
First two week in the city I spent battling a common cold and next two weeks I had so much work that I didn't have time for anything else. The area I live in, El Poblado, is quite touristy (like San Blas of Cusco), therefore I tried not to judge a whole city based on one district. After few weeks I have longed for a bit of a break outside of the city and the opportunity came when our boss Derk invited us to try and work for three days from his finca in Guatapé.
The name of the town actually comes from Quechua and it means "stones and water" and was founded in 1811. In 2009 there was only a bit over 5500 inhabitants {"type":"www", "date": "19 March 2018", "url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatap%C3%A9", "title":"Guatapé - Wikipedia"}
We took a metro to Caribe station, which is directly connected to Terminal Norte (one of the two major bus stations) and boarded the bus. The journey takes about 2 hours, which is quite tolerable. After all I used to travel 2h 15min one way to work when I moved to Durham while still having a job in Shildon (which was only 22km / 13.5miles). First hour is on motorway and the second one is when you get to the peaks and travel through a lot of corners with great views on both sides.
The moment I stepped out of the bus I knew I liked it. A small town at the Ensamble del Peñol (artificial lake) located about 70km / 43.5miles east from Medellín has reminded me that I have always been and will probably be a small-town kind of guy. The vibe was there, the sun was there, the lake was there, and yes the few trucks on the main road did make a lot of noise but all you have to do is walk for few minutes away from the road and you're in the peaceful oasis.






An opportunity to go back to Guatapé came when my friend from Cusco, Rosita, came to Medellín! She has been travelling in Colombia for many weeks now and finally made it to where I am. It's like a little part of Cusco came back to me and we decided to spend Saturday away from the city.

While at the top (after 220m and 650 steps) you can see a 360° view of the Ensemble de Guatapé, a man-made water reservoir where a dam was built to keep water between May and November to be used in the summer. {"type" : "www", "url" : "http://www.colombia.travel/en/where-to-go/andean/medellin/activities/penol-guatape-reservoir", "date" : "19 March 2018", "title": "PEÑOL - GUATAPÉ RESERVOIR"} In 1960s the former town of Penol was completely demolished {"type":"www", "url":"http://medellinvida.com/things-to-do-in-medellin-guatape/", "date":"19 March 2018", "title":"THINGS TO DO IN MEDELLIN GUATAPE"} and years later almost 6,500 hectares were flooded to create the reservoir.