This morning, we made our way to the main park in El Poblado to catch our day tour to Guatapé. The big attraction here is an enormous rock protruding from the earth, which has a whopping 700 stairs to climb in order to get to the top. I thought we were done hiking? Haha. Never. We’re never done hiking, as there is always a hike to be done. And it’s always worth it! :). It’s a 2 hour drive from Medellín to where we will be stopping for breakfast. We had a traditional breakfast with scrambled eggs, an arepa, a portion of cheese, a piece of toast, and hot chocolate. Perfect fuel for the 700 stair climb that awaits us….right? Lol.
Next stop is the rock. Here we go! Haha. We rush to be one of the first groups of people through the ticket counter, hoping that we’ll get to the top early enough to snag some pictures without other people in them. I tracked the climb on my watch, and it only took us about 20-30 minutes, including a few rest stops and a handful of picture opportunities. I guess our hiking has paid off! Hehe. We get to the top, and the views are quite wonderful. We were blessed with an overcast sky, which helped keep it cooler, although we were still dripping with sweat, hehe. The breeze was clutch and helped refresh us after the ascent. We wander around, doing our due diligence of taking instagram worthy pictures and taking in the various views. The rock overlooks a giant man-made lake that has many unique inlets and outlets. The color of the water is a lovely greenish blue, darkened a bit by the overcast skies. Once we had our fill of the vistas, we began our trek back down the rock.
The way down was a separate staircase and much more narrow than the one going up. This caused a significant traffic jam, as we were relegated to move at the pace of those ahead of us. Every once in a while, the slower groups would pull off to the side as much as the narrow stairs would allow, and we’d creep around the corner and resume our own pace.
Once we were back to the flat ground, we spent some time looking for sunglasses for me. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but my sunglasses broke quite a while ago, and at this point, I can’t remember where we were when I discovered this, lol. The frame cracked, and the one lens would fall out if I wasn’t careful, but for the most part, they were still functional, lol. Dana told me I needed to replace them, but I also wanted the challenge of seeing if I could make it the rest of the trip with them, hehe. Anyways, while we were going through the sunglasses, I did find a pair that was the style I was looking for, and they were multi-colored, which was what I was also what I was looking for. When I was living in El Salvador, I always managed to find wild neon colored sunglasses, or once a pair that was covered in little flowers, and another pair that had multiple colors, all of different parts of the frames. So, the ones that I found were designed with the three colors of the Colombian flag: red, yellow, and blue. Cool! So I go ahead and buy them, Dana now satisfied that I can ceremoniously throw out my old ones.
Our next stop was the town of Guatapé, which is the most colorful city in the Americas, and second only to a town in China, according to our guide. A quick google search claims the most colorful town in the world is actually in Indonesia. 🧐. Top colorful town or not, it was so cute! Early in its history, the houses were made of wood, and needed protection against the rain and humidity, so the solution was to build a wall around the building, half a story tall, and put images on them. This collected the water, and it ran into the streets as opposed to sticking to and rotting the wooden structures. These are called zocalos. At one point, all the houses were required to have these, and if not, they had to paint their house a bright color, and this is how they managed to become the most colorful town in the Americas.
We wandered about, hoping to find a place for a coffee and a smoothie, but all the restaurants accepted cash only, or a minimum purchase of 50k pesos to pay with a card. 50k would’ve been fine if we were buying lunch, but our lunch was also included in this tour. We were trying to conserve our cash for our next couple of days, but we had to burn some to get out drinks. And good thing we did, as we ordered coffee to warm us from the cold breeze blowing through town.
After Guatapé, we had lunch, and again, it was delicious! I had beef, beans, rice, a plantain, and a little mixed salad. And to wash it all down, we were given a sugarcane lemonade. Yum!
And now, onto the last adventure of the day: a boat ride on the man-made lake. But first, we were told to go visit what was left of the old town of El Peñol. This town was demolished in order to create the lake, which serves a giant reservoir for the surrounding towns. It was the traditional colonial architecture, and all the stores were touristy souvenir shops. It didn’t’ take us long to walk around, and we headed down to where the boats were.
As we are standing there, an announcement is being made from what looks like a floating barge, instructing us to get onto one of the boats. Sweet! We’ll get the first pick of our seats. They make us take life vests, and we all groan a bit. It seems like in this part of the world, health and safety are almost an afterthought. For example, hiking up to the ridge of an active volcano is fine, but getting on a boat without a life vest is where the line is drawn, lol. I was forced to take a life vest once before, and was told I needed to wear it in the water, so I did, and it was so big, it actually inhibited me from swimming properly. At that point, all it does is keep you afloat until you’re rescued, but think about swimming somewhere to safety, forget it! Haha.
