Guatapé

Day trip to Guatapé!

What a fun day! It was so nice just to turn up and have someone else tell you what to do and where to go.

We had breakfast after about an hour and half on the road: eggs, tortillas with cheese, and a croissant with hot chocolate. Then, we were back on the road for a quick 20 minutes or so to new Peñol.

New Peñol is named as such because when they flooded the valley, the original village was flooded to such an extent it is firmly underwater.

We stopped and had carajillo (coffee with a liquor reminiscent of sambuca). There was a temple here on top of a rock and inside the rock was a church and sacristy. After we got back on the bus and headed for Guatapé.

Guatapé was amazing 🤩! The colorful buildings were so vibrant and made the whole village feel welcoming. We made several stops in the village fo try a variety of traditional candies and drinks: dulce caramel candy, coca tea with passion fruit and sugar, coffee liqueur, guava and tamarind candy, coffee bean covered in chocolate, and a liquor (same one as earlier minus the coffee). I liked the green guava candy, and Allan's favorite was the dulce caramel. We both liked the coca tea best of all the drinks. Walking around and seeing all the brightly painted buildings was really special. They were all so unique.

After Guatapé it was time to head to the rock and make the climb. It was warm, but a pretty short climb up well maintained stairs (659). The views of the artificial lagoon from the top were pretty spectacular. The rock itself is so strange; just a big rock sticking up in the middle of the mountain.

Following the climb, we visited the replica of the former Peñol (now underwater) and headed out on a boat for a small cruise around the lagoon. We saw the only house that survived the flooding as well as a pleasure mansion of Pablo Escobar, now destroyed after being bombed. It was a nice journey, minus a chub-chubs not moving over and the guide rapping about the passengers when they ran out of information to share about the area. It was a very much avoid-eye-contact time. I could already tell Allan was thinking that he better stay away from us!

On our way back to Medellín , we had a very nice lunch. Allan's vegetarian meal came with avocado to replace the protein of the other meals. I had a nicely spiced chicken breast. Both meals came with beans, salad, rice and a plantain.

We had a wonderful day trip 🏞️🫶

Allan’s deal of the day: Full day trip to Penõl and Guatapé, including full breakfast (food and drinks), drinks, candies, more drinks and full lunch (food and drinks) for 218,000 cop (~£40) for us both!Meer informatie