Monday, July 11, 2022
Today I’m moving on to the next adventure I have planned for this area of Colombia. First, I need to head to the starting point which is a city named Riohacha. I took the bus to Palomino and then got a shared taxi to Riohacha, where they dropped me off at my hostel.
Bona Vida Hostel is a decent hostel, but it’s quiet. The bathrooms are good and they have a kitchen on the roof. The bunks are private and I feel secure because they keep the door locked (although I know what that really means is that the city is probably a little dangerous).
I settled in and then headed to El Arz for Lebanese food which was really great. It’s close to the hostel too which is good since it was late. Then I went to the grocery store to stock up on soap and get some snacks. Even though this grocery store was pretty big, I couldn’t find some of the essentials I needed. I’ll have to find them tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
I got the hostel breakfast which was free. You get to choose what you want the day before. It was really good! Then I had errands to run like buying a new phone charger (I left mine in Palohe hostel), finding snacks for my trip, and getting cash. My main reason for booking two nights here was just to replenish my supplies before I continue back along the coast.
For dinner I went back to El Arz because it’s close by and I don’t want to be far from the hostel in the dark.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
This morning I again got up for the hostel breakfast and then waited to be picked up for my tour.
I got picked up, along with another Dutch girl, and we headed to the tour office to pay, where we added two Colombian couples to our tour group. Then we set off for La Guajira.
La Guajira is a desert further along the Caribbean Coast. It’s home to some indigenous tribes, beautiful beaches, and the Northern most point of South America. I booked my tour through the hostel with Alto La Guajira Tours.
Today our main goal is to get to Cabo de la Vela, a small town with a beautiful beach. Our guide (Spanish speaking only) drives us first to Uribia, a small town (with more amenities than Cabo de la Vela will have) to stock up on supplies. If you haven’t already, you need to buy snacks, water, and toilet paper.
Then we continue driving and get a tour of the salt flats. They explain in Spanish how they harvest the salt and give us a Maracuya flavored skin scrub to try.
Then we stop for lunch at Cabo de la Vela before continuing to some more private beaches and miradors (view points). We watched the sunset from a nice one. My running shoes were useful, but the hikes are really short to the viewpoints so you don’t really need them.
Finally we went back to Cabo de la Vela for dinner, and we went to sleep in our hammocks, which were beach front. The sleeping area is part of the restaurant, and I presume the tour company owns this little property. It’s separated from the rest of Cabo de la Vela.
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Today our goal is to get to Punta Gallinas for sunset. We drive half the time, and relax half the time. We stopped at a private beach and restaurant for lunch, and we stopped at another private beach where we rented a sand board as a group.
Finally we made it to Punta Gallinas and watched the sunset after building our little towers and making wishes. Then we went to our new camp for dinner. There’s also a sleeping area with hammocks here for most people, as well as some rooms for couples that you can pay extra for.
The stargazing here is really amazing so definitely take advantage!
Friday, July 15, 2022
Today we are taking the long drive back to Riohacha. We eat breakfast at the camp and then stop in Uribia at a proper restaurant for lunch. Then they drop me back at my hostel, where I grab my bags and take a taxi to the shuttle stop for Palomino.
Before I go on about Palomino, I’ll just leave a quick review of the tour. First of all, you don’t need to do the tour if you don’t want to. It’s pretty easy to find transport to Uribia and Cabo de la Vela from what I hear, and then there’s plenty of hammocks to rent there. There’s no drinking water available, so stock up on it at Uribia (along with toilet paper and snacks as well). Cabo de la Vela is famous for kite surfing, so it would be nice to go here even without continuing to Punta Gallinas. Learning to kite surf takes a minimum of 6 hours from what I’ve read, so it will be a significant investment. I wasn’t in the mindset to take up a new hobby at the moment, but I still regret not staying in the main area of Cabo de la Vela and taking some cool pictures of the kite surfers. In fact one girl in my group went back to Cabo de la Vela after the tour to do so. I decided against it after the tour because I was running out of supplies. If you don’t do the tour you can still hire someone to take you to Punta Gallinas, you just need to find a group to go with you and prepare to negotiate. You also will not get the benefit of stopping at private restaurants and beaches, which isn’t that important but it makes the trip better.
The tour is a bit more expensive, but I felt like I had no choice since I didn’t find anyone to do the adventure with in time. In the end I am glad I did the tour for several reasons: 1. I got to see a lot more things like the salt flats and beaches. 2. The guide knew how to get past the indigenous people (when you venture out past Cabo de la Vela, you will find indigenous people blocking your way every few meters. You need to give them water and candy or they will not let you pass. If you don’t go with a tour, you might have to carry this yourself.). 3. The tour was reliable. Honestly, to me this was important mostly because I’m so pale. I didn’t want to get stuck in the desert sun at any point, and while there were a few hiccups with the cars, nothing crazy happened. They didn’t fully break down or run out of gas. I have talked to many people who did this trip, and even with a tour it’s not guaranteed that this won’t happen, but I am happy with how smoothly it went and feel like the money I paid was worth it, so I recommend my tour company if you’re looking for a similar experience. Also realize that although you’re paying a decent amount for a tour, it’s all going to be in Spanish unless you pay an even more expensive fee for an English guide. Odds are someone in your group will be able to translate, but not always.
I hope to go relax at Cabo de la Vela one day and snap those pictures I wanted, and even maybe learn to kite surf. When I do, I’ll find my own transport. As far as doing the trip all the way out to Punta Gallinas, I am glad I did the tour for that.
I’ll also leave a quick note on Riohacha. There is really nothing to do here and the city is not very safe. If you can, come directly from Palomino. I definitely needed to stay a night to replenish my supplies since I’m on the coast for so long, but I do regret staying an extra night to do that. I should have just packed it all into one day.
When I got to Palomino, I walked down the main street quite a bit to Dreamer Hostel. I could’ve taken a mototaxi but the road is pretty flat so I just walked since it’s only about 15 minutes.
The hostel is pretty nice. They messed up my booking somehow even though I did it through Hostelworld, but they didn’t charge me extra so everything is okay. They also had to deal with a rowdy group of young Israeli boys who were checking in at the same time as me, so I’ll let them off the hook. The bathroom in my room is nice, and there are more outside. The pool is nice, and the restaurant seems nice, but there’s no kitchen. My only complaint is that the rooms are air conditioned, but they smell a bit moldy and damp. I wish they just opened the windows instead, because I don’t mind the heat.
After my time spent in the desert, it’s time for pizza. I head to Pizzeria La Frontera right nearby, and the pizza is pretty good. It has really thin crust though so it wasn’t super filling. Then I take a nice shower and call it a night since I’ve been sleeping in hammocks for the last two nights.
Check Out My Guide to Riohacha ⧉
My Google Maps Guides have all the important locations I mention in my blogs, and you can open them right in Google Maps to make it easy to plan your own trip!