Take a trip to Guatape and climb El Penol
Just East of Medellin is the picturesque city of Guatape which has become more famous for its large monlithic type rock known as El Penol. The rock is approx 657ft high and is made up of quartz, feldspar and granite. It takes 675 steps to reach the highest part and is a very popular tourist attraction in this area.
How did we get there?
We took a local bus from the Northern bus station in Medellin which is on the Caribe stop on the metro. Downstairs the ticket booths 9 and 11 offered bus tickets to Guatape and some offer just to the town but others offer the town and the rock so make sure the bus company you choose has a stop at the rock. The cost of the bus ticket was 17000 COP each which is around £3.55 and the journey was around 2 hours. There are a couple of vendors who get on and off the bus selling water, crisps, arepas etc but make sure you’ve got plenty snacks for the journey before you go.
When you get to El Penol.
Once the bus has dropped you off at the base of the rock you have 2 options to get you to the ticket office. You can either walk up the steps and road to the car park which will take around 20 – 30 mins and they start quite steep or you can take a Tuk Tuk. We opted for the Tuk Tuk as we knew that once we had our tickets we still had 675 steps to climb to the top of the rock. Once the Tuk Tuk drops you off you have a short walk up and round the corner to the ticket office. The tickets to climb cost 20000 COP (£4.18).
The Rock
Once you have your ticket you join the queue of people ready to climb the stairs. There is a different route up for people ascending and for people coming down but when we were there, one section of the route up was being repaired so we had to take it in turns with the people coming down to get past that point. The steps are marked at each 25 step marker and the views as you ascend are just wonderful. Lakes and mountains open up before you and it really is a stunning area. Once you reach the top and see the step numbered 675 there are a few restaurants and cafe’s to get a refreshing drink or a snack. There are souvenir shops and there is a further 30 steps or so to get to the look out point. At the foot of the rock there are numerous places to get lunch and toilets and washrooms to freshen up.