We left Salento at 7.30am and after 7 hours on two different buses we arrived in the city of Medellín. It’s a big bustling city of 3 million which used to be the “Cocaine capital of the world” in the 1980s, under the leadership of Pablo Escobar the drug lord, but when he was killed in 1993, the new governor turned things around and it’s a pretty big tourist mecca now. Still has a slightly seedy side to it in places though.
We actually only had one full day in Medellín as we really wanted to see smaller villages rather than cities on this trip, so we made the most of our one full day and travelled all over Medellín by metro and on foot. Very clean, cheap and easy-to-use metro system, about NZ$1 per trip anywhere in the city. We were standing on the platform ready to hop on the first metro train and Steve said “We’re on the wrong platform – that sign says this train is going to “Salida”! “Salida”means “Exit” in Spanish. Had a good snort at that one!
The photos can tell the story of what we saw in Medellin – really just another big city to us – but Guatapé two hours (of winding roads by bus) east of Medellin, was far more interesting and so beautiful.
Guatapé is on the shores of the Embalse Guatapé a huge man-made lake, and is famous for two things: the colourful bas-relief frescos of animals, plants and village scenes which are painted on the bottom half of most walls around the village and the Piedra del Peñol, a huge granite monolith outside Guatapé which has had a series of 750 stairs, built into a crevice in the rock, on which you huff and puff up to the tower at the top. Also at the top of the rock are a couple of cafés, souvenir shop, proper flushing toilets with seats (a rare and treasured sight anywhere we’ve been) and one of the most breathtaking 360 degree views I’ve ever seen, over the lake and all its many inlets and little islands. A cold beer at the top of that rock never tasted better. I don’t know if the photos will really do justice to it, because you can’t really get a sense of the full 360 degree view.
The day we arrived in Guatapé it was, unbeknown to us, Independence Day Monday in Colombia (20 July) and it was HEAVING with people. We hardly knew what had hit us, it was so unexpected, but it was certainly a great day for people-watching. We watched a “sport” we’d never seen before on the lake shore – someone lies on the end of an inflatable landing pad and somebody else climbs a ladder beside it, jumps down onto the landing pad from a great height, and the person at the end is catapulted high into the air and into the lake. Hilarious!
By 10pm that night, the village reverted to its normal peaceful self, which was great, as we still had two more full days there to explore and unwind. We absolutely loved it – everyone was so welcoming and really made an effort to speak English to us.
After Guatapé we had to get a bus back to Medellín for our flight up to Cartagena on the north coast of Colombia, and from there on to the tropical island of San Andrés 4 days later.
2 Frosty Tops Do South America 