As one would gather from past posts it was only semi-surprising when the garden turned out to be closed. We found a security guard who informed us that it would be opening at noon and so we walked around, had some coffee, and headed back at noontime. When we arrived at the gate that doesn't look anything like an entrance we were told that actually the garden was closing at noon and wouldn't be open for another two days. Needless to say I ranted all the way back to the metro.
Eventually we managed to get back to the Medellin Botanical Garden and find, once again, the obscure entrance. After paying our cuatro mil pesos we entered the garden. We walked, and walked, and walked and discovered something was amiss. There were renovation and construction projects all around us and yet...no flowers. Not a damn thing. Where are all the damn flowers!?
We were starting to get frustrated thinking maybe we were just not following the correct paths and that the signage wasn't correct but that was truly hopeful thinking. It became quite obvious that everyone else in the joint was also wondering where all the freaking flowers were. Wasn't this Medellin? City of Eternal Spring? Apparently the only interesting thing that was occurring was the appearance of a red squirrel. As I stared, barely containing my laughter for the ridiculousness of it all, a gaggle of Colombians became amazed at the presence of this squirrel and cameras were turned on and food was offered to get a chance to pet the squirrel.
Overall it was quite a disappointing garden and if I was fluent enough to speak my damn mind I would've demanded my money back because there was no way anyone should be paying for a walk through a construction site. So then we arrived in Bogotá and Mark announced (to a roll of my eyes) that he wanted to try the Bogotá Botanical Gardens. This time we hopped in a cab and arrived to another entrance that seemed to be under construction. But quickely our hopes were proven worthy and we entered into a wonderful land of trees and flowers that kept us entertained for some time.The cacti and succulent plants were amazing (if you ignored the fact that in this country people think it's a great idea to carve their names into the leaf of a cactus in a botanical garden).
Stunning, jewel-toned peacocks wandered about enjoying the weather.
The greenhouse had all sorts of jungle plants and were really cool to walk through. It had massive mangrove trees growing out of lagoons covered with lily pads and lotus flowers blooming.
A highlite was the rose garden. In a pretty square with a huge stone fountain in the center roses bloomed. Every color, shape, every type of bud, and rose (who knew there were so many kinds!) bloomed and it was just so gorgeous. I definitely didn't think of myself as a rose person but I'm a new fan. (Mark has a pic of a beautiful rose on his page)
So the good news is that the Bogotá gardens kicked butt and we weren't let down in our search for some gorgeous flowers.
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