Guatapé, Colombia

0:15Kiernan:Hi, I'm Ryan Davis. And I'm Kiernan Schmidt. And this is Out of Office, a travel podcast. This is Taken. Hey, Kiernan. Hello, Ryan. How are you? I'm good. How are you? How are you? You know, I'm keeping on fresh back from a trip. I've got that post-travel glow. I know. I expected you to come back with a little bit of a Cockney accent, but I guess you kept it from the eyebrow. No, I don't do that. Don't do it. I just don't. I try really hard not to be that guy. Well, welcome back. I know that London is... I always think of London as your happy place. Is that fair? It's one of them. I mean, I would maybe put...

0:57Kiernan:Yeah, it's one of them, I would say. Yeah, I feel like New York is one of those. I was about to say New York. I was about to say New York. No, but New York is a place that we've lived. So we've had like great things happen there and terrible things, you know, so it's like. Sure. Yeah, yeah. And both, our friendship falls in both of those categories for me. Depends on the day. Yeah, exactly. No, fair point. But I also lived in London. So that's true. Yeah, but not as long. No, you're right. It was like an extended vacation. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, do I live in Bogota? That's a question.

1:28Kiernan:And I hadn't been there for 10 years, which is so insane to me. That is crazy. So like the flying cars and everything, it's happening over there. It was a great trip filled with a lot of theater, a lot of sights. I actually took a very key part of your advice, which is you had suggested on the last show that I should, despite having gone to London many, many times, I had never been to the Churchill War Rooms. and you said you should watch the darkest hour in preparation and that's exactly what my mother and i did and it was it was by it was such a great add-on to actually being in the space it's in the space itself is like incredible and it's like so well preserved you know i'm i i don't mind the little museumy stuff around it i think it's fine but like the real yeah the real like you know the those actual war rooms are just so, so intense.

2:25And yet, and to see, and to see the darkest hour and how they were in action, that's a perfect combo. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that you did it. Did you have to join the, the Imperial museum, the Imperial war membership?

2:36Kiernan:No, I've just booked a ticket ahead of the time, like a normal person, but it was very funny because the three musicals that we saw were like the most British musicals out there, which were Oliver, Operation Mincemeat, which is about British intelligence in World War II, and Six, which is about the six wives of Henry VIII. And I was inspired by your recommendation, like watch Darkest Hour, then go to the Churchill War Rooms. So then I coupled, my mom and I went to the Tower of London, and then we saw Six. Perfect. And he locks them all up in the tower, right? Not all of them. I mean, a couple of them and two of them get beheaded.

3:16Kiernan:You know, you got to see the musical if you want to know the rest. There's no other way to know. I even, if you want to hear accomplishments, I even got my incredibly Catholic mother to not go to Catholic mass while we were visiting London. And I convinced her that going to St. Paul's, which is, you know, the iconic cathedral that you have to visit, that if we went to Evensong and heard the chorus there, that would count for mass. And I convinced her that that was true. Can you believe it? Wow. Yeah, I mean. The road to perdition. Oof. Oof. Well, luckily God wasn't there to see you. You know, when I was looking at your list here and I saw The Darkest Hour, for a minute I'm like, wow, they made that into a musical?

3:58Like, I don't know how dramatic that would be.

4:00Kiernan:Now there's our million dollar idea, right? It's The Darkest Hour. So like Hamiltonian. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I like it. It's good. Now, Ryan, you know, we obviously have to do the Judy alert because, you know, your European period is over. You're now back, I believe, ensconced in South America. And I know we're talking about a Colombian destination today. Where are you right now? So I'm actually at my apartment in Bogota, which is in a neighborhood called Chico. and um i just got back from a 11 day trip all around colombia uh with my friend uh diego who was celebrating his 30th birthday and so we started off in cartagena and then uh diego's a lot younger than you are oh not that much you know but it's a significant i mean over a decade counts a lot i would say he's a cardiologist he's a cardiologist though he's more he's he's you know he's more important than me.

