FYI I just updated the “Where in the World is Colin Kenley” page for the first time since Portugal to include all my nights in Colombia.
The City
Guatape is a beautiful town right on the lake and serves as the perfect 1-2 day get away for people that live in Medellin. It’s famous for being nearby to El Peñón which is a giant rock that stands 656 feet and requires climbing 740 stairs to get to the top and have fabulous views of the lake and all the nice houses surrounding it. Besides seeing Alex’s photos when his family traveled here I also knew about the rock from the Above & Beyond Cercle set.
The Experience
A bunch of us from Blink wanted to go to Guatape that weekend so Ursula took charge of booking an Air Bnb on the lake. We ended up having a huge crew of 16 people! It was going to be a blast as I knew some of the group really well (Gal, Tyler, Mia, Joe, etc) but some of the group not as much (Ursula, Rebecca, Brandon, etc) but that one night would prove to create a strong bond between all of us.
People were leaving at different times and since I was hungover from the night before, Gal and I were the last ones to leave Medellin. The beauty of traveling with Gal is that he is muy tranquilo and not in a rush; and that’s the best way to be when traveling in South America. It was a mixed transportation day for the crew as one group was lucky and got an Uber all the way there for super cheap while another group had a long day on the bus. Gal and I timed it just right; we showed up at the bus station and were able to immediately hop on a bus where we had a seat and we made it to Guatape in about 1.5 hours. We walked around the square and the charming town for a bit before getting a moto taxi to the lake house. The house was in the middle of nowhere but it was absolutely incredible!! After more than a month of backpacker travel living in hostel dorms and the occasional private room, it was incredible to stay in a mansion right on the lake. Shit we should have booked more than one night! Unfortunately it was already taken the next day but I’ll take what I can get.
The energy was average at first as everyone had mixed days of travel to get here but once we started drinking a few beers it immediately picked up. First we played a game of “who is most likely to” where each person came up with a scenario and we’d have to point who we thought it was most likely to happen to. It was a nice ice breaker. Then the games picked up a notch. We played this game where we created a playlist for a given topic and everyone chose one song then we would have to guess the person based on reaction and dancing. The first round was “guilty pleasure songs” and that really got the party started. It was so fun to see what people put and also everyone would get up and start dancing because who doesn’t love a good guilty pleasure song.
At this point the energy was top notch and we were all having a blast. After a dinner break we played a second round of “dirty songs you shouldn’t have listened to when younger”. This kept the party going and everyone was drunk, happy, and dancing nonstop; the perfect house party. Then the music continued with bangers and us all dancing. At one point Joe ran down the hill into the lake (looking at it the next day it made no sense how he did it so smoothly without running into all the plants). We all followed but instead took the safer route down the staircase by the dock. Next thing you know everyone was ripping off their clothes and we all skinny dipped in the lake. My how this night has turned. It was so much fun and everyone was in the best spirits. Truly a night none of us will forget. Things are a bit hazy for me post lake skinny dipping.
I woke up at 9:30 the next morning and a lot of people had already left to go to El Peñón. Gal, Mia, and Ursula also woke up late and we’re just chilling and once again I was glad to move on Gal time. He’s like we’ll go to the rock later, let’s just enjoy our mansion on the lake while we can. He was so right! We chilled on the dock, swimming in the lake and sunbathing. It was nice to soak in these last few hours of lake house life.
El Peñón
The Air Bnb owner scheduled a boat for the group to get from the lake house back to Guatape. It was really nice to be on the water and get to see all the other mansions along the lake. Gal, Mia, Ursula, and I got off before the rest of the crew so that we could climb the steps of El Peñón. It was very touristy (especially since it was Sunday) and we slowly made our way up to the top. We got a celebratory beer and enjoyed the incredible views of the lake and the surrounding area were.
After about 30 minutes we walked down the stairs and hoped to have some good luck catching a bus back to Medellin. Once again going on Gal time worked and we got so lucky to catch one right as it was leaving (the rest of the group had some real struggles getting a bus that wasn’t too full). We had to stand for the first 30 minutes which was a bit rough on a hot bus while slightly hungover but then some people got off and we could sit down. Ursula and I were already friends at this point but we had some real nice conversations the rest of the way back.