Guatape day tour from Medellin – The DIY way

Are you willing to exercise your calf muscles to get a view that Colombia claims to be the best in the world? Do you like to walk on cobblestone streets passing by pastel colored houses in a small town? If you like the idea of doing both in one day, then Guatape day tour is a perfect excursion for you.

Guatape lies about 80 km to the east of Medellin. While there are plenty of things to do in Medellin, this day trip to the small town of Guatape can be a welcome break from your busy city holiday activities in Medellin. Although we did a day tour, if you have the luxury of time, you can spend a night or two or five in Guatape to enjoy the laid back town.

Why should you consider a DIY Guatape tour?

Many tour providers from Medellin offer organized day tours to Piedra del Peñol and Guatape. But we chose to do a DIY Guatape tour instead of opting for those package trips. Why?

• We preferred to have the flexibility of modifying the tour schedule as per our convenience
• We like to explore a town to hunt for eateries instead of being directed towards a pre-selected restaurant
• Instead of being a part of group tour that includes dozens of people, we wanted to spend the day on our own
• We chose to avail Medellin’s excellent network of public transport

How to reach Guatape from Medellin?

The key component of a DIY Guatape day tour is planning the commute from Medellin. We relied on Medellin’s public transport system for this. You can do the same following these steps.

Plan your commute – step by step

1. Head to the nearest blue line metro station from your hotel/hostel, on foot or by Uber.
2. Purchase tickets for Caribe station in the north of the city.
3. After alighting from the metro coach, walk on the pedestrian bridge leading to Terminal Norte bus station. You will arrive on the first floor of the bus station.
4. Take the escalator to reach the ground floor of Terminal Norte bus station. This is where all the ticketing windows are. There are numerous windows for different companies serving bus routes to destinations across Colombia, primarily to the north and the east of Medellin.
5. To purchase bus tickets for Guatape, proceed towards counter number 14 for bus company ‘Sotrasanvicente & Guatape La Piedra’ or to counter number 9 for bus company ‘Sotrapeñol’. You can also check Medellin bus terminals website for these listings.
6. Stand in the queue and purchase your ticket to Guatape. You will be given printed tickets with clearly marked boarding gate number, departure time and seat number.
7. Board the bus on time and enjoy the 2 hour long ride.

This may sound like a lot of steps to follow amidst an ocean of people in an unknown city. But trust us, there is no need to get overwhelmed. It is fairly easy and safe to navigate through these steps, particularly if you know in advance where to go and for what.

Before setting foot in the main town of Guatape, make a stop at El Peñón de Guatape. Inform the bus driver in advance so that you can be notified when it is time to get off the bus for your first stop on your Guatape day tour.

First stop: El Peñón de Guatape | La Piedra del Peñol

A little backstory

A few years ago a friend of ours sent us a message saying he was inviting us to the housewarming party at his new residence. The message said we would have to take the stairs in order to attend his housewarming party as there were no elevators. His message also included a link for a photo of the party location.

Excited to see the photo of our friend’s new residence, we clicked on the link. A photo appeared as promised on the text message. But it was not of any house or apartment. It was a tall rock with a zigzag flight of stairs attached to it.

Of course, the message from our friend was a prank.

But we were curious to know if this place really existed and if yes, where.

So, years later, after moving to another part of the world, when we learnt about El Peñón de Guatape, we knew we had to visit this unique place.

What is El Peñón de Guatape?

El Peñón de Guatape, for being one of its kind, may be the star attraction of your Guatape day tour. It is a 200 meters high inselberg. This huge rock hill rises abruptly from a plain platform and looks over the Peñol-Guatape reservoir. There is a staircase built on one side of this rock. You can climb up a flight of about 700 stairs to reach the top of this rock.

The neighboring towns of Guatape and Peñol both claim this rock to be theirs. That is why this monadnock is known by two different names – El Peñón de Guatape, meaning ‘The Rock of Guatape’ and La Piedra del Peñol, meaning ‘The Stone of El Peñol’.

How to reach El Peñón de Guatape from the bus stop?

The Guatape-bound bus from Medellin drops you on the main road off the road leading towards El Peñón de Guatape. As you disembark from the bus, some men will come walking towards you offering either a horse ride or a tuktuk ride till the entrance of the El Peñón.

You need not avail any of this.

By principal, we do not ride animals. So the horse ride was not even an option for us. But we made the mistake of saying yes to a tuktuk driver. It was a complete waste of money. Learn from our mistakes.

Say no to the horse rides and the tuktuk rides. Just walk for a few minutes on the road towards the rock. It is a straight road with no chances of getting lost. This is also a good warm up for the exercise ahead.

