Alta Guajira’s Punta Gallinas… its eerie end-of-the-world landscapes make the journey a can’t miss

I’ve always said the places really worth visiting are difficult to get to. Difficult travels keep the casual tourist from visiting. Those are the places I like to find. Punta Gallinas takes that to the nth degree both in terms of travel & payoff. It is LITERALLY one of the most beautiful & wild places I’ve ever been to in my entire life (no hyperbole, really). The desert environment is harsh but so odd bc it’s unlike any desert I’ve ever seen with its aqua lagoons & plateaus, rocky cliffs & reddish-hued sand dunes rolling right into the sea. Temperatures are extreme but that’s the alta Guajira and Punta Gallinas is the Northernmost tip of Colombia & South America.
Cabo de la Vela is the most visited place in alta Guajira. In fact, I met many people in Cabo de la Vela who fell in love with it (& kite surfing) & have therefore stayed for 1wk to 1mo but haven’t bothered to head N on the trek to Punta Gallinas. Even kiting instructors who’ve been there for months haven’t ventured N… “no time & I hear the road is terrible”. Those fools clearly don’t know what they’re missing. Well the “road” is terrible. I’m not sure you can even call it a road. The 4hr drive is in a massive 4WD w a seriously insane driver ripping through the desert, sometimes following prior tracks & sometimes creating new. The drive, which starts at 5am, leads to a 30min boat ride on a wooden skiff before you arrive at 1 of 2 hostels in Punta Gallinas. Then there’s not much to do right around the hostel but for a beach 2km walk away w a stunning view of Bahia Hondita providing for lovely sunsets. To see what Punta Gallinas has to offer, that involves piling in an even more massive 4WD on a day tour. So again, it’s more work while at Cabo de la Vela, the shack you’re staying in overlooks the water. But wow is it worth it as my jaw dropped further & further in wonder & awe with each stop.
There’s no one around in Punta Gallinas. Only 8 Wayuu families live there & operate the hostels & run the tours. Not too many tourists venture this far N & those that do, are awfully cool. You bond rather quickly, even at 5am, when you’re crammed in a 4WD together, getting bounced & thrown nearly on top of one another w each turn & rut. We banded together over the next 2 days exploring during the day, enjoying sunsets at dusk, & playing rousing hands of cards at night. Surprisingly, the lodging conditions in Punta Gallinas were an improvement over Cabo de la Vela. I was expecting worse due to its difficult accessibility but it actually had running water & electricity (solar power & generator). It really makes me question what’s going on in Cabo de la Vela. While it has 50 Wayuu families & 1500 people, the ratio of tourists is probably consistent so I can’t believe the worse conditions are due to a cost issue. Sleeping conditions were the same but I sleep so well outdoors in chinchorros, I don’t mind it. And I hit a record for cheapest lodging per night as a chinchorro cost the equivalent of only USD$7 (Cabo de la Vela was a whopping USD$8).
Definitely one of my fave trips ever.