained by thrown paint, watches a march of teachers and students protesting a wide range of issues regarding the government's educational policies in Bogota, Colombia, Sept. 5.

    Luis Eduardo Noriega / EPA

    Hundreds of teachers and students march during a protest in Medellin, Colombia, Sept. 5.

    Christian Escobar Mora / EPA

    Teachers and students shout slogans during a protest against the Colombian National Education Ministry in Cali, Colombia, Sept. 5.

     

    Read more about the protest here

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  • Escalators to improve transportation in Colombian shantytown

    Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

    A girl goes up the escalators in the Comuna 13 neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia on Dec. 26, the day of their inauguration. The escalators are the first of their kind to be installed in a shantytown with high rates of urban violence. It is a system that will transform the mobility of the inhabitants of this district, replacing more than 350 concrete stairways. The escalators are composed of six sections and will benefit 12 thousand users.

    According to AP:

    Mayor Alonso Salazar said officials from Rio de Janeiro plan to visit Medellin to see if such an escalator would work in that city's favelas, which also cling precariously to hillsides.

    Comuna 13 residents came out to celebrate and study the $6.7 million escalator which officials say will shorten the 35-minute hike on foot up the hillside to six minutes. Use of the escalator is free.

    Read the full story.

    Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

    Luis Holguin (L) takes the escalators with his crutch and his daughter Resfa Holguin, at Comuna 13 neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia on Dec. 26.

    Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

    A woman looks at the escalators in the Comuna 13 neighborhood in Medellin, Colombia on Dec. 26.

    Raul Arboleda / AFP - Getty Images

    Children play as they take the escalators in the Comuna 13 neighborhood.

    EPA

    General view of the new escalators located in the middle of an outdoor urban zone in Medellin, Colombia, on Dec. 26. The service is free with the objective of improving the people´s mobility in the sector.

    Residents of Medellin, Colombia are celebrating the new escalators that will shorten the 35-minute hike up the hillside to six minutes.