Come breathe the fresh air at 8,000 feet in Santa Elena’s Enchanted Forest (El Bosque Encantado de Santa Elena). A mountain community rooted in nature, creativity, and quiet transformation. Located just a 40-minute metro-cable ride outside of Medellín and 30 minutes from the airport.
We are a community of 7 cabañas and 2 large Finca Style homes nestled in the cloud forest of Santa Elena, Colombia…
Our space offers both short-term and long-term stays for those seeking to reconnect, reset, or simply live more closely with the land. We also host retreats, ceremonies, and special gatherings, providing a setting that naturally invites presence, connection, and inspiration.
Located just a 40-minute metro-cable ride outside of Medellín and 30 minutes from the airport.
Life here moves between worlds—rooted in the stillness of the land, yet held within a place known for its creative, spiritual, and artisanal rhythm. The surrounding community carries a subtle energy of making, reflection, and exchange.
Whether you come to stay, create, or celebrate, this is a place to land, to breathe, and to belong.
Rewild, Reconnect, Retreat
Nestled among ancient trees and mist-veiled trails, this eco village offers a rare chance to reconnect with nature, community, and sustainable living. Whether you're seeking a peaceful escape or a deeper connection to the land, Enchanted Forest welcomes you home to the forest.
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![A small outdoor garden area with a stone pathway, surrounded by rocks and greenery. In the center is a round stone garden bed with charred wood and ashes, and a small black and red garden tool leaning against it.]()
El Encanto
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![A brick house with a green metal roof, surrounded by trees and lush greenery, under a partly cloudy sky.]()
Tierra Bonita
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![Wooden tiny house or cabin built among trees in a forest, with a small outdoor deck, door, and window.]()
El Duende
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![Wooden treehouse with green roof and white curtains, surrounded by lush green trees and bushes in a forest setting.]()
Casa De Sueños
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![A rustic kitchen with wooden walls and ceiling, large open window showing a lush green forest outside, a wooden island with a table setting, flowers in a basket, and various kitchen utensils and appliances.]()
El Principe
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![A two-story wooden treehouse built among trees in a forest, with a small balcony, a satellite dish on the roof, and a green roof section. The treehouse is elevated above the ground with wood supports, and the surrounding yards have grass, plants, and logs.]()
Caperucita Roja
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![A small, rustic house with a curved green roof is surrounded by lush green trees and bushes, with a stone pathway leading to the house.]()
Guarda Bosque
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![A small wooden house with a green roof surrounded by lush green plants and trees, with a stone foundation visible at the bottom.]()
La Abuela
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![A cozy indoor space with sequence seating around a small circular fire pit, decorated with red cushions and a fur blanket, with stone walls, green carpeted stairs, and a fireplace in the background.]()
El Hobbit
Enchanted Forest (Bosque Encantado) draws people who come to this mountain for a reason — musicians looking for a quiet place to create, healers and medicine circles seeking sacred ground, yoga practitioners and retreat leaders wanting fresh air and open sky, and individuals simply looking to slow down and reconnect — with themselves, with each other, and with the land itself.
We host both groups and solo travelers. Whether you're bringing a full retreat, leading a healing circle, or arriving on your own to breathe cloud-forest air and listen to something quieter than daily life, this land holds space for the work you're here to do.
Long Term Rentals
For those looking to slow down and settle into forest life, our cabañas are available for long-term rental, from 3 to 12 months. Set among the trees with [wifi, hot water, etc. — list amenities], and just minutes from Medellín and the international airport by road or cable car. Ideal for remote workers, retreat practitioners, and anyone seeking an extended reset in the cloud forest — with the flexibility of month-to-month or discounted longer-term rates. Reach out to discuss availability and pricing for your ideal length of stay.
Our Mission
We believe body, mind, and spirit were never meant to be separated — and that this mountain, with its forest, its water, and its rhythms, is one of the best teachers we know for remembering how to bring them back into balance. Through ecological study, yoga, meditation, and a return to non-toxic ways of living, we create space for that remembering to happen.
We do this in community, because healing rarely happens in isolation. Reconnecting to the essential elements — earth, water, breath, each other — opens something in us: room to grow, to heal, to feel joy and strength again. And from that place, we carry ourselves forward, a little lighter, into everyday life.
A Word From the Caretaker
When I first walked this land, I remember standing still and just listening — wind through the trees, the creek below, birdsong I didn't have names for yet. I didn’t know it yet, but it was a place I would belong to.
Bosque Encantado started as my own search for balance, but it quickly became something bigger — a place shaped by everyone who has walked it before, come here to heal, to create, to rest, to breathe. That's the heart of what we're building: not a retreat you visit once, but a village you become part of.
My hope is simple — that you leave a little lighter than you arrived, more connected to yourself, to others, and to the earth beneath your feet. Come find out what this mountain has to offer.
With gratitude,
Melissa
What we offer
Educational Programs
Native studies · arts and crafts · local plant and wildlife studies · green medicine and herbalism · gardening · permaculture
Ceremonies & Retreats
Medicine circles · sound healing · guided ceremony · group and individual retreats · seasonal gatherings
Rentals and Cabañas
A reimagining of village living — primary residences, secondary residences, retreat rentals, and long-term investment opportunities
Healing Arts
Massage · yoga · meditation · dance and music
The Land
Santa Elena sits at nearly 2,700 meters (about 8,850 feet) in Colombia's Central Andes, within a protected cloud forest reserve just outside Medellín. The mist that gives the forest its name settles in most days of the year, cooling the air to a near-constant 12–18°C (54–64°F) and coating the canopy in moss, lichen, and orchids. Inside the surrounding reserve, more than 500 species of trees, shrubs, and flowering plants have been documented, alongside frogs, butterflies, and birdlife drawn to the forest's year-round moisture.
As dusk falls, the forest comes alive. Toucans move through the high branches, hummingbirds flicker between the last flowers of the day, and Andean motmots and mountain jays call out as the light fades — part of nearly 70 bird species found in this watershed.
Santa Elena’s Feria de las Flores
Since the colonial era, farmers from Santa Elena have carried flowers and produce down into Medellín on foot, to sell in the city's markets — a tradition that grew, over generations, into the silleteros: growers who build towering, elaborate flower displays and carry them strapped to wooden frames on their backs, a craft passed down through families in this exact township.
That tradition now anchors Medellín's Feria de las Flores, held every August, when hundreds of silleteros parade their creations through the city — some displays exceeding two meters across, built entirely from flowers grown on hillsides like this one. It's one of Colombia's largest annual festivals, and its roots trace back not to the city, but to this soil, and the families who have worked it for generations.
This is a forest still actively shaped by the people who live in it — farmed, walked, and tended for generations — and still wild enough to surprise you.
Partner With Us
Bosque Encantado is more than a retreat — it's a living project, still growing. We're looking for partners who share our vision: people who want to help shape what this land becomes, whether that's expanding our residences, deepening our programs, or building out a model of communal living rooted in permaculture, healing, and connection to place.
If this vision speaks to you, and you're interested in exploring a partnership — as a co-creator, a contributor, or an investor in the land itself — we'd love to hear from you.