Tickets booking

El Peñón de Guatape ticket booking window is at the base of the rock. Although there were a lot of people on the day of our travel, the ticketing line was not very long.

Purchase your tickets for 18,000 COP each (roughly 5 USD). Grab some water from the adjacent stores and get ready for the hike.

Climb ~700 steps

Begin the climb of about 700 steps. After each flight of stairs, there is a resting platform where you can unwind for a bit and enjoy the views. As you ascend higher, the more bird’s eye view you get of the lake. The ascent and the descent are designated in two parallel stairways. Hence the path does not get crowded although El Peñón de Guatape is quite touristy.

The steps are marked with hand painted numbers but we noticed a few skips in the numbering. According to the marked numbers, there are more than 700 steps but our count stopped in the 600s. Wikipedia lists 649. So, when you visit Guatape and climb up the Penon, count the steps and let us know your number.

Appreciate the views from the top

At the summit of the rock, there are three levels of viewing platforms. Move around and enjoy the views from every corner. On most sides, you will see the large expanse of the Peñol-Guatape lake, with small green islands protruding from the blue waters. Amidst the crowd of tourists, here you can still find your moment of calm as you keep gazing at the horizon of blue and green.

Just chill

You have completed the workout. You have rewarded yourself with the views. Now what? Since your legs have worked so much for you, give them some rest and just chill on the top platform of the rock.

Please bear in mind that La Piedra del Peñol is very touristy, popular among international travelers as well as Colombians. So, the top of the rock is like a mini feria with different vendors selling snacks, beverages and ice-creams.

We ordered couple of mango micheladas to quench our thirst. Michelada is a beer based spicy cocktail that originated in Mexico. With a slice of raw mango topping each of our cups of mango micheladas, we enjoyed the views for a while more. Before starting to descend the stairs, we also treated ourselves with choco bar ice-creams.

There are volunteers at the top platform of the rock who ensure that you finish your food or beverage before taking the stairs. This is to keep the long and un-monitored staircase trash free.

What else?

There is a souvenir shop at the top, at the upper end of the staircase. Pick up some magnets and trinkets if you wish to take home some souvenirs.

After you come down from El Peñón, you can also take a boat ride on the Guatape lake.

Second stop: Guatape town

Colorful town of Guatape

The small town of Guatape lies by the Peñol-Guatape reservoir. Once a town of farming and mining, the development of hydroelectric project has now made it one of the main electricity production centers of Colombia. This development has largely uplifted the socio-economic status of the people of Guatape over a period of time.

However, the town still looks lost in time with cobblestone streets, colorful houses and a laid back atmosphere. All houses and shops have their walls adorned with zocalos. Zocalos are different designs and colors applied on the lower part of the exterior walls of a house. These zocalos on the Guatape houses and shops are said to depict images of culture, commerce or beliefs.

How to reach Guatape town from Piedra del Peñol?

After your visit to the El Peñón de Guatape, walk back to the main road and take a tuktuk to the Guatape town. It is a short 10 minutes ride.

What to do in Guatape?

Ticket booking

The first thing you need to do in Guatape is to purchase your return bus ticket, if you wish to return to Medellin on the same day.

The tuktuk will drop you near the Parque Guatape. Check out the map of the town and plan your course of action.

Explore on foot

The best thing to do in Guatape is to walk. Explore the town on foot and absorb the lively vibes of this pretty town of pastels.

Parque Guatape

Parque Guatape is the main plaza of the town. Apart from being the hub of commercial activities like bank, this plaza is also home to the town’s church.

Plazoleta de Los Zócalos

Plazoleta de Los Zócalos is a smaller plaza but looks even more cheerful. A gallery of steps painted in blue, yellow and green characterize this spot. Gatherings of seemingly happy-go-lucky locals seem to blend in with the vivid surroundings here to create a flamboyant splash.

Eat and drink

There are plenty of cute restaurants and cafes across the town. Just choose your pick, settle with some delicious dish and chilled beer and watch life go on in this radiant little town. At the end of our post lunch exploration of the town, we also dropped by a quaint cafe to refill our energies with some chilled beverages.

To summarize

We visited Guatape in a day. However, if we had the time, we would definitely consider staying back for a couple of days. This would allow us more time to experience the exuberance of the little town of Guatape and also to partake some other activities like swimming in the lake or visiting some secret waterfalls. Even then, Guatape day tour by itself is quite fulfilling. The whole day is like a canvas, painted with green and blue in the morning and yellow, pink and orange in the afternoon.

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