Exploring Park La Marquesa
If you are into Parks like I am, you know that every park is different and has a different feel too. “La marquesa” is one of those parks who offers you different activities and areas for you to explore ,well maintained and totally affordable.The Forest Park la Marquesa is an ecological park 15 minutes from the metropolitan area. The park has 600 ropes of land populated with trees, located in the Cerro La Marquesa of the Sonadora neighborhood. It is a place for the whole family, where they can enjoy their day visiting different attractions. It has an entry cost of $7 and includes everything but the food consumption. To start exploring the park, you can take a seven-minute ride on the cableway that rises up to 1,300 feet in height. I found this to be shorter than 7 minutes, I'm pretty sure it was because, I was in the cabin with a first time funicular rider. She had the most creative worst case scenarios, I've ever heard. She really made my day, I couldn't stop laughing.
If you can’t bear the thought of stepping inside a funicular and being 1,300 feet away from the ground; you can take a walk-able path that’ll take you to the waterfall and observation tower of the park. Takes approximately, 12 minutes. Once you step out of the cable car’s cabin, you will find the gift shop, aviary and the butterfly house. The park has the option for visitors to book a tour but it's only available to groups of 5 people or more. During the tour, visitors travel through the different attractions: aviary, butterfly house, exhibits of macaws, cockatoos, Amazon parrots, peacocks, pheasants and flamingos, among others. I went by myself but managed to talk to one of the tour guides to give me a walk-through. It's a tour filled with ton of information and the tour guides are witty and fun. The butterfly house and the aviary were beautiful. The birds were colorful and healthy looking.
The shop is really cute and it has a small selection of themed items.
You can take the train truck down to the observation tower or one of the many playgrounds. I preferred to walk down the path to the observation tower. On my way to there, I tried to stop at the arboretum but it was under renovation. Boo-hoo for me.
As I approached the observation tower, I had to go up a hill, who left me exhausted and out of breath. To only realized that I had to take stairs to go up to the tower.( Yes, I was expecting an elevator) Nonetheless, those stairs are sure worth the effort. Once you get there be sure to appreciate the spectacular view from the 70 foot observation tower. I spend a good 30 minutes up there, good breeze, great view, alone with my thoughts.
Right after the observation tower I went to see the small, man-made waterfall. Where I stayed a couple minutes just hearing the sound of the waterfall.One thing I must advice is that if you visit the park from may-august you may find big crowds and if you aren't a big fan of them, it might change your experience of the park.
ALSO, for those who like extreme sports, there are facilities available for zip line, rappelling and hiking (cost not included in the admission price). I'll be sure to get back and let you know how it is.