The top of South America — Someday Sherpa

Jan 9

Jan 9 The top of South America

A journey across the Colombian desert.

The northern tip of Colombia marks the most northerly point of South America - Punta Gallinas. This is four wheel drive territory.

It feels like the end of the earth where the desert, sea and sky collide. It is also home to the Wayuu tribe, Colombia's indigenous people.

The journey is long but well worth it to get a glimpse into a very remote part of this colourful country. Rugged coastlines, turquoise seas, dry desert plains, rolling sand dunes and big blue skies.

Over three days, we visited Cabo de la Vela to watch the kite surfers. Rolled down sand dunes to swim in the sea, witness rural life of the Wayuu people, and each night, you'll fall asleep in your beautiful hammock.

These little rascals are heartbreakingly cute

The desert starts off lusher (only just) than expected

The team led by ex-para military member Jesus (the hard bastard in the singlet)

The contrast of sand and azur sea never got boring

Anyone able to rock this look will grow to be a legend

Do it:

Magic Tours

Fields notes:

Our driver, Jesus, used to fight in a para military group against the narcos in 2005 #insafehands
Before you set out on a 3 day 4x4 trip, check the following;
- *** The windscreen wipers work. Ours didn't. It poured on the final day when we were driving through the desert. We were literally driving blind.
- **** There should be a working speedometer. Ours was broken and I could only check the speed by how close I felt to the g-force.
- **** Why is it called magic tours? Because abracadabra- we didn't die!
In our 4x4 we were intrigued by a mega interesting French-Canadian couple, Bruno and Anny. Bruno is a retired lieutenant colonel who served two tours in Afghanistan, and with the UN in Bosnia. Anny was a forensic pathologist and turns out is the world expert on strangulation - even consults to crime tv shows and movies. They are now spending their days travelling the world #fangirl
Did you know Colombia has one of the largest coal mines in the world? The train that carts the coal had 149 carriages and 2 engines (roughly 1.5km long) #traingeek
You're on indigenous land. The clever Wayuu people have erected over 100 'toll' gates (string and rope) manned by the children. They extort biscuits, lollies or water so purchase plenty in advance. Once you run out of supplies, be prepared...our driver decided to play chicken with the ropes. 100% success rate. But it's a frighten game of chicken at 100km/h - especially when children are involved.
If you go, consider learning to kite surf. I wish I had. Perfect wind and water conditions.
Sleeping in hammocks is actually pretty comfortable #seriously