5:00Kiernan:Wow. He's doing something actually to help people. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so we went to we went to Cartagena, we went to Medellin and we stayed both in the old city in Cartagena and sort of on the beach, which I had never done before, which is pretty cool. And then we went to Medellin and we took this tour to Guatupe that was hosted by this guy named oscar who we're going to talk to today who runs a company called medellin peaks and he was a great tour guide and it was a it was one of those tours that's like really long you know they pick you up at like 8 a.m and then you don't get back into like 6 30 or something oh yeah now do you like a tour that long because i i go into that with a lot of fear i i was a little skeptical but i had a really good time they they it was well planned tour like they they started off with like breakfast and then we did a we did we did like a experience and then we had lunch and then we did another experience so it felt like very um broken up and uh it didn't seem like it was just kind of too much although i was so exhausted when we got back we were going to go out that night and party because it was our last night in medellin and i was like sorry guys i am i am not i bet the 30 43.

6:15Kiernan:Oh, the abuelo over here. Viejo. Now, was Oscar your actual tour guide on this particular day? Yeah, he was. And so I asked him afterwards, I'm like, hey, will you come on the pod and talk a bit about Guatape and Medellin? And he said that he would love to. So he grew up in Medellin. So he's lived in Medellin most of his life, though he lived in the US for a bit. He talks a little about that. But yeah, you know, it's now, I've been, this is my first time going to Medellin where I've left and done one of the outskirts activities. And so this is a good one today. There's a lot of fun stuff. And yeah, I think it's going to be, it's a good interview.

6:59Oh, the cabin crew. Flight attendants, prepare for takeoff, please. Well, thank you so much, Oscar. Welcome to Out of Office. We are so glad to have you here. you know as I've mentioned to the listeners you and I met a few weeks ago when I was in Medellin I went on a tour that you and a company provided of Guatape yes and it was a fantastic tour I'm looking to get into talk a bit about Guatape but I'm curious you're from Medellin can you talk a bit about what Medellin was like when you when you grew up and how things have changed you know what you know because right now Medellin has such a specific vibe I think yes yes yeah absolutely Medellin has a lot of changes, okay?

7:42And I grow over here in Medellin. I grow in Medellin. But everybody knows what happens in Medellin in the 80s and 90s. So for that reason, I need to move to Spain and also to the United States. I lived 14 years between Miami and New Jersey. And when I come back in 2014, I was on vacation and I saw a different city. I saw everything looks different over here, the situation, the security, even the police because before we was afraid about the police over here and the police have they talk with the people with more respect and the people have other mentality so i was thinking about coming back and actually i was coming back in 2014 and i started you know doing different business right here and open a restaurant open a studio for rehearsal a studio for music and and and i started you know start a new life over here because when i when i was a kid that was terrible over here.

8:38We have a lot of situations. Everybody knows about what happens with Paulo Escobar over here. We have the Medellin's cartel. We have paramilitaries. We have not inside Medellin, but outside Medellin. Around Medellin, we have a lot of guerrillas. So we are like inside the city because we cannot go one hour. If you drive one hour out of the city, probably you can see the guerrillas over there and probably you can catch a kidnapper or something. So that was different. When I came back in 2014, I started seeing and watching a different city over here. So after a pandemic, I started working with tourism over here and started discovering my country.

9:19Because as I say, before, it was like a kidnapping over here in Medellin. We cannot go out to Medellin because too many places was too dangerous. Even in Guatapé. Over there in Guatapé, for seven years, there was not tourism at all. Around the 90s, they have a lot of guerrillas and also paramilitares over there. And that was a terrible situation. But now it's totally different. And when you go to Google and you put, you know, Colombia tourism, of course it's going to appear the rock, the big rock of El Peñol. So yeah, everything is different now. And I'm happy to come back here because I'm discovering a new country, a new city, and I love my city because how you see when you come here, the most beautiful thing over here is the people.

10:03You know, the people over here are super friendly. yeah yeah super nice if you ask me for a direction or something that people just take walk with you and take you to that direction you see that people over here is so so friendly and over here in Colombia we are more good people than bad people so now I think we are winning that battle yeah no I think so and you know I went to Medellin for the first time in in 2019 and I've been back now like you know three or four times and I love the city it's it's so vibrant and beautiful and i mean just between all the trees and the mountains you know it's got a very unique uh kind of visual aesthetic and uh it's such a pretty city i'm curious before we jump into you know some of the things outside of medin do you want to talk about a couple of your favorite places to bring visitors um in the city yeah absolutely um is one of the places it's amazing it's amazing because I have to tell you if you asked me 20 years ago even 50 years ago hey let's go to the Feminato team I say you know what no I don't want to go there because that was a really dangerous place over there and now it's so beautiful man you can walk there and watch all those you know people over there dancing and painting and happy people and everybody trying to make you know some business over there selling teacher hats whatever but every that place over there now is it's fantastic man because you can see happy people all around there and if i didn't tell the people what happens 20 years ago nobody knows what really happened in that place over there yeah yeah it's such amazing yeah that was one of the best places it's such a cool neighborhood and and and the escalators that take you up through the various um parts of the neighborhood where you can see different street art and galleries and little and little beer shops it's a super cool lively neighborhood, definitely.

