Our 9th wedding anniversary! We woke up at 6am in hopes of catching breakfast really early. Our plan was to take the metro to Caribe station where the North Bus station was. From there we were going to go to booth #14 and book tickets to Guatape. I think we really could have done the trip ourselves, but it was our anniversary, so we decided to talk to the receptionist at the hotel (our friend Carlos) and see if he could book us a tour to Guatape and El Penol. We went down to breakfast at 6:30 and I ordered an egg thing that is grilled with tomato, garlic, cheese and comes with toast. It had a Spanish name but I can’t remember it. Jives got a crispy eggplant served on a bed of noodles. Both dishes were so delicious. On the way up to the hotel room again, they asked for our room number.

I had been practising my Spanish numbers so I started saying it in Spanish, but the lady interrupted and said it perfectly in English. Our receptionist friend Carlos laughed at my gesture of ”shoot almost had it”… He asked if we were going to Guatape but we said we were unsure… a few minutes later in the room, we decided to text Carlos and ask if it was still possible to get his friend to take us to Guatape and how much it would be. He got back to me and said “yes” it would be 682,000 by credit card or 650,000 cash (a little under $250 Canadian). We decided to go for it! I am glad we chose to do this, as I was quite anxious about returning from Guatape on the bus. I had read that the bus tickets back to Medellin from Guatape could sell out. I didn’t want to get stranded with a flight to Caratenga early the next day. I had seen a tour on trip advisor for 155,000 each, but we waited too long to book (this was our last day in Medellin so it was now or never). Trip Advisor could be a good option for you if you are booking ahead of time. 

The driver picked us up at 9:15 in his VW. I am sad to say I never learned his name…as he reminded me of my coworker Tino, I just remember him as that. He was super young, but super nice and friendly with excellent English. We drove almost two hours to our first stop, through beautiful lush and mountainous country scenery. I loved looking at all the plants and pointing them out to an unamused Jives. The road was so curvy and actually a really nice time. 

The first stop was on top of a hill at a tiny replica village of a town called Penol. The little town of Penol was submerged under 26m of water by a flood. The flood was either caused by a volcanic eruption or a dam… we heard two stories, one more exciting than the other. It was a really cute little village, if not a bit touristy.. But that was ok. We visited a gift shop, but didn’t buy anything. We then went into a little church that was very simple but beautiful. We then walked over to the cliff to look at the impressive views over the many lakes in the area. There was a very tiny black dog wearing a yellow hooded sweater with bear ears on it! There were lots of dogs actually, one with epic eyebrows and really scruffy fur that sat with Jives as he filmed a rap take. 

We then headed to the giant monolith rock . Our driver said it was the second largest monolith in the world after Rio’s Christ the Redeemer. The rock was situated right between Guatape and the town of El Penol. There is actually quite a rivalry between the two towns regarding the ownership of the rock. A group of people from Guatape, one night, decided to paint “Guatape” on the rick in large white letters. They managed to paint “GU” on the rock face before being stopped. You can still see the giant letters on the rock face. 

The drive up to the rock face is actually quite confusing, I was really glad to not have to navigate the trip on my own. It seems to take much longer to go from the rock to Guatape than I thought. Anyway, we got out of the car and walked to the base of the rock where a sort of tacky tourist village had developed. Our guide said he’d wait down below as we climbed up. He had joked that the goal was to reach the top of the rock without dying. I asked him “what would happen if we did die climbing” and he responded that he would drive back to Medellin without us, no problem. 

We paid 25,000 pesos ($8 Cad) each and climbed the rock. There were 657 stairs…arguably… I think the number may be wrong. They put the large numbers on the stairs i.e. “100”, “300” so you know how far you have left to climb. 

It was a pretty steep climb and the stairs zig zag back and forth across the face of the rock. We stopped so many times to take photos. The views of the surrounding lakes were magnificent. There was a light breeze, which was lovely. The entire climb took about 15 minutes and we arrived at the top. There were a few souvenir booths and a beverage and icecream booth. We bought two beers and sat on the edge of the helicopter landing pad, looking out over the lakes and vast views. 

We then proceeded to take way too many photos and filmed a rap take. We saw a man climbing up the stairs with five cases of beer and pop….it occurred to me that it would be very difficult to bring up all the items being sold on the rock. We probably spent twenty minutes on top of the rock and then started our descent down the steps. The stairway down the rock is in the crack of the rock, and is almost cave like. We were behind a younger white lady who was terrified of heights. 

Jives started counting the stairs and we think there is a conspiracy here, there are definitely more steps going down but they have labeled that it is 657 up and 657 down! We’ve cracked the case wide open! You heard it here first, folks! Our driver was waiting for us at the bottom and asked if we wanted to eat here, but I still wasn’t feeling well. 

We got back in the car and headed 15 minutes to Guatape. The walk would have been pretty tricky from El Penol to Guatape. Our driver dropped us off at Umbrella Street in Guatape and said he would pick us up in 20 minutes. I thought we  would also stop somewhere else in Guatape, so we said that was a good amount of time…. Had we known this was all the time we had in Guatape, we probably would have asked for more time. 

Guatape is a super colourful city! Most of the buildings have little relief carvings and paintings at the bottom of the foundation with various things carved; llamas, food, people, places etc. all painted in vibrant colours. We sat in a lovely courtyard for a bit and filmed Jives rapping. There were colourful balconies where you could have a beverage, but we didn’t have the time. 

We came across a lovely fountain type thing with colourful figures on it. It was a beautiful city that begged for more time to explore it. We met up with our driver and drove almost two hours back to Medellin. 

We arrived back at our hotel at 3pm, meaning we had been gone for six hours total, four hours driving and two hours of touring the sites. The tour cost about $250 Canadian. I would say it was worth it. 

We sat in our room for a bit and tried to decide where to go to eat. I wanted something vegan, as my stomach hadn’t been well, so we found a place one metro stop away which seemed close… but we were in for our first Medellin rush hour experience, and it was Friday! Our bus was about 30 minutes late, so we stood in the heat for quite awhile. The bus was so full that it had to stop taking on people, as people were literally hanging out of the doors. There was literally zero space to cram another person on board. I don’t know how you’d get off the bus at a stop if you wanted… The roads are soooo steep, so people were struggling to stay up right while packed together like sardines. We finally made it to the metro stop and we all slowly shuffled off the bus. Then there was the metro..and it was packed too. We didn’t fit on the first or second train that came and barely fit on the third train. A group of giggling old ladies decided to shove their way on to the train and it made it almost impossible to hold yourself upright. Jives was at a weird angle, holding all his weight up with one arm. He could have fallen and crushed all the laughing oil ladies. We only had to go one stop, but it was brutal. The train we did get on was super delayed too and stood at the station waiting for almost 10 minutes. 

We then walked 15 minutes from the metro (Pablado station) to the vegan restaurant. It was a bit sketchy and very busy. The restaurant was called “Real Vegetal”. It was a tiny place, but with lots of plants and lovely decorations. I got three Bao Buns with tempura cauliflower and Jives got a pizza with avocado, mushrooms, and so many seeds. We also ordered a delicious craft beer. 

I enjoyed my meal thoroughly. Apparently Jives was uncomfortable the whole time, but he didn’t tell me. He certainly seemed upset the whole way home. The trip back was not nearly as packed, but the walk back to Pablado station was a bit sketchy. 

We got back to our hotel at 7:30pm and slowly packed all our stuff up (we had an early morning flight the next day). We shared some wine and watched some YouTube, cheers to our 9th anniversary!