Nature · Medellín

Parque Ecológico Piedras Blancas

Comfenalco's park in Santa Elena, about 5 minutes by car from the Arví Metrocable station. It has a lake with rowboats, trails, a butterfly house and an entomology museum.

Price: Entrance fee; the price changes with your Comfenalco membership category. Boats and the museum may be charged separately.
Duration: Over 4 hours
Address: Vereda Piedras Blancas, Santa Elena district (on the Guarne border), inside the Parque Arví area.

See on the map Google Maps

Piedras Blancas is a park of about 18 hectares in Santa Elena, in the Parque Arví area, among pine and cypress forest and native vegetation. It has a lake with a wooden suspension bridge and rowboats you can rent to go around it.

Inside is the Entomology Museum, with a collection of thousands of insects from different regions of the country organized by species, and a butterfly house with species from eastern Antioquia. The butterflies are easiest to see between 10 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.

The Comfenalco Antioquia family welfare fund runs it. Besides the trails there's a café, a camping area and kiosks for barbecues. It's up in the cold highlands, at about 2,500 meters, so the weather is cool and it rains often.

What to see

The lake, with its suspension bridge and rowboats.
The Entomology Museum.
The butterfly house.
The forest trails.

Getting there

Metro and Metrocable: Line A to Acevedo, Line K to Santo Domingo and Line L to Arví; from there, a shared van of about 5 minutes or 45 minutes on foot.
Bus: buses to Santa Elena from downtown Medellín; ask to be dropped off at Piedras Blancas.
Car: along the road to Santa Elena; the park has parking.

Tips

Bring your ID: they ask for it at the entrance.
Bring a jacket and rain gear; Santa Elena is cold and rainy.
To see butterflies, get to the butterfly house between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The Metrocable to Arví doesn't run on Tuesdays; check the schedule before you leave.