Guachaca

Guachaca is a village on the intersection of the Highway 90 and the river Río Guachaca in the Colombian department Magdalena.

Understand
The village is divided into And in the east there is the

Get in
In Guachaca there are no ATMs, so may want to bring cash.

The white regional bus between Palomino and Santa Marta goes via Guachaca. It goes every 15min until around 18:00 from both directions. From Santa Marta it's COP$7,000 (Sept 2021). You can enter and exit the bus anywhere. If you want to enter it in Santa Marta en route, it goes from the Plaza de Mercado on Calle 11, then Carrera 16 and then along the Avenida del Libertador.

Get around
The village can be easily explored on foot. There are mototaxi drivers who take you to places nearby.

Taking a mototaxi for within the village is COP$2,000 (Oct 2021). At night mototaxi prices are way higher. Mototaxi drivers are in the small and in the big center. If you want to be picked up from somewhere else inside or outside Guachaca, you need to ask some drivers for their phone/whatsapp numbers beforehand.

Do
At the river in Guachaca near the main bridge there is a Further east there is another In the south-west there is

You can head to the Caribbean Sea and there to an It's 30–50 min walking to there or you can take a mototaxi. The road is in the east of the Guachaca river. As of Oct 2021 only OpenStreetMap (used by apps like OsmAnd, Mapy.cz, MapQuest or this travel guide) show the way correctly, while Google Maps shows it wrong. At the Caribbean Sea take care of the strong rip tides.

From May to November the river Guachaca has enough water to float on it to the Caribbean Sea. On this part of the river there no rapids. From the mouth of the river you go on the beach 400 meters to the east. There is a road to Guachaca. Somebody there can call you a mototaxi back. There are said to be rentals for swim rings around the intersection of the Highway 90 bridge and the main Guachaca river. Otherwise there is a It sells sufficiently big inflatable swimming rings for COP$18,000 (Oct 2021) and is on the Highway 90 near the Puerto Caribe Hostal.

You can also float from further upstream to the village. There is a road on the right and left side of the river. You can walk or take a mototaxi. A mototaxi can take you to a This part of the river has some rather small rapids. On both trips it's advisable to take a repellent with you. A good time to do it is the earlier morning and the later afternoon, so you don't risk a sun burn from the midday sun and additionally from the water reflections.

It's a beautiful ravine. Just take a bus or mototaxi to the Hostel Valencia. From there you can hike around 2km. On the way you gonna pass

On the road to Gotsezhi is a You need to pay COP$30,000-90,000 in order to pass it, even as a pedestrian.

Buy
There are some minimarkets. In the eastern part of the village at the Highway 90 are somewhat bigger supermarkets and a It has many tasty baked goods for COP$700 (Oct 2021).

As of Sept 2021 there are no ATMs on 100km between Santa Marta and Mingueo. In Guachaca you can get cash from your credit card for a 10% fee.

Street Food
In the evening you find some street food in the eastern part of the village along the Highway 90.

Budget
In the big center there are several local simple restaurants. You get a main dish plus soup and drink from COP$8,000-12,000.



Budget


As of Oct 2021 the Ohana Hostel is bookable on Hostelworld, but gonna be closed until November 2021.

Go next
All of these places have both hostels and private rooms:

in the east

 * Buritaca – 7 km
 * Riohacha – 120 km
 * Palomino – 30 km

in the west

 * Los Naranjos – 9 km
 * Tayrona National Park – 11 km
 * Calabazo – 22 km
 * Santa Marta