Guatapé It is one of the places that you cannot miss if you visit the city of Medellin. It is located in the east of the department, 80 kilometers from the city of Medellín and you can go by bus or car in an estimated time of 2 hours. Despite being located at more than 2.000 meters above sea level, its average temperature is 16º-22º during the day, so we recommend you to wear a hat and put on sunscreen because the sun's rays are strong and you can easily burn yourself and look like a shrimp Here we tell you a part of the story so that you are encouraged to dress it on your own or with our school weekend.

A little history of the Stone

The stone is a geological formation basically produced by the collision of tectonic plates thousands of years ago. The story goes that in 1954 Mr. Eduardo Villegas, who was a bricklayer and his two friends Ramón and Pedro, motivated by the village priest who said that he was sure that several mountaineers from other countries were going to climb the rock of the rock and that sadly no local was going to do it, they began to climb the stone to prevent a foreigner from doing it before a Colombian. The priest of the town put at his disposal a ladder 5 meters high. With construction tools such as nails, hammers and ropes that were not properly designed for climbing but for construction, they began to climb the 220 meters of height that this rock has in 5 days. Finally they put the flag of Colombia and Antioquia at the top of the stone and were consecrated as the first to climb this monolith. Later, Mr. Eduardo Villegas bought the land where the stone was located without knowing that years later it would become one of the most visited places in Antioquia and that his family would become one of the most prosperous in the entire region thanks to tourism. that today takes place there. When you go to visit the stone and climb it you should bear in mind that it has approximately 680 stairs to go up and also to go down, so you must prepare physically and mentally but do not worry that normally people go up and down in an hour and a half.

And why the baseboards?

Continuing with our history until the 70's, this municipality was dedicated especially to agriculture, crops of beans, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, corn and various types of fruit, its mountains and fertile land accompanied by the passage of the Nare river and other tributaries they were conducive to this activity. However, a mega project directed by the Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) caused a large part of this dynamic of the municipality to change and its lands gave way to water that flooded the extensive valley in a controlled manner and a large part of the town, approximately 70%, was relocated along with the municipality of Peñol that was the most affected in this flood process since 99% of the municipality was under water.

Guatapé then had to reinvent itself and thanks to the Corpus Cristi festivities some decorations began to appear on the facades of the houses. The first figures were lambs, also geometric figures that mainly wanted to protect the facades of the houses against water, humidity and the pecks of chickens because the walls were initially made with clay and covered with a residence of horse manure that were provocative. for these animals. Then the cement appears and Chepe Parra, a man who begins to work on the designs and brings them to life. This tradition was replicated in Guatapé and then around 2007 a decree influenced the majority of the people to paint and make decorations in front of their houses, giving rise to the ¨Pueblo de Zócalos¨ as Guatapé is known.

Our school offers this outing at a special price twice a month and if you want learn spanish in Medellin while you get to know the city and visit places as beautiful as Guatapé visit our website www.nuevalengua.com and come with us to learn one nueva lengua while you get to know places and Colombian culture.

By Anderson Mejía