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SantaElena

As the saying goes: "Tiene mas curvas que la carretera a Santa Elena". (She has more curves than the road to Santa Elena.)

Santa Elena is an area in the mountains 45 minutes from MedellinGuide with beautiful nature and great hiking and views of the valley. Flowers are grown here for export and for sale in Medellin. It's very safe to visit. Santa Elena is also amous with students as a place to go eat mushrooms (hongos). A lot of artist and some foreigners live in this area, since it's so close to the city, is beautiful and has historically always been quite safe. I lived here myself for 3 months in 1999 in a finca.

There aren't many easily accessible places to stay in Santa Elena. Most people come on daytrips, but you can also rent a room or camp, or even rent a finca.

Santa Elena consists of a main road and multiple "veredas", which are sideroads. Each sideroad has its own attractions. Some veredas have 2 parts, for example vereda El Cerro later becomes Pantanilla.

El Plan.

One of the best veredas (sideroads) is El Plan. Just ask the bus driver to drop you off there.

Just before the entrance of El Plan is a restaurant in an old house that's been there since 1820 called Conejos y Conejos (rabbits and rabbits). It's funky, and the food is very good and affordable. Try the rabbit. Yes, you knew I was gonna say that. It's good. Lunch (with rabbit) is 5500 pesos, and you can also eat delicacies such as pig ear or filled chicken head. Recommended.

Once you walk up the road at El Plan, after about 25 minutes you'll arrive at El Chispero, a small shop on a crossroads. Turn right, walk past the first crossroads, and then turn right on a path (you might have to ask) to go to El Mirador (the viewpoint), one of best viewpoints in Santa Elena. You'll have to go through some foresty bits, and then you'll arrive at a place with an incredible view of Medellin down in the valley.

You could actually walk down through the woods all the way down to Medellin from here if you want. It's far though, and you might get lost, but just keep going down and try to follow some paths.

Santa Elena town & Places to Stay

Just beyond the stop for El Plan you'll see Santa Elena the town. It's just a square, a church, a school and a few houses. You can go have a look at the cemetery.

Canela (tel 538 17 64 or 538 10 05) is a great cafe/restaurant to have a drink or lunch. The food is quite good, lasagna is 7800 pesos. They also provide 3 double rooms with bathroom for 70000 pesos each that are very nice. In December they're usually fully booked. During other times of the year you might be able to get a discount.

If you walk beyond Santa Elena town, 15 minutes, you'll see a school at your right hand side. Right past the school (before vereda Pantanilla) there is a new place called Asterix. You'll see a sign, just turn right on the path 5 minutes towards the big house. It's in a beautiful old house that the owner is restoring. He's got pool tables, and you can camp here for 10000 pesos per tent. It's not officially open yet (Dec 2006), but we checked and the owner welcomes campers.

If you ask around you should be able to find more places to camp.

If you walk up in the vereda Pantanilla, you can follow to signs to another Mirador (viewpoint), that has great views of the other side of the mountains towards RioNegro?. This mirador is accessible by car and has a small shop. Walking there from Santa Elena town will take about an hour.

If you want to rent a finca (a farm), here are some tips. First, it's much harder to find one with furniture, most are rented out without furniture. In December, most fincas are rented out too. A nice finca that can fit 2 or 3 couples with furniture can cost around US$ 500 a month, but prices vary a lot. A barebones finca could cost US$ 200 a month. If you are looking, go to El Chispero and ask for "Choza", a friendly guy who knows about most fincas being rented out.

Transportation.

You can take a bus from Calle 49 (Ayocucho) and Carrera 42, in the center of Medellin. Buses are 1300 pesos and take about 45 minutes. In Santa Elena itself, there are a lot of taxis and collectivos, it's fairly easy to get around.

Pictures

For more information and dozens of fotos of Santa Elena visit http://www.medellininfo.com/neighborhoods/SantaElena/index.html

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