There’s a gem of a little town just outside of Medellin, Colombia called Guatape. I knew nothing of this place at all, but had heard that the area was a favorite leisure area for the famed cocaine drug-kingpin, Pablo Escobar. Not that I’m into famous Colombian drug kingpins or anything, but I figured if this cat had been responsible for over 80% of the cocaine that entered the U.S. at the time, then he’d likely be able to be “leisurely” wherever he darn well pleased.
I figured for Pablo Escobar either Guatape was an amazingly wonderful place to enjoy the spoils of his power, or it was great place to hide. Either way, it sounded like a good place to visit.
Turns out, it’s both. A beautifully surreal landscape with this giant, mountain-sized boulder dropped into the middle of these lagoons that are all interconnected with a small town that looks like it was painted by some tripped-out ex-Disney employee. And, it was also an excellent place to hide.
Never figured out what inspired the locals to paint their town with the most dripping saturated colors available in our known visible spectrum, but this town was a color freak like myself’s polychromic wet dream.
If you’re ever in Medellin, Colombia I highly recommend making the trek. Only about two hours one-way by bus, but it’s slow over the mountains and it stops a lot. If you’ve got your own wheels, it’s likely closer to an hour or so.
They also train Olympic caliber Equestrian Dressage horses there. I think that’s what it’s called. It’s almost like the horse is dancing and you can hear an almost musical cadence from their hooves on the cobblestones. Fairytale like stuff.
Anyway, back to the color freak-out polychromic wet dream town.
You couldn’t make an image here without getting your retina’s abused by color. It was everywhere! The biggest problem was trying to figure out what to aim my camera at first.
I focussed mostly on the details of at the architecture and had found one corner that really spoke to me. Particularly due to the dreamy quality the colors had, and that there was even a perfect little lamb painted in the corner. Dynamite! That’s my shot.
Until, this little boy comes sauntering up, looks at me trying to frame up my shot, and just stops right in the middle of my frame. Seriously? “Come on amigo!, Can’t you just take a rest a little further down the sidewalk? Give a brother a break will ya?”
So, I waited and waited. And he waited and waited right along with me. It became a battle of the wills. He’d pretend to lay his head back and take a nap standing there, but open his eyes every now and then to see if he was still successfully annoying me.
Being a little competitive myself, I decided I was all in and would wait as long as he could.
Until, it finally dawned on me what was written on the pesky little guy’s t-shirt. He was right by the sleepy little lamb with his head leaned back as if asleep in a dreamy colorful backdrop, and his freakin’ t-shirt read, “Dreams of Kids”.
Boom! That was my shot! I just had been too stubborn to see it.