Guatape & El Penol Rock

El Penon de Guatape is an inselberg, a granite remnant that has resisted erosion, probably because it is less fractured than the surrounding rock. It is an outcrop of the Antioquia Batholith, with geologists estimating its age at roughly 65 to 70 million years, and it rises up to about 200 metres above its base. Wikipedia gives its summit elevation as about 2,135 metres above sea level.

The Indigenous Tahami, who lived in the region, worshipped the rock and called it mojarra, meaning rock or stone. It was first officially climbed on 16 July 1954, when Luis Eduardo Villegas Lopez, Pedro Nel Ramirez and Ramon Diaz reached the top in a five-day effort using sticks fixed against the wall. Villegas later built stairs in a crack in the rock. The Colombian government declared the rock a national monument in the 1940s, according to Wikipedia.

A staircase built into a crack in the rock leads to the summit. Wikipedia gives 708 steps, though another passage mentions 740, so the exact count varies. About halfway up is a shrine to the Virgin Mary. The summit has a three-storey viewpoint tower and a seating area, overlooking the surrounding reservoir landscape. On the western face are the painted letters G and I, part of the unfinished lettering from a dispute between Guatape and the neighbouring town of El Penol over who owns the rock.

Guatape was founded on 4 October 1811, and its name is said to derive from a cacique called Guatape. The town sits at about 1,890 metres. Its most recognisable feature is the zocalos, coloured relief panels along the lower walls of buildings, often depicting the products sold inside, local beliefs or farming heritage. Calle del Recuerdo, also called Memory Lane, and the Church of Nuestra Senora del Carmen are among the town's sights.

The surrounding lake exists because Empresas Publicas de Medellin built a large hydroelectric complex here in the 1970s. The reservoir flooded the valley and the old town of El Penol, displacing thousands of residents. The town was rebuilt a few miles west of its former location. The lake now shapes the scenery around the rock, and the reservoir shoreline is visible from the summit viewpoint. The hydroelectric complex also made the area an important electricity-producing centre for the country, as Wikipedia notes.

A private day trip from Medellin allows time for the climb, the town and the lakeside, and a driver handles the road through eastern Antioquia.