Hacienda Napoles is located In between the city of Medellin and Bogota, the Colombian capital, it was the famous ranch owned by the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.
In the 1980’s Escobar built himself a zoo. At the height of his power, Escobar was estimated to be worth more than $30 billion.
He smuggled in elephants, giraffes, hippos and other exotic animals, he allowed the public to wander freely around the zoo.
The entrance was decorated with a Piper airplane identical to the one used by Escobar to fly his first shipment of cocaine to the United States, and the grounds were filled with statues of dinosaurs and other creatures.
When Hacienda Napoles was confiscated in the early 1990s, and then transformed back into a zoo and theme park, complete with water slides for the general public to enjoy.
After the animals were confiscated and safely placed in zoo’s across Colombia, the hippos themselves thrived, and multiplied. Nobody knows how many there are.
The local environmental authority, who is responsible for them, estimate that there are between 50 and 60, and today because of Escobar Colombia is the only country in Latin America that has a Hippo population, There are only about 6 countries throughout the world that have a Hippo population
In 2014, a “Jurassic Park”-style African theme park was operating on the grounds, which have been rented by a private company. “Parque Temático Hacienda Nápoles” comes complete with a water park, a guided safari attraction, aquariums, and a replica of the caves in Colombia’s Cueva de los Guácharos National Park.
his burned private car collection, and the abandoned “ruins” of his house are still publicly accessible but are reported to have collapsed in February 2015.
Pablo Escobar’s Name Creates a New Form of Travel
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