El Tesoro: Medellín’s Best Mall

Up in the southeast hills, among the high rises and the healthy streets, sits Medellín’s most beautiful shopping mall.

I finally went to El Tesoro Parque Comercial this week because my friend Tristan is visiting and he had heard that it’s a good place to go. It is.

Perhaps the best part about this fancy Poblado shopping center is the view it offers, a stunning panorama of much of the city.

There are stationary binoculars there for you to use, and just behind them, a handful of comfortable chairs and couches, which are even better than the binoculars because you can still see the city but have a cup of coffee or a snack while you do it.

Well, at least that’s the best part of the place for me. I don’t like shopping much.

“I like to shop,” Tristan said.

“A lot of women do,” I said.

I couldn’t help myself. I’ve always been a smart ass. But I will say, for people who do like to shop, El Tesoro is a good place to do it.

They have trendy clothing stores such as Arturo Calle and Adidas Originals, good restaurants such as Mis Carnes and Al Rojo, a big movie theater, and even rides for the kids such as a Ferris wheel and a train. Maybe the rides are the reason it’s called a Parque Comercial, instead of a Centro Comercial.

I eventually got into the shopping spirit. At Adidas Originals, I really wanted to buy a pair of shoes that were bright yellow with touches of navy blue, but they were almost 200,000 pesos (almost $100), way too expensive for my budget right now.

I did buy a T-shirt, though, from a store called GEF, apparently a French clothing shop. I bought one of those funky-designed T-shirts that I’m wont to wear. It was only 26,000 pesos, cheap for El Tesoro.

That wasn’t the only good deal that day.

We decided to eat at Mis Carnes and took advantage of one of the specials of the day: steak (which was really tender and tasty) with rice and beans, avocado, tostones, a small fruit salad and a soda, for 10,900. Again, cheap for El Tesoro. And I couldn’t finish my lunch, so I still have half of it for dinner tonight.

I had another reason for not finishing my lunch: I wanted ice cream. Like most nice malls in Medellín, El Tesoro has a Crepes & Waffles, which has great ice cream. I got a cone of mora (raspberry).

As we were leaving, we saw the Ferris wheel was starting to run, a handful of smiling kids on board. Darn it, I thought. I was born 24 years too early.