Piedra del Peñol: Climbing Guatape Rock

The Piedra del Peñol is the rock everyone photographs on a Guatapé day: El Peñol Rock or Guatape Rock in English, the Peñón de Guatapé or simply La Piedra in Spanish. It stands between the towns of Guatapé and El Peñol in Antioquia, above the islands of the Peñol-Guatapé reservoir. The town hall of El Peñol describes it as a granite monolith 220 metres high, first climbed on 16 July 1954 by Luis Eduardo Villegas López, and still the property of the Villegas family. A stair built onto the rock takes you to the top.

Every Guatapé tour from Medellín on this site stops here, and none of them pays for the climb: you decide at the rock and buy the ticket yourself.

Where is the Piedra del Peñol?

On the road between El Peñol and Guatapé, which is also how Centro Turístico La Piedra, the company that runs the climb, writes its address: Vía El Peñol - Guatapé. From Medellín the tours reach it first, after breakfast, and go on to Guatapé town afterwards. If you search for “Guatape El Peñol” or “El Peñol Guatapé”, this is the place both names lead to.

The climb

The way up is a stair of several hundred steps (the counts published by the operator, the town hall and the tour listings do not agree, so we leave the number out). There are two first-aid points with paramedics, one at the start of the climb and one halfway, toilets at the top, and stalls selling drinks. Anyone can go up, according to Centro Turístico La Piedra; pregnant visitors may climb if their condition allows, after a check by the centre’s paramedic or nurse, and people with a medical condition with a companion and on medical advice. Anyone who stays below can wait in the centre’s restaurants and cafés.

How long it takes depends on you and on the crowd. On Viaja Medellin’s tour you get about an hour and a half at the rock; on Way Colombian Tours' small-group tour it is 75 minutes. One reviewer of another Guatapé tour (31 August 2026) wrote that there was “not even enough time to walk up at a relaxed pace”, and that two people in that group were left behind after a queue on the stairs. If the climb is the point of your day, ask your guide for the meeting time at the bottom before you start.

The ticket

You pay at the rock’s ticket office. Centro Turístico La Piedra lists these rules on its own site (read 12 November 2026):

• Cash only, in Colombian pesos: no cards and no dollars.
• No booking and no form: you arrive and buy.
• The ticket has a QR code and is valid only on the day you buy it; an unused ticket is not refunded.
• Every child taller than one metre pays.
• No pets, except assistance dogs with a medical prescription.

The price is the one thing the sources disagree on. The operator’s English page and FAQ give one amount, its Spanish price page another, a news item on its site announced new prices from 1 June 2023, and the tour listings quote yet another figure, so this page gives none. Take enough pesos in cash, and if you are on a tour, ask the guide on the bus.

Hours

The operator gives its hours as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, Sundays and public holidays included. Since 12 August 2024 it has given the summit area shorter hours, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tours from Medellín arrive in the morning, well inside both.

The 2023 rockfall

On 2 November 2023 a layer of soil and vegetation came away from the rock onto one of the visitor paths; Publimetro (14 November 2023) put the number of people injured at 17. The site closed, and Noticias Caracol reported on 10 November 2023 that the reopening had been authorised that day. No closure was reported in 2025 or 2026, up to 12 November 2026.

Getting there

From Medellín, a tour is the simple way: the bus takes you to the rock, waits, and carries on to Guatapé, the boat and lunch. Viaja Medellin’s day costs US$42.14 per adult (regular price, November 2026), with breakfast, lunch and the boat ride included and the rock ticket paid by you on the day.

See dates for the Guatapé tour

The bus is the other way to go, and Medellín to Guatapé compares the two; Guatapé tour prices puts every tour’s price side by side.