Punta Gallinas

Punta Gallinas is where the continent ends. A low headland of scrub and cactus runs out to a lighthouse above the cliffs, and the sea beyond it is open Caribbean with nothing between here and the Antilles. The set piece is the Taroa dunes a short drive away, where a field of orange sand rises out of the desert and then drops directly onto an empty beach, so you walk over a crest and slide down to the waterline. Bahia Hondita, the shallow bay behind the point, holds flamingos for part of the year. Everything here is reached on unmarked tracks, in convoy, with Wayuu drivers and guides.

What you actually see

• The Taroa dunes - orange sand falling straight from the desert into the sea.
• The lighthouse point - the northern tip of the South American mainland.
• Bahia Hondita - a shallow bay where flamingos gather in season.
• The desert tracks - hours of cactus, goats and salt flats with no road.

When to go

December to April is dry, and this is when flamingos are most reliably in Bahia Hondita. Rain in September and October turns the tracks to mud and tours stop running. Go early to the dunes, before the sand becomes too hot to walk on barefoot and before the light flattens out around midday.

Honest expectations

Getting here is the trip: six to eight hours of rough track from Riohacha in each direction, in a shared 4x4, with no shade and no fixed timetable. Lodging is a hammock or a basic room with rationed water and generator power for a few hours. Tour prices look high for what you get, but fuel and water are trucked in from far away.

Nearby

Cabo de la Vela is a few hours south, and the salt flats at Manaure lie on the way back.