Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [146]
Mi Casona ( 728 5680 Calle 2 No 10-16; s/d with air-con COP$50,000/60,000; ) This is the cheapest livable option near the beach in centro, just two blocks away. It’s a small residenciales with well-maintained rooms and nice bathrooms. One upside is it is across the street from La Cascada, a great budget restaurant. The downside is it’s double the price it should be.
La Cascada ( 727 4446; Calle 2 No 9-93; mains COP$10,000-29,000; breakfast, lunch & dinner) A great little local’s spot serving homestyle comida corriente for COP$7000 and fancier dishes like chicken with mandarin sauce. In fact, they love mandarin here – cool off with a refreshing mandarin frappé, a liquid orgasm in this heat.
La Tinaja ( 727 3929; Calle 1 No 4-59; mains COP$21,000-55,000; breakfast, lunch & dinner) This waterfront restaurant is known for mariscos (seafood), especially lobster and seafood crepes. The most popular dish is the platter, smothered across the board au gratin.
There are two good local spots to try goat – one of the Wayuu’s most popular dishes. Both are owned by the same family. The legendary choice is Asadero Don Pepe ( 727 4446; Calle 2 No 9-93; mains COP$6000-12,000; dinner) – neighboring businesses want it shut down, but this technically ‘illegal’ restaurant on the waterfront has been here so long, it’s invincible; and El Rancho de Toǹe’ ( 728 7131; Calle 2 No 9-93; mains COP$6000-12,000; dinner Mon-Sat, lunch & dinner Sun). See if they have friche – goat cooked in its own fat, traditionally with innards and all (you can hold the innards), and chopped into small chunks. Or chivo asado, a more straight-up slab of grilled goat meat. It also does steaks, chicken and chorizo.
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Getting There & Away
AIR
The airport is 3km southwest of town. A taxi costs COP$5000 from town. Avianca ( 727 3627; www.avianca.com; Calle 7 No 7-04; 8am-6pm Mon-Fri, 9am-1pm Sat) operates one flight in and out per day to Bogotá, departing at 12:20pm (from COP$373,000, one way). From Bogotá, the flight leaves for Riohacha at 10:15am.
BUS
The bus terminal is at the corner of Av El Progreso and Carrera 11, about 1km from the center. A taxi to the bus station is COP$3000. Expreso Brasilia/Unitransco ( 727 2240) services Santa Marta (COP$15,000, 2½ hours) and Barranquilla (COP$20,000, five hours) every 30 minutes; Cartagena (COP$35,000, seven hours) and Maicao (COP$5000, one hour), on the border with Venezuela, hourly; and Bogotá (COP$80,000, 18 hours) once daily at 3pm. A bus bound for Bucaramanga (COP$60,000, 12 hours) also departs once daily at 3pm.
To reach Cabo de la Vela (below), Cootrauri ( 728 0976; Calle 15 No 5-39) runs colectivos as they fill up every day from 5am to 6pm to Uribia (COP$12,000, one hour), where you must switch for the final leg to Cabo (COP$10,000 to COP$15,000, 2½ hours). Just let the driver know you are heading to Cabo and he will drop you off at the switch point. The last car for Cabo leaves Urribia at 1pm. You can also arrange rides from Riohacha direct to Cabo de la Vela from anywhere between COP$150,000 return for one person to as low as COP$75,000 per person with four, but often these are day trips that are not worth the time commitment. Many of these guys hang around the waterfront in Riohacha.
To visit Santuario de Fauna y Flora Los Flamencos, you must catch a colectivo from the Francisco El Hombre traffic circle, next to Almacen 16 de Julio, bound for the town of Camerones. The driver will drop you at the entrance to the park.
Buses bound for Caracas (COP$155,000, 18 hours) also depart daily from Riohacha with Expreso Brasilia at 4pm.
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CABO DE LA VELA
5 / pop 1500
The remote Wayuu fishing village of Cabo de la Vela, 180km northwest of Riohacha, juts out from the Guajira Peninsula like the hump of a long lost camel, wandering in the desert between the cape and Uribia for days without catching sight