Once upon a time a certain drug lord purchased some land which he named 'Hacienda Napoles' (Naples Estate) and commenced creating his very own safari park. The park is about 3 hours east of Medellin basically in the middle of nowhere in a gorgeous (but extremely hot!) valley.
He brought in pairs of exotic animals (mostly from Africa) and let them roam free on his grounds and invited guests to drive round like it was a safari park. Here is the result of some of this freedom given to the animals....a zebra donkey. Naturally conceived.
After his death most of his properties were looted including his house in the Hacienda. A lot of the animals died and a lot were relocated to zoos around the world. There was a lot of uncertainty about what would happen to the property but in the end the local municipality was given permission to operate it as a theme park. The park is so big that you can still bring your own car or motorbike in but they have thankfully put the animals in cages.
The result is ummmm, interesting. Some of the animals are original and some are more recent additions. There are also a lot of dinosaur statues. Apparently Pablo had a thing for dinosaurs and I read that there were originally some made with real dinosaur bones. It's not possible to know if they're all original though.
When we arrived at the park a little tuk tuk came to pick us up and give us a tour of the first half of the park which is basically impossible to walk around since the park is so huge and it's so damn hot!
More recent additions to the hacienda include a water park with various slides, a lazy river and this particular pool which is turned off in the photo but is a huge waterfall (Victoria Falls obviously) that was actually quite scary and violent when switched on! Haha.
The park also has a butterfly house, crocodiles, reptiles, ocelots, monkeys, donkeys, some 'rare' goat (apparently?!), elephants, lions, tigers, meer cats, ostriches and the cutest donkeys you will ever see. This little guy was actually my highlight because he was so friendly.
So what about that Escobar guy you ask. Well I think they're a bit stuck between using his property but not wanting to glorify any of his life. His old house on the property was never restored and used to be somewhat of a museum. The house was in such bad condition that it was demolished earlier this year. Now there's a small display with photos and articles about his life and crimes including a large photo of his dead body (hey kids don't be a drug lord!). Here's Spaghetti O reading an article about Escobar (with a beer of course).
The Hacienda also has possession of a helicopter owned by Escobar (the property has a helipad and airstrip). Out the front of the park is a replica of a plane which apparently took the first shipment of cocaine out of Colombia.
Escobar's first car was a Renault 4 which is also on display along with a few of his other vehicles (in pretty poor condition due to being set on fire after a bombing of one of his properties). There's also a mini hovercraft, an early Jetski and several other boys toys.
And then there's just some weird stuff with zero explanation.
And a hippo named Vanessa.
The hippos are another story altogether. Vanessa is a friendly one since she was raised by humans but the rest are in a separate lake on the property. Apparently there are 50-60 on the property. We went to see them in the lake (but the photos are a bit too hard to see) and there are heaps. The lake on the property is enormous too. Most of these animals have plenty of space.
The thing with hippos is that they are extremely territorial and can be quite dangerous to humans (hence the sign). Not a problem in the park really (although our tuk tuk driver says he's seen them on the road before!) but the issue is that some have escaped. On top of that, they love Colombia. The conditions in the surrounding lakes and rivers are perfect for them...and they're breeding like crazy. Apparently it's the only colony of hippos outside Africa and they estimate there are up to 40 outside of the park. If you want to read more about it you can check out this article which is quite interesting:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27905743
Anyway as the day came to an end our original driver was cruising around the park in this little bus. He came to pick us up while we were checking out the tigers. We visited mid-week so the park was pretty quiet and we were the only people without our own car!
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