The Moto Wanderer: Viva Colombia Day 8 - Diga hola to my little friend (8/5/16)

We scheduled a day event that had an early morning start (not the best idea after the night we just had) so we are slow getting up but get outside and wait for our bus to come get us for what should be a fantastic day - tour of one of Escobar's mansions, followed by paintball in/around the mansion, then a boat ride to the city of Guatape and exploration of the Piedra del Penol. Bus heads out of the valley to a beautiful area about an hour or so outside of the city (on the way, the bus driver played Eric Clapton's Cocaine and me and a few others looked at each other and definitely appreciated the irony). Driving through these hilly communities and the area reminds me of something you would expect to see in the Tuscan countryside or something like that - absolutely beautiful.

Not a bad scene upon rolling up to this little town. Extremely gorgeous.

Tile depiction of the church.

Little boat dock near the village.

Another view down the other side.

Some of the surrounding area from the village.

One of the small shops along the perimeter.

Another vantage point of this beautiful church.

Pretty view as we walk around the small village.

Eric ready to conquer the world.

Arrive at a small pueblo that is just opening up some of the shops as we got there early. We walk around and grab some water as we wait for the jeeps that will take us the rest of the way to arrive. They arrive and we start loading up. Not enough space inside the jeeps so people start climbing up and sitting on top of the jeeps. Off we go. Riding through the hills on these back roads on some pretty beat up roads (I know why they got the jeeps) and eventually pull into the grounds where you see the decrepit mansion and eventually we stop at this little building that used to be a garage I believe, but now it is the restaurant/cafe/gun storage/bathroom for these tours.

Here comes the other buggy round the bend.

People just chilling on the top of the buggy.

Im just checking out the cars behind us as we drive through the countryside.

The gang in the buggy.

We made it to the mansion. Time for some paintball.

He looks like he is so happy to be shot at.

They have a side field for extra play later if we wanted to do that. (We did not)

Pick your perch for cover fire.

The back of the mansion for when you storm it.

The other side of the pitch with some barracks to hide in.

The interior of the mansion base for the paintball matches.

Our paintball field looking at the grounds base in the distance

Line em up, execution style (that was the other team who killed us

Stone cold killers!

The road out for when we start the tour.

Group enjoying the nice day before starting the tour.

Pretty flowers for an amazing day.

The gang hanging out after getting our asses handed to us.

Posing with the dock as our group chills after the paintball action.

Apparently Eric took some pics of me enjoying the view. Was beautiful.

Little panoramic action of the lake behind the compound.

View from the compound across the way.

Tunnel on the grounds to get from the main part of the compound to the garage area.

Even the trees looked destroyed.

Cool compound with plenty of ground to play on.

Rubble galore.

Some of the graffiti on the walls in the mansion.

IT would be nice to see how this building looked back before it was destroyed.

The pool with the rubble of the mansion behind it.

Found a lookout tower overlooking the lake for water approaches.

Leaving the grounds to head towards Guatape.

Has a nice view of the area and river running by. Before the tour, we get suited up and get our gear for paintball as we are being split between the red and blue teams. We get out to the mansion ground area, and play 2 games with each team having each of the starting bases (mansion or grounds). First game was capture the flag, the flags were placed in the middle of the open field on our respective sides. We get dominated, a trend that is sure to follow. Switch sides and sure enough having the mansion didnt help us any. Then we regroup and the game changes to kill/protect Pablo where the team in the mansion designates a Pablo and its once you are out you stay out and if the storming troops all get killed before pablo is shot, they lose. We lose both rounds of this as well. O well. Some people go play normal paintball with cars and other obstacles on a different field, but our group goes back to have lunch and get the long sleeves off as it is hot as hell. After lunch, we take the tour of the grounds where we found out why the mansion is in shambles (people tore it down and torched it trying to find money as he would stash money in the walls of his places). Once we are done with the tour, we get on a boat and head towards Guatape. See some amazing plots of lands with some pretty impressive houses built on them (apparently one of them was owned by James Rodriguez). Eventually dock in Guatape and walk around the city a bit, exploring the colorful town. After grabbing a coffee and meeting back up with the group, we walk to our buses and drive over to El Penol.

Some of the cool houses and plots of land around the area.

El Penol in the background. In the foreground, James Rodriguez' house (supposedly).

Lovely day for a boat ride.

Love being up in the mountains.

Someone is taking in the day on a zip line. Wonder how they get up there.

That is a long zipline. Coming up to the city dock.

This city has such vibrant colors all over the place.

Even their motocoaches are colorful.

Beautiful town to stretch our legs.

Guatape skyline.

Many different colors to take in.

Another example of the colorful buildings throughout the town.

As we walk to the bus I find a church to try and look at for a little bit.

Beautiful church in Guatape.

Walk around the grounds before starting our ascent of the rock's 740 steps to get to the top. They have periodic status update steps to let you know how far you have gone. The steps themselves seem to be carved from the rock itself as you are in the rock for some of it. As you get to the top, you go through some food places, bathrooms, and some souvenir shops. You hit 740 and when you look out, it is breathtaking; all these islands and lakes interspersed all around is just fantastic, one of those sights a camera can never do justice to try and capture. After taking a couple pics and just enjoying the view for a bit, we make our way back down the 740 steps (they have different steps for up and down for most of the steps which is good cause I would not want to be trying to go up and down at the same time on some of those steps. Get down there, get back on the bus and head back to town after sunset. Come down from the mountaintop into Medellin as it is dark and the city is all lit up, just confirming the expansive nature of the city seen the other day from the cable cars. We get some food and hang with our group at the hostel as we have had a long, but awesome, day.