Back so Soon? Peñol & Guatapé

Ok. So, funny story. You know, I get these crazy ideas, and this was one. Maybe it was a little irresponsible, maybe it was a little misguided, but having been through it now, I can say nothing but it was 110% the right decision. Basically, I went back to Colombia.

My story starts Wednesday night, watching the Colombia-Uruguay semifinal game in the Copa America. As someone who’d just been, I was watching with my Colombian flag on the wall, in my Colombia jersey, wearing my Colombia bracelet. Practically a local, no? And as it became ever more apparent that Colombia was going to win, the inevitable slip of flights.google.com made its way onto my phone. Before I knew it, I was calling up Lachlan, asking whether I should come in again to watch the Copa America final: Colombia vs Argentina. And all I can do at this point is give Lachlan a huge thank you, as he spotted me an uncomfortably large amount of money for me to come down and try this whole Colombia thing over again, just to watch this one game.

So Friday night, 48 hours after I booked the flights, I was on a Spirit flight from Miami, direct to Medellín. I landed at 1 AM, and got to bed within 45 minutes. I actually slept quite well, and was up early to get the day started.

We planned to visit this area of Colombia that is famous for its beauty. It’s a vacation spot for Colombia’s rich and famous, and much of it was previously real estate owned by Escobar and his friends. Nowadays, it’s where pop stars and soccer legends live, and AirBnBs are also commonplace. The drive to Gutatapé, the city in this area, was about 2.5 hours. We stopped by this restaurant by the airport that I’d actually been wanting to stop at since it looked quite good. It’s a lechonería, or a restaurant that serves Colombian barbecue. I got carne asada, which was delicious, and it came with a plethora of sides. Rice, beans, yucca, cole slaw, a whole plantain, a biscuit, and a fried egg. Besides the beans and yucca, I ate the whole thing. But I don’t like beans, and in Peru, I learned the hard way that I don’t like yucca (what I lovingly called Jungle Potato for the first few weeks).

The lechonería was in a pretty typical rustic Colombian style, with the whole restaurant made of wood, and it was built from what appeared to be an old church. It almost felt like a ranch you’d come across driving through Texas! There was a nice yard, complete with a cartoon-themed bounce house, and you could see the food being prepared from the road. It felt like a classic Colombian roadside stop. Our tour guide, Yan, told us that it’s one of his favorite places to go, and he did give, indeed, a pretty good recommendation!

We kept on driving, as he talked to us about the sites we were passing, the different crops growing around, and how we’re enjoying our time in Colombia. He spoke perfect English, which was for sure helpful, though we tried to use a decent amount of Spanish as to not exclude Cata too much. But in the end, it was a Colombian road trip, nothing more. The area we were visiting was quite historic, with  lots for me to talk about, but we just enjoyed our drive in the meantime.

So the lake we were vising, this Lake Peñol-Guatapé, is not a natural lake. It’s a reservoir for a hydroelectric plant. We actually came at a funny time, because nowadays, they’re draining more of the lake than they have in the past. Since October, Peru and Ecuador have been buying electricity from Colombia, resulting in a noticeable drop in the water level. Properties you can tell used to be waterfront are now a couple dozen yards from the water, and like in the Amazon with its water level that changed with the seasons, things that had spent decades underwater had a different discoloration that those that had stayed dry. But what makes the area so cool, so beautiful, is that it’s an artificial lake that filled in a hilly—maybe even mountainous—area. So when you look at the area from above, you’ll notice that the lake isn’t one big wide open body, rather, several small intimate inlets with plenty of real estate, bridges, and pretty views.

Satelite View of the Reservoir

Everything here was so colorful. The water was this bright shade of teal, which came from the plants that grow where land used to be, and all the plants were bright green, teeming with life. The soil was dark red, and the sky could not have been bluer. Now, I loved the fact that we were taking this tour on a speedboat at this point, and after spending three summers out of Michigan, I’ve missed my time on a speedboat… It was good for my soul, it revitalized me, and made me feel like missing the 4th of July the week before wasn’t that bad of a choice. Because I felt like I was the king of the world on that boat.

