Piedra del Penol (El Peñón de Guatapé)

My last (planned) day in Colombia this trip was yesterday. Woke up to beautiful birds with coffee at Casa Lucia. Mot mots seem to be a dime a dozen in Colombia (!) which is pretty amazing. I caught a mototaxi to Piedra del Penol early (before the rush). Glad I did... on the way back was a bit packed with day-tours from Medellin. Lovely time on the rock! 

Then, the adventure... so, no Ubers in Guatape, apparently. Super expensive taxis and a lack of planning on my part (shoot)... so, I had to take one local bus to a main highway intersection, then another to the airport. A few locals were helping (people are so kind) - chevere (cool)! Got to the airport a little later than I wanted... but in good time. Boarded and everything for my 30-min flight (which would have gotten me to Bogota 2 hours before my int'l flight...BUT (I should have known)... "desafortunadamente"...mechanical issues on the plane. We had to deboard, wait for a replacement plane, and I didn't arrive BOG until just after the int'l flight had left. (System errors on aa.com wouldn't allow me to change the flight so thanks to Jane for calling American Airlines and getting notes put on my account). They were able to book me on the same flight one day later. An extra day in Bogota - no problemo! (I'm in Dallas now, waiting for the El Paso leg).

Estoy en Guatape!

I took an Uber (more reliable than taxis) this morning to the north bus terminal. Smooth as silk finding the Guatape bus which "leaves in 5 minutes". Perfect. Beautiful 2+ hour bus ride up an over the mountains above Medellin east to Guatape. Saw Piedra de Penol (made famous on instagram) on the way into the super cute little town. I'll go explore Penol (and climb the hundreds of steps to the top) tomorrow morning. I had a lovely time in Guatape's zocalo this evening.

Medellin: Comuna 13 and Graffiti Tour

I'm in Pobaldo district (last night and tonight). SUPER swank international hip district with gobs of cute international outdoor eateries. So cute. 

For today (Wednesday), I bought a $20 guided tour of Medellin's Comuna 13 and Graffiti district which leaves at 9 this morning. It's a 4-hour tour that starts at the metro (10 minutes walk from here) and includes a history tour in English, a mirador stop (with a beer), street dance show, graffiti explanation, ice cream, metro and cable car...a touristy thing but honestly I'd pay $20 for someone to just show me the metro/escalators/cable car to get around the city! 

Here's Comuna 13 (escalators). Metro to San Javier station, (which also has the cable car), then a bus to Comuna 13.  So, from Poblado metro, take line A north to San Antonio (nearer to old town), then switch lines to go west to San Javier. 

Hot tub on the roof and breakfast patio (!)

From Javier metro, take the cable car for a view

Communa 13...

Back down at San Javier station in Comuna 13

Coffee demo and tasting

After the ice cream stop, some bad assery street dance! 

Graffiti galore! <3 <3 <3

The whole "GetYourGuide" group. People from Oregon, Chicago, Texas, Australia, France, and Finland. Our Medellin guide was Ezekiel (in blue), a civil engineer who likes to do these tours to meet people and practice (his nearly-perfect) English 

Some history of Comuna 13. Read about Pablo Escobar in the 80s and 90s... and even more famous for operation Orion in 2002 - Uribe's government assult on the community - 'successful' in that it got rid of left-wing narcos/rebels... but really just displaced them with paramilitary ones... and community members disappeared, mass grave later found. Since 2011 when the escalators were installed, Comuna 13 has transformed completely.

Graffiti around every corner. Definitely touristy around the escalators with some shops - but still super edgy/pedestrian/local. 

Australia, Finland, me and Ezekiel

Such a cool morning. This afternoon was a torrential rain so bailed on the 30-minute walk to the Pablo Escobar museum. 

Tomorrow, I might try to get to Comuna 13 again... to stay a bit longer.  Headed to Guatape tomorrow afternoon too!