A lake and a big rock

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Guatapé and El Peñol: A lake and a big rock



On a day trip yesterday we saw some surprising things. The target was a big rock and the lake that provides water for Medellín. It was, of course, gorgeous; that's why people go there; and Carol climbed a good way up the rock. But first, some news:



You may recall that a few days ago we visited Hacienda Nápoles to see the feral hippos and the old Escobar house, which we in fact did not see because it was being converted into a museum of criminality (so they said.) Now comes news that two days after we were there the house suddenly collapsed into a heap of rubble. News reports say they decided to demolish it, but this certainly does not fit with what we heard from people on the site. They were removing structural walls and shoring it up with steel, and I think they just made a miscalculation. Anyway, it is no more, and the manager now announces it will never be rebuilt, as a museum or anything else.



I am sure this is welcome news to many. Escobar had a populist following among the rural poor, whom he did indeed help in many ways that the government did not- hospitals, schools- especially in the southern jungle. Not on a big enough scale to make a decisive difference, but still enough to be favorably remembered. And he also paid good money for coca paste, and offered big bounties for dead policemen, eagerly collected by many assassins bold enough to do so. And not just a few- the number you hear is 628. This, of course was one of the main elements of his downfall, and for the bitterness that has followed him among his victims. But it cannot be denied that there is a certain Cult of Escobar that has sprung up since his demise, centered on the house at Hacienda Nápoles. Now that's taken care of.



This lake we visited is a bit like Hetch Hetchie in the next valley over from Yosemite, storing water for Los Angeles in what was the second most beautiful valley in America. The Colombian water people decided they needed a lake, and they found the perfect place geologically, but it was unfortunately the site of a village some two hundred years old. So it was Emminent Domain, with much wailing from the village. It was all very slow. A new village was built, with generous government subsidies, well above the waterline, and people moved into it gradually. Only a few had to be carried out as the waters rose. Photo 80 shows the lake today, looking like a part of Switzerland, with expensive vacation homes in many places, and plenty more under construction.



But photo 80 is not the best view. There is a huge volcanic intrusion beside the lake, its whole volcano totally eroded away, photo 81. It stands 600 feet above the lake, an enormous monolith, with a wooden staircase built into a crevice of the stone. The entrance sign says "Best view in the entire world", and at the top is a little round building where you can buy water for $6000 pesos a bottle and see in all directions. I did not attempt it, but Carol went up more than halfway. You can see her starting her climb, photo 82, that red dot on the stairway.



We also went for a boat ride on the lake. We didn't know it until we saw it, but along the shore is another Escobar ruin. He owned many houses all over Colombia, and kept people guessing where he was at any given time. This was one of his favorites, and nearby he also had houses for his Mother and other not-so-criminal Escobar relatives. But this villa, and an adjacent one for his security men, was one of his favorites, beautifully designed and decorated. There was a small airstrip, and he came and went irregularly by small plane.



The villa is now in ruins, and was even before his death (photos 83 and 84). Someone planted a stupendous bomb in it, possibly the police, possibly the Cali cartel. There were many attepts to bomb him, but he had a way of taking off just before each one was about to blow. No one ever got him this way, but the villa was left a total ruin, with many deaths of other people. I am not trying to inflate the Escobar Cult even further; I'm just telling you what we saw and what people told us at the scene.



After the boatride, we visited a very pretty village named El Peñol, with a rather unique architectural decorations. I'll show a few pictures, and that will be it for this time.

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Comments

[Steve Engel]

Monoliths
Every people need legends and wonders and unsolved mysteries. Pablo was the Jesse James of Colombia. Any idea how many steps in that stairway to the top of the monolith? Thank you once again for all the glimpses.