Hacienda Nápoles
What do you buy the drug lord who has everything? A zoo.
Alex Q. Arbuckle
Aug. 29, 1989
At the height of his power, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was estimated to be worth more than $30 billion. In 1978, before he went on the run from police, he purchased a 7.7 square mile estate 111 miles east of Medellin, naming it Hacienda Nápoles.In addition to the Spanish colonial mansion, Escobar outfitted the compound with numerous eccentric features. The entrance was decorated with a Piper airplane identical to the one used by Escobar to fly his first shipment of cocaine to the United States, and the grounds were populated with statues of dinosaurs and other creatures. The hacienda also boasted a robust zoo, complete with horses, elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamuses and giraffes.The estate was eventually seized by Colombian drug enforcement agents, and after years on the lam, Escobar was killed in 1993.Today, the hacienda has been turned into a public zoo and water park, complete with a Jurassic Park-inspired logo.The hippos, meanwhile, have escaped to the surrounding jungle, and formed a sizable feral population.