We ran up to the top deck; there were 3 levels on this thing! We sit next to our new friends we made from Miami, Mike, and Alexa. They’ve just come down for a long weekend adventure, as the flights are so easy from Miami! How cool! During the boat ride, our guide shares with us that the big cross ahead of us is where the old church used to be located before they flooded the area. It was really neat to be floating above what once was a town center, and on the outskirts of the lake, a couple of remnant colonial buildings that didn’t need to be demolished for the lake. What a neat history!
And then, the coolest history lesson was a small swath of hilly terrain that had some ruins on it. We were told that this was once a farm owned by Pablo Escobar himself! Wow! La Finca is what it was called, and I’m pretty sure that’s the first one he bought, as it’s in a show I’m watching about him. Apparently, he built his homes with double walls as a preventative measure, and most of his properties were not unlike bunkers. I guess you gotta be smart when you’re in that industry, lol. We’ve read and been told that Pablo Escobar is a touchy subject for many Colombians, and out of respect, we steered clear from any tours about him. But here, we were rewarded with a little snippet! Sweet!
Our turning around point on the boat tour was a gorgeous shot of the giant rock we walked up, way off into the distance. It doesn’t look as intense from here, hehe. The ride back was cold as the sun completely disappeared behind the ominous gray clouds. There were a few young men behind us drinking beers and being rowdy. We think they must be part of a bachelor party or something. Dana, Hayden, and I, and the couple from Miami all roll our eyes, and thank god we’re no longer in our 20s, lol. That party lifestyle is no longer for us, haha. While still young and adventurous, none of us feel the need to be partying while traveling, hehe.
Back on the bus for another 2 hour ride back to Medellín. We hit some traffic, and it takes a bit longer than anticipated, but we finally get back to the Poblado park. We get off the bus and have jelly legs, hehe. But even so, we walk towards our favorite supermarket to get some snacks for our 5 hour bus ride tomorrow, and for the 5 hour hike we’ll be doing the day after. Back to the grind! :).
We had a lovely dinner of pasta with peas and broccoli, and the most delicious pesto bread from the grocery store bakery, and some M&M brownies for dessert. We watched a few episodes of The Office before turning in for the night. Next stop, Salento! 🙂
The next day, our bus didn’t leave until 9:15, so we had a good chunk of time in the morning. We woke up a bit earlier than usual, as Dana and I wanted to shower and we still had to pack our bags, have breakfast, and figure out next steps for Dana and Hayden! I won’t give any secrets away, but their plans are always spur of the moment and can change with the slightest hiccup or connection.
We get to the bus station in plenty of time, and just stand around waiting to get on. The bus looks like one you’d assume would transport you between big cities, comfortable seats, big windows, and it does have a bathroom! But, the bus is shorter than those typical larger ones. Our ride is allegedly “only” 5 hours. At the time I’m writing this, we’re going on 6 hours and change, lol.
But, the ride has been beautiful, through the tall mountains, down winding roads, set right along the ledge. Most of these roads we traveled were in excellent condition, and we passed by several road work areas, clearly enhancing the highway system. We went through several tunnels, each remarkably well done, with obvious emergency exits, and fire hydrants every 100 meters or so. I’ve never felt so scared or embarrassed by the tunnels in Boston, lol. I risk my life every time I go to work, traversing the Sumner Tunnel, which looks like it could cave in at any moment, lol. Thankfully they’re working on it…but I doubt it’ll ever be as nice as the ones here in Colombia. 🤣
The tall mountains are capped with clouds that seem to just spill over the tops and into the upper forests. We drive alongside several rushing and wide brown rivers, presumably fed by the rain fall higher up in the mountains. We enter the coffee region, as becomes obvious when as far as the eye can see are hillsides covered in coffee plants, some young and short, and others robust and full. I’m looking forward to a coffee tour, that is, if we can fit it in! 🙂
We get into town and walk in the rain towards our hotel. We’re clearly in the mountains and it’s chilly and wet here, hehe. We check in and get situated in the hotel and head out immediately to find some food. Hayden found a restaurant and we were so hungry, we didn’t really care about what they had; we figured we’d find something worthwhile on the menu, lol. We each got a chicken dish, and the piece of chicken was just about as big as the plate. No way were we going to finish the whole thing, lol. We ate while the cool breeze blew into the restaurant, blowing out the decorative candles they had on each of the tables.
Full and happy, we return to our hotel room to shower and get some sleep before an early morning tomorrow.
Taking Off With Amelia 