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In this article:
- Hacienda Napoles is a 7.7-square-mile estate that once belonged to Colombian drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar.
- When Escobar was killed, the property was turned over to the Colombian government and then sold to a private party.
- Today, the estate has been transformed into a tourist attraction that features a zoo, a waterpark, several restaurants, and so much more.
By the time he died in 1993, Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar had amassed a fortune of over $30 billion dollars, making him the wealthiest drug dealer in the history of the world.
During the late 1980s, Colombian authorities seized some of his assets, which included 142 planes, 30 helicopters, 32 yachts, and 141 homes and offices. Escobar’s homes were scattered all around the nation of Colombia, some of them on extremely grandiose estates.
One of the most famous of these estates was a 7.7-square-mile plot of land in Puerto Triunfo. This location was known as “Hacienda Napoles,” which translates to “Naples Estate.”
Today, Hacienda Napoles looks a lot different than it did back in the days when it was owned by Escobar.
The stashes of weapons and gangs of narcotraficantes have been replaced with hordes of Colombian families vacationing in flip-flops and bathing suits. That’s right. One of Pablo Escobar’s most famous estates is now a zoo and waterpark — and it’s very big and very impressive.
Recently, after staying in Rincon del Mar, I went on to Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city. While there, I had the opportunity to visit Hacienda Napoles and experience this strange attraction.
My girlfriend and I were mostly drawn by the park’s mascot, Vanessa, a massive female hippopotamus with an affinity for carrots. But this park has so much more to offer, from restaurants to roller coasters to waterslides to cheesy performances.
So, if you find yourself traveling through Colombia, here’s what you should know about the history of Hacienda Napoles and what it looks like today.
Getting From Medellin to Hacienda Napoles
Getting from the city of Medellin to Hacienda Napoles was pretty straightforward. From our hostel in the heart of Medellin’s El Poblado neighborhood, we took a taxi ride to the city’s North Bus Terminal (Terminal Del Norte).
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From there, you can find buses that go directly to the town of Doradal, the town located closest to Hacienda Napoles.
A bus ticket from Medellin to Doradal usually costs about 40,000 Colombian pesos (about $10 USD). Once in the lovely little town of Doradal, we were able to find a private room for relatively cheap that was located rather close to Hacienda Napoles.
From our hotel, we took a short tuk-tuk ride to the park. That ride took us through the park’s gates, but it wasn’t for another 10 minutes or so after entering the gates that we saw arrived at the actual entrance since the park comprises the entire 7.7 square-mile estate.
Inside Hacienda Napoles
Hacienda Napoles has been transformed into the ultimate tourist attraction with so many things to do and see that you couldn’t possibly cover it all in a single day.
Though we did our best to show up as soon as the gates opened and stayed until we were actually told to leave because it was late, we still missed out on some of the park’s biggest attractions.
As I mentioned, our first priority was to visit the park’s mascot Vanessa. However, by the time we got there, it was pouring rain. Torrentially pouring rain. That’s what you get when you show up to the rainforest of Colombia in the wet season. Anyway, we trudged onwards.
Along the way, we saw some elephants in a large enclosure. We also saw a bunch of goats and ostriches running around outside of the enclosures. Cars and motorbikes often had to stop in the middle of the road to let an ostrich cross safely.
I could already tell that this place was going to be pure madness.
Vanessa
Finally, we arrived at Vanessa’s enclosure and, oh, was she beautiful. This massive mammal that had been brought from the rivers of Africa flaunted her stuff with no shame.
She would put her face up to the fence and let you stroke her nose. If she noticed that you were holding a carrot, she would open up her mouth and let you toss a carrot slice in there, which was immediately followed by the crunching sound of the carrot against her hippo-molars.
It made me a bit sad to see an animal so graceful in captivity, but I felt true love and admiration for this gargantuan beast. She was kept separate from the other hippos at the park and I’m not quite sure why. But, I hope that Vanessa is as happy and as healthy as a hippo could be in such a situation.
We love you, Vanessa.
Aquatic Attractions
After visiting Vanessa, we spent the next few hours slipping and sliding around the many waterslides in the park. Some of them were a bit thrilling. But I have to say that most were pretty mild.
This part of the park is mostly geared toward children and you don’t want to scare the living hell out of small kids. There is a part of the park called Mundo de Pangea where they supposedly have much more intense waterslides, but we never made it over there.
All in all, we had a phenomenal time on the slides.
There was another part of the aquatic portion of the park called Cataratas Victoria, which I think is supposed to be an artificial model of Victoria Falls — one of the world’s largest waterfalls, located at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This man-made waterfall was impressive and I can’t imagine how much water must be going through it every minute. We splashed about in it for a little and I felt my inner child pining to get out.
Animals, Animals, Animals
Vanessa was certainly not the only animal at the park. Other species, including lions, tigers, jaguars, capybaras, anacondas, gazelles, elephants, many varieties of monkeys (including the pygmy marmoset, the world’s smallest monkey), giant anteaters, and much, much more.
I have to give a shoutout to a particular animal, though, a tapir that my girlfriend and I affectionately named George.
Tapirs are something like a small hippopotamus mixed with a pig. They’re amazing. We followed George around for a while and thoroughly enjoyed his company.
This is where I would like to remind readers that I don’t support keeping animals in captivity. Normally, I would never visit a zoo and contribute to animals being kept in cages.
However, this situation is somewhat unique since the animals were brought there by Escobar, or are the descendants of the animals he brought to populate his private menagerie. Born in captivity and so far from their natural habitats, it’s not easy to simply return them to the wild. So preserving Hacienda Napoles as a more professionally-run zoo (compared to the drug kingpin’s private menagerie) is one way to care for these animals.
The History of Hacienda Napoles
Pablo Escobar purchased the 7.7 square-mile plot that would become Hacienda Napoles in 1978 and, before long, the property was an impressive display of the kingpin’s wealth.
By the time that property was finished, he had furnished it with a massive Spanish colonial mansion, a private airport, several swimming pools, lush lawns and gardens, and a private menagerie that contained elephants, rhinos, and hippos.
The hippos that were part of Escobar’s private zoo were deemed too difficult to move when Escobar was taken down and the authorities seized Hacienda Napoles. As a result, they were left on the estate and eventually escaped into the wild.
Today, the four or five hippos that Escobar owned have multiplied into as many as 120 hippos living in the wild of Colombia, where they are an invasive species, disturbing the balance of the local ecosystem — another motive behind renovating the estate as a zoo.
Aside from strolling around his private zoo, Escobar also spent his time at Hacienda Napoles driving his collection of expensive cars, motorcycles, and go-karts. He also built life-size sculptures of dinosaurs, some of which are still present in the theme park.
At the entrance to the property, he had a replica of a Piper PA-18 Super Cub airplane, the type of airplane he used to transport his first shipment of cocaine to the United States.
After Escobar was shot and killed by Colombian police in 1993, though, the Colombian government took ownership of Hacienda Napoles. While in the possession of the government, the land was largely unused.
A couple of decades later, a private company bought the land and began transforming it into the theme park that stands there today.
While visiting the park, we could see many projects in the works. So, while Hacienda Napoles is already absolutely massive (maybe even too much so), it would appear that they have big plans to keep expanding it.
