Medellin, Colombia - Smaller Towns

Marinilla and Guatape
As part of our rock climb trip, we got to tour two small towns.  Marinilla on the way to the rock and the colorful town of Guatape after our climb.

As the story goes, a man in Guatape began to paint his house in vibrant colors and added a series of lambs at the bottom of the house.  Slowly but surely everyone in town followed.

The town has now become known for the "zocalos" or murals painted along the bottoms of the houses.

Some are pretty basic.

But many depict the livelihood of the resident.  This one was outside a bakery.

This one was outside a music school.

I liked this one.  A school marm scolding her class.

I assume the owner of this house is a card player....

Many depicted farming scenes, some more elaborate than others.

The colors don't stop at the houses - even the cabbies get into the act, painting their tuk-tuks.

Late in the afternoon, when the sun was nowhere to be found, we took a boat ride in the lake.  

We got a different view of the rock, from afar...

....and a bit closer up.  Once you've climbed it, it's not as intimidating.

Earlier in the day, we toured the church in Marinilla.  Marinilla, not as colorful as Guatape, was much more traditionally catholic.

Outside the church, in a square named after Simon Bolivar, we tracked down the branchless tree that has a Jesus carving in it.

Kudos to their coffee culture - a colorful jeep serving coffee from a fancy samovar.