Arvi park

Today we took the metro to explore more of Medellin. We decided to take the second gondola up the East side of the city. At the top of the first gondola there is a new library. It was architecturally very interesting. It consists of three large black geometrical forms. We agreed it was very cool but we didn't really aesthetically like the design. We then took the second gondola up to Arvi park, which is a natural reserve above Medellin city. The gondola was much longer than we expected and had spectacular views of the city as it climbed the mountain before disappearing into the bush of the reserve. We didn't really know what to expect once we arrived. We found out that the park was still very much under construction. The plan is to have a total of six parks within the reserve each with different animals and attractions etc. There is currently only one finished so we hopped on a bus towards that one. There were lots of people riding horses and the scenery was beautiful as it looked through trees and across small lakes. We then took a small walk through the bush down to a lagoon. We walked down the little path, across beautiful little bridges and past a butterfly nursery with lots of exotic species before we reached the lagoon. The lagoon had a jetty out into it and a massive flying fox across it which we unfortunately could not go on. After enjoying the beautiful scenery we took another walk through the bush towards the hotel to get a drink and a snack. We then realised we better get back to take the gondola down to Medellin before it shut, when we were told there were no more buses. We ended up paying some guy 6000pesos ($4nz) to give us a ride in his truck. We jumped on the deck and held on tight as he drove like all south americans do. We arrived safely back at the top of the gondola after enjoying the crazy ride back. As we took the gondola back down we were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunset over Medellin as we descended back down to the city. We arrived back at the metro station after the two gondolas at peak rush hour time so we got to experience being on a ridiculously packed train as everyone is fighting for space and room to breathe. We eventually arrived home safety after an another amazing day.