El Penon: it's a really big rock

I wasn't sure how to spend my last full day in Medellin so Mini Bear and I were game when a new friend suggested a day trip to the town of Guatape to see El Penon. All we knew about it was that it's a really big rock and you climb 659 steps to reach the top for a view of a lake created by a man made dam.

 

This was our stylish bus for the two hour ride through the Colombian countryside.

 

In 1954, Luis Villegas Lopez was the first person to reach the top of El Penon. I assume he climbed it; today there's a much more convenient staircase.

 

In fact, the stairs were far more sturdy than I had expected. I thought it would just be a loose rock staircase, but this clearly had been an involved construction process to build the stairs.

 

The view was everything as promised and more! At the top there is a cafe and one last spiral staircase which reveals a spectacular 360 view.

This view could have been of Switzerland, British Columbia, or a dozen other places. The more I travel, the more convinced I am that the world is the same everywhere you go.