THE HIDDEN GEM OF COLOMBIA: THE TATACOA DESERT

NOVEMBER 2019

Colombia still has many locations which are not firmly on the tourist radar yet.. One of them is the Tatacoa desert. This desert is not yet frequented by tour buses and mainly has Colombian visitors who live in nearby cities. The Tatacoa desert was one of the highlights (if not the highlight) of our Colombian trip and is absolutely worth visiting. Because it is a little bit off the beaten path, you have to put in a little more effort to visit it, but that only adds to the adventure!

How to get there

We visited the Tatacoa desert from Salento. Villavieja is the main hub to visit the Tatacoa desert. We had to transfer buses in Armenia and Ibague to get to Neiva. This costs about € 15 per person and takes about 7 hours including the transfer time. From Neiva you can take a collectivo to Villavieja (1 hour, € 2 per person). This is a bit of a chaotic process and you will probably end up in a jeep packed with people and with suitcases on top of the roof, but that’s part of the fun! From Bogota it is much easier to get to the desert as there is a direct bus to Neiva, which costs about € 13. This bus should take about 5 hours, but it took us 7 hours when we were traveling in the direction of Bogota. We visited Tatacoa in a holiday weekend, when lots of Colombians go to the desert, but still found it incredibly uncrowded.

Where to stay

When you want to visit Tatacoa you basically have two options for your overnight stay: in the Tatacoa desert itself or in Villavieja town. The Tatacoa desert mainly has eco-hotels, so this means no showers/wifi/airconditioning. We already did the off the grid thing in Rosario and absolutely did not want to do this in the middle of the desert heat. There are more upscale options in the desert, which feature a pool, but those are quite expensive and not well reviewed. The main sights in the Tatacoa desert are stretched out and without your own transport you cannot get around cheaply.

We therefore decided to stay in Villavieja town. We found the value for money for a night in Villavieja lower than in other parts in Colombia that have more competition. We paid € 30 per night for our private room, including breakfast. On the other hand, the food in Villavieja was the cheapest of all the places we stayed in Colombia; € 8 for dinner for two persons including beers (and we did not get sick).

A desert tour

Tatacoa actually isn’t a desert, as during the year there is too much rain to be able to qualify as a desert. So Tatacoa is a dry tropical forest, but I promise you will get all the desert feels.. We had rain during one night, but during the day it was always dry and over 30 degrees Celsius.

There are many ways you can visit the desert from Villavieja. You can ask around in the main town and find a deal. Our hotel arranged an English speaking guide who guided us a whole day through the Tatacoa desert with a comfortable tuktuk for € 40. Not a lot of people in Villavieja speak English, so we were super happy with our guide (Joy Edgar Hooker).

The Tatacoa desert consists of a red part (Cuzco) and the grey part which features a public pool (Los Hoyos). We found the red part to be more impressive, but it is definitely worth it to visit the grey part to have a walk in a moon-landscape.

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The pool in Los Hoyos costs about € 2 to enter and it also has dressing rooms (don’t bring any valuables though). I absolutely loved to cool down a bit in this pool, even though it was packed with Colombians celebrating their holiday.

We stayed in the Tatacoa desert for three nights, as we absolutely loved it. However it is very well possible to see all the important sights of the desert in one day. During our second full day we rented mountainbikes. From Villavieja to the desert will take you about 20-30 minutes by bike, but it is quite hilly and strenuous and I was super proud of myself afterwards 😉 The locals will think you are absolutely crazy for doing this…

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