Santa Elena in June: Lunch With the Silleteros Before the World Arrives

The truck groaned up the switchbacks out of Medellín at 6:40 a.m., and the temperature dropped ten degrees in twenty minutes. That's the thing about Santa Elena — it sits at roughly 2,600 meters on the ridge above the city, and the weather acts like it. June is technically rainy season, which means afternoon downpours that roll in around 2 p.m. like clockwork, mornings that start cool and clear, and a window of about five good hours to be outside before everything goes sideways.

Most people know Santa Elena — if they know it at all — because of the Feria de las Flores in August, when the silleteros carry enormous flower arrangements on wooden frames down into the city. Thousands of tourists pack the route. But the silleteros live up here year-round, and in June they're still growing the flowers, still building the silletas, still eating lunch. That's the version I came for.

1. Getting up the mountain (and what the drive is actually like)

From El Poblado, the drive to the Parque Arví area of Santa Elena takes about 45 minutes by car if traffic cooperates, which it sometimes doesn't on Saturday mornings. The road is paved but narrow in stretches, with enough blind curves to keep things interesting. Uber and InDriver both work for the trip; expect to pay around COP $35,000–$45,000 one way.

The other option is the Metrocable from Acevedo station to Santo Domingo, then the teleferico across the valley to Parque Arví. It's cheaper — COP $7,200 for the full cable ride — and the views of the valley floor are worth the forty-minute commute. But the teleferico doesn't run on Mondays, and the last return cable leaves at 5 p.m. Plan accordingly or you're stuck negotiating a cab in the dark.

Skip the organized "Parque Arví eco-tour" packages sold at hostels downtown. They charge COP $150,000 or more per person for a guided walk you can do yourself with a trail map from the park entrance. The trails are well-marked. You don't need a guide to walk through a forest.

2. Lunch at a silletero farm

Several silletero families in the veredas around Santa Elena open their fincas to visitors for meals and informal tours of their flower fields. The one I keep going back to is Finca Silletera El Paso, on the road toward Vereda Barro Blanco. A woman named Doña Gloria runs the kitchen. The set lunch — a bandeja with beans, rice, chicharrón, avocado, arepa, and a fried egg the size of your palm — costs COP $18,000.

What makes June different from August is the quiet. No crowds. No loudspeakers. Just Gloria's dogs under the table and the sound of rain starting on the tin roof. She'll walk you through the flower beds after you eat if you ask, and she'll show you the silleta her family is building for the festival. The wood frame alone weighs around 30 kilos before a single flower goes on.

I made the mistake of visiting a silletero farm for the first time during Feria week in 2019. Buses lined the road. People jostled for photos. It felt like a theme park. June is the opposite of that.

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3. The flowers themselves

Hydrangeas, mostly. Enormous clusters of them in blues and pinks, growing in rows alongside agapanthus, cartuchos (calla lilies), and birds of paradise. The altitude and the cloud cover make this ridge a natural greenhouse. June is mid-growing season, so the fields are thick but not yet at peak bloom — that comes in late July as the families push toward the August festival.

The flowers are beautiful, but the real draw is watching how these families work. The silletero tradition goes back generations, and it's agricultural labor, not performance art. The men carry 75-kilo silletas on their backs for kilometers during the desfile. In June, you see the unglamorous part — the composting, the pruning, the frame construction. That's more honest than any parade.

Dirt under fingernails and a machete leaning against the wall.

4. Where to walk if you've got the afternoon

Parque Arví has about 16 kilometers of marked trails, and the Sendero de la Caminera loop is the one to start with — roughly 4.5 kilometers, mostly flat, through secondary cloud forest. In June the trails can be muddy after the afternoon rains, so waterproof boots aren't optional. Regular sneakers will betray you within the first kilometer.

The park entrance near the Metrocable station has a small market on weekends where local vendors sell obleas, arequipe, and fresh strawberries with cream for COP $5,000–$8,000. Grab an oblea before you start walking. They don't keep well in a backpack, so eat it standing up like everyone else.

Start the trail to Laguna de Guarne — about 8 kilometers round-trip, far fewer people — by 9 a.m. to beat the rain.

5. Coffee, aguapanela, and the question of staying overnight

There are a few small cafés near the Parque Arví núcleo — nothing fancy, but the tinto is strong and costs COP $2,000. For something warmer, order aguapanela con limón. It's sugarcane water with lime, served hot, and in the June chill at 2,600 meters it's better than any latte you'll find in Laureles.

Staying overnight is possible but limited. A handful of cabañas and hostales operate along the road between the park and the village center. Expect to pay COP $80,000–$150,000 per night for something basic but clean. The reason to stay is the morning — the ridge at 6 a.m. before the clouds build is a different world. Cold. Birds everywhere.

I wouldn't stay more than one night. The area is small, and after a full day of walking and eating you've covered it. Two nights and you're restless.

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6. Why June and not August

The Feria de las Flores is a spectacle. I won't pretend otherwise. But it's also hot, packed, and expensive — hotel prices in Medellín spike 40–60% during the first two weeks of August. Flights from Bogotá that normally run COP $150,000 each way jump past $400,000.

June gives you the source material without the production. You eat at the same table where the silletas are built. You see the flowers in the dirt, not on a parade float. The silleteros talk to you because they have time to talk, not because they're performing for a camera crew.

There's a risk that articles like this one ruin the quiet. I'm aware of that. But these families want visitors — they just want them spread across the year, not crammed into one frantic week. Gloria told me that directly, standing in her kitchen, drying a pot with a rag. I believed her.