Concepción
From Barbosa, it takes about an hour of driving through partially decent roads up the mountain. This beautiful small colonial village, surrounded by green mountains, was declared national heritage in 1999. This is the birth place of Jose Maria Cordova, Colombian soldier/hero, who died during a battle for the independence of the Big Colombia (which back then included Venezuela, Peru, Equator, Colombia and Panama) against the Spanish empire. We can visit the museum dedicated to him, the international airport Rionegro/Medellin is also named after him. We can go for a nice walk to Matasano waterfalls, with diverse pools and also a cave…plenty enough to keep us busy for a day. Concepcion in an alternative road (asphalt not everywhere) that allows to go from Girardota to the San Rafael/San Carlos/ San Luis area without going through Guatape. 30min away, still in the direction of San Rafael, is the village of Alejandria with therms, numerous pools to swim in, as well as waterfalls.