Jardín Botánico, Orquideorama and Parque Explora (Zona Norte) Guide

Directly outside Universidad Station on Metro Line A, northern Medellín's Zona Norte (Carabobo Norte) was reimagined in the mid-2000s as an open, democratic green corridor of science, ecology, and contemporary Colombian architecture. Within a five-minute walk of one another sit a 14-hectare subtropical botanical garden, a world-famous timber orchid pavilion, an interactive science museum and Amazonian aquarium, the municipal Planetarium, and the oasis of Parque de los Deseos.

1. Jardín Botánico Joaquín Antonio Uribe (Founded 1972)

Occupying the historic grounds of the late nineteenth-century Bosque de la Independencia pleasure park, the Jardín Botánico de Medellín was officially established on 19 April 1972 and named in honour of Antioquian naturalist and educator Joaquín Antonio Uribe (1858 to 1935). Spanning 14 hectares and open to the public free of charge (Tuesday to Sunday), the garden preserves more than 4,500 individual trees and 1,000 living plant species native to Colombia's diverse tropical biomes:

• The Tropical Rainforest and Palm Collection: Follow raised wooden boardwalks through a dense, humid lowland forest canopy, past over 120 species of Colombian palms (including the towering Quindío wax palm, Colombia's national tree), a desert xerophytic garden, and the Butterfly House (Casa de las Mariposas).
• Laguna Francisco José de Caldas: Around the central lake and restaurant terrace (Restaurante In Situ), wild green iguanas (Iguana iguana) sunbathe on tree branches alongside freshwater turtles and colourful tropical birds.

2. The Orquideorama (2006): Contemporary Timber Architecture

At the heart of the botanical garden rises one of the most celebrated works of twenty-first-century Latin American architecture: the Orquideorama. Designed by Medellín studios Plan B Arquitectos (Felipe Mesa and Alejandro Bernal) and JPRCR Arquitectos (Camilo Restrepo and J. Paul Vélez) and completed in 2006, the structure blurs the boundary between building and forest canopy.

Ten modular, 20-metre-tall hexagonal "flower-tree" (flor-árbol) columns framed in steel and clad in honey-coloured pinewood slats interlock overhead across 4,200 square metres like a giant honeycomb. Rainwater is channelled down the hollow central trunks to hydrate circular beds of native Cattleya orchids (Colombia's national flower), bromeliads, and ferns below, while the shaded plaza hosts August's Feria de las Flores orchid exposition and weekend botanical markets.

3. Parque Explora, the Freshwater Aquarium, and Parque de los Deseos

Step across the pedestrian promenade of Paseo Carabobo Norte to Parque Explora (opened in December 2007 and designed by architect Alejandro Echeverri), instantly recognisable by its four cantilevered bright-red metal cubes. Inside, its three-level Acuario Explora is one of the largest freshwater aquariums in South America, recreating flooded Amazonian forests and Orinoco river basins with giant pirarucu (arapaima) fish, freshwater stingrays, electric eels, piranhas, and coral-reef marine tanks, directly opposite the Planetario de Medellín Jesús Emilio Ramírez González.