We took a day trip that was called “Guatape”, but included several other tourist areas.
The first stop after breakfast was La Piedra. This is a giant rock with an intense set of stairs to the top. Of course we had to climb them. By the time we purchased our ticket, we had about an hour to climb up (and back down) approximately 700 stairs. We made it back to the bus barely on time, but we weren’t the last to make it back.
The town of Guatape itself was pretty interesting. The bottoms of nearly all the buildings are decorated with different zรณcalos. Zรณcalos are artistic panels that often depict the trade of the people who live there. Many of them now are decorative or created by previous owners.
The town of El Pinol was submerged when they built the hydroelectric dam. They built a replica city as a historical marker, museum, and tourist attraction. The reservoir itself has many massive home surrounding it. We went on a boat tour that told a lot of the history of the area. Including one of Pablo Escobar’s many estates. This one was bombed and abandoned. Our final stop was Alto Chocho, which was basically a petting zoo with a large number of llamas and alpacas. We didn’t pay to pet the animals, but I did get a entertaining picture of a jeep.
