This morning, we Ubered down to the Poblano station and took the Line A train again. This time, we kept going north to Acevedo, about a twenty-five minute ride, and we found seats for more than half the time.
Medellín sits in a narrow valley. The barrios climb all the way to the ridgeline, on slopes too steep for a rail line and mostly too steep for a bus, so the people living highest up needed transportation. The metro’s answer was to keep going by cable. At Acevedo the train ends and the same system continues as gondolas strung over the rooftops. Locals call it the metrocable; it’s how folks commute.
The cabins don’t stop, just like a gondola, ski-lift. They creep through the station and you step in while it’s moving. The first span crosses the highway and the river, then you’re twenty or thirty metres over rooftops for the rest of the way. Corrugated zinc roofs, unpainted brick, black water tanks, laundry hanging, dogs asleep in the sun, folks going about their day biking down streets and selling fruit at the market, and occasionally you hear music blaring as you pass barrio after barrio. Past the barrio called Popular, the streets stop and become concrete stairs. It’s hard to imagine a bus, much less a train, transportation system. From this vantage point above the city, you really get a sense of the scale and enormity of Medellín.
When you reach Santo Domingo on the ridge, you disembark and walk a short way to buy a separate ticket for the last leg, cash. Out the window are three huge black blocks that tower over everything. This is the old Biblioteca España, which just reopened in June as the Biblioteca Santo Domingo after eleven years closed.
This second tram takes you four and a half kilometers in around fifteen minutes, and there are no stops. The buildings end after a few rudimentary farms with wide open pastures below. It’s much quieter, and the team sways in the wind. Then there are rows of planted pine and cypress, before a native forest for the rest of the way. You end up at 2,400 meters and when you get out of the car, it’s noticeably cooler.
This is the Centro Ambiental y Cultural Ignacio Vélez Escobar, in the El Tambo sector, and it’s the working headquarters of the Corporación Parque Arví, the nonprofit that runs it. It’s a protected watershed with farms and families living and working there. It’s really well done, and it’s purpose is clearly to share the natural beauty and history of the place.
After leaving the tram station, you’re greeted by modern, low wooden buildings, boardwalks, signage in two languages, benches, clean restrooms, a big trail map board, stalls selling coffee and food and wares made by people who live in the farms and villages around the center. The Feria de las Flores (the big city flower fair) had finished a couple of weeks earlier and the banners were still up. We walked around the plaza first, and after a coffee decided to do their trekking circuit.
We bought the self-guided walk, just four short trails linked into a circuit, about three and a half kilometers. There’s nothing technical about it, but you’re at 2,400 metres, so with a bit of climbing we felt the altitude. It was well marked and maintained and included various placards explaining different aspects of the forest. We saw very few people the whole time and passed just one ranger and a small guided tour.
Layered canopy, tree ferns, moss on everything, epiphytes in every branch fork. Really beautiful! Their orchid dome was open, and their huerta (vegetable and herb garden) was hardy, with maybe 15 raised beds with rows of vegetables in the middle of a cloud forest!
Tonight, our last in Medellín, we ate at Don Diablo Steakhouse near the hotel. Excellent steak and service!
Photos/videos of Day 4 here:
alsur.blog 
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