11:57You know what? This was one of the good things the local government made for the people. Is the escalators. Before, the people was abandoned over there. They make small things, but make them, because yeah, the electricity is absolutely healthy, because people need to walk 900 escalators to go to the house and pay the groceries, and, you know, handicap people, whatever. And now it's more easy. that makes life more easy over there. Yeah. Well, I wish they would do the same on the Guatape Rock. So we should talk a bit about Guatape. It's a city that's about two hours outside of Merin, and you go through the mountains to get there.

12:41Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We need to be aware. Over here in Antioquia, Antioquia is our state. We are mountains everywhere. We are in the middle of the central Andes Range mountains. so everywhere you go you're going to find mountains big mountains all around so that's a good thing because if you drive one hour south you're going to find coldest temperature over there it's going to take cold one hour north you can see a little more warm and that's the good thing over here in Antioquia so yeah everywhere you go you can see mountains but I face two hours from Medellin and we're going east of Antioquia we're going in direction to the International Airport JMC because a big todder, second longer than Latin America.

13:25And then we just ride like a one hour, 30 minutes more to a beautiful place called Guatape. And around Guatape, they have too many things, you see, as well. Yeah, we have the big rock. And also the big rock is a patholite. It's not a monolith because it's not the only one. Over there, we have too many rocks around, but that one is the most famous rock over there. That one is 220 meters, but around we have other giant rocks. But also, not only that, we have a water reservoir over there. It's an amazing place. It's Manhattan water reservoirs, 74 kilometers. And also there is a small town called the city of the Socalos.

14:05It's a beautiful and colorful town over there. You're going to love it. Other people are going to love it. It's a really, really beautiful and colorful place over there. And they have a really nice little thing over there called Socalos. and every house has a special design and you can recognize the families for that particular design of the zoo. Yeah, this is one of the things I really loved about the town. It's super colorful. It's a really small town. We spent about two and a half hours there walking around. There's a lot of shops and restaurants. There's a beautiful church in the downtown area.

14:38But what really stood out besides all the colors were these zócalos. And these are little square images like cutouts that are at the bottom of all the houses in the buildings. that references to the families. So some family had a giraffe and some family had a cow. And you told a funny story about how people used to give directions in the town. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's funny because every family chooses a design. So you can recognize the family or the economic activity of the family, okay? And you're asking for one family, okay, I'm looking for family, I don't know, Perez. Okay, go there and look for the white horse and the family Perez.

15:17and also you are a shoemaker, you put a shoe over there or you want to, I don't know, you put something over there that people can easily recognize what is your economic activity. So that's a nice thing of that town over there because it's beautiful, it's small and they have that particular kind of things over there that you can easily recognize the families and the economic activities of the families. And I would encourage people just to spend some time just walking around the town because there's, you know, like I said, there's the beautiful church and there's all these great little side streets that are very colorful and then one street that has all the umbrellas uh over top of it so they've got a lot of it's very instagrammable city yeah i know yeah yeah sometimes for for us for like tour guys sometimes it's a kind of nightmare because everybody stops to take pictures hey we need to move come on we need to go to the restaurant do other activities now people you people will just want to stop and you know take because in every corner and every place have a something Instagram pictures over there, of course.

16:18You're going to love that. Instagram is going to love that town because they have a lot, a lot of places and nice things to take pictures, nice pictures over there. The water fountains, you know, they have too many pictures. The little tuk-tuk over there, that's also so colorful and everything is colorful over there. So one of the, so about 10 minutes away, 15 minutes away from the city is this big rock and it's like 600 stairs to get to the top of it. And on the bottom of it It's like a little tourist town that sells trinkets and souvenirs and food. And when you get to the top, which I have to tell you, Oscar, I haven't told you this yet.

