We have the metro system down pat. It takes you all over the city and is quite inexpensive @ .75 usd and it usually is connected with parks or attractions that you want to visit. Yay Us!
Guatepe is a couple of hours out of Medellin and we did a day trip to see the famous “Rock of El Penol”. (Guatepe was the original capital of Antioquia, not Medellin). It was an 11 hour day with driving time. The ride was absolutely stunning and our guide, Sander, was very knowledgeable. Slides below.
It’s millions of years old, weighs in at an estimated 10 million tons, is more than 200m high and has a curious history. The rock was first climbed officially in July 1954, when Don Luis Eduardo Villegas Lopez and a couple of others scaled it by using the cracks in the rock!! It took them 5 days and people thought they had lost their minds. It still isn’t clear how they were able to do it. It has 2 “plates” that came together eons ago and that allowed for building a staircase of @ 700 steps. What is so interesting about this area, in more recent times is that it is near the 2nd largest river in Colombia, called Cauca. The government of Colombia offered to buy out the homes in El Penol and build a dam that would supply energy to Medellin and beyond and in fact, it does provide 30% of power to all of Colombia. The men of the city agreed, however the women of Penol wanted more than that. This was in the 60s, talk about brave women! They didn’t just want to be relocated…..they wanted a complete town. 10 years passed and finally the government gave in and built an entire town in one year. Of course, there was this “Rock”. The Lopez family bought it and the enterprising guy had steps built to go to the top and said people would pay to climb it and I did….and so it is. There are about 3,000 visitors per day….x $6 per person. You do the math:)
Then we went to Guatepe a sweet little town with great coffee and shops. The last photo is our tour group……from all over the world.
I had to include this photo from the coffee shop we stopped at…..the guy who did this is genius!
Saturday, January 13, we spent a relaxing day at the Botanical Gardens and the San Pedro Cemetery Museum and ended the day with “Charlies Angels” at the Cinema. On Sunday we found one of the longest standing Italian restaurants in Medellin called, Palazzetto D’ Italia . Delicious! All very close to Parque Bolivar.
Botanical Gardens 
San Pedro Cemetery 
Metropolitan Cathedral of Medellín 
Fountain in Parque Bolivar 
Palazzetto D’ Italia
We were a little disappointed that the Bridge Studio by Parque Bolivar closed with no notice of where they had moved…..but by researching on Facebook, we got a response from a woman named Claudia who said bridge is only one day a week on Tuesday. So, Tuesday we went…….. to the wrong location (of course!), but with the help of an extremely wonderful taxi driver and his ability to understand our limited Spanish, we arrived 5 minutes before they began. They are the most welcoming group. We were invited to a special event they were having at a members home in the country and offered transportation to get there. Here are some photos of the bridge club.
Claudia 
It continues to simply amaze me of the warmth of these Colombians!
The Bridge event on Thursday took precedence over the Walking Tour I had scheduled on the same day. Here are the photos. This was an extraordinary country home of Margarita. This house was actually the stable for their horses, now converted to a home, but not the big house, that was further up the road!! From the champagne reception to the Paella, appetizers…..wow! Oh and did I mention wine?? We played 28 hands, got 50.70%, good % for us and the players were so fun and welcoming.
I needed to see more of Colombia, so I traveled south to Jerico, a small city known for it’s many churches, hiking and coffee. Next post will include photos.
The BIG Colombian Adventure 