The Best Medellin Waterfalls: Hike to La Catedral

If you are staying in Medellin and looking to get out of the city and into the hills, look no further than this hike that starts in Arenales, passes by some of the best waterfalls in Medellin, and ends at Pablo Escobar’s old prison … La Catedral.

On this hike you will head WAY up into the mountains surrounding Medellin and get some AMAZING views of the city from hills. You will also hike along a beautiful river, and encounter three fresh waterfalls. Perhaps the best waterfalls in Medellin. You will see beautiful butterflies, birds, cats, and dogs along the route, as well as plenty of beautiful rural Colombian fincas.

Finally you will come out at the spot where Pablo Escobar built his prison overlooking the city, referred to as “Hotel Escobar” back in the day. The hike near Medellin is a beautiful walk through hills, rivers, waterfalls, forest, and greenery.

Best Medellin Waterfalls

Arenales is about a 15 minute taxi ride up the mountain from Envigado, which is just south of El Poblado. If you are staying in El Poblado or Laureles, get to Envigado by either taking the bus along the Avenida, the Metro, or a taxi. We took the bus from where we are staying in the Northern part of El Poblado, and got off at the Iglesia de San Jose.

From the Iglesia, we walked about two blocks and ate lunch at ‘Restaurante Mi Maria’, which was fabulous. Very local, very cheap, and very good food. The ‘Menu del Dia’ was 17,000 COP ($4.35) and filled us up. There were no tourists at all in the area, and the owners gave us a warm welcome to Envigado.

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How to Get to the Start of the hike from Envigado

From Mi Maria, we walked outside and asked a taxi driver if he could take us up to Arenales. He said sure. Arenales is a VERY steep drive up the mountains, and from what we have heard, a lot of taxi drivers won’t want to drive their cars up there. The road is very windy and steep. However, I think our driver didn’t really know what he was getting into as he had to stop and ask for directions along the way. I suspect that if he had known exactly where we wanted to go, he would have said no. With this being said, if your first request to a driver is turned down in Envigado, I would recommend asking someone else. Eventually you will find someone who hasn’t been up there before, and will happily accept your fare. 

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Once You Get to the Start

After a steep and shaky drive up the mountain, we were let off right in front of the bus stop at Arenales. Most people start the hike at ‘La Catedral’ and come down the mountain, and take the bus back from here. We chose to do the reverse, as we heard it is VERY steep and slippery coming down the mountain, and we’d rather slip going up than coming down. More on this later.

To complete the hike, we followed this trail on the app Wikiloc. Kelsey downloaded it to her phone offline before taking the taxi up to Arenales (to download the map offline, you need to get a pro subscription, but the app offers a free 14-day-trial. We highly recommend you do this).

Wikiloc uses your phone’s location to track where you are, and having the route in our hands made it easier to navigate at the few points there are forks in the road. Think of the app as a cross between All Trails and Strava. Download the map that someone else made that Kelsey used here, download the map she made as we went along the trail here.

Starting the hike – Arenales

From where we got dropped off, the “trail” was very clear, and very easy to navigate. I suspect this hike has changed a lot over the past few years. We read a lot prior to this hike saying the trail was hard to follow, poorly maintained, etc. Definitely not true now. It was very clear where to go, and very well maintained. 

After about a quarter mile of walking along a “road trail” we headed into the forest with beautiful sights and fresh air. For most of the hike we walked upstream along and across the river. There are multiple times where you have to cross the river in order to continue along the trail. I managed to do it in my shoes without getting them wet at all with some maneuvering along the rocks. Kelsey wore her sandals and just walked across the water multiple times. Since it hasn’t rained here in Medellin in a few days, and we did this hike on a sunny day, it was probably easier for us than it might be for you. Plan to get your feet wet as you cross the river multiple times.

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The Waterfall

After about an hour or so we came to the first waterfall, Chorro de Las Campanas. This is not the best waterfall in Medellin, but its a good start. The pool below it wasn’t that deep but the water was very cold and refreshing. We happily went in to cool off. If you keep following the trail along the river from Arenales, you will not miss this waterfall as the river leads right to the bottom of it. Grab some photos here and take a dip before you head on up to the summit!

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After the waterfall

From this waterfall, the rest of the hike is mainly uphill. This is the part that most people say is “dangerous” to go down. It is very steep, and there are ropes tied to trees at multiple parts to help people go down. While it was more tiring on the legs to climb up the hill, it was most definitely much safer than going down, as we did not risk slippage and falling to our death. We found the hike to be very safe, but very tiring on the legs as the incline and “steps” are very steep. This is fine though because the hike really is not that long. (2 miles or so? With only about .5 miles of steep uphill. If you want a more challenging hike, we recommend you try Cerro Quitasol!

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Ending the hike at ‘La Catedral’

After some of the climbs, there are beautiful lookouts over the hills and onto the city of Medellin with not a soul in sight. We passed by two other waterfalls in Medellin along the way, ‘Cascada El Silencio‘, and perhaps the most famous out of all waterfalls in Medellin, ‘Cascada Salto del Ángel.‘ Both of these waterfalls were a detour from the trail we were following, and we heard that it takes around 2 hours there and back just to get to the bottom of Salto del Ángel, so we decided to pass on those. Many people who start the hike at “La Catedral” walk to the bottom of Salto del Angel and come back the way they came because it is that much of a trek! Maybe we’ll get to it another time during our stay. We walked through more forest and eventually came out at the site of “La Catedral” in just about 2.5 hours.

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Since most people do the hike in the morning, and choose to descend as opposed to ascend, the workers at the convenience shop were very surprised to see us. The gates to La Catedral close at 4 PM, and they had to get someone to open them so that we could get out of the property. This was not a problem and the people who worked there were happy to help us out.

Getting back to Envigado

As we were leaving the property, we were informed that the last bus down the mountain from ‘La Catedral’ leaves at 3. It was around 5:30 at that time, so we walked down the road past a few small farms and saw two Canadians about to get in an Uber. They asked if we wanted to share, and hopped in the car for the 15 minute ride back to Envigado. I think there is cell service up there, so you should be able to call an Uber if needed. If not, I’m sure you wouldn’t have trouble getting down by asking someone for a ride that is heading down the mountain. All of the people were very friendly up there, and I’m sure they’d be happy to help out. 

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Is the Hike Safe?

Before the hike, I was a bit worried about safety. We’ll be out in the forest by ourselves, what if someone robs us? What if we can’t get back? What if something happens?? These were all unjustified and I would tell anyone thinking about doing this hike not to worry at all.

Everyone was very friendly, and we did not feel in danger at all. We even crossed paths with a fellow American couple doing the hike the opposite way we were, and met their cute dog tucked into their backpack.

Anyone can do this hike, and I highly recommend it if you wanna get out of the city and into nature for a day. PLUS it’s only a 15 minute drive up the mountain from Envigado!

Summary – Best Medellin Waterfalls

In summary, this hike from Arenales to Pablo’s Prison has some amazing waterfalls. We highly recommend this hike to anyone coming to Medellin.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy Medellin.