Leaving Colombia's coffee capital of Salento, we headed north to Medellin, the second largest city in Colombia and gateway to the lakes district. We were there to visit Lake Guatapé, climb a huge 65-million-year-old rock, visit the drowned town of El Peñol, and see the zócalos in one of the country’s most colourful towns.
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| Marg atop the rock and its views of Lake Guatapé, Colombia |
Lake Guatapé also known as the Peñol-Guatapé Reservoir, was formed by flooding two towns that are around 2-hours out of Medellin, so we had to go through Medellin to get to the lake, the rock and the towns.
We travelled by mini-van bus from Salento to Pereria where we changed buses to get from Pereria to Medellin. It was a long trip, made slower by the very mountainous, winding and narrow Andean roads.
It was made even slower by the huge number of
trucks on the route, with almost no opportunity to overtake.
But, while it was slow, and frustrating at times,
it did provide a respite from our otherwise speedy and manic bus driver.
Colombian drivers are the worst we have experienced when it comes to speeding! Notwithstanding this, we arrived in Medellin, around 1.5 hours later than scheduled.
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| Guest House Poblado-Manila, Poblado, Medellin |
Once at the Medellin bus terminal, we wanted to get to Guest House Poblado-Manila in the Poblado area of Medellin.
But when we showed taxi
drivers our hotel address, they just shook their heads and drove off! About three taxis and fifteen frustrating minutes later, a lovely young local guy, noticing our
difficulty, stopped a taxi for us and we put ourselves and our bags in before
giving the driver the address. It worked!
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| Our very basic room at Guest House Poblado-Manila, Medellin, Colombia |
Guest House Poblado-Manila, wasn't
quite what we anticipated. It was one room in a shared apartment, and much more basic than we expected. It didn't look like the
photos on booking.com!
Arthur, the owner, was very pleasant and
helpful so we just decided to go with it, especially as it had been very hard
to find accommodation for the dates we were there, and it was only for two
nights.
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| Modern Art Museum, Poblado, Medellin, Colombia |
The location of Guest House Poblado-Manila was great, with treed streets, a bohemian atmosphere, and plenty of restaurants nearby. We had a quick look around Medellin, a city of over 3 million people and known as dangerous due to the drug trade. After visiting some parks and a museum, we headed back to the guest house.
Later, we were trying to work out what bus to catch to get to the places that we specifically wanted to visit outside of Medellin. Arthur came to the rescue and managed to get us onto a tour. The next morning, we were picked up at 7am and off we went.
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| Medellin from the hills |
We were heading to El Peñol and Guatapé. The bus took us high up into the hills and we had spectacular views back over Medellin. Our fellow travellers were all Spanish speakers, as was
our guide (but she did have Google translate).
Meals were included in the trip price, and after about 1-hour, we
stopped at a roadside restaurant for a traditional Colombian breakfast which was delicious.
An hour or so after that, we arrived at the town called El Peñol. We were amused to see a classroom of kids
perched on a nearby wall eating their lunch. They reminded us of a well-behaved
flock of colourful birds perched on a fence - very cute.
The town was a little quiet as we stopped for an ice cream and a stretch. While there, we visited an unusual church built in the shape of a giant rock. It was huge and didn't really resemble a church at all.
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| La Fénix de América statue, El Peñol, Colombia |
We also saw an interesting bronze sculpture called La Fénix de América. This town of El Peñol was built to replace the original El Peñol that was flooded to make the Peñol-Guatapé Reservoir (aka Lake Guatapé), for a hydroelectric dam project. The statue was erected to commemorate the people who suffered, then rose again as a community after the flooding.
So, leaving this re-built El Peñol, the bus dropped us off at a replica of the original El Peñol.
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| A replica of the original village, El Peñol, Colombia |
Nearby was Lake Guatapé that was formed by the flooding. The flooding took in the urban and some rural areas of El Peñol and parts of the town of Guatapé. The lake provides for hydroelectricity, but now also has one of the largest lake ecosystems in Colombia.
