{"id":2816,"date":"2016-07-27T13:48:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T13:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelastronaut.com\/?p=2816"},"modified":"2016-07-28T09:33:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T09:33:46","slug":"cabo-de-la-vela-from-paradise-to-the-end-of-the-world-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelastronaut.com\/en\/cabo-de-la-vela-from-paradise-to-the-end-of-the-world-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cabo de La Vela – From Paradise to the End of the World (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cabo de La Vela and Punta Gallinas in La Guajira<\/h1>\n

Cabo de La Vela is located in the department of La Guajira, in the Municipio Uribia<\/strong> far up north of Colombia on the Caribbean coast. The inhabitants of this area originate mainly from the people of the Way\u00fau<\/strong>, which call this place also Jepirra<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Punta Gallinas is the most northern point on the mainland of South America.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The area that abuts with Venezuela is surrounded by the La Guajira Desert. <\/strong>It happens quite often that there is water shortage as it can be that it doesn\u2019t rain in this area for several months.<\/p>\n

\"Cabo<\/a><\/p>\n

How to get there?<\/h2>\n

By Yourself<\/em><\/h3>\n

There are different ways to get to Cabo de La Vela. The first one which is definitely the rather complicated one is to make the trip on your own. Unfortunately you cannot just hop on a bus sleep for a few hours and arrive at the beautiful Caribbean Sea surrounded by desert and enjoy the beautiful dunes of Punta Gallinas. As I am a little adventurous and I also thought that I might be able to save some money I decided to go for this option.<\/p>\n

At first I took a cap from Palomino to the next bus stop (30 minutes) for 3,000 COP. There I hopped on to the bus to Riohacha. Probably the bus passes as well in Palomino but I didn\u2019t know that at that time.<\/p>\n

Palomino via Riohacha to Uribia<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The bus ride to Riohacha took 2 hours and cost me 12.000 COP. After the arrival in Riohacha I was referred to a Colectivo (Shared Taxi) which took another 30 minutes just to drop me a a crossroad which is called Quatro Vias in the middle of nowhere. The prize for the ride was 4,000 COP. Apart from a few little huts selling grilled meat and Empanadas there is basically nothing around but dust and sand.<\/p>\n

After asking around the people waiting there I figured out that from there I had to take another Colectivo that would take me to Uribia. I only waited for one hour in the burning sun until we had finally enough passengers to head to Uribia. Squashed up between 2 Colombian beauties and some chickens I know headed to Uribia in a fortunately acclimatised cap. This taxi cost me another 8.000 COP.<\/p>\n

Uribia to Cabo de La Vela<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The next day I took a bike taxi to the market place where the off-road pick up trucks to Cabo de La vela leave. The cars were supposed to leave at 8 am but when I arrived at 8 people were still packing the jeeps with rice and other groceries that will be delivered to the people living in the desert. So I kept on waiting for almost two hours in the heat at the buzzing market place until the Pick up trucks were finally fully loaded.<\/p>\n

And then finally the trip started. Together with some locals and once again plenty chicken on board the trip eventually started. After 2 hours and several stops in the desert later the very interesting drive on the bumpy desert ground ended.<\/p>\n

The price for this little adventure is 15.000 COP
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