Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Piedra Blanca Eco-Park - Medellin

Medellin, Colombia
I've made several trips to Colombia over my lifetime and I am always happy to explore the vast diversity of the country.  I recently had the pleasure of exploring Medellin which is located in a valley of the Andes Mountains.  This create great vistas of the mountains as well as lush environment surrounding the city (and rain!)
One day my friends suggested an adventure out of the city to Piedras Blancas and Parque Arvi, a nature preserve located some 50 miles from the city center.  To get there we took the Medellin Metro to one of the MetroCables.  You cannot imagine how clean and well maintained these facilities are. The Colombians are very conscientious of maintaining these public transportation services. 

The Line K MetroCable line climbs from the city on the valley floor up to the top of the Santo Domingo Savio neighborhood where the Biblioteca EspaƱa library is located. Very unusual and interesting architectural design. The library was deliberately placed in this underdeveloped part of town. The MetroCable hovers over some very undeveloped areas of the city - you can watch roads turn into paths, turn into someone's front door at the end of the trail. 
From there we took the Line L gondola for last few miles to the Parque Arvi nature preserve. It is a pretty amazing experience to fly over and see all the flora change.  Get up close with orchids in the trees and try to spot various fauna.
Once at the park we took time to hike several trains and snacked there too. Many of the trails were very muddy - but that didn't diminish our fun.  I particularly liked seeing just how large some of the "houseplants" were in this environment. 




Clean public transport - Medellin, Colombia

Metro Cable - Medillin

End of the road into a house of the mountainside - Medellin, Colombia
Rain Forest Large Ferns - Parque Arvi, Colombia
Piedra Blanca Park Trail - Colombia






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