16:55I only made it like halfway and the heights really got to me. But my two friends made it all the way to the top. But when you get to the top, you have an incredible view of Guatape and this reservoir. Now, I think the reservoir is really fascinating because it used to be a small lake. lake and then there was a big project hydroelectric project tell me a bit about that yeah what happens around there at the 60s and 70s the population in colombia was growing so colombia needed to build a hydroelectric the huge hydroelectric station so so close there's between guatape and el peñol that the other town close with the guatape el peñol and san raphael actually was three towns around those towns they have a lot of mountains and a lot of rivers they have more than seven rivers over there.

17:43So the company, EPM, the electric company from Medellin, they just take the decision to make the hydroelectric project over there. The only problem was because over there, they used to have, they used to build a small town called the Old Peñol, okay? And that town used to live around 5 ,000 people. So they need to flow the town because they need to take the seven rivers over there to make a huge then because I tell you, 74 kilometers. So the only problem was the people used to live there. They need to relocate everybody and build a new town. That's the reason today we have a new town over there.

18:15It's actually called the New Peñol. Okay, so as soon as everybody was relocated, they destroyed the whole town, and they just take the rivers over there, the seven rivers, to make that huge project. So even today, it's the biggest hydroelectric station in Colombia. Also from here, we export electricity for Uruguay, Ecuador, and Peru. South America, you all are so forward on hydroelectric projects. I know there's a massive project that was completed around the same time between Paraguay and Argentina. El Salvador has an incredible hydroelectric program. It's amazing to see. But the story of the town, that's a really tough story because after we talked, I was looking at pictures and things, And it's just really sad.

19:03Those people, you know, basically had to leave their homes. And, you know, it doesn't seem like everybody was taken care of in the move. And it's just a really interesting when you're out there on the on the lake, there's a cross. And that cross is directly over top of the church that used to be there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's that. Because at the beginning, the people that was not happy at all because they don't want the project. because that was a really nice town. That was a Spanish town over there. That town was founded over there in 1714. So it was a really nice and traditional place. So the people need to just share the house for maybe two or three rooms.

19:46So the people wasn't happy at all because also the people used to have crops over there and, you know, the people little agriculture around there. So at the beginning, of course, the people wasn't happy at all, but they have no options because that was a place or a project. The whole country needs that project to generate electricity for the whole country. But you know what? With the time, the people just – it's getting better because now they have a lot of activities over there because also in that big lake, now they can fish. After 6 o 'clock, they don't have more tourism over there, so the people can't fish over there, so they have a lot of fishers over there.

20:24Big fish, 35 pounds, you can catch over there. four type of fish, big fish over there. So one is one of the activities. The other activity is the agriculture. They used to have a lot of places. In that place, especially over there, they grow a lot of tomatoes. So really, really nice and beautiful tomatoes. And also they have the tourism. So now I think over there between Guatape and El Peñol, Guatape, right now the population of Guatape, they are around 28 ,000 people or less. And Guatape is only 6 ,009 ,000 with the farms. For that reason, I think the only town over here in Colombia, the only employment is zero, because they have too many activities, economic activities to develop over there.

21:06And so when we're talking about a lake, we're not talking about a small lake. You know, when you're standing up on the rock, you can see there's so many fingers and little tributaries. It's a massive, you know, it's a massive water. It looks like the Finger Lakes in New York. And it's become sort of a place where famous folks in Colombia have built their mansions. So we had, I know you took us, we saw Jay Belvin's mansion, who's one of my favorite reggaeton guys here. And a couple of footballers have mansions there. But then there's a mansion that's been blown up and left. Tell me a bit about that one.

21:45Yeah, I mean, of course, it's a Pablo Escobar property. Everybody talks about that property over there. It's called La Manuela. La Manuela, because Pablo Escobar daughter. That was a really nice property. it's a big property don't get confused because some people think that was the most important property for Carlos Cuau no, the bigger property for Carlos Cuau was four hours from Medellin one place called Hacienda Lápolis okay, that will have a river inside 44 kilometers isn't that an amusement park now? they've turned that into an amusement park right? yeah, yeah, it's a water park it's a tematic park but this one over here Guatape is a big property.

22:25It's also part of the island, one island over there. And they used to have a professional soccer field, a stable for horses, also a private nightclub over there, and a beautiful house over there. And just in the corner, in the corner just where you can see the both places, I mean, Guatape and also El Peñol. So absolutely that guy, I think he was the first real estate over there because he used to buy nice properties, but he got the best property over there because that's just one part. It's just one corner. And I think he chose that specific place because they have too many ways to escape. I think he thinks everything is before.

