The Hacienda Napoles is a vast estate that belonged to Pablo Escobar, one of the most feared members of the cartel de Medellin in Colombia. An area around nine times the size of Central Park that includes a Spanish colonial style mansion, a variety of residences and the remains of the Escobar private park. In 2007, the Hacienda Napoles was opened as a theme park, which serves to curious visitors interested in learning about the histories of this farm. Until Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993, Hacienda Napoles was his headquarters, therefore very few people were able to reach stepping on these lands. Escobar had a variety of luxuries here, including a runway landing and a large private swimming pool in addition to the beautiful landscapes of the region, but the most notable feature of the estate was probably his Zoo private, equipped with a wide variety of exotic animals.
When Escobar died, his family claimed the estate, but was confiscated by the Colombian Government, and I put in the care of the nearby town of Puerto Triunfo. Most of the animals in the Zoo were exported to other zoos around the world that can receive proper care, but the hippos were left were left there. These hippos have joined the fame of the Hacienda Napoles, although Escobar only came to bring four of these animals, at least 18 were numbered from 2003 on the site and have been raised in a wild manner. Since hippos can be very aggressive and highly territorial, doubts were raised about how the hippos can be captured and removed from the place, so there was much debate about what to do with them. From 2008, hippos of the Hacienda Napoles continued wandering through the site along with visitors, pushed to the mansion to its quick disintegration. Today you can admire sculptures of life-size dinosaurs and play in the land that once inspired so many fears.
Some critics have suggested that glorifying a drug dealer turning his private estate in a park theme is in bad taste, but the Government of Colombia maintains that the site provides needed jobs, and the Park includes educational exhibits about the crimes of Escobar to reinforce the idea that he was a criminal. Several families of refugees also settled in the Hacienda Napoles, in various structures abandoned the site. When the Hacienda Napoles became a theme park, the refugee families, are supposed, in theory, they moved to more adequate housing, although some commentators noted that there was a certain irony on the homes of the victims of the wars of the drug from Colombia while they lived on the farm of a former drug dealer.