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Published: August 1st 2008
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El Peñol
Granite rock, bout 200m high El Peñol is a big granite rock about 2 hours drive from Medellin. The scenery is lovely on the way, going up and over the mountains to get there. I went on Sunday, on my own, and got there at about 10am more or less. I got the bus and unfortunately there was no one who would engage me in conversation on the way there, bit disappointing. Anyway I got there and walked from the road up to the rock- only about 10 mins walk but still people were hiring horses to get them up. I opted against flogging the decrepid looking creatures up the hill and had a very nice walk, testing my calf muscles. There are something like 676 steps up to the top of the rock from the base, see photos...
I paid my dues and went through the turnstile only to be confronted by an aged couple panting their way down the last few steps. I asked what it was like and pretended to be really impressed that they were down already (bet they didn't make the top and came back after bout 10 mins) and the woman told me that I'd need to take a
My first Chiva
Photo taken from bus tho... break every 5 mins and not to rush up or down. As if! Actually I don't really like taking breaks when going up so I did rush up (but had a few pausas here and there- photo oportunities) but coming back down it was rather congested so couldn't go at my usual breakneck speed. It wasn't that spectacular at all at the top- there was grass growing over the rock so you couldn't really tell you were on top of something so unique, it was a nice view. By the way, I'm not in a great mood but was in a better mood when I uploaded the photos so I might've put more enthusiastic captions with them than here...(have a sore mouth and haven't eaten today- sympathy!).
Hmm, yeah so anyway it was nice to be at the top and I wanted to see the sunset from there but it was quite hot (and I got bored after an hour) and not even noon when I got down so I asked a guy who was selling photos if he had any of the sunset and he didn't, damn his goggly eyes. I decided to go back to the village
of El Peñol and do some investigating and was nearly back at the main road when a bus beeped at me (I was in the middle of the road) and then stopped and about 5 guys at the front of the bus yelled at me to hop on. I did, and asked where we were going and they said Guatapé so we went there. It was a tour bus from Cali with a total of 42 people of all ages and we had a fantastic time. They bought me lunch, took me on a boat trip around the lakes which you can see from the top of the rock; although they were all just drinking beer and dancing salsa and not sightseeing at all. Then some of them did a canopy thing- can't remember what it's called in English- there was a cable 600m which they went whizzing down and crashed into a mat. The heavier ones smacked the mat hard, the lighter ones had to be towed in the last few metres, ha ha (I didn't go!). Guatapé is a really pretty wee touristy village which has an old church from Spanish colonial times. The main square is really
nice and has quite a few colonial houses still standing. The lakes are actually a resevoir and there are a few other villages submerged there. I think it's been around for 35 years, though I can never be sure that I've understood.
Cali folk are renowned for their salsa dancing, apparently, and their love of life. Everyone was really friendly and wanted to know all about me and what was a lovely girl like me doing on my own in Colombia, how brave I am and what about my poor family.... Anyway they brought me back to Medellin on their bus and invited me to go to Cartagena with them the following morning. They were on day 2 or 3 of a 12 day tour and I really wanted to go with them but I'd said I'd work a month in the children's home so thought I'd best not bugger off and abandon poor wee kids. Though for all the appreciation I get I should've! More biting and scratching, poor me! Yeah and if I'd gone to Cartagena I'd have met up with Justo again, though that probably wouldn't have been very healthy for me.
Anyway the guide,
Correa, said that around the 20th August he and his wife are going to Cartagena again so I'm hoping to meet up with them there. And I want to be in Medellin this week anyway cos the Fiesta de las Flores starts tomorrow and I can't miss that. Lots of parades and parties and the like...
That's my Sunday events written up. Had a really lovely day, and was very lucky to have met such fun people- thank God I didn't go back to El Peñol, there's nothing there at all, from what I could see- apart from the Chivas.
Hasta la proxima, no point writing about my sore mouth, just send some sympathy cos I've to inject my gum with mouthwash and it HURTSSSSSSSS
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