We passed a cross jutting out of the water. It was hollow, a frame of what it used to be.  But we’d seen this cross before—it was in the town of Peñol. But in Peñol, it was whole, here, it was a ghost. This ghost cross represents the tragedy of what happened to the town of Peñol. Peñol used to be right here, under the water. They were a thriving village, just like any other, at the base of one of these hills. But when plans were created to construct the hydroelectric dam, there was no consideration for Peñol. They were pushed out, forced to relocate to their current spot. In this area of Colombia, buildings are made of a mix of sand and manure (we’ll get to this later), and therefore, what was of the city no longer exists. Even underwater. It all eroded, dissolved away.

Peñol also lost their major tourist attraction, La Piedra de Peñol, or nowadays, El Peñol de Gutatapé. La Piedra is this giant rock sticking out of the earth in this area. We passed it while crossing the many bridges and narrow passes entering this district, and it is quite impressive. It’s all natural, and has been there for as long as people have been keeping records there. It’s privately owned nowadays, by the family of the man who first climbed it, and all the restaurants and hotels within walking distance are also owned by that family. It’s a little unethical, it sounds, but it brings in a lot of tourism to Peñol and Guatapé. When Peñol was relocated, Guatapé, as the now closer town, took de facto control of the stone. To establish their dominance, they started to paint the word Guatapé onto the stone, only for it to cause a massive stink with their neighbors in Peñol. The project was abandoned mid way, and now, just the letters “GI” are on the rock (The I being the left half of the unfinished U).

A couple different views of the Piedra de Peñol

Anyways, back to the boat! Because I love boats. But if there’s a few things I love more than boats, abandoned buildings are one of them. And we were taking a boat to an abandoned building, so what better combination of awesome things, huh? Our next stop was Hacienda La Manuela, a gift from Pablo Escobar to his daughter Manuela for her 15th birthday (dad, I expect this for my next birthday gift, please). The place was purely a vacation house, though it was never used. Before it could be “christened,” it was blown to smithereens by the Cali Cartel agents, hoping to assert their dominance over Escobar.

In the building process, Escobar insisted that many species of exotic trees be brought to the property, and for that, you see species of Spanish moss, bamboo and eucalyptus trees, just to name a few. In other places, Escobar brought in exotic animals (including the Rhino, which is now a dangerous, invasive species to the Colombian jungle), but at La Manuela, it was just these trees.

Some of the many different species of exotic trees

The whole area was beyond beautiful, and the abandoned building was so in touch with the nature around it that it felt almost like it belonged there, despite nothing about it, nor its nature, being natural. There was an overwhelming feeling of awe, of beauty, of calm from being at La Manuela that I just didn’t want to go away.

The dog in the video's name is Pablito Escobar ;)

We headed back into town, where we saw a procession towards their cathedral, celebrating the virgin of drivers. It was one of those Catholic processionals I’ve seen all over Seville and Peru, where they carry flowers and a statue of the virgin on their shoulders, all while kids and adults walk down the streets, well dressed, and into the Cathedral.

Walking around the city, I was not amazed by how colorful it was—that much I’d been told by pretty much anyone who’s ever been—but rather what “kind” of colorful it is. Whereas much of the Caribbean, northern Colombia included, have these colorful, pastel blue and pink buildings, Guatapé was nothing like that. Guatapé was bright, not pastel. The colors popped, and they were not a pretty backdrop, but rather, a focus of attention. It was almost something that I’d expect more in Ethiopia rather than in Colombia, and I was so taken aback by it.

The buildings here, like in the old Peñol, are made of manure and sand, and therefore, it is very easy to make 3D designs on your houses. At some point, it became a tradition to make a family crest, a zocalo, on the outside of your house. These were easily repeatable, mostly geometric patterns, which were painted contrasting colors from the main wall. Here are some examples of zocalos:

Otherwise, there’s not much more to say about Guatapé… it’s just a really lovely place to spend an evening. I got a new hat, I guess! So, we just walked around, soaked up the vibes, bought a few souvenirs, and then headed back to our apartment.

Overall, a very fun day, and honestly, even at this point, it was worth the trip down!