El Penon de Guatape of Colombia

 

#Rock_Guatape_Colombia

The rock of Guatape has 650 stairs to climb to the top
 The slowest part of the ascend is the beginning because of the many people who thought they were fit & were not 😏, so they clog up the narrow staircase trying to catch their breath
But once i was past that, your guy did the roundtrip twice in around one hour

KeyTip; Because the Colombian Peso is so devalued it will cost you (at a great bargain) around
$5.00 US for an entrance fee & if taking a bus from Medellin around $6.00 US for a 3 hour ride
Now in most cases you will need cash for your admission fee, water/snacks & transportation
Finally; needless to say do not drink the tap water & bring your own toilet paper

Before modern day Colombia, the local indigenous people ( Tahami ) viewed the rock as an object of worship as El Penon has stood for millions of years in this area of Antioquia region

Guatape means stones & water in Quechua ( an Indigenous language that originated in central Peru & spread to others countries near the Andes Mountains)

The rock has had several exciting theories about its origins; from an ancient meteorite, an extinct volcano (but sorry) here is the boring explanation, the mass of granite was less fractured than the surrounding bedrock & it just survived thousand of years of erosion. 
Moving forward, finally El Penon was declared a National Monument in the 1940s

400 more steps to go...... for one of four trips 😃

In 2024 The Amazing Race TV Show had the contestants racing up the stairs here in Colombia
  Previous seasons the countries visited were; United States, China, India, France, Italy & Thailand.
The show has been to every continent except Antarctica

The rock was first officially climbed in 1954 & it took the three men five days to complete 
One of the men ( Luis Eduardo Villegas Lopez ) bought the rock from the local farmers as they viewed it useless for their needs.
 Then Lopez built stairs into the cracks of the rock & started charging people to climb the steps.
Fast forward to present day, his family still continues to earn a percentage of admissions
Talk about entrepreneurial thinking

Do i need to say this 😕, wear proper shoes as its the equivalent of walking 45 flights of stairs, so please leave your high heels & flip flops back at your hotel

Always thinking like a photographer i am; using the stairs for a frame to highlight the town below

Be sun smart & bring some lotion, hat, plus glasses as the UV intensity increases 4% for every 1000 feet & Guatape is at 6200 feet

At 200+ meters (650 feet) you get some great panoramic views of Guatape Lake & surrounding areas.
This was formed when the government in the 1970s decided to flood this area & to create a reservoir that provides electricity to 35% of Colombia
 Now once at the top, there are vendors selling water & snacks plus a bar to perhaps celebrate your quest of the stairs 😄

I leave you with some colors from Guatape Town, Colombia