Fun in the sun in Guatape

After spending three weeks in hot, humid, grubby, busy Cali we were pretty keen to get away from big cities and hang out somewhere beautiful and relaxing for a few days. The owner of our hostel in Medellin suggested Guatape, a little town about two hours east of Medellin, situated on a huge, labyrinthine artificial lake.

 Guatape was indeed beautiful but we somehow managed to stumble in on a long weekend, and there’s nothing like a few thousand Colombians on holiday to ruin any chances of quiet relaxation. The waterfront was set up with tiny stalls selling beer, aguardiente and various heart-attack inducing snacks. My favourite was the aptly named El Palacio del Colesterol (yep, Cholesterol Palace).

We hired a canoe and paddled around the lake on our first morning- there are so many tiny channels and isolated bays that you could easily explore for a week. The water was clear as a bell and even the numerous jet-skiers and speedboat bogans couldn’t totally shatter the idyllic feeling.

Guatape itself is too cute to be true- all brightly coloured painted houses, cowboys riding horses and lazy afternoon beers on the plaza.

 

Its biggest claim to fame is the nearby El Peñol, a huge granite rock that rises a couple of hundred metres above the landscape. 659 steps take you up to the top, where sadly the view is somewhat diminished by hideous barbed wire barriers and shoddily constructed concrete shacks. Once you managed to ignore the concentration camp decor though, the view was truly spectacular.

 

We got a Colombian woman to take our photo but I think she missed the point (or was simply too lazy to stand up) and concentrated on the concrete barrier rather than the gorgeous view as a background.