23:03So yeah, they have connection to land. Also, he used to have a helipad over there. And also, they have the water over there, the lake. So I think he chose that place over there because it's a generic point over there. And that property, yeah, La Manuela, one property was completely stated by the government in 1993, eight months before Carlos Juárez got killed. The capital of Cali and Los Pérez, they bombed that house over there. Actually, they bombed it twice, and the house is still there because Paolo built like that. Really, really strong. And some people believe inside the house, well, before I have the opportunity to walk inside that property, you can see how they have double walls and playgroups and those places, they call Caletas when they hide the money, used to hide the money and dance and all that stuff.

23:47yeah i did the uh i did the tour of one of his um safe houses in in medellin and there's a lot of fake walls and things like that where he could hide lots of cash um well i so i i encourage folks if you if you go uh on a tour to make sure your tour includes um you know going on the lake going on the rock and visiting um the city because those i thought all those experiences were great you know when I first signed up, it was really just about going to see the rock, but I ended up enjoying the lake probably the most of the, of the, you know, adventures we went on that day. Yeah. I think, yeah, all the, the, the food companies over here, we are operating almost the same, or the same.

24:32Yeah. We included the traditional Colombian breakfast. And also we just take the people over there to the lake. we just drive around we take the boat around the property La Manuela and some professional soccer players and also some Colombian singers and celebrities so that's part of the trip and also they found the rock we don't include the rock although too many ideas include the price of the rock because some people they don't want to climb and they just want to stay around and that's the thing the only thing we don't include but everything is included and also So we go into Guatapé, and Guatapé, we take a Colombian traditional lunch as well.

25:16And we stay over there. They have a really nice place. Like you mentioned, Ombrella Street. There are other streets they call Memo Street. They have a lot of art galleries over there. They have quality free. Also, they have a museum over there. It's quality free. And also, you can walk all around the malecone and see a beautiful water view over there. And also, we also include, at the way back, one place is a little farm. it's called to el chocho it's a funny night in spanish but that place is really nice because they have a llamas and mini pigs pony and horses it's really nice a place to you know stay over there and see you know a nice beautiful animal yeah everyone everyone who listens to the podcast knows that i'm i'm obsessed with alpacas and llamas so i i enjoy i enjoy that and there was a mama llama with her baby that looked only a few days old who was like camping out in the middle and she was not happy with all the tourists.

26:10She was like, leave me and the baby alone. Sometimes it is good. That's funny. So I know, Oscar, that you also do some tours to the coffee region. Can you tell us a little bit about those?

26:29Yes. Let's do tours, okay? One of the coffee region is like three, four hours from Benajin and also here, close to Medellin, just one place for Envigado. It's part of the metropolitan area, the next city, next to Medellin, Envigado. It's nice. It's beautiful. I love that place over there. And it's good because it's not too far away. It's only 40, I mean, 40 minutes from here for the city. 30, 40 minutes. And that place, they have like a 25 years day sport. Really nice Colombian coffee. Premium coffee. I tell you, it's beautiful because over there, the good thing for that little farm is an organic farm.

27:05So everything over there is organic. They don't use pesticides and nothing. So the coffee over there is really nice. And over there, you're going to understand why a really good coffee doesn't need sugar. When you guys go there, you understand why, because that one is a really nice and sweet and natural coffee over there. So yeah, it's a beautiful tool. It's amazing because I tell you, that one is so close to here. And the other one is like a three, four hours for many years, all the part of the coffee region over here, the Sportaldas and Risaralda. And also they have a beautiful view over there, beautiful plants and mountains and beautiful coffee as well.

27:42Well, Oscar, thank you so much for coming on the show today. This has been great. I'm going to link to your Instagram in the show notes. And so folks, if you're in Medellin, you're looking to get out of town and see The Rock or go to a coffee farm or you want to do something in Medellin, just reach out to Oscar. He's an excellent tour guide and very fun to hang out with. I spent like eight hours with him a few weeks ago, so I can totally vouch for him. So thank you so much, Oscar, and I hope some folks come your way. All right, guys. No, you're welcome, man. And come on, come on. Welcome to Medellin.

28:17Come to Medellin and see beautiful people, happy people, and let each other, you know, the happiness we have over here in Medellin to do, guys, okay? So yeah, we have too many people, wrong things about Colombia and wrong things about Medellin. But we have beautiful people and happy people here. So I promise you, you're going to have a happy day over here. Well, thank you for that. I think it's time for the last stop. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last stop on this train. Everyone, please leave the train.