Took the metro on my own today with intentions to visit
Parque Arvi, an ecological park located high up in the hills of
Medellin city. Kelly has mentioned that this is a really beautiful park, with some nice walking trails including some archeological remains, and where one can also get a great view of the city from the top.
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| Check out the queue! |
After a 20 mins train ride to
Estacion Acevedo, where I had to transfer to the cable car, I was shocked to find a huge queue snaking its way from the upper floor where the cable cars are located to the lower floor where the train tracks run across the city of
Medellin. I waited for slightly over an hour before finally getting onto a cable car!
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| Getting close to boarding |
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| Slum like houses |
The 1st cable car ride (
I need to take 2 seperate cable cars to get to Parque Arvi) travelled up in the sky above houses which looked like slums built on the slopes of the city.
In my cable car, there was a local Paisa guy (
Medellin people are known as Paisas), who shared that some of the people living in the houses are not actually that poor.
Apparently some of these Colombians own really good phones or good stereos and flat screen televisions, and mentioned that a lot of them feel that having a good home is not as essential as owning better gadgets. Strange philosophy.
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| Invaders |
However he also added on and showed us some dilapidated houses, and said that the people staying in those houses are called "invaders". They are called invaders because these people may have moved from the countryside and settled down on a vacant land (
even though it belongs to someone else), and according to the laws of
Colombia, if a person managed to set up a home on the land, the owner of the property have to file a court case against the individual to vacate them, which may take years!
In the last 10 years,
Medellin's population has actually grown from about 1.5 million to about 3 million people, many of whom came to
Medellin via the "invaders" route. Interesting stuff!
Upon arriving at
Estacion Santo Domingo (
the last station on the 1st cable car route, and also the intermediary station for switching to the 2nd cable car to Parque Arvi), we were told that no more people were allowed to enter the Parque, as there are already too many people inside.
However, we are able to take a round trip on the cable car to see the scenery, which was what we did after about another 30 minutes of wait. The ride on the 2nd cable car was about 10-15 minutes one-way, and was a totally different experience from the 1st cable car ride. Instead of drifting over homes and neighbourhood, it went across the forest, and was quite a spectacular experience.
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| Transition from city to forest |
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| Drifting over the forest |
When we got to the other end of the terminal, although the doors of the cable car opened, we were not allowed to get off and continued back towards
Estacion Santo Domingo. How unfortunate!
I was starving by the time we got off the cable car and decided to venture around the neighbourhood on the hills, and finally settled in a cafe nearby which I must say served a really good lunch for COP6,000! A soup, pan fried beef with rice and potatoes and salad and a raspberry drink. Big portions!
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| Soup |
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| My main dish |
I headed back home, and Kelly was shocked to hear that people were prevented from admitting into the park, as firstly it was a really huge park, and secondly, she has never heard of people not being allowed to enter the park before.
I guess it must still be the holiday season!
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