Guatape! Very happy to have made your acquaintance. I wasn't even aware of this place until a couple of others mentioned it along the trail. It's funny how the last fellow who raved about it said in places the road there is non-existent & he made it sound very remote. Truth is, the place is easy to get to from Medellin & the road is great all the way there.
I was nervous when I started seeing Guatape billboards with jetskis, "family fun", etc. but once I got there it was clear this place only gets temporarily overrun with tourists & mostly only of the Colombian variety. During the weekdays it just feels like a quiet, friendly small town.
One of the more impressive observations so far is how consistently friendly & helpful the Colombian people are. I know I've already mentioned it, but the consistency is wonderful. Appears to be a part of their culture to look out after your neighbor without regard for age, gender or country of origin.
Guatape has this spectacular landscape with all these connected lagoons & coves with this giant stone in the middle of all of it that juts up severely from the landscape as if some giant asteroid plunged itself down from the dark unknown. It almost looks like another planet when viewed from atop La Pierdra.
Something about this place once again felt familiar to me. I say once again because I had a similar experience in Tepoztlan, Mexico a few years ago where I had this extremely intense sense of déjà vu, but more perpetual. I felt the owner of the Lake View hostel, Greg, seemed familiar as well. The following day I asked him if I seemed familiar to him as well and he said oddly I did seem familiar. Perhaps we both just have familiar faces, but the photos I made look like photos I've made before. It's hard to describe the feeling but it's definitely a unique sensation that doesn't occur with any frequency. Greg thought perhaps it has something to do with some strange energy emitted from La Piedra, but who knows?
The sensation only lasted a little more than a day, but the colorful town with childlike patterns was also on my memory even though I've never been to Colombia before. At least not in this lifetime.
Greg suggested I take a small bus to another town about an hour away called San Rafael. He said if I felt up for a swim that I should ask around about how to get to Las Tangas, a great spot for a cool dip. I didn't even ask any questions... just found the bus heading toward San Rafael and got on. Sort of that going with intuition thing I guess.
There was a group of school children who also rushed the bus at the same time I was boarding. Figured that meant available seats might be scarce so I rushed right along with them & ultimately won the prize.
One boy had been yelling broken English at me earlier on the street to show off for the girls. He looked surprised to see me on the bus & a little nervous since he'd just been yelling at me. I smiled and started talking to him in English, "So you want to practice your English huh? Well here I am. Let's get to practicing. It's ok, I don't might helping you. Come on, let's here something in English my friend!" He looked confused & a little scared until the other kids laughed & egged him on until he blurted something unintelligible out in a language only vaguely resembling English. So, I decided to help the poor chap out with the ladies & answered him back as if I understood. The rest of the children cheered that he'd succeeded & slapped him on the back with approval. We went on this way back & forth in nothing resembling English for awhile until most of the children had got off at their various stops.
He was the last of the group to get off the bus & right before he did he said in decent English, "My name is Juan Pablo. Nice to meet you & welcome to Colombia." He then winked & gave me a thumbs up with the biggest smile you've ever seen.
The rest of the day was simply splendid as was the day before hiking up to the top of the giant stone & making images around the quaint colorful town. And I found the cooling waters of Las Tangas for that dip Greg mentioned.
Again, I felt like I could easily settle in & let more time pass me by just strolling along the edge of the lagoons & among the technicolor village of Guatape. But the trail was calling my name & the promise of Caribbean exotica. Time to ramble on toward Tolu!