In 1954 a group of friends—supposedly at the urging of a local priest—climbed the rock using a series of boards wedged into a crack. These were the first people known to have climbed El Peñon de Guatape. (It is unknown whether the Tahamies had a way of ascending the stone.) Climbing the huge stone took five days, but the top of the rock revealed both beautiful views and a new species of plant, Pitcairma heterophila. The rock soon became a modest tourist attraction.
The rock, which is almost entirely smooth, has one long crack, the one that the climbers used in ascending it. In the crack was later wedged a 649-step masonry staircase, the only way to get to the top of the Piedra de Penol. In the 1970s, the area was dammed, and the view from the rock changed: It now overlooks a dramatic series of lakes and islands.
