Parque Arví

Parque Arví is the great green escape above Medellín, a nature reserve on the eastern slopes of the Aburrá Valley that spreads across some 16,000 hectares and into the neighbouring municipalities of Envigado, Bello and Copacabana. About 1,760 hectares are natural forest, and the park has around 54 miles of walkable trails.

Getting there is part of the experience. Ride the Metrocable up to Santo Domingo Savio station and then change to Line L, the Arví cable car, which began commercial service in February 2010 and runs on to the park.

History runs through the woods. The park preserves pre-Hispanic remains, including water channels, platforms and roads, and the stone-paved Camino Cieza de León may be more than 1,500 years old. The park offers guided and self-guided walks, an 8 km hike, birdwatching, cycling routes, visits to silletero flower farms, a night programme called Arví Nocturno and a walk to the Chorro Clarín waterfall. Foreign visitors receive a discount on guided and self-guided hikes. Trails lead to the Laguna de Guarne and its wetland, the Bosque del Silencio and the Camino de la Cuesta, and the Sendero de Anturios, Orquídeas y Bromelias passes 19 species of bromeliad and more than 140 orchid species, including Lepanthes acarina, whose flowers measure about three millimetres. Mercado Arví, by the cable-car station, sells local food and crafts, and there are picnic areas.

Tourist services run Wednesday to Monday from 9:30 to 17:30. The park and Metrocable Line L close on Tuesdays for maintenance, so plan around that day. Book guided activities through the park's WhatsApp line or website.

The park is run by the Corporación Parque Arví, a non-profit set up in 2007 to protect the area's natural and cultural heritage and to develop rural community tourism, and it also offers gardening workshops and volunteering. It suits walkers, families and anyone who wants a half or full day out of the city. Allow at least half a day including the cable-car journey. The main visitor centre, the Centro Ambiental y Cultural Ignacio Vélez Escobar, is near the arrival plaza of the Arví cable car in the Piedras Blancas area of Santa Elena.