Guatapé, Colombia 🇨🇴
We a quick coffee and croissants before walking to El Poblado park to get the shuttle to Guatapé. The company has oversubscribed the bookings and we have to wait around whilst the manager grabs his car to take us and another lad. We waited patiently, fully expecting a jeep or something but had to giggle when he pulls up in a battered Renault Clio. We squeeze into the back and are then on our way along the curvey road to Guatape. It is about an hour and a half to the replica of El Penol, a town that was submerged as part of the 1960s dam project that made all the beautiful waterways. 20 minutes further and we are in the town of Guatapé, we bid goodbye to Danny who is still apologising and grab a light lunch.
We find our hotel in the centre of town and drop our bags off as we are a bit early for check in. The shorefront of the town has a bit of a walkway and we easily find a boat that will take us out onto the lake for an hour. It’s fun whizzing through the water, looking at the posh houses and the big rock in the distance we are going to climb tomorrow. We see a couple of Pablo Escabar’s houses on the shore, including a burnt out one and one that was his party or disco house. Our final point is a big steel cross which marks where the church of El Penol sits beneath the water, strange to think there is a village underneath us.
Lesley is keen to go the zip line and as we come back to shore she can see someone on it. As we watch she spots how they thump lad into crash pads and decides it doesn’t look like fun, shame as I was looking forward to watching her. We tour rounds the colourful town, with its freezes along the bottom of the houses depicting scenes or characters that are significant to the owners. The little square and church are delightful, the cold beer even more so.
Once we check into the hotel we relax in our nice and airy room listening to the world go by. We go back to the waterfront for dinner, a highly recommended Indian restaurant called Donde de Sam. Sam himself is in residence and he elects to make us something off menu. It is delicious, a lovely tomato based chicken curry with rice and naan. I haven’t enjoyed a curry since south Peru, so this was a real treat.
