Medellin day 5

I wish I could tell you I was upbeat this morning, but I am still trying to process last nights debate in the US.

I still need to have a plan today. At this point, I am thinking museums, gallerys and biking. I will start with a biking, if I can get myself motivated early enough and in between rain showers.

More to come later in the day.. 

Well as it happens, I didn't do any of that. After finding at ATM to refresh my cash, I caught a Metro train to the North Bus Terminal. I then took a bus to Guatapé.

The ride out was an adventure. Shortly after turning off the main highway, we came to a complete halt on the road. We made little progess over the 10 to 15 minutes. I thought maybe it was road work because there was occational traffic coming down in the opposite direction. The driver talked talked to a couple of the trucks coming down as they passed us. Eventually, the bus I was on, found a spot and turned around.

I am looking on my google maps and don't see many options to getting to Guatapé. 

The bus continues to backtrack for awhile before turning off onto a secondary road. The bus is not huge, but not small either. It is a 36 passenger bus. Keep that in mind.

At the start the road is fine, smaller, but still paved. We are in a mountainous area with a lot of curves and switchbacks. Then the pavement ends and we are on even smaller dirt country roads. It is apparent the driver is not familiar with this route, he stops and asks people in villages several times if we are on the right road. This results in twice finding a spot to turn around and taking an different road.

The road is narrow. A few times we passed other vehicles with only inches between the bus and the other truck. 

The view along the way was beautiful green and lush. Unfortunately, I was in a middle seat and had to lean across my seatmate to take pictures. So, not any good pictures.

We were on this altered route for over an hour before rejoining the main road again.

We were on the altered route for so long that I am checking on Booking.com for accomodations in Guatapé in case I can't get a bus back to Medellin. What would typically take 2 hours, took almost 4 hours to reach Guatapé.

Guatapé is a beautiful area and beautiful town. The town is surrounded by small lakes and waterways. These water ways were artificially created with the construction of a large dam in 1970. This turned the area from a livestock town into a tourist center.

The other attraction is La Pierna del Peñol, a 220 meter tall rock monolith.

Unfortunate for me, I got off the bus at the monolith before reaching the town. More on that later.

I knew that there were 700 steps available to climb to the top of the monolith. I knew I wouldn't be one to climb those steps. What I didn't know about was the 657 steps to reach the base of the monolith. I guessed 700 steps, thanks to a google searc I found out I wasn't far off. Without, at that time knowing how many steps to the base, I start up the stairs. You can't see all the steps at the beginning. Every turn reveals another flight of stairs.

I did finally make it up to the base of the monolith after about 4 or 5 sit downs along the way. What did I find there? Tuk-tuks! I could have taken a tuk-tuk. I knew that was the way I would go down. There was no way I was going to walk the 657 steps down. 

I did enjoy and relish the view even from the base of the monolith.

I took the overpriced tuk-tuk down back to street level. The drivers knowing they had a captive clientel.

Back at the base, my energy and legs depleted, I opted not to continue into town. This is that unfortunate dropoff I referred to earlier.

So, I didn't see the beauiful, colorful streets of Guatapé. Here is someone else's picture of what I missed. What I did instead was sit in a cafe at the base of the monolith and enjoyed a snack and a beer waiting for a bus back to Medellin.

Even though I had the front seat on the bus on the way back to Medellin, I spent more time snoozing than taking pictures.

In Medellin, I stopped by what is now my favorite food stand to pick up a Ricos Tamale to eat later at hostel for dinner.

As with every other day coming back to hostel, I took a wrong turn somewhere increasing my walk to the hostel from about 12  minutes to 20 minutes. From now on, I will check my google maps earlier. 

Checking my google timeline, it says I walked a total of 1 mile yesterday. My legs say it's lying.

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