Incredible cemetery

Travelling around the globe isn’t only about breath-taking views and gorgeous old towns in big cities. Sometimes you can spot hidden gem, where normally you wouldn’t go. Who would have known that cemetery can be such an interesting place? What could you find there except hundreds of graves, flowers and melancholic people? Well, today we’re going to introduce you Ecuadorian hidden pearl, which, thankfully isn’t known by many.

Location

Tulcan is a little town just next to the border with Colombia and if you are travelling around Ecuador you can get there easily from its capital Quito for few bucks. From the other hand if you are travelling across Colombia and want just see this amazing place you’ll need get a bus from Bogota to Pasto, then another one to Ipiales and finally from there you can jump for one day trip to Ecuador.

Brief history

Everything began back in 1936 from Jose Maria Azael Franco, local gardener who was looking after cemetery and one day he started sculping rows of bushes into different shapes. You can find there geometric shapes, archways and many unique sculptures designed and formed by him. The garden features angels, animals, Incan symbols, and bulbous, iconic creatures squatting in a row. Jose passed away in 1985 and was buried at the cemetery in between his legacy. Now his 5 sons with help of cemetery staff are looking after the topiary wonders. Nowadays we can find more than 100 green formations. “[...]so beautiful it invites one to die.” – That’s how Franco used to describe this place.

Our visit

We have chosen route number two to visit the cemetery and we crossed the border from Colombia. Because of the crisis in Venezuela, hundreds of migrants were waiting between those two countries for their asylum, which extended our stay in Colombia for a couple of hours. There were fewer people waiting at the Ecuadorian side, so we received our visas much faster. Luckily owners of the restaurant where we had a late lunch helped us and we put our bags at the back, so we could enjoy walking.

Because Monika loves cemeteries, she found it and took us there. Our first impression was just WOW! We stared with mouths agape and couldn’t stop taking pictures and thinking how much work it cost. How a man who did all this was skilled and motivated. Simply incredible. Let’s walk with us again through those narrow paths and let’s contemplate.

Instead of making single graves beautiful why we don’t make a whole cemetery?

Have you seen something like this before?

Do you like it?

Please let us know in comments!

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Thanks to @soyrosa we’ll be able to meet some of you in person this Sunday in Rotterdam!

Thanks,

M&D