An adventure to the most Northerly point in South America - riding the bikes through the remote Guajira desert

The Guajira desert is a remote, vast, and wild region located in Northern Colombia snd stretching across the border into Venezuela. It is the largest desert in South America north of the equator, and it’s surrounded by the sea on the northern side. It is home to the indigenous Wayuu people, who own and live on the land. The most Northerly point of South America lies deep in the Guajira desert - Punta Gallinas. 

There are no roads, and lots of the desert is difficult to access. There is no electricity or running water, and accommodations are basic. Biking in the desert is tricky as you need to hike across sand, and across land owned by Wayuu people who often put up road blocks to take payment for access. As the region is so remote and the local people very poor, they prefer payment with food or water to cross the road blocks. 

Historically it has been dangerous for tourists to enter the desert, and whilst it is now safer, robberies are still common. Given this, and the difficulties navigating when there are no roads, we decided to hire a guide to take us into the Guajira, and we were recommended Alex - who has been guiding bikers in the desert since he was 15! Alex is Wayuu and knows most of the people we encountered on our trip in the desert, he also knows it like the back of his hand! He helped us to navigate the road blocks, organise accomodation, and showed us the best way to ride on the sand and mud in the desert. 

 

Riohacha:

Riohacha is the last (small) city before the desert, and the gateway to the Guajira. We spent four nights in Riohacha, 2 nights preparing to go into the desert, and 2 nights recovering afterwards! 

There isn’t much to do in Riohacha, though we stayed in a great hostel with really kind helpful staff - and we were able to keep our bags in the hostel storage whilst we went into the desert. We also visited the beach here, and wandered around the town. 

Riding to Cabo de la Vela:

Our first stop in the Guajira desert was the small fishing village of Cabo de la Vela. The Guajira desert is owned and inhabited by the indigenous Wayuu people. They live in rancherias - small groups of huts made from locally sourced materials, and sleep in chinchorros (large hammocks). The Guajira desert is very remote, and there are no roads, no running water or electricity. 

To get to Cabo we first rode to Uribia - the last town on the way into the deep Guajira. We were advised to take the coastal route and not the highway as lots of robberies happen on the highway! The drive was 90km and the road was paved (if a bit pot-holed!). We had drove along some of the road the day before to go for a swim at Mayapo beach and encountered lots of road blocks - children holding ropes across the road, asking for money or sweets to pass. But we drove to Uribia early in the morning and there were no children - we thought perhaps they were all at school! 

At Uribia we stocked up on last minute supplies - petrol, water, and coffee biscuits and sweets for the road blocks. At Uribia we met with our bike guide, Alex. And together we rode from Uribia to Cabo, a total of 70km - 50km on a gravel road, and 20km on sand tracks. Neither of us had ridden through sand before, and it’s difficult and quite a skill! Alex gave us some tips, but it was a challenge - the bike keeps slipping and wobbling, and it feels like you’re going to fall. Actually Ash did fall on the way to Cabo - though he said it was because he was teaching in his pocket for sweets to give some children! He wasn’t hurt, but had a few minor repairs to do on the bike. 

We managed to reach Cabo, and stopped to have some lunch. After lunch we spent the afternoon riding around Cabo to some beaches, a lookout point and the lighthouse.  We went back to our accommodation for dinner and to rest for the next day of riding - going deeper into the desert to Punta Gallinas, the most Northerly point in South America. 

That night however, there was lots of unseasonal rain (it isn’t the rainy season so it isn’t supposed to rain!), which caused flash flooding on the route to Punta Gallinas. When it rains in the desert, the sand turns into a sticky sludgy mud, made worse as more and more jeeps/bikes ride over it. Our guide Alex came to see us and told us that we might not be able to make the journey due to the mud and conditions, and that last time it rained this hard it has taken him and his group 3 days to make the 4 hour journey! The next morning Alex went off to check the route alone, and came back to us with mud up to his knees! We all agreed we would stay in Cabo for the day, and hope the sun would dry some of the mud out for us to ride the next day. Ash and I spent the day chilling at the beach, wandering around the village and watching the amazing kite surfers. 

Riding to Punta Gallinas - the most Northerly point in South America:

The next day we got up early to make a start on the 4 hour 130km ride through the desert to Punta Gallinas - the most Northerly point in South America. We made a quick stop at the Cabo petrol station (a man with coke bottles filled with petrol), and set off.

The first section out of Cabo was really tricky to ride, lots of mud up to our knees, thick, sludgy and slippery. It was slow going and we both fell off a few times. Actually it felt really tough to ride, and after an hour in the mud I wasn’t sure if I could carry on. Our guide, Alex, asked us several times if we wanted to go back (which made me feel less confident we could make it). But we really wanted to make it to Punta Gallinas, so we decided to persevere, and soon the track had dried up a bit and was easier to navigate.

This part of the desert was amazing - the landscapes were beautiful and surreal, the desert is remote and uninhabited in places. There really is no road or route, just lots of tracks and we were glad to have our guide otherwise we would definitely have got lost! 

The local people own the desert and set up road blocks along the route with ropes or chains blocking the road, sometimes by children but also by adults. At each one you need to pay to pass, with food or money. We didn’t mind to pay for our passage onto the indigenous people’s land, but it did slow us down a lot, often there would be 10 road blocks all within a few feet of each other, and sometimes some coffee or sweets would be enough, but other people demanded rice or money etc. Alex our guide negotiated the road blocks for us, and he knew the people well, and they were mostly friendly towards us as we were with him. But the roadblocks did become a bit tiresome after a while, in total there were close to 100! 

After 130km riding over tricky terrain, sand and mud through the desert, we made it to Punta Gallinas! We were so relieved and happy to get to the most Northerly point in SA, and we spent some time enjoying the place and taking lots of photos. 

We then drove for 10 more minutes to our hostel for the night - which was more basic than our previous one, no electricity or running water, and we had to bathe using sea water from a bucket! We spoke with Alex and agreed we would get up early the next day to ride further into the desert to an Oasis in the Macuira National Park. 

Riding back out of the desert:

After spending the night at a hostel in Punta Gallinas, we woke up at 6am to drive to the Macure National park - further into the desert, to see the oasis there. But when we woke up we realised it had rained in the night, and it was still raining! 

We spoke to our guide Alex over breakfast and he advised that the route to go further into the desert would be too difficult and dangerous because of the rain. Actually he was also concerned about our route back out of the desert - the last time he had guided a group when it was this wet, he said it took them 3 days!  He said we have three options - to stay another night in Punta Gallinas and hope it dries up, to go back and hope the route isn’t too wet/slippery, or to take the bikes on a boat to cut out about 2 hours of riding. We opted for the boat!

We were taken aback when we arrived at the boat by how small it was, but the fishermen lifted the bikes in no problem, and took us across the lagoon to the other side in 5 minutes or so. From there, we had another 2 hours of desert to cross, and thankfully it wasn’t too muddy (we were going fast to outrun the looming black clouds!). We passed through lots more road blocks, on a different route out of the desert and only had a bit of rain. It was muddy in some places but not too bad to navigate - we had some experience now in keeping the bikes upright! 

Once we left the desert, Alex rode with us back to the small town of Uribia, and we rode back to Riohacha to have a good shower, get our washing done, and clean the bikes and gear!

We were sad to not have been able to explore more of the desert, but glad to have left safely. We had an amazing time in Guajira, the people were lovely, the landscapes were unreal, and it was a real adventure! We both felt a huge sense of achievement for having made it to Punta Gallinas, and we were happy with how the bikes handled the conditions.