South American Adventure

We were up at 5.45am.  Luckily, I woke up before my alarm, so we were able to get up and go without disturbing the others in our dorm.

We were too early for breakfast, but I did have my yoghurt and blueberries from yesterday.  

It was just an eight-minute walk to the meeting point for today's tour at San José church.

We were early, but our guide, Alex, was already there and we were able to get on the coach straight away and choose our seats.  We turned out to be a mixed group - from countries as diverse as France, the US, Scotland, Trinidad and Tobago, Ecuador, Mexico, and Germany. 

We set off on time, making our way out of Medellin to the east.  We climbed through beautiful countryside peppered with picturesque fincas.  The crops grown in this area include strawberries, corn, tomatoes, and avocados. 

At about 8.20am, we stopped for breakfast at a lovely mountaintop restaurant.  Unfortunately, it was raining quite heavily at this point, so the views were somewhat obscured.  We sat with the couple from Scotland and chatted about travel!

We then drove on to the small town of El Penol.  The town was originally founded along the Negro-Nare River in 1714 by Fray Miguel de Castro y Rivadeneiro and inhabited by the indigenous Tahamí people.

In 1971, Empresas Públicas de Medellín determined that more water and power was needed to support the rapidly growing city of Medellín, 30km to the west, and decided that the Negro-Nare River should be dammed at Guatape, flooding the Negro-Nare River valley in which El Peñol was located.  The original town was flooded in 1978 to create a reservoir, and the 4000 inhabitants were relocated to this new location.

Obviously, when the forced move was first suggested, the residents objected.  When they realised that the demolition of their town was going to happen anyway, they asked that their local church be saved.  The hydroelectric company said no because such a large building would impede the flow of the water in the reservoir.  They did, however, agree to preserve the church's facade as some kind of underwater memorial.  Later, though, the mayor of El Penol and the manager of the hydroelectric project had a big argument.  As a result, the manager instructed his workers to dynamite the entire church, including its facade!

Years later, once the reservoir was up and running, there was a drought, and water levels dropped to just 5% of their usual volume.  El Penol residents took the opportunity to build a 180-foot column into the bed of the reservoir at the exact spot that their church once stood.  They topped it with a cross so that, even today, everyone remembers the El Penol church.  We were to see the cross later when we took a boat trip on the reservoir. 

Unfortunately, we didn't stop in El Penol, so we were unable to  take photos of the upside down house or the interesting statues we caught sight of through the coach windows.  This is also where we saw the famous rock that some of us were going to climb later!

We drove on to the town of Guatape, recently ranked #11 in a Time Out list of the most beautiful towns in the world

In Guatapé, every building is a work of art. Residents paint their houses and businesses in gorgeous bright colours and decorate the bottom of every building with fresco-like panels called 'zocalos'.

With its steep and windy streets and bright colours, Guatapé is ridiculously photogenic, but it’s the zocalos that make it distinctive. Some friezes are simply pretty - sunflowers, doves, and sheep are popular.  Other zocalos advertise businesses - loaves of bread on a bakery, sewing machines outside a clothing store, etc.  The most complicated tell stories - several panels showing a journey - or commemorate history, musical instruments marking the house of a famous local musician, for example. 

The zocalo tradition seems to have started about a century ago (no one seems sure when or why), but it has accelerated in recent years.  Today it’s rigorously maintained because it helps make Guatapé one of the most popular vacation towns in Colombia and a favourite day trip from Medellín.

Alex took us on a walking tour of the town and we got to taste coconut milk sweets (too sugary!), coffee dark chocolates (very good), and the local tipple (not for me, but Mark enjoyed it 😀).Okumaya devam et