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| Marg at Lake Guatapé, El Peñol, Colombia |
Leaving the replica village, we were taken a short distance across to the lake, down a steep walk, and ushered onto a boat. We were going for a
boat ride around the lake.
Unfortunately, the boat had the loudest Latin
American music we have ever heard. It was absolutely deafening and you couldn't
escape it or talk over it. No-one else seemed to mind, and many were moving to the salsa rhythm - so we decided we must have delicate ears
and gave in to it!
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| Escobar’s burnt-out lakeside mansion, Lake Guatapé, El Peñol, Colombia |
Cruising on the lake, we saw the bombed out remains of
a mansion that was the home of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. It is now a
tourist attraction. We also saw a large cross in the water, marking the site of the original villages that were flooded.
Later on, we saw the outline of an enormous rock. This was one of the attractions we had been looking forward to on the trip.
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| La Piedra seen from our boat trip on Lake Guatapé, El Peñol, Colombia |
This giant rock is called by several names: the people of Peñol call it La Piedra del Peñol - The Rock of Peñol, and people of Guatapé call it El Peñón de Guatapé - the Rock of Guatapé. We called it La Piedra (the rock).
After motoring around the lake a bit longer, the boat docked and we were bused over to the base of La Piedra. It is a massive rock made of quartz, feldspar and granite, that formed around 65 million years ago.
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| The steps to the top of La Piedra, Guatapé, Colombia |
This massive rock stands at 2,135 metres (7,005 feet) above sea level, and up to 200 meters (656 feet) above its base. As we gazed up, we saw a set of steps zigzagging up through a large crevice in the rock, and realised we would have to use those to reach the top.
The first documented climb of La Piedra was in 1954 when it took five days using wooden staffs stuck into the rock to get to the top. It was so isolated that a new species of plant was discovered up there. These days, the steps are used to get to the top and a viewpoint is what you discover up there.
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| Leigh, climbing the 740 steps up La Piedra, Guatapé, Colombia |
There are 740 steps to the viewpoint and we climbed them all, with a few stops on the way. The outlook from the top was spectacular and
gave us a 360-degree view of the lake area and a sense of the scope of the flooding (see first photo in this blog of Marg atop the rock and its views of Lake Guatapé).
Then we had to get down those 740 steps and it was so hard on
the knees! Upon reaching the base, we were rewarded with a very nice lunch of local
trout, all included in the tour price. After that, we boarded the bus to go
to our next stop, which was the town of Guatapé.
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| Marg in pretty Guatapé, Colombia |
Guatapé is a pretty wee town on the edge of Lake Guatapé. The town has a cluster of narrow cobbled streets
with the most beautifully decorated buildings.
The area was once ruled by Guatapé, a native leader. In 1811, the Spanish came along and named the village after him. Then in 1970, the village was flooded for the hydroelectric project that formed Lake Guatapé. Now days, Guatapé has re-invented itself as one of Colombia’s most colourful towns.
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| Zócalo art in Guatapé, Colombia |
The colour and decoration mostly come from the artwork and reliefs on the all the buildings. This style of art is apparently called zócalo, and we thought it was amazing.
Zócalo is a sculpture or ornamented band that is mostly on the lower front façade of a building. Each zócalo has a theme that depicts village life, or something of importance to the owner. They are wonderful, and very different to
anything we have seen before.
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| Zócalo art and colourful buildings in Guatapé, Colombia |
Many other buildings in the town are painted in bright colours, and even the more modern buildings contribute a colour to this bright little town.
We had a lovely time exploring Guatapé's steep cobbled streets, its lakefront developments, and its beautiful church. After that, we returned to Medellin having had a long but very interesting day.
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| Zócalo art and colourful buildings in Guatapé, Colombia |
We were so pleased that Arthur had managed to find this tour, as we probably would not have seen so much in one day, if we'd gone by ourselves using public transport.
Back in Medellin that evening, we found a charming restaurant and enjoyed a nice local meal. Then we packed up ready for an early start to the airport the next day. We are flying to Cartagena on the Caribbean Coast.
This is part of a blog series about our travels through the north-eastern countries of South America. The first blog in this series is called “In and around Santiago”.