Colombia - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 534

5

Industriales, from where it's a ten-minute
walk up Cerro Nutibara.

park in an hour on foot. Other attractions
include canopy ziplines and a butterfly
enclosure, and you can easily spend the day
exploring this welcome bit of wilderness.
The park is connected to downtown
Medellín via the Cable Arví Metrocable
(Linea L; closed for maintenance on Mon)
from the Metro Santo Domingo inter-
change (COP$3500); the 15-minute
ride up glides over the mountain ridge and
into the park, affording spectacular views
of the city.
ARRIVAL AND INFORMATION
By plane Medellín's futuristic José María Córdova Airport
( T 4 562 2828) lies a hilly 28km from the city along a
scenic highway; it services all international and most
domestic flights. Taxis to the city cost COP$57,000.
Conbuses, at Cra 50a No. 53-13 ( T 4 311 5781), run every
20min from roughly 5am to 9pm between the Nutibara
Hotel , across the street from Plaza Botero, and the airport
(1hr; COP$8000). The city's smaller second airport is Olaya
Herrera ( T 4 365 6100), located beside the southern bus
terminal and serving domestic destinations; taxis to El
Poblado cost around COP$6000.
Domestic destinations Barranquilla (12 daily; 1hr 45min);
Bogotá (hourly; 50min); Bucaramanga (6 daily; 50min); Cali

Jardín Botánico de Medellín Joaquín
Antonio Uribe
This lush botanical garden (C 73
No. 51D-14; daily 9am-5pm; free;
W www.botanicomedellin.org; metro
Universidad) is one of Colombia's oldest,
dating from 1913 and home to over
six hundred plant species as well as a
butterfly enclosure. Don't miss a visit to
the stunning Orchideorama - a weaving
structure of steel trunks and towering
wooden petals - where plants are
showcased and the garden's annual orchid
exhibition is held in August during the
Feria de las Flores flower festival.

Parque Arví
On the eastern slopes of the Aburrá Valley,
Parque Arví (Tues-Sun 9am-6pm;
W

www.parquearvi.org) is an ecological
nature reserve and archeological site. It
forms part of the network of pre-Hispanic
trails of Parque Ecológico Piedras Blancas
(see p.540), which can be reached from the

ESCOBAR'S LEGACY
Few individuals have had as great (and negative) an impact on Medellín in recent history
as Pablo Escobar Gaviria - the most successful of the cocaine barons. After years of
inflicting violence on the city's civilians because of the Medellín cartel's rivalry with the Cali
cartels and his willingness to blow up a plane just to get at a single passenger, Escobar was
unceremoniously shot down on the roof of a house on December 2, 1993, while on the run
from the police.
ESCOBAR TOURS
Though many Medellín citizens find the idea of this godfather of crime posthumously
becoming a major tourist attraction distasteful, a number of tours have sprung up since his
death that take you around the city to various Escobar-associated sights. You get to see the
building he lived in, apartment blocks he built, the rooftop on which he was shot, and, finally,
his gravestone at the Jardines de Montesacro cemetery. Tours cost around COP$55,000 per
person and the best of the operators is Paisa Road ( T 317 489 2629, W www.paisaroad.com),
known for their sensitive and balanced tours.
ESCOBAR'S HIPPOS
Escobar is also the reason why there are feral hippos in the mountains around Medellín. To find
out why, you can visit one of the more bizarre sites in Colombia - Hacienda Nápoles
(COP$27,000; T 1800 510 344, W www.haciendanapoles.com), the huge farm that was once
Escobar's private kingdom, complete with mansions, menagerie of exotic animals, bullring and
more. Once Escobar was on the run, the abandoned hippos broke out of their enclosure, fled
into the wild and bred, thus giving rise to dangerous non-native mammals in Colombia. This
strange attraction sits halfway between Medellín and Bogotá, off the highway 1km from
Dorodal. Today you can wander through the abandoned mansion, check out the displays on
Escobar's reign of terror, and there are even some rides for children.