Declared a protective forest reserve since 1970, the Arví Park is a natural treasure of the city. It offers visitors the possibility of discovering the magic of nature, including fauna, flora, water, and highly fragile and vulnerable cloud forests.

With the accompaniment of guides, you can walk around the park or book tourist packages with the Arví Park Corporation—the entity that manages the park—which include bicycle or horseback rides across the park. You’ll also find camping areas (located inside the Hotel y Parque Ecológico Piedras Blancas owned by Comfenalco) and picnic areas.

It’s an old bridle path, known as Circuito El Cartucho, whose history is linked to the old house Posada León de Oro, currently situated in the Montevivo Natural Reserve. This road is also called José María Córdova’s Road because the hero used it to travel between the Valle de Aburrá and the Valle de San Nicolás. In several sections, the road borders the Santa Elena stream.

It’s a stone road showing the ability of the indigenous people and settlers to break through the barriers of the mountains and envision one of the main trade routes that connected the Valle de Aburrá with the rest of the country. The mule trains transported merchandise along this road to reach the Valle de San Nicolás and, through it, the Magdalena Medio region. In addition, the Camino de la Cuesta connected with other ancient routes that linked the emerging Medellín with Santa Fe de Antioquia and the Valle del Cauca.

This house museum was built in 1820 as a diner, and currently operates as a restaurant with a wood stove and a fireplace in the reception area. Its structure, chambranles, mud and dung walls, and clay tiles are preserved intact. This place exhibits a collection of antiques such as old photos, oil lamps, witches’ dolls, a collection of liquor bottles, chairs, and jukeboxes.

In the small town, there’s a great architectural heritage of original rammed-earth houses, characterized by the simple composition of their facades and their decorative elements.

The Piedras Blancas Dam is located in lands of the municipality of Guarne, in the northwest of Medellín, 15 kilometers from the city by road. It’s supplied by the Piedras Blancas and Chorrillos streams, but it also receives water from the La Honda and La Mosca streams through pumping systems. The construction of the Piedras Blancas dam began in 1948 and was completed in 1952, becoming the first embankment dam in the department of Antioquia.

This is an administrative center and a practice site for the agricultural and animal husbandry programs of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It has classrooms, dormitories, and meeting rooms for professors and students. It stands out mainly for its domestic architecture of ecological and landscape value.

This is an agrotourism and historical site of the silleteros and rural culture of Santa Elena. During your visit, you can learn about the history of José’s Farm, the history of the Silleteros Parade, the different crops of flowers and vegetables, muleteers and old roads, the history of the Santa Elena stream, and how to make a silleta. In the main frame, you can find the Cuento de las Flores (Tale of the Flowers), with more than 60 varieties of flowers; an antique room and photographs of the history of Santa Elena; and the Yerbatero room, among other stands that make this a charming place.

The demonstration garden of clean agriculture is the effort that seeks to recover our grandparents’ agricultural techniques, using natural inputs to cultivate the food and avoiding the use of chemical substances. In this garden, you’ll find a great diversity of plants, especially those known as “magical and religious” to which esoteric powers are attributed. Buttercup, mugwort, rue, eucalyptus, medicinal plants, ornamental plants, and a wide range of food plant species such as beans, potatoes, peas, and cabbages stand out in this garden.

Moreover, this is an educational garden, where you can learn about topics such as vermiculture and biological irrigation. It has a biodigester that helps to obtain gas for domestic use.

The parish single-nave church in the rural settlement of Barro Blanco is a relatively new religious attraction. Its construction began in June 1984 on land donated by the late Séfora Alzate and Pedro Luis Londoño. The community participated in this construction by providing the labor and some of the required materials.

This trail tells the story of all the biblical, indigenous, and Afro-descendant carriers, as well as the peasant carriers and silleteros, especially those from Santa Elena.

The Path of Myths and Legends includes an oral memory compilation of Santa Elena and a representation of characters in figures made with flowers.

In 1987, the Vanegas family donated a piece of land for the construction of the church, motivated by the need to have an appropriate place to carry out the different religious activities of Catholic worship. The inhabitants began this important work for the cultural development of the area.

The architectural-pictorial conformation of the church has a baroque, gothic style. The bell is 350 years old and was brought from France as a donation, the glassware and stained glass were brought from Germany; and part of the church is constructed with classic wood according to the methods of Renaissance art.

The Piedras Blancas nursery was built in 1923 in the rural settlement of La Honda in a place known as La Mayoría, in the municipality of Guarne. Then, in 1938, it was moved to the rural settlement of Mazo in the municipality of Medellín; at the time, the nursery was called El Semillero. In 1947, the Piedras Blancas nursery was installed in the municipality of Guarne, as part of the cultural region of Santa Elena. It was the first conifer nursery created in Colombia.

The small town of Santa Elena is culturally recognized for its silleteros tradition, which has led the small town to become a cultural heritage site under Law 838 of 2003. This tradition comes from the time when silletas were used as a means of transporting different products to other places in Medellín and nearby municipalities. The silleta is an ingenious instrument that adapts to the carrier’s back in order to carry loads or people. It’s made of wood and it consists of a frame that is held by ropes and straps adjusted to the carrier’s shoulders and head. Small wooden legs serve as support and to easily handle it when lifting it and when placing it on the ground. The whole family participates in the making of silletas.

