Guatapé-City of Colors

January 27-29, 2016

I spent a lovely three days at Guatapé, which is a colorful little town nestled in one of the largest reservoirs in Colombia. It alone provides about 30% (I think thats the right number) of Colombia's power from its hydroelectric plant.

My first day I walked into town, about 45 minutes along the road. Then wandered around town.  Its adorable and colorful, more on that later.

Day 2 I climbed the rock. And its not difficult to figure out which rock once you get there.

El Peñol rises 200 feet above the lake, and 659 steps get you to the top. There's a final tower, which has an incredible 360 degree view of the area.

Here's the whole 360 view

Even though it was a steep slog to the top, the view was worth it.

Getting artsy through the tower window

I spent some time up at the top in the shade drinking juice, reading, and enjoying the view and the breeze.

Even up at the top there were zócalos, which adorned the entire town, more on that later.

I kinda liked this view through the railing

If it looks like I'm in pain, its because smiling directly into the sun is hard.

The way back down wasn't nearly as tough as the way up, as stairs tend to be, but it was a bit more interesting, as stairs go.  Where the 'up' staircase was built onto the outside of the rock, the 'down' staircase was built back into the crack.  This meant more zigging, an interesting view of the outside, and a couple big boulders wedged above the staircase in a slightly worrying manner.

Looking at the outside staircase

This amused me, there were two ways to go down the stairs here. The short way had steeper, kind of sketchy stairs, the longer way went around back and the stairs were more gradual.

Day 3 I caught a Jeep into town, and found myself a boat ride around the lake.  Because the tour operators take out a boat when its got enough people, this meant I was promised a great price, and then sat around for maybe a half hour, waiting to see if anyone else showed up.  Eventually the three of us there ditched.  I went to another place that had a slightly higher price, but filled up in about 5 minutes.  Worth it.

The boat ride was lovely.  Typical bench seat covered lancha that do South American boat tours.  The sky was blue, the water was blue, the trees were green and since the water is very low right now, its been very dry all over the region, there was bright red dirt playing counterpart to the blue and green.

The tourguide driver we had was rather uninspired, but since I was really going for the boat ride I didn't mind too too much.

We went past a private island you can rent out to stay in cabins on, Isla de las Fantasias, which means exactly what it sounds like it should.

We got a good view of La Piedra.

We went past some old bombed out mansions of Pablo Escobar, one of which I think he said has been turned into an exclusive club.  That one had an ancient limo outside of it.

Another abandoned building, I thought it had charm.

There were a bunch of other mansions that I liked.

There was also the cross from a church that got submerged underwater when the reservoir was dammed up.  I didn't quite catch if this is the actual spire from it, or if its a monument built in commemoration, and the water was too  murky to see anything underwater.

I discovered that my point and shoot does a terrible job of taking panoramas on a moving boat.  It seemed to try to pick bits of spray for its reference point, which just ended badly.  Amusing photos though.

Super Fail

After the boat ride I walked around town, which is a riot of color with the zócalos on the bottom half of each building.  I think I've worked my 100+ photos into a fairly manageable format considering, so without further ado, i present the zócalos of Guatapé.

Plain-ish geometric

Square geometric, same pattern, different colors

Circly geometric, again, some patterns get re-used.

Just the colors are changed

This one reminded me of winter for some reason.

I think these llama guys are the most traditional. They were very common.

Same shape, different colors

Lots of flowers, the heliconia were my favorite.

Tropical birds, appropriate

Lots of maritime designs, not surprising for being right on a lake. Some were specifically the tour cruise boats with the rock in the bbackground

Speaking of El Peñol...

A couple houses had (I assume) family crests, one for the mother and one for the father.

Some had to do with what the building did. Top left was on an old persons home, next to it on the hospital. Music shops, bakery, pool hall. I thought the lone chicken foot was funny, but they go in soup...

And a hodgepodge of everything else. I got a kick out of the reindeer (very non-native) and the fairy one. The chess pieces were a cool effect along the whole building, and I think second down on the right is someone reading a book?

These ones were all logos done in zócalo style. Far left is Banco de Bogotá along with a more traditional flower design.

I liked these, on either side of a door. Fish mixed with Aztec knives on the bottom.

Props to the zócalo of a guy making a zócalo. Very inception.

The dragon house was a personal favorite.

Dad, this one's for you. Even if it is a bass.

The zócalo square was really pretty too.

Apart from the zócalos, the colors and paint jobs on the houses were wonderful.  Many times they coordinated with the zócalo too.

That evening I treated myself to a lovely dinner in town at sunset.  The chicken tikka masala wasn't the same as from Taste of India back home, but it was pretty good.  The piña colada doubly so.  And the restaurant had actual good service (by US standards even) for probably the first time in these 7 months.

 And of course I couldn't visit anywhere without seeing the church.  The outside was nice, and still decorated with sparkly stars from the holidays, which made it look kind of patriotic for me.

When I stepped inside though, I'm pretty sure I gasped.  It gets one of the top spots on my Favorite Churches list, and was gorgeous with dark wood and gold trim.  Unfortunately the camera doesn't really do it justice.

Ceiling detail

Guatape was a wonderful little lake getaway for a couple days, and I would have loved to live there and own a sailboat.  And a hammock in front of the lake.

And as a reward, dear reader, for sticking with me until the end, here is my favorite photo I took there.  It was meant to show a friend the metalwork on the window, but I love how it turned out, with the colors and the reflections.