La Guajira is a bit off the beaten path of the everyday south american traveler It's the northern most part of Colombia, a peninsula spanning hundreds of kilometers of dunes, sand and carribean shore. Generally only people knowing about it and those brave enough to venture to Venezuela arrive here. This makes it really peaceful and quiet, a place where you as a traveler, can get almost lost between the local people and be free of hagglers and vendors trying to sell you everything on the planet. Certainly this was very needed for me :)
Riohacha
This is the capital of the county La Guajira, also the largest town situated on the beach spanning as far as your eyes could see and precipitated with tall palm trees, standing in white sand.
The beach is gorgeous, and most of the working days it's empty, proving again that the hungry eye of the tourist hasn't yet reached this place.
There is a boardwalk that leads you into the ocean (although not very far :)) It is intensely windy here with tons of waves, making this an almost ideal spot for kitesurfers and windsurfers, given that you're on the intermediate advanced level, cause the waves will give you a beating otherwise.
The evenings here are most memorable with fishing boats stationed on the shore making a perfect backdrop.
I love the sun reflection on the wet sand...
Baywatch photo :)
Poseidon himself captures the red sun in its infinite span of waters.
Evening colors on long exposure.
More sunset pictures :) The truth is that's pretty much what I did for 3 days in Riohacha, walk around during the day, read, write etc and take photos of the sunset in the evening. Surely you can find more touristy things to do there, but I didn't come there for it... Overall this place is magical, I can't quite pinpoint what exactly makes it so, but sometimes you just have a feeling and it is irrelevant to try to explain it with our rational brain...
Cabo de la Vela
This is a small fishing village in the northern most part of the La Guajira peninsula. It is bordered by the carribean shore on one side and sanddunes on the other. Because of the vicinity of the desert and the ocean this place gets everyday winds of up to 40knts, making it an ideal spot for kitesurfing ...
To get to this village is an adventure by itself. First you take a camioneta, a truck with seats in the back, with local Wayuu people to an intersection of major roads 4 Vias.
Then you take another camioneta to a small village Uribia. This is the shot of my truck where I was standing on the back bumper :) Check out the local's shoes, they're hand sawn and glued to a cutout of an old used car tire serving as the sole. Super brilliant idea, innovative and sustainable :)) I bet they last a long time too, given that the rubber is usually Goodyear or something of that high quality.
The last leg of the trip is on the back of another pickup truck on dusty bumpy roads for about 2. You ride with 8 more people and the back of the truck full with provisions, gasoline, food, water, beer whatever, since the trucks are the only way to provision the small village.
But in the end you reach this amazing stretch of the calmest water I've ever seen, very shallow and clear. You get to sleep in hammocks right on the beach and bathe from a bucket :) but what do you really need more???
On the other side of the village you can see the wide span of dry small plants characteristic of desert vegetation.
There is nothing to do in the village but chill around, read, sleep, swim and of course kitesurf :)) That's pretty much what i did for 3 days. Now there are definitely sights to check out and i hear the sunset is amazing to watch from one of the nearby tall rocks but you can read all about that in some other blog, or better yet come check it out yourself. But for me...it was amazing kitesurfing :D
Flying fast...
Kitesurfing in the evening rays of light.
Another amazing sunset. I think i'm addicted to them at this point ;)
Palomino Beach
On the way back to Santa Marta we stopped for a night at Palomino beach, located between Riohacha and Tayrona national park.
This place is very cool, again being not overrun too much by tourists. There we slept again in hammocks on the beach and prepared food on an actual fire (although it took us about 2 hours to cook it :) cause the wood was wet from the rain the previous night. I love this photo it showcases all the 3 levels of colombian scenery, the sea and rivers, the jungle in the middle and tall Tayrona peaks in the background.
On the way out of Palomino I snapped a few more picks of this natural beauty.
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