This is a mass community festival held every year in Medellín during the first days of August. This festival is the most emblematic celebration of the city. It’s an icon of the roots, the culture, and the history of the region. The festival offers a wide variety of events and shows, not all directly related to flowers, but they all make this a unique celebration.

The festival’s main attraction is the silleteros, who show the beauty of the flowers and entertain the community—a task they carried out silently when they used to go down to the “city of eternal spring” to sell their flowers. Since they received such good acceptance, a group of citizens proposed that the farmers could organize a more colorful parade along the main roads of Medellín, which today is the Silleteros Parade.

This festival seeks to recognize the great contribution of farmers to the economic development of the municipality of Medellín, as well as to emphasize that 71% of the municipality’s territory is rural. It’s held in July and its events are varied and supported by several departments of the Medellín Mayor’s Office and private entities.

This religious festivity gathers most of Santa Elena’s community, inviting them to venerate their patron Saint Helena, who, according to popular belief, helps the lost appear, recover health, and those who are absent return home. During these holidays, a novena, a mass, and a procession take place.

The week prior to the Silleteros Parade, you can learn about the culture and tradition of the flower growers, observing the making of the silletas in Santa Elena. During the week, there is a varied cultural agenda. Also, on the second Saturday of each month, you can learn about the culture of the different rural settlements of the small town.

The area is surrounded mostly by forests of native species and some plantations and is inhabited by 34 families. Its name comes from the fact that all of its inhabitants have the surname Vásquez. Most of these families live from the use of forest resources such as guacos, reeds, leaves, stems, and barks. They use these resources to make handicrafts that they sell to support the family economy. Currently, they are seeking independence from the Mazo rural settlement by establishing their own community action board, water supply, and other projects. This initiative has allowed them to stand out from the other rural settlements or sectors.

This lagoon is located on the edge of the eastern slope that borders the Valle de Aburrá. This place is known for its outstanding natural beauty and scenic quality, since its privileged location makes it a splendid lookout point of the entire Valle de Aburrá. The lagoon is surrounded by plantations of cypress trees, patula pines, and low and high stubble. Also, this area is home to common species such as Cavendishia pubescens, myrtles, Vismia baccifera, Myrsine coriacea, and Baccharis latifolia.

Meeting place for recreational activities such as camping and outdoor journeys while enjoying the scenery and the breathtaking view of Valle de San Nicolás, Rionegro, Marinilla, El Carmen de Viboral, and the southern area of the small town of Santa Elena, including the rural settlement of Pantanillo. It’s one of the geographical sites bordering the municipality of Rionegro since it’s a fluvial confluence and a watershed between Valle de Aburrá and Valle de San Nicolás. Several streams flow from its slopes, including the Santa Elena stream.

It provides a panoramic view of the city of Medellín, which makes it an attractive place to visit. It’s a meeting point for recreational activities such as camping and outdoor days while enjoying the beautiful scenery of Valle de Aburrá. It’s called La Paloma (The Pigeon) because it has the shape of a pigeon that can be seen from the lower areas of the city.

This natural lookout point is located next to the Medellín-Rionegro road. From there, you can see a panoramic view of Medellín. It’s frequently visited by the local and regional community thanks to the beautiful night view of the city. At Christmas time, the view is even more stunning because Christmas lights can be easily observed from there. It’s situated on the border of the Piedra Gorda and Media Luna rural settlements.

This is a place of great scenic value because it provides a panoramic view of the central and southern part of Valle de Aburrá. It’s used as a flora and fauna viewpoint and also as a passing or arrival point for visitors who take ecological day and night hikes.

This park is located in the so-called “dam core” of the Arví Park. It’s an 18-hectare forest reserve bordering an unparalleled water body in the area of Santa Elena. This ecological park includes sites such as the Entomological Museum, a reservoir with boat rental and fishing area, a butterfly farm, picnic and camping areas, a zip line, ecological trails, and orchid crops.

This is the source stream that feeds the San Pedro water supply for the rural settlements of El Llano, Perico, and El Plan. It’s a tributary of the Santa Elena stream, which serves the water supply of the rural settlements of Santa Elena.

This reserve is located southeast of the Arví Park, at an altitude of 2,650 meters above sea level. It’s one of the geographical sites bordering the municipality of Rionegro since it’s a fluvial confluence and watershed between Valle de Aburrá and Valle de San Nicolás. Several streams flow from its slopes, including the Santa Elena stream, which runs towards Valle de Aburrá and which supplied the city’s first water supply system. It currently feeds the water supply for the rural settlements of Santa Elena, with the greatest coverage in this small town.

This trail is surrounded by the natural beauty of its native and planted forests. It was used by the inhabitants of the rural settlements of El Rosario, Barro Blanco, and Piedra Gorda to connect to each other before the existence of a paved road. People from the region currently use it to collect forest products, and is part of the circuits, roads, and trails of the Arví Park, which has been promoting ecological tourism for several years. The route is about 1,500 meters long, with a sloping topography and a level-2 difficulty. It takes approximately 2.5 hours to complete.