We flew into Medell\u00edn and headed toward Guatap\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Getting there was a little more complicated than we expected.<\/p>\n
One taxi could only take us so far, so we had to meet another driver for the rest of the trip.<\/p>\n
Looking back, it was probably a little sketchy.<\/p>\n
At the time, we just got in.<\/p>\n
The second car was tiny.<\/p>\n
Our driver was an older gentleman who was recovering from a cold, and within minutes Juan and he were talking about life.<\/p>\n
Not small talk.<\/p>\n
They were trading stories.<\/p>\n
I was in the back seat, getting carsick.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
We were winding up and down the mountains.<\/p>\n
And our driver was eating mango from a little cup with a toothpick.<\/p>\n
He’d take his glasses off to stab a piece of mango.<\/p>\n
Put his glasses back on so he could drive.<\/p>\n
Then we’d come around a corner and he’d see a statue of the Virgin.<\/p>\n
His hands would come off the steering wheel.<\/p>\n
He’d cross himself.<\/p>\n
Say a blessing.<\/p>\n
Put his hands back on the wheel.<\/p>\n
The brakes would shake the car.<\/p>\n
I’d wonder if we were actually going to arrive.<\/p>\n
And Juan and the driver were laughing and telling stories like nothing unusual was happening.<\/p>\n
Eventually Juan turned around to check on me.<\/p>\n
I must have looked a little concerned.<\/p>\n
He said,<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’ve got to hear this.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The driver had been married for almost forty years.<\/p>\n He had children.<\/p>\n Grandchildren.<\/p>\n And he said it had been wonderful because forty years had only felt like forty minutes.<\/p>\n Under the water.<\/strong><\/p>\n I couldn’t believe it.<\/p>\n I laughed.<\/p>\n And somehow, for the first time that entire drive, I forgot I was carsick.<\/p>\n Eventually we made it to Guatap\u00e9.<\/p>\n Our driver couldn’t get up the driveway to our lodging because the hill was too steep.<\/p>\n So we got out.<\/p>\n Pulled our suitcases out.<\/p>\n And walked the rest of the way.<\/p>\n If we’d had one of those little trucks we would see later in town, we probably would have made it just fine.<\/p>\n \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n Our lodging was made up of little independent fincas\u2014tiny houses where you had your own space but everything you needed was right there.<\/p>\n No kitchen.<\/p>\n No need for one.<\/p>\n If you wanted to go into town, a little truck that looked almost like a miniature chiva would take you down the hills.<\/p>\n Those things could climb anything.<\/p>\n Guatap\u00e9 itself was completely different from anywhere we’d been before.<\/p>\n Colour everywhere.<\/p>\n The town sits beside a huge winding reservoir created by a dam, with water reaching around the hills and valleys.<\/p>\n And then there were the z\u00f3calos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Decorative panels running along the lower part of the buildings, telling stories about the people who lived there, their families, their work or their businesses.<\/p>\n You could walk down the street and realize the buildings were telling you things.<\/p>\n There was a little square unlike any we’d seen before, with brightly coloured steps where people sat and watched the town go by.<\/p>\n There were artisan shops.<\/p>\n Restaurants.<\/p>\n People everywhere.<\/p>\n And then there was The Rock.<\/strong><\/p>\n El Pe\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n About 220 metres of granite rising out of the landscape.<\/p>\n And about 740 steps built directly into it.<\/p>\n The steps are enormous.<\/p>\n And they go straight up.<\/p>\n Children make it look easy.<\/p>\n I did not.<\/p>\n By the time we reached the top, my legs were shaking and I was completely out of breath.<\/p>\n But then you look around.<\/p>\n 360 degrees.<\/p>\n Water.<\/p>\n Mountains.<\/p>\n Little pieces of land stretching in every direction.<\/p>\n Everything suddenly looks very small.<\/p>\n It is incredible.<\/p>\n And then you remember:<\/p>\n You have to go back down.<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s exactly the moment when you wish you’d trained for this trip.<\/p>\n We also took a boat onto the reservoir and went through the remains of the old town that had been submerged when the reservoir was created.<\/p>\n It was strange and beautiful at the same time.<\/p>\n And then there was the town itself.<\/p>\n Cooler than some of the places we’d been.<\/p>\n Easy to walk around.<\/p>\n Colourful.<\/p>\n Friendly.<\/p>\n The kind of place where you find yourself thinking,<\/p>\n Maybe we could stay another day.<\/strong><\/p>\n And I think that’s what keeps happening to us in Colombia.<\/p>\n We arrive somewhere for a reason.<\/p>\n And then the place gives us something we weren’t expecting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Practical eco-friendly winemaking practices supporting sustainability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[224],"tags":[236,240,251],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event","tag-eco-wine","tag-green-winemaking","tag-sustainable-vineyard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/placehold.jpg?fit=1290%2C945&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplycolombiancoffee.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}