Day 178 : Santa Elena

Boys on bicycle being dragged by bus

We (Kelly & I) made our way towards Santa Elena to meet up with one of her friend, who was going to show us around the area.  Santa Elena is a district up in the hills of Medellin, and on a side note, within Santa Elena resides Parque Arvi as well. 

So we took a bus from the city, and spent the next 45 minutes spiralling up one of the hills of Medellin.  It was a packed bus, as many of the people on the bus were heading to Parque Arvi, the final stop of the bus. 

We apparently heard that once again, people were turned away at the cable car station due to the number of people in the park, and some of them decided to take the bus instead as it seems like people can still get access to Parque Arvi if they were to take a bus!  Strange logic.

Walking through the woods

When we reached our stop, the air was extremely crisp and fresh and the view was filled with beautiful country houses.  It was slightly chilly though, and I later found out that we were at 2,500m above sea level (Medellin city is at 1,400m), and it can get really cold here in the night. 

Kelly introduced me to Alejandro (still slightly hungover from drinking too much the night before) as well as Juan (our guide for the day).  The plan was to trek through the woods across to the other side of the hills, before getting a late lunch.

Kelly, Alejandro & Juan

Kelly & Alejandro

Arepa with Chorizo

It was about 3.30pm when we completed our trek (it took us about 3 hours to complete the entire trek), and we quickly headed over to a small cottage that serves traditional Arepa (corn cakes, a typical food in Colombia) lunch to fill our hungry stomachs, as well as to recover from the long walk.

Enjoying the trek

I must say that the trek was truly amazing, even if we did get lost a couple of times along the way.  The fresh smell of pines in the woods, view of green mosses covering the ground as well as beautiful houses hidden in the hills, sound of running streams and birds chirping etc.. it provided a real tranquil and calming feeling to end my last day in Medellin.

I think a lot of tourists who visits Medellin usually only visit it for the city, however I felt that places like Santa Elena and the surrounding hills of Medellin are much more beautiful and I personally enjoyed the nature of Medellin better than the city.  According to Kelly, there are about 40 over villages around Medellin that are just like Santa Elena, with different offerings of nature to suit every individual. 

Kelly had shown some of the images of these villages as well as the various ecoparks and they are truly impressive.  It is definitely worth venturing if I had more time, and truly recommended!