GUAJIRA PENINUNSULA DESERT TOUR [COLOMBIA 2021]

Guajira Peninsula Desert Tour Colombia

The Guajira Peninsula Desert tour Colombia is part of the Colombia National Parks Tour, where it covers the northern-most desert of Colombia. Most of the desert belongs to Colombia. Guajira us the most northern point of South American, Punto Gallinas being the northernmost outcrop.  The first European to mention the area was the Spanish sailor Alonso de Ojeda in 1498, but he never landed.

The peninsula is mainly inhabited by the Wayuus tribe, who mostly raise livestock. English and Dutch pirates and Spanish pearl fishers have all tried to conquer the Guajira Peninsula but none were able to overcome the indigenous Wayuu people. As the Spanish conquerors discovered that the Indians fished for pearls the town became frequently raided by pirates as they are called by the hispanics - navies by the British and Dutch. After the original town was destroyed by the so-called pirates it was relocated to the mouth of the Ranchería River, but attacks soon resumed. The next major attack, led by Francis Drake, took place in 1569, when Drake pillaged the city searching for gold and pearls.

Guajira remains a rather lawless region where smuggling reins. The Wayuu, being a border tribe, have both Venezuelan and Colombian citizenship. They bring in cheap gasoline from Venezuela and whiskey from Panama, selling it openly on the peninsula, in spite of police controls. Next to a police barricade the Wayuu Indians sell contraband gasoline at $.70 a gallon whereas the Colombian price $2.50 a gallon. In the southwest, the roadsides are littered with plastic and garbage, which, as you travel deeper into the peninsula fades away towards the dunes of Punta Gallinas.

Regretfully, the road between Riohacha and Uribia is lined with trash. After Uribia, it gets better.

The desert lowlands are quite hot, as can be seen from the climate data of Uribia:

Uribia, a quiet town on the way to the coast.

North of Uribia the climate gets still considerable drier with an annual rainfall of less than 300 mm.

Guajira is dominated by the trade winds from the north and is covered by the Guajira-Barranquilla xeric scrub. The Trade winds cause the deep littoral waters to surge making the coastal sea richer in fish, similarly to the Humboldt current along the coast of Peru.

The first European to set foot on wall was Juan de la Cosa, a Spanish explorer, who landed on what is today called Cabo de la Vela end of the 15th century. In 1535, the German explorer Nikolaus Federmann founded a city with the name Nuestra Señora Santa Maria de los Remedios del Cabo de la Vela where de la Cosa had landed.

Now, Cabo de la Vela is becoming a popular tourism destination, as visitors walk up the hill with a little light house. Another popular destination are the Manaure salt flats where sea salt is being produced and where a colony of up to 1500 flamingos spend a part of the year and the Manaure beach, particularly known for its kite surfing.

Increasingly popular are the salt flats of Manaure, where one can see both industrial and traditional salt winning.

An interesting tourist attraction of the salt basins are the Flamingos that spend part of the year in the flats, feeding on small crustaceans that grow in the highly saline water.

In the north the Macuira  mountain range - Macuira National Natural Park - which  reaches 900 msl. In the park dominate misty conditions similar to those of the Peruvian desert.

GUAJIRA PENINUNSULA DESERT TOUR [COLOMBIA 2021]