South AmericaColombiaLa Guajira Department
Riohacha
La Guajira Department, Colombia · South America
About Riohacha
Riohacha sits on the route: 1 hours from Dibulla.
Riohacha is in La Guajira Department, Colombia, with about 190,000 people. You drive on the right here. The nearest town is Dibulla, about 53 km away.
Riohacha (Spanish pronunciation: [rjoˈa.tʃa]; Wayuu: Süchiimma) is a city in the Riohacha Municipality in the northern Caribbean Region of Colombia by the mouth of the Ranchería River and the Caribbean Sea. It is the capital city of the La Guajira Department. It has a sandy beach waterfront.
Founded by conquistadorRead more
Nikolaus Federmann in 1535, Riohacha was named after a local legend, "The legend of the Axe". Because of the powerful rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the area is mostly desertic. It is inhabited primarily by Amerindians, predominantly the Wayuu ethnic group. During colonial times, Riohacha was a very important port, as divers could retrieve vast numbers of pearls from the harbor.
In the second half of the 20th century, the city developed as one of Colombia's medium important, maritime commercial ports. It is also a multicultural center for La Guajira Department. The city is mentioned several times in novels written by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his important works are One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Riohacha?
Riohacha is in La Guajira Department, Colombia, about 53 km from Dibulla.
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Quick Information
- Population
- 188,014
- Continent
- South America
- Country
- Colombia
- Region
- La Guajira Department
- Timezone
- America/Bogota
- Coordinates
- 11.5444, -72.9072
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When to drive here
Year-round
Tropical latitude: plan around the wet season rather than temperature.
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