Venturing Into: Tatacoa Desert

Tatacoa Desert: The Colombian desert... Or is it?

Highlights

•  The red desert is beautiful, the labyrinthine passages offer an opportunity to get lost on another planet.
•  Everything is relatively small scale and designed for tourism so very easy to do and can all be completed in a day if you're in a rush.

Lowlights

•  Grey desert is interesting but more expensive to get to and very short, possibly not worth the money for those on a budget or in a rush.
•  Connections are not great, either take a bus to Neiva to move elsewhere in the country or take a ferry + moto-taxi or 40 minute walk to neighbouring Aipe to catch a bus.

What is the Tatacoa Desert?

Despite appearances, the Tatacoa Desert in Colombia is not actually a desert at all. Covering over 332 square kilometres, Tatacoa is the second largest arid area in all of Colombia, after the Guajira Peninsula in the north. The Tatacoa Desert is actually a dry tropical forest. According to scientists, during the Tertiary Period (between 66 and 2.2 million years ago), the Tatacoa Desert and surrounding area would have been a beautiful garden full of thousands of tropical flowers and trees that gradually dried into the desert appearance it has today. 

Over these millions of years, wind and water have eroded the landscape to create the mysterious and sometimes eerie shapes that we see today. 

There are two distinct parts of the Tatacoa Desert: The Cuzco Labyrinth which is characterised by it's ochre colour, and the Valley of Phantoms which has a grey colour. The colours come from the different minerals in the soil: The red comes from iron and the grey is from silicone. 

How to get to the Tatacoa Desert?

The Tatacoa Desert is located north of the Huila department in southwestern Colombia. It is about an hour north from Neiva, which has an internal airport with flights from Bogota. Alternatively, you can catch a 5 hour bus from Bogota to Neiva. From Neiva, you need to take a bus to Villavieja which is a small town to the west of the Tatacoa Desert. The bus takes about an hour and costs about 10k COP (£2), or you can take a private taxi, which is what we did, but this costs 130k COP (£26) so if you're on a budget then you're better off taking the bus! 

Alternatively, if you are taking the bus from Bogota to Neiva, you can ask the driver to drop you off in Aipe which is across the river from Villavieja. You can then either walk for about 40 minutes to the river, or take a moto-taxi for 10k COP (£2). We opted to walk but it was a very hot and sticky day so we would probably recommend taking the moto-taxi! Once you arrive at the river, take the ferry across the river for 5k COP (£1) and then you can walk to Villavieja which takes about 10 minutes, or take a moto-taxi (3k COP / £1.50). 

We actually did this route across the river in reverse order, as we were travelling from Villavieja to Salento, via Armenia. Busses start their journey in Neiva and head north to Armenia, but you can flag it down as it passes Aipe and board there, which saves you from travelling all the way back south to Neiva. 

What to see in Tatacoa Desert?

Red Desert

The red desert of Tatacoa is the most famous part, and is undeniably the highlight of the region. As mentioned earlier, this area is called the Cuzco Labyrinth as the red formations are so large, numerous, and widespread, that it is easy to get lost. Upon arrival, there are several viewpoints where you can take spectacular photographs, before descending down a set of stairs to the bottom. 

There is a trail that you are supposed to follow but the trail markers are few and far between, and even the ones that are clearly marked often seem to be in the middle of nowhere, or pointing in different directions that you are meant to go. Many different blogs suggest that you download the offline map from maps.me as the hiking trail is marked out on there, but we did this and found that the route was difficult to follow. We got lost a few times and had to turn around to follow the track back the way we came on several occasions. 

The formations in Tatacoa desert are made from mud rather than sand, so visitors are not allowed to climb over them due to risk of breaking the formations. This means that if you do get lost in the labyrinth, you must go back the way you came rather than climbing over them, as it would be devastating to lose some of this spectacular region due to over-tourism. 

The trail should take about 1.5 - 2 hours, so if you're visiting during the heat of the day it's important to bring lots of water as well as a sunhat, and cover up with sunscreen and loose fitting clothes. The sun is extremely strong and there is little shade throughout the trail, as the only plants that grow are thorny trees and cacti. We first visited the red desert around 4pm when the sun was lower and half of the trail was in the shade from one side of the formations, and we would really recommend going later in the day as it is much cooler. Additionally, as the sun continues to go down, the red colour of the formations becomes even more distinct, though bug spray may be useful. 

