Cabo de la Vela, Colombia

Write a review | Edit place information | Add a hostel

This small village is located in the territory of the Wayuu indigenous group in the Guajira desert. It has beautiful beaches, great fresh seafood, interesting culture and a beautiful scenery.

Elevation: 10 meters. | Editing history.

Places to stay:

The places to stay and pretty much everything else lies along the beach. There is the main part of the village where most places to stay are located. During the Colombian high season, especially Christmas and New Year holidays as well as Easter these places might get crowded, with loud music, beach vendors and people littering the beaches. During most of the year the village is mostly very quiet.

Going past this main "centre" of the village, there are a few places to stay scattered around along the beach. It's best to look in these places during the high season if you want to stay in a quieter place with a cleaner and less crowded beach.

Reflejo del Sol (1 comments) Tel: 320 5000706 Tel: 310 3504425 Cheapest night: 5 US$/night. Dorm beds available. Private rooms available.
It is owned by a Wayuu family. It offers private rooms (with hammocks) or hammocks in a common area in the open air but with protection from the strong winds. They offer two types of hammocks, "hamacas" and "chinchorros", where "hamacas" are regular hammocks and "chinchorros" are the typical Wayuu hand woven colourful hammocks that are very comfortable to sleep in. The "hospedaje" is clean and well maintained with very clean bathroom as well. Remember to bargain the price a little, especially if it looks empty.

Things to do:

The main thing to do here is to relax, enjoy the beautiful beaches, the desert landscape, great sunsets, fresh seafood and get to know a bit more of the Wayuu culture if you're interested. You can also shop for mochilas and other Wayuu handcrafts directly from the women who hand-make them.

El Faro is one of the main attractions. It is a light house best visited during sunset.

El Pilón de Azúcar is another nice nearby beach (over an hour walking in the desert or a short drive by car).

Parque Eólico closeby, there is this complex where wind turbines produce electricity profiting from the strong year-round winds of the are.

Eating

Cabo de la Vela is a great location to find fresh seafood. Lobster, shrimps, prawns, swordfish, red snapper are all locally fished and cooked. The Wayuu also raise goats and serve it in varied ways.

Restaurante El Caracol It's located in the main part of the village and offers varied seafood and goat dishes. The staff is very friendly and if you're lucky you can get a free sample of the local distilled alcohol. Very good value for money since prices are similar to other places but quality is better. They don't have menus so it's a good idea to ask for the price before ordering and for a small discount. Cel: 314 5697036

Practical information:

The last ATMs and banks are located in Riohacha and Maicao. Make sure you have cash to pay for everything. There is mobile phone service for Movistar and Comcel, Tigo has no coverage yet. A few places will offer "minutos celular" if you need to make a call. There is supposedly an internet post or two, but they weren't currently working when I visited.

Getting around & transportation:

"Public" Transport to El Cabo de la Vela is provided by pickup trucks that come from and to neighbouring towns with goods for the "rancherias" (the basic Wayuu settlement) and for the "hospedajes" in El Cabo. The open air part at the back of the pickup has a few benches situated in it, seating about 10 passengers.

Coming from Sta. Marta take a very early bus to Maicao and tell the driver to drop you off at "Cuatro Vias". That is a junction of 4 roads: The road from Venezuela to Sta. Marta via Riohacha, northwards the road to Uribia and Cabo de la Vela and sotuhwards the road to Cerrejon, one of the largest open-air coal mines in the world. Many trucks going to El Cabo de la Vela pass by and pick up passengers. Shared taxis can also take you to Uribia from this point where more trucks go to El Cabo. Another option is to go to the town of Riohacha and sleep there to leave form there early in the morning.

Coming from Riohacha: Take a shared taxi to Uribia. You should go early but it can take some time for the taxi to fill up with 4 passengers. The ride to Uribia costs 12.000 per person.

From Uribia, ask in the market for truck to Cabo de la Vela and people will point you to one of them. It costs around 10,000 to 12,000. They drop you off at any "hospedaje" that you tell them or they can show you around the "hospedajes" as well. The trip between Uribia and Cabo takes about 1.5 to 2 hours, most of it across desert.

For the trip back to Uribia from Cabo, be aware that many pickups do their main run leaving at 4 to 5am. It may be difficult or impossible to get transport leaving Cabo in the middle of the day (when the sun is strong).

Venezuela: If you are in the border town of Maicao you can ask around for the trucks to El Cabo de la Vela or shared taxis to Uribia. Shared taxis to Uribia is probably more comfortable for the first part of the way (7,000 leaving from el Mercado in Maicao, 45 mins). Alternatively, you can get dropped off at "Cuatro Vias" where you can find shared taxis to Uribia or trucks to El Cabo.

Once there, the trucks usually take you where ever you tell them to. During your stay, the main way of moving around is walking. Sometimes, if there are enough people around, the same trucks offer trips to the main attractions like "Pilon de Azúcar" a nice nearby beach, and "El Faro" (the lighthouse)

Travelguides:

Transport: How to get there and around

 

Reviews

Write a review

---

Comments

What's this? A free and open travel guide, written by all of us together. Feel free to print it out, photocopy it and share it with your friends. If you're travelling while you're reading this, don't forget to make notes on these pages and add them to the site when you're online. This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.