Jardin Botanico del Quindio

The garden covers about fifteen hectares of Andean forest on a slope, most of it left as forest with trails through rather than cleared and planted. Its best-known structure is the butterfly house - a large enclosure built in the shape of a butterfly seen from above, holding a few thousand individuals of local species with a breeding laboratory attached where the life cycle is shown from egg to adult. A canopy tower of about twenty metres rises through the trees with platforms at intervals. There are also palm, bamboo and medicinal plant collections, an insect museum and an ethnobotanical area. Visits are guided, which is unusual for a botanical garden and makes the visit longer than expected.

What you actually see

• A butterfly house shaped like a butterfly - with a breeding laboratory.
• A canopy tower of about twenty metres - platforms through the trees.
• Fifteen hectares mostly left as forest - trails rather than beds.
• Bamboo, palm and medicinal collections - alongside the forest.

When to go

Year round; the region is wet in most months. Three hours.

Honest expectations

Visits are guided and take longer than a self-directed walk. Trails are steep and often muddy. Butterflies are less active on cool cloudy days. Rain is frequent.

Nearby

Calarca is close; Salento and the Cocora valley are north.