WHAT: A visit at the old estate of Pablo Escobar, outside Medellin, that has been turned into a zoo and a theme park. WHERE: A three to four hours drive from Medellin, on the road towards Bogotá. HOW LONG: You'll need some 4 to 5 hours to see it all at a very calm pace. This is excluding a visit to the swimming pools. The park is opened from Tuesday to Sunday 9am - 5pm. HOW MUCH: It depends on what you'd like to do. The basic entrance is $39,000 COP ($12,50 USD). Paying for a more expensive ticket can get you access to the waterparks in the area, but you probably won't need to go there, unless when you're travelling with young kids.
What to do when you belong to the aristocracy of crime, have money to burn (literally) and own a big piece of property with fourteen lakes just outside of Medellin? If you were Pablo Escobar, of course you’d go constructing a zoo, be importing a lot of exotic animals, building a bullring and a dinosaur park for your son. It was Escobar’s idea of a perfect paradise, away from the chaos he created in the rest of the country.
“In general, Colombians are trying hard to avoid the worst drug criminal in the history of their country being glorified.”
A couple of years ago his estate Hacienda Nápoles has been remade into a family-friendly and safari-themed weekend destination. An unlikely transition, one’d think. If you come here for some Escobar history you’re in the wrong place, as you can tell from the children running and screaming around with ice creams in their hands. However, – it must be mentioned – there’s one building where the crimes of the Medellin cartel are displayed and you can also see a couple of Escobar’s old cars.
Nonetheless, the government decided years after Escobar’s death that it would be better not to restore the property to its former state and therefore destroyed its remaining ruins. In general, Colombians are trying hard to avoid the worst drug criminal in the history of their country being glorified. And really, you can’t blame them for trying to turn the page of this uncomfortable era.
So, going on a theme park adventure it is! Located three to four hours east of Medellin, Hacienda Nápoles is situated almost midway between Medellin and Bogotá. You can get there by public transport, but even if you have reached the estate, the park itself is still rather far away from the main road. Therefore I would really advise you to rent a car if you want to go here.
The entrance of the estate is one that many Netflix “Narcos” watcher would recognize instantly. The plane that is topped on the gate was the first one used by Escobar to smuggle cocaine into the United States. It’s a symbol of his infamous quest of becoming the worst of the worst drug criminal. Another remarkable thing we see up here is the sign of the theme park. It’s clearly they’ve been inspired by Jurassic Park at the marketing department of the park.
As we enter the long route of the estate that leads through lush hills and green panorama’s, I understand why the idea of Jurassic Park was chosen. It’s easy in here to make the comparison to the wildlife theme park of the movie. Especially since it’s also a drive-through park; you just sit, while you’re comfortably watching animals on the side. Another remarkable thing we spot is the newly constructed, enormous security prison, that becomes visible on the left side of the slopes. Probably not a coincidence the government put that one over here.
After our drive from Medellin we arrive rather late at the information desk of the park. But we’re still in luck, soon we find out that we’re one of the few visitors today in the park, hurray! With a map in our hands we drive around from site to site. It would be possible to walk it all, but you would definitely need a couple of extra hours and a strong sense for walking, since the sites are very spread out.
Actually I’m happy we’re with a car, now I’ve been reminded about Jurassic Park again. You remember that moment when dr. Sattler and dr. Grant are out in the fields before they’re encountering their first Brachiosaurus? Well, there comes a moment you’ll drive around the corner and encounter the dinosaur area. Fortunately, a major power breakdown in here probably won’t end up in a race for survival. Although, later I discover the park does have quite some feline species…
“Vanessaaaaaa”
In general, it’s absolutely great to see that the animals have so much space in here – especially if you compare their cages to the ones in Europe-, you can barely call the park a zoo. Except that remains illogical to see lions, giraffes, ostriches, elephants and hippos in Colombia. The latter species have a special place in the history of the park. Escobar abandoned Hacienda Nápoles in the last years of his life, whereafter many of his exotic animals died of starvation. After his death people came to the estate and started relocating the animals, that had been able to survive, to other zoos. Except for the hippos. For some kind of reason the hippos thrived in the Antioquian climate and reproduced themselves like bunnies.
What were once just four hippos have since then grown into a population of over sixty animals. It turned out to be way too difficult to find a new place for all of them and they remained at the estate. Since Hacienda Nápoles now is again being set up as a zoo, more exotic animals are being ‘returned’ to the place.
The most famous hippo of them all is Vanessa. Vanessa was hand-raised from birth and therefore much more used to humans compared to her brothers and sisters. Even weirder is that she responds to her name. Ever since the opening of the park visitors are yelling “Vanessaaaaaa” all day long to her, in the hope she’ll swim up to them for a carrot.
Clearly the marketing department is trying to turn the hippo into the ‘mascot’ of the theme park. As we walk away from her pond a pompeus and over the top kind of statue of Vanessa rises next to the place she lives in. Something Escobar himself probably would absolutely have approved.
Want to know more about Escobar’s wealth? Here’s an interesting visualization of the scale of it:
