Has anyone been to the northern tip of Colombia? I heard there is a place called La Guarija. Anyone know about the roads, etc? Thanks.
1
peejee
check out Kelvin's website....has pictures and desciptions on La Guarija... www.blacksheepmedellin.com
2
viajero83
Its beautiful. Try going to Cabo de la Vela. You need to get to Riohacha first (the capital of La Guajira) and get a tour or driver to take you to Cabo de la Vela. It is a very nice beach in the dessert, with local indigenous people renting hammocks on the shore, and selling you excellent seafood at low prices. There aren't any buses or anything to get you there, and don't go on your own, there are many roads and you will not know which to take since it is in the dessert. Therefore this can only be done end of december when many tourists go. If you're adventurous, you can go to Serrania Macuira, which is an oase in the dessert and is very beautiful, but will demand long hours on bumpy, dusty roads and will take several days too. Ask locally about how to get there. It is safe as far as terrorist threats go. But as usual, ask locally for the most up-to-date security info.
Enjoy it!
3
kiwipaisa
Howdy doody
I have been to La Guajira and am dying to get back there.. a very little visited strange part of the country.. Get there from Santa Marta by getting a bus to Riohacha. Stay in Riohacha the night and get up at first light with a bus to Manaure, there you can visit the salt mining fields.. From Manaure arrange other transport, easy, to Uribia and then onto Cabo de la Vela.... You can sleep the night in hammocks under hut shelter on the beach.. there are some nice desert like walks and spectacular beaches-. The local Indians are extremely friendly, you may get a marriage proposal or two. From what I was told by one Spanish traveller, Punta Gallinas, several hours further on by very rough road is even more spectacular. Transport there is not easy though. It would be most easy to get around up there if you had loads of cash and several friends and hired a four wheel drive and driver. Enjoy it, I did. Kelvin
4
kiwipaisa
well just as i posted this some other guy beats me to it. You CAN go alone, and there ARE buses/ jeeps going there. I have been there and a Welsh friend of mine went there three weeks back and his Spanish aint the best if you know what I mean. He absolutely loved it also.
5
traveller876
La guajira is beautiful - best spot is Punta Gallinas. You can find lots of travel information at this La Guajira guide. To get to Cabo de la Vela, there's regular buses from Riohacha to Uribia, where you need to change bus and travel onewards. Elsehwere, public transportation is very limited.
7
mlebdv
la guajira is fabulous. i was there with my husband in nov 2006 and we have amazing memories of it, especially cabo de la vela.
a recent poster mentioned he and his wife suffered an armed robbery on one of the beaches at cabo de la vela while they were there alone without guide.
i don't think that's a reason not to go. definitely go, but just be on the lookout as you would in other parts of colombia, latin america, the world... generally empty beaches at sunset in many parts of the world are not the safest place to be, especially without your guide and his truck nearby to get you out of any sticky situations...
take a look at some of my photos in the coastal colombia set at: http://www.flickr.com/emiliechristiane.
8
naugastyle
Bumping up an old post, but there don't seem to be many about La Guajira so I figure the experts will come back to this one. I did read the post by the guy who was robbed. However...I guess I'm looking for subjective opinions here...if you had NOT read that, would you have thought it was a safe place for a girl to visit alone? Of course I might meet someone in Santa Marta first, but I don't like to count on that. This would be in August--not sure what the weather is like in the area then...
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