Sarita on a Shoestring: Guatapé and Visions of Sugarplums

Enjoying a glass of vino in Plaza Mayor

22 February 2014 - Colombia is currently battling it out for the world’s most-quaint mountain town. Barichara and Villa de Leyva are neck and neck, while Guatapé is making a late pull from behind.

Imbibing on the steps

Villa de Leyva earns high marks for its almost laughably large plaza – but really, I admire their vision and foresight, because when can a plaza ever be too large? That’s right – never. It also benefits from the raucous revelry of drinking and socializing on the steps of the plaza. Try not to fall in love with drinking wine or liters of beer on the steps of Plaza Mayor while watching the sun set behind the sleepy, green, Andean mountains. Children run and play, old people walk arm-in-arm and weekenders from Bogota pump tunes from their portable radios, take shots of Aguardiente (the local fire water) and snap photos on their phones. All in all, it is delightful.

The colorful buildings in Guatapé

Guatapé on the other hand, is a shockingly vibrant little town. Each building is painted in a splash of bright colors. Colorful trims of greens, blues, and purples, make the entire façade pop and cutesy little pictures of alpacas, Tonka trucks, mountains and boats decorate the bottoms of the buildings. It feels as though you are walking through a play land – like a tiny, toy town has somehow come to life and you are wandering the streets.

View from atop La Piedra

In Lance and my quest to explore every mountain town to the fullest extent – I took far too many photos, we walked the boardwalk on the lake and gorged ourselves on massive brownie sundaes. After that we took a tuk-tuk up to La Pierdra. This is a large monolith just outside of Guatapé that the locals somehow managed to build a set of stairs up its side. 649 steps later, you are left overlooking the sprawling Guatapé Reservoir. Lady fingers of water dance around green forested islands that dot the lake and little inlets create smooth as glass canals. Misty fog rolled into the distance and mighty condors soared through the air. It was a sight to behold and so much more than I had suspected – and to think we almost bypassed this “gimmicky” tourist attraction!

The cherry on top (obligatory, cheesy pun included) was being greeted by four cheery Colombians atop the viewing tower on La Piedra. After happily taking photos for us, they handed us cold beers and instantly befriended us. We gladly joined in their merrymaking, guzzled Heinekens, helped them practice their English (and our Spanish) and continued the party back in Guatapé until they had to return to Medellin for the night.

Top scores for Guatapé in this round of judging.