So I decided somewhat last minute to take a quick trip to Colombia and to see the city of Medellin with a quick stop in Bogota.

Not knowing what to expect, I decided I would take a couple of tours to get an idea of the city and surrounding towns. I’m generally not a tour type of person, but it worked out well for a solo traveler.

The first tour I decided to do was to visit the town of Guatape and the third largest rock in the world, El Peñón de Guatapé.

The Rock of Guatapé (Spanish: El Peñón de Guatapé), also known as the Stone of El Peñol (Spanish: La Piedra Del Peñol), or simply La Piedra or El Peñol, is a landmark inselberg in Colombia. It is located in the town and municipality of Guatapé, Antioquia. The town of El Peñol, which borders Guatapé, has also historically claimed the rock as their own and thus the monolith is sometimes referred to as the “Stone of El Peñol” instead of the “Rock of Guatapé”.

Before we arrived at The Rock of Guatapé, we made a quick stop in a town called Marinilla, and honestly I don’t remember what it’s significance was. It was a nice little town with the usual center square near the town church.

Marinilla is a town and municipality in the Colombian department of Antioquia . Part of the subregion of Eastern Antioquia .

We were able to spend about a half an hour in the town

It was time to get back on the bus and head to the The Rock of Guatapé.

Being that it was a long weekend in Colombia, the site was packed with domestic tourists, which is nice to see, but it makes it a tough day to move about the site. You can pay 18,000 COP ($5) to climb the 740 stairs to the lookout at the top of the rock to get a grand view of the man made lake below. It was a slow walk up due to the number of people, but it was worth doing at least once. I’d likely go back, but on a weekday.

The view at the top was great, and would be a great place at sunrise and sunset to get some good photographs of the surrounding area. Unfortunately it was sunny, hot and crowded, which is never a good recipe for photography.

The lake below is man made from a nearby dam. The surrounding town is called New Peñol, and was built after the old town was destroyed by the dam. We didn’t get to stop in the town, but it was a busy and picturesque and would be worth a stop next time.

After lunch at the rock, we were back on the bus and off to the historic town of Guatapé

Guatapé is a town and municipality in Antioquia Department, Colombia. It is a part of the subregion of Eastern Antioquia. Guatapé is bordered on the north by Alejandría, San Rafael to the east, and Granada and El Peñol to the south. Guatapé is located in the outskirts of Medellín, bordering a reservoir created by the Colombian government for a hydro-electric dam, built in the late 1960s. This quaint town is the gathering place for “Las Vegas”, or the small farms of the area. It is also a growing area of recreation for citizens of Medellín, and aims to be a tourist destination for foreign travellers.

 

Once in Guatapé, we took a guided tour of the colourful buildings and cobblestone streets.

There was an hour long boat ride as part of the tour that I decided to skip, instead I sat on the patio of a center square restaurant and enjoyed the people watching and cold cervezas.

Colombia’s tourism industry is relatively new, and has really only started to see substantial growth over the last 6-8 years. English in older people can be hard to come by, it’s not like other South or Central American countries I’ve traveled to. I really have to get better at Spanish. You’re still able to communicate, but it can be a bit challenging.

Just like the rock, the town was quiet busy because of the long weekend. I would love to make it back here and see it in the morning of a weekday. There are a few boutique hotels that would make it a very nice place to spend a few days.

I did get a lot of pictures of people taking pictures, one of the downsides of tours. However, I met some really cool people that I ended up having some fun with the following day in Medellin, which I will have a separate post for.

I highly recommend a visit to this wonderful little town.