Phew! Made it

We left at 8 for another busy but really good day. After driving for 1.5 hours we stopped at a bizarre place where there was a huge car and bus park for the numerous tat stalls and a fenced in area with scores of llamas. You were encouraged to buy pots of carrots to feed them. It looked like everyone was heading to Guatape to climb El Penon. This monolith is a popular site judging by the amount of buses in the car park.

We thought we’d take the exit offered half way up as we were at 2000m, but as we were managing we climbed the 700 plus steps to the top for a 360 degree view of the lakes below. They are actually a man-made reservoir to supply 40% of the county’s electricity. However with climate change there hasn’t been enough rain for 17 months meaning it is so low it can only provide 20%. We just had time for a passion fruit ice cream before we tackled the steep descent. Going down on steps is more difficult for me than going up but we made it and celebrated with a rum coffee.

The bus took us into the colourful town known as the Pueblo de Zocolas for the intricate paintings of animals, fruit, birds and what business the building offers such as bakery, nursery or bar on the lower part of the buildings. After a walking tour we got got into tuktuks for a ride down to the lakeside. The local guide then took us for a late lunch about 2 at a restaurant owned by an Indian. We had an indifferent channa masala - I think it’s been a long time since he’d been to India. However it did the job as we’d decided we weren’t going out at 8 with the group to another restaurant where music was promised. This option was doubly unattractive as we have to leave at 6.30am tomorrow and we did not get back to the hotel till gone 6 tonight. And it was raining heavily in Medellin - this should be the sunny and dry period but climate change is causing abnormal weather patterns here, as elsewhere. Unfortunately it wasn’t raining near the reservoir.

Despite climbing all those steps Mr C’s Apple phone app says he’s climbed only 1 floor!