2 Parks in Colombia, South America Feb 2, 2002

Bet you didnt know about these parks, I certainly didnt. Both are located near the city of Armenia in Colombia, South America. I was visiting friends of mine, an exchange student that stayed with me about 12 years ago. During my visit we traveled to Armenia to visit 2 of the most amazing national parks. National Parks don't normally belong here but both of these had many attractions, shows and the second park even had a decent rollercoaster. The second park is listed in the coasterbuzz database.

Panaca
February 1, 2002
http://www.panaca.com.co
In essence, this park was an animal sanctuary. Amazingly scenic location surrounded on all sides by the Andes Mountains. The park has wonderful landscaping with many different types of trees, flowers, and folliage that I had never seen before in my life. Absolutely stunning. The whole place has a very "real" feel to it. All of the decor is very tasteful and subtle. The park was very lightly crowded this day. Maybe 500-1000 people total in the whole park. Many interesting animals to see. Several very fun shows starring animals. Pig Races, Horse Stunt Show, Bird Show, Dog Show. We had a wonderful day, the weather was beautiful until it rained at the very end of the day.
Check out the website for some great photos.

Parque Nacional del Cafe (National Park of Coffee)
February 2, 2002
http://www.parquenacionaldelcafe.com/
I thought this park was even more beautiful than Panaca. You enter at the top of a fairly large hill. There are some beautiful gardens and traditionally styled buildings. Inside of the buildings there are many exhibits showing the history of coffee production in Colombia. The remainder of the park is located in the valley below. You can either take a sky ride car to the bottom or walk along this beautiful, long and widing path through extremely lush vegetation. We chose the walk. At the bottom you first encounter a central plaza area that is replica of a typical Colombian "Plaza de Bolivar". A few simple restaurants and shops in the plaza and one of the Trains Stops. We then entered the amusements area where we rode on a few of the rides; a log flume, go carts, and even a honest to goodness roller coaster. I was very surprised because this coaster is actually listed in the coaster buzz database. Not a bad ride, starts with a spiral-up instead of a traditional chain hill. couple of nice hills, a few head choppers, some great swoops down through the vegetation, and a nice long tunnel at the end. We also went horse back riding near the end of the day. We took the sky car back up to the top at the end of the day. On our way home, we rode on this incredibly small, but very crowded bus. It was moving so fast through the mountainous roads and there was a lady on the bus who had a chicken with her.

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"Looks like you've been missing quite a bit of work lately"
"Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob."

Oh my, I looked at some pics on their site and this looks like Schwarzkopf Speed Racer like the Whizzer at SFGAm.  I thought it was the only one.  It says on RCDB that it was originally at Worlds of Fun and was called the Zambezi Zinger.  Anyone know if that ride as a Speed Racer?
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Bob Hansen

New Top 5:
5-MF; 4-X-Flight; 3-Hulk; 2-Kraken; 1-Raging Bull

Did you ride the Speed Racer. If you did how was it? Is it still WO Seat Restraints?
I miss the Ole Zambezi Zinger

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Chris Knight
All Your Base are belong to us
That's not roughness that intensity

Sounds like quite a adventure, some of the parks in other countries are just so cool and unique. Some of my favorite parks are outside of the US and while they may not provide as many thrills as most US parks, they make up for that in cultural atmoshpere and the exotic theming and setting.
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confucius say:Show-off always shown up in showdown.
Best Fortune ever!!

posted at the request of mc_quiceno...

Hello everyone ! I am from Colombia and I was in those parks with jdancisin, I enjoyed that trip a lot but I didnt realize how much he liked them. Sometimes you have wonderful things in your own country and you dont know. Everyone knows that Colombia has a difficult situation now and it feels so great that people who are not from here can come visit us, know and find the great and amazing things we have to offer. All of you are always welcome in this beautiful and amazing country.

a proud colombian,
mc_quiceno

*** This post was edited by jdancisin on 3/2/2002. ***

*** This post was edited by jdancisin on 3/2/2002. ***