Colombia Day 4: day trip to Guatapé

Today I’ve decided to go to Guatape and climb the rock „La Piedra del Peñol“. The hostel offered a day trip for 45€, but I read that it’s very easy and about 50% cheaper to do it by yourself. After breakfast Anouk and me went together to the metro. She had other plans already, but had to go the same direction. Buying a metro card and navigating the system was quite simple. When I arrived at the bus terminal I quickly found the right ticket counter and about 20 minutes later I was on the bus. It was a small bus with about 20 seats and I was all the way in the back unfortunately. Not only is it bumpier in the back, but you also sit higher, so you can’t really look out of the windows. 

Nearly everyone went out at the rock, however, most seem to have rented a tuk-tuk to get to the entrance of the stone. Me and few others decided to take the stairs. Which I quickly regretted. It was around 11am and quite hot already. But in the end, I came there to climb stairs. The place is basically a big rock next to a lake, where stairs have been built to climb it. At the entrance there was a real tourist’s heaven. Bars, shops,… which I ignored all and went straight to buy a ticket and start climbing. 700 stairs up, with the numbers written on the steps every 25 steps. Slowly and steadily I walked up and had my fun in seeing people struggling. I find as I’m struggling myself that’s allowed. 

The views on the top were amazing and definitely worth the effort. The way down were separate stairs, which were in the shade. No clue why they don’t let you do the climb up in shade!!!

Once back down I’ve decided to see if I can organize a boat trip on the lake. You are supposed to drive by the villas of many famous people, including one that was owned by Pablo Escobar. Unfortunately you can’t visit it anymore, but you can see it from the lake. 

So I bought a ticket for a boat trip and they gave me directions where to walk to. I arrived at a restaurant and they told me to wait. Whenever I asked when the boat leaves I couldn’t understand their answer. Finally I managed to understand: the boat leaves when there are enough customers. Seeing it was already 2:30 and I still wanted to go into the town of Guatapé and a 3hour trip back I wasn’t to eager to sit around at their place. But no discussion helped. Around 3pm there were finally enough customers and we stared the tour. Unfortunately the guide did not speak / want to speak English for just me. So from time to time I understood that houses belonged to a football player or singer. And of course I heard the name Pablo. There were some super cool houses around the lake including some great glamping options. Maybe next time! What was also a bit weird was that there was so few water, that the first 3-4 meter of the „coast line“ were absolutely barren. 

After an hour the tour was done and I took a Tuk-Tuk to the town. It’s a super cute town, the houses painted in beautiful colours. Unfortunately the whole town is full of tourist shops, bars and restaurants. I walked around and explored and after a nice meal I went back to get the bus back to Medellin. And about 3,5 hours later I’m back in the hostel. I met some people I knew and some new faces and started to plan the rest of my trip. Unfortunately it’s Semana Santa - in Colombia Easter is a full week! Therefore everything is expensive or even fully booked. 

Ah well, after a nice cocktail and some nice live music in the hostel bar it’s bedtime for me again. Let’s hope the ladies in my room are nicer tonight. Little spoiler alert - they were and I slept until nearly 7 am without any distractions :-)




























Comments

Scottl1976 said…
Definitely making your 20000 steps each day 🤣🤣
12:37 PM
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