I decided to go to Guatape because it was not a very long bus ride from Medellin, and there is a very large rock there, La Pierda de Penol. Or as they call it in Guatape, El Penon de Guatape. Penol is another town next to Guatape, that somehow has itsname associated with the rock, even though the rock is in Guatape, to great displeasure to those in the rock's 'correct' town. People are proud of Guatape. You see the letter 'G' and part of a 'U' on the rock, because the town started to paint on it in order to make its rightful owners clear, but they were unable to finish due to the difficulty of rock-side painting.
The rock is quite an anomaly. I've never seen anything else like it. It's just a huge chunk of granite sticking up in middle of this valley, probably formed by glaciers melting. Going on hikes when I was little, for some reason I always wanted to climb to the top of the big rocks. I guess all that's changed is my rocks have gotten bigger.
On the walk over, there was a full rainbow, from one island in the lake to another, and since it was my first time being able to see both ends of a rainbow touching the ground I was quite tempted to go over and look for some gold. I was really stunned by how beautiful is was, and just how odd that rainbows occur as they do. I went up this very large rock to a 360 degree view of the small valley that has only within the past twenty-five years become spotted with lakes. A dam was built close by that flooded the valley and simultaneously created the tourism industry there. I hung out up there for a while, felt great, considered what the hell I was doing traveling alone in the pueblos of Colombia, felt great again, then I got down and went into town.
After scouting the potential hotels, I went to the lake shore and went on a boat ride. Before I knew it I was handed a beer and was sitting with this family getting to know them. It turned out they were the family of Elmer Arismendy Florez, the ex-mayor of Guatape, and owner of the boat we were on. They were all overflowing with friendliness towards me. The boat rocked with salsa and we had some guado as darkness came over the lake.
They offered to put me up in a room in their house for less than the hotel. A large house. Back on land I had some more shots, of rum now, with the wasted ex-mayor. He told me I was allowed to tongue kiss his twin daughters but anything more and he would 'chop it off.' Before he went to sleep he set his son Emmanuel as my nighttime Guatape guide. Incessantly he repeated the same set of phrases for a couple minutes, about how his son would show me around, and I wasn't to leave his company, somehow forgetting he had just said the exact same thing, with different accompanying hand gestures every round. We drove to the place of a friend of Emmanuel's, some others quickly arrived, and the guado made its rounds. Although it was Halloween there were not a lot of masks and costumes. One guy who went by the name 'La grua' which means 'The Crane,' had on a disco wig, and Juan Diego, who said he was a National Geographic photographer from Medellin, had some type of make-up on I think.
We went out dancing. In a small town people know each other, so I met a whole pile of people. Most families just come into Guatape for weekend, and live in Medellin the rest of the time. La Grua introduced me to one girl, named Sarah, who with salsa blasting and a shadow over her face said she had to leave, but thought I was good looking, and would like my phone number. I haven't written about this part of my experience of Colombia before in this blog, but what happened in Guatape I feel obliged to share. So I gave this girl my phone number, not thinking anything of it because I would be leaving the next morning.
In the morning I was unable to leave because a desrumba, small avalanche, had blocked the only road leaving town. I had breakfast with the ex-mayor's family, met some more of the extended family, and spent some time just hanging out and getting to know them as I waited for news of the street being cleared.
Around lunch time I got a call from Sarah, asking me to come meet her in a part of the town a little far from where I was, about thirty minutes away. But her voice was hard and cut; uninviting as she offered me an invitation, with a luke warm sugar-glaze fading in and out. I had planned to leave soon and the ex-mayor's family had now offered to drive me part of the way to where I needed to go. As I expressed my hesitation, she gave me instructions for the taxi I ought to take. I didn't have a lot of money, wasn't sure if there was the correct ATM in town, and wanted to make sure I had enough to get where I was going. If she was right close by I might have gone just for a minute, but since I didn't actually talk to her the night before, I didn't really feel like going the distance. Then she offered to send a car to where I was to pick me up. That was when I knew something was wrong. Her voice made me unsure, but this made me scared immediately. Nobody sends a car. She said a car would pick me up in front of a hotel near the town center. I said I really wasn't sure what I was doing, this family I was staying with was leaving, and I didn't have somewhere to stay. She immediately said I was obviously invited to stay in her house. Nobody is that forward or that fast, even Colombian women. I said I had to leave town that night and that my ride was leaving. I thought I heard someone else's voice in the background telling her what to say. I hung up. She called back and I didn't answer. She continued to call back. Then she called from a different number, I answered, and she immediately said she had already sent the car to the hotel and it was waiting for me. I was glad I didn't tell her where I was staying. I explained my situation to the people I was with, and when she called back again I gave the phone to someone, and he make quite a good joke over it, putting on his best gringo accent, making sweet talk, and after she hung up in reaction to the sound of the entire family bursting with laughter, she didn't call back again.
But I needed to leave Guatape. The road was cleared, and I decided not to wait and leave with the ex-mayor and his family in their car, but to get out of town on the bus a little bit sooner, with a few members of the family. They had tickets, I didn't, and the bus was full, so for the first bit of the ride I sat on a bucket up front with the driver. The idea that there was some car driving around the town center looking for me was unnerving to say the least. I initially planned to go straight from Guatape to Rio Claro, but I didn't feel going into a new place at night without a specific place to stay was a good idea, so I returned to Medellin, a stop along the way, to stay in a comfortable place.
Trick or treat?
Glad you are okay! Don't let your guard down.
ReplyDeleteLove, Mom