Good morning guys!
I’m in Guatapé, Colombia which is about a two hour bus ride from Medellín
and this morning we are going to climb a huge rock.
It’s a monolith called El Peñol.
So let’s go.
We’re in the main plaza of Guatapé in front of the church
because this is where you get the most affordable transit to the rock.
We’re going to flag down a Jeep and it’s only 2000 pesos per person.
Jeep dropped us off and it looks like there’s a bit of a walk to get to the base of the rock
and people are renting tuk tuks or riding horses but we’re gonna walk.
Here’s our first glimpse up close.
Wow!
It’s huge!
Wow.
There she is.
Over 600 hundred stairs.
I’m glad I wore good shoes.
I don’t know if this snake is dead or not.
Looks dead.
Just found the first stairs.
Let the stepping begin!
Step number one.
Step one.
We’ve been already walking uphill but now we’re officially starting to climb.
659 steps.
Here we go!
There’s 50.
Here’s our 100 step update.
This rock is apparently 66 million tonnes and they found quartz and granite
and the first time anyone climbed this was in 1954.
Three men scaled it over five days.
So hopefully this time it won’t take us that long.
It’s raining.
The weather here changes so quickly, like every 20 minutes it feels like so…
It started out so sunny and now there’s thunder.
So we’re hoping if we just keep going and stick with it -
Maybe it’ll clear up.
Maybe it’ll be sunny by the time we make it to the top.
We’re getting closer to the top and we stopped to look at this amazing view.
There’s just this incredible landscape with lakes flowing out from this big rock in the centre.
And apparently El Peñol is the product of a volcanic eruption
and when scientists made it to the top of the rock they actually discovered a new plant
and the indigenous people here many years ago used this as a site of worship.
We made it to the top!
It’s a gorgeous view up here, despite the rain, and one thing that’s interesting about the history
that I wanted to mention that I’ve just learned
is that on the northern face of this rock
you’ll notice there’s a huge painted G and what looks like an I.
But it’s actually an unfinished U for ‘Guatapé’
because there’s been a dispute over ownership of this rock for a long time
between the town of Guatapé and the neighbouring town of El Peñol
and I guess the townspeople of Guatapé one day decided that they were going to settle it
and take ownership once and for all and they started painting ‘Guatapé’ on the rock.
And it didn’t take long for the people from El Peñol to notice and a huge mob was assembled to stop it.
So the Guatapé people only got to put up a G and one vertical line of the U.
So that’s kind of an interesting history if you’re wondering why that was there.
Home stretch!
We made it!
Yay!
740 steps.
So when you get to the top of the rock you’re actually not finished climbing stairs
because there’s a man-made tower and the last step is number 740
and it felt very good to get to that step.
And the nice thing is that it stopped raining just as we were climbing up to the very top.
The clouds opened up.
It’s now sun shining and blue sky and it just feels like a ‘ahhhh’ kind of moment.
So I think we’re going to have a drier climb down.
So the weather has actually changed again and it’s raining
but the best part about rain is a rainbow.
Wasn’t it Dolly Parton who said like, ‘You gotta put up with the rain to get the rainbow’?
And there’s a rainbow beneath us.
I’m looking down at a rainbow.
It’s amazing.
I can’t control my leg.
Almost at the bottom!
I’m gonna pass you which looks really weird now.
Almost there!
Stuck.
It’s ‘cause of this backpack.
Back at the bottom now and the rain was on and off but it was amazing views at the top still.
And I feel like my favourite part was actually seeing a rainbow from above.
I’ve never experienced that before.
Incredible.
And the end of the rainbow was right in front of us which was insane.
We hit the jackpot.
Just so, so beautiful so that was definitely worth having the rain for.
Yeah.
And climbing to the top was not that bad.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought.
No, it was pretty fast.
It was totally worth it.
So I hope that you enjoyed climbing the rock too and, if you haven’t already,
please subscribe to our channel for more travel videos and we’ll see you in our next one.
Bye!