Stairway (almost) to Heaven

If you search what to do around Medellin, the first thing you see is Piedra el Peñol - a great big rock along the edge of a lake near the town of Guatape. La Piedra is a huge granite rock that towers above the surrounding landscape. Mike & I saw this and knew we had to climb it. Of course, we weren’t going to scale the side, there are 675 steps zig-zagging along one side to the top. You can get to La Piedra as a day trip from Medellin, which many folks do. However, Guatape sounded like a cute town so we decided to spend a couple of days in the area to check it out.

Balcony in Guatape

Guatape is about a two hour drive from Medellin. There are public busses that go there from Medellin several times per day that cost around $30,000 COP ($8 US). Our original plan was to take the bus, until we overheard another guest at our hotel in Salento say they had their bag stolen on one of the public busses. You can also get a private transfer from Medellin for about $45 US ($230,000 COP). It was a little more than we wanted, but I was willing to pay that to be sure our stuff was safe.

Guatape is a colorful little town. The buildings are painted bright colors and the fronts are adorned with zocalos. (More on the zocalos later). Since we got into Guatape relatively early and the skies were clear, we decided to make a try for La Piedra. There are a couple of ways to get to La Piedra, or the Rock. One way is by “Jeep”. The Jeeps in Guatape are essentially collectivos that pick-up and drop-off passengers along a common route. The Jeeps going to La Piedra drop passengers off at the side of the road and then they have to climb up to the entrance of the stairway. The other option is a tuk-tuk. These colorfully adorned two-passenger scooters are the better option as they can take you up to nearly the entrance level. Believe me, take the tuk-tuk. You’ll get plenty of climbing in soon enough! On the entrance level are souvenir shops, restaurants and parking for the tour busses and personal autos. There’s even a heliport for scenic helicopter rides. But I wasn’t there for that. I was here to climb 675 stairs to the top!

Tuk-tuks

Looking up the stairs towards the top

As we approached the stairway, I told Mike that I was going to take my time. He could go as fast as he wanted. I knew I’d need to stop often to catch my breath. The views on the way up give a perfect excuse to stop and take photos. The stairway is steep and well-maintained. For the first half of the climb, it is currently used for both up and down since they are working on the down stairway. It’s quite crowded at the switchbacks. Luckily, after you pass the halfway point, it’s only the up crowd. I have to admit, I was feeling more than a little proud of myself as I passed a couple groups of twenty-somethings stopped to rest and breathe. They have marked the stairs in groups of 25 so you know how far you’ve gone. At 400, I pushed myself a little harder, knowing I was past the halfway point. Each 25 stairs was another feather in my cap. Finally, 625! Woo Hoo!

La Piedra

The photos of the views from the top of La Piedra do not do it justice. With the sun shining, we had a perfect 180 degree view of the surrounding countryside. It was more than worth the half hour climb! Plus, if you want, there is a small stairway that goes up another 30 or so stairs to get just a little higher. Of course, I HAD to see if the view was any better. Really, it’s not. But I couldn’t leave those few more stairs un-climbed since I’d come this far. Back down to the platform on top of the rock are, of course, souvenir shops and a couple of cafes. We sat for a few minutes to drink a cold(ish) drink before taking even more photos. Sated, we started the walk down. The down staircase is tucked between the up stairs and the rock face so you don’t have the same views. But who cares? If you’re going down, you’ve already seen the best views available. Luckily, by the time the up and down stairs combined, the up crowd had eased so the corners weren’t quite so tight. At the bottom of the stairs, we checked out a few of the shops and had another cold(ish) drink before hailing a tuk-tuk for the ride back to Guatape.

The up stairs in front of the down stairs

It was still a beautiful day, so we decided to walk around Guatape and grab some lunch. By this time, a lot of the day-trippers were walking around as well, checking out the shops and having a coffee at one of the many cafes. Just after we got back to our hotel room, we heard a clap of thunder and the skies opened up in a torrential rain storm. Whew! We timed that perfectly! This late afternoon rain storm pattern has followed us all around Colombia. We’ve become accustomed to carrying our ponchos or rain jackets with us wherever we go. After the rain, we spent the afternoon wandering around this lovely town, ending the evening at a local bar, watching the locals watch a soccer match on tv. All in all, a great first day in Guatape!

For our second day, we wanted to take a boat ride out on the lake. There are many different companies that offer tours of the lake and all sell about the same thing. We walked along the waterfront and found a company that took just the two of us out for $100,000 COP (about $30 US).

Our boat captain didn’t speak English and I know very little Spanish. Luckily, I had read up a little so I knew about what we’d see. Our first view is of La Piedra from the water. We were still a ways away from it, but it’s amazing how large it still looks. We then passed several hotels and houses belonging to Colombian actors and singers. The area, since it still relatively close to Medellin, is where the rich & famous have their play houses.

La Piedra from the lake

Lake houses

Soon, we stopped in front of a rounded White House near the water’s edge. It once belonged to Pablo Escobar’s butler. He even kept the house open as a bar for several years after Escobar’s death. We rounded the point and there was the bombed-out shell of Escobar’s house. It was bombed by a vigilante group called Los Pepes (Persecuted by Pablo Escobar). Escobar escaped the bombing through a tunnel leading to a building at the top of the hill. His house had a sauna, disco and pool. For a while, there were Escobar tours that allowed people to tour the bombed-out house. They even allowed paintball games there. Now, the property has no trespassing signs posted and the government plans on demolishing the remains.

The butler’s house

Remains of Escobar’s bombed out house

From here, our next step was a cross in the middle of the lake. The cross indicates where the town of El Peñol used to be. The lake was created in the 1970s when the Colombian government built a hydro-electric dam. The town of El Peñol was relocated and the old town flooded. The cross sits in the spot where the town church used to be. Along the shore is the last remaining house from the old city. We started back to Guatape, retracing our route. Our tour took about an hour. All in all, a great way to see some more of the area.

The former El Peñol

View of Guatape from the lake

When we returned, the sun was still shining so we decided to wander around and get more photos of the cute streets. Along the bottom portion of most houses or business are plaques called zocalos. They originally indicated the profession of the person living there - cobbler, potter, shepherd, etc. Now, the zocalos often indicates the owners favorite pastime. It was fun to wander around and guess if the zocalo was original or a recent one. Some were very obviously recent. The bright colors of the buildings in Guatape are mesmerizing. I felt I had to photograph every new zocalo I saw. Here are more than a few of my favorites.

Fountain along a side street in Guatape

Street of Zocalos

For the afternoon, we decided to check out the Replica del Peñol. After the city was moved and flooded, the leaders of El Peñol decided to recreate a little of the old town so the memory wasn’t lost. We grabbed a Jeep and headed out of town. The reconstructed El Peñol is about 12 km from Guatape which is a little further than the tuk-tuks travel. The Jeep dropped us off at the side of the street and we walked to the top of the hill where the replica stands. They only built a U-shaped “town square” including a church. The Colonial era replica buildings house restaurants and souvenir shops with views of the surrounding countryside. It was worth the $8000 COP (just over $2 US) round trip fare to see and spend a little time.

View of Old Peñol from Replica Peñol

We had pretty much done all we’d set out to do and see in Guatape in the two days we had given ourselves. Many people just day trip to Guatape from Medellin. You can do that. However, I feel in order to do this quaint town true justice, you should allow at least two days to really get a feel for Guatape.