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Andreas and Laura kindly took the day off to spend with us... We had breakfast in a near by restaurant, where we had a traditional Columbian breakfast. We had Arepas with egg and tomatoes. Andreas also let us try the rice and beans he ordered. The Columbian Arepa is better then the Venezuelan. We also tried Empanadas filled with meat and potato similar to our Cornish pasty which was really nice.
Food in our belly we headed off to El Peñol, a small town flooded by government to create a dam. You can still see the cross of the church in the water. We visited a replica of the old town before the flood which was situated on a near by hill. We had a bit of drama when Andreas reversed the rear wheel into a hole when we were coming down the hill. We were temporarily stuck. We all got out to make the car lighter while Andreas after several attempts managed to free the wheel. In the new town of El Peñol there was a statue of a Phoenix women that represents the cities rebirth after the flood.
After we visited the Guatapé Stone, this was a very large unique stone between Guatapé and El Peñol (the towns disputed ownership over it for years) it was an impressive rock. Then we had to walk up 740 steps to get to the top!! The stairs zigzagged up the side like stitching closing a wound. It was tiring, but the view from the top was amazing. We had panoramic views of both towns, the vast lake and the Andes. It looked so beautiful!!
From here we headed down to Guatapé. On the waterfront we hired a couple of pedalos to relax on the lake. We say relax, it was hard work!!! Especially as we didn't realise that the chairs were adjustable until the end!
Guatapé is a small cute town that like every town it had a church that overlooked the main square. The streets were cobble stoned and the houses were brightly coloured with art decorations on the lower half of the walls. The decoration originated from the belief that if you put a sheep print on your home it would lead away bad spirits. Over time there meaning changed to represent the families, jobs, values or personality.
We had lunch in a little road side restaurant. We had a local cuisine of Barbecued corn on the cob with salt and butter. It was so nice.
Andreas then drove us to San Antonio which is a town renowned for its desserts. There were several cake shops dotted around so we went in a couple of shops and tried many samples. They all tasted so good!!! We then ordered a portion of our preferred... I got Caramel, Stevie lemon cheese cake and Laura got Milo chocolate. We could have easily ate ourselves sick in there.....so nice. After we headed to a local Tejo court to have a few beers and play this national sport.
Tejo is the name of the disc and the game, but the game is also called TURMEQUE. The game you have to throw a 2kg metal disk 30m and hit a target of gun powder. If you hit the target it explodes!!! It was once used to test warriors, the spanish latter introduced the gunpowder. Andreas managed to set it off twice. Then I managed to get the target. Well happy. There were other people playing, this one guy that Stevie loved would skip or jump simultaneously throwing the Tajo. It cracked us up so when it was Stevie's go we told her to do the same for a laugh.... Omg she hit the target and it exploded. The surprise and hilarity of the moment was brilliant. We both kept some remanence of the exploded target. Hopefully won't get flagged at airports... Can see the headline now 'Mark and Stevie international terrorist home grown in Essex'.
It was good fun. Hungry and late we got a couple of hotdogs and burgers (our treat) before heading home.
We had a couple of drinks back at the house while playing UNO.
Andreas and Laura paid for the whole day which was really kind of them, we kept trying topay but they won't have it!! If we pay for something it will have to be on the snide........
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