Grey desert

An additional half-hour up the road from the red desert is the grey desert of Tatacoa. Also named the Valley of the Ghosts, the pseudonym is due to the grey formations in the soil. Some people can see the shapes of people and animals within the landscapes, and our tuk-tuk driver pointed out some of them to us when we stopped at a mirador. 

The grey desert is actually larger than the red desert, but the trail around it is much shorter, probably due to the fact that there aren't as many offshoots to it as the red desert, so it is much less labyrinth-like. The trail took us about 45 minutes to complete, and it is much easier to find your way around the loop, entering the trail at one point and exiting the trail at another. 

While the red desert of Tatacoa felt like we were on Mars, the grey desert was much more like we were walking on the moon. The grey colouring is not (in my opinion) as beautiful as the red but the shapes of the formations were just as interesting and different to anywhere else I've seen. 

Lots of other blogs have suggested that you visit the grey desert at sunset, but we went quite early in the morning. Our tuk-tuk driver had suggested that we go there for sunrise, but we're not early risers so we were there around 8:30am. This suited us perfectly as there were very few other people around, plus it meant that we avoided the intense heat that arrives around 11am. 

There are also some swimming pools at the end of the trail that you can visit for 10k COP (£2), but I read somewhere that the locals in the nearby towns can feel frustrated by the excessive use of the water in the pools in a particularly dry area where water can sometimes be scarce. We are trying to be conscientious travellers and try to reduce our waste where we can, so swimming in these pools were not something that we were particularly keen on. 

Star gazing

Tatacoa Desert is a very remote region of Colombia. Due to the distance from it's largest nearby city of Neiva (roughly 50km), there is very little light pollution. Additionally, due to Tatacoa's proximity to the equator, there is the possibility to see stars from both the northern and the southern hemispheres. The dryness of the area is also a benefit, and with all of these positives put together, it means that on a cloudless night, up to 88 different constellations can be seen. 

Tatacoa Desert hosts many different observatories, meaning that you can take your pick to visit. Our tuk-tuk driver recommended the Astrotur Observatory, which is about a 20 minute walk from the red desert. Every night the observatory has an hour-long talk starting at 7pm for only 10k COP (£2) per person. It is only in Spanish so it's good to have a good understanding of the language, but even if you don't it's a really cool experience to lie down on the astroturf and watch as the professor points out the various constellations. During our talk, the professor explained the name of the stars, how they work together to form the constellation, and why the Ancient Greeks came up with each constellation. He also explained the chemical reactions that happen to create stars, and described the difference between the light emitted by stars versus the light reflected by planets from our sun. 

The night we went stargazing was sadly quite cloudy so we didn't have a super clear view of the sky the entire time, but the clouds moved past quickly. I have absolutely no doubt that if it was a cloudless night then the sky would have been incredible. 

After the talk we also had the opportunity to look through 6 or 7 different telescopes which were pointed at various constellations. We were lucky enough to catch a view of Jupiter and we were also able to see 4 of Jupiter's moons which was very cool. 

TATACOA DESERT AT A GLANCE

Accommodation

Many options both cheap and comfy, places were readily available last minute.

Transport

Connections are not great, either take a bus to Neiva (10k COP) to move elsewhere in the country or take a ferry + Moto-taxi or 40 minute walk to neighbouring Aipe to catch a bus to Bogota or Armenia. The town itself is safe to walk and small however you will need a tuk-tuk to get to the deserts or observatory (25k COP each way during the day)

Affordability

Deserts are free, observatory is only 10k COP, accommodation is cheap, fast food keeps living costs down. All in all very affordable however all points of interest will require a tuk-tuk.

Safety

Very safe to walk the streets including in the evening.

Activities

Red desert is a must-see, the grey desert pales in comparison but is worth doing if paired with the red desert. The observatory visit requires at least a basic understanding of Spanish to glean anything fro the professor's talk however conversational Spanish is required to understand the academic aspects and fully appreciate it, but is still worth doing none the less. The stargazing does not compare to more remote locations you may have been to but the professor's talk through the constellations is very interesting.

Tips / Key Takeaways

- Wear log sleeves in the evening for bug protection.

- Do the red desert late afternoon to catch sunset, although it is all much cooler early in the mornings.