Cabo de la Vela (Spanish for "cape of thesail") is aheadland in theGuajira Peninsula inColombia with an adjacent small fishing village. It is a popularecotourism destination of theCaribbean region of Colombia.
Spanish explorerJuan de la Cosa was among the first Europeans to see the cape in 1499, during his fourth travel as pilot for the expedition ofAlonso de Ojeda, making this place, together with theGulf of Paria, the first places ever visited by the Europeans on South American mainland. Its name derives from the first view of the cape from the sea, when the pale colors of the promontories and their curvilinear forms emerging from the flat desert, suggested vaguely to the Spanish the shape of asailboat. The foundation of the first settlements in the area was made byNikolaus Federmann who founded a village near the Cabo de la Vela with the nameNuestra Señora Santa María de los Remedios del Cabo de la Vela in 1535, the first settlement in La Guajira.Pearl deposits led to constant attacks from the indigenousWayuu and other Spanish conquerors from the neighboringGovernment of Santa Marta andNew Andalusia Province, and the village was moved to present-dayRiohacha in 1544 and refounded byNikolaus Federmann.[1][2] The aboriginal inhabitants of the area were an ethnic group ofArawaks, who remained free, defeating theSpanish Conquest. Their descendants, theWayuu people, still inhabit the area. Cabo de La Vela (Jepirra inWayuunaiki) is a sacred place to them, since they believe it is the place where the souls of all the deceased travel to rest with the ancestors, as the gate toafterlife.
The cape is surrounded by theLa Guajira Desert, part of the largerGuajira-Barranquilla xeric scrub. In the area there are several salinelagoons andmudflats visited by large populations ofAmerican flamingos.[3]
Cabo de la Vela has ahot arid climate (KöppenBWh) with little to no rainfall in all months except October and November.
| Climate data for Cabo de la Vela | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 31.7 (89.1) | 32.0 (89.6) | 32.4 (90.3) | 33.0 (91.4) | 33.8 (92.8) | 34.3 (93.7) | 34.9 (94.8) | 34.5 (94.1) | 34.2 (93.6) | 33.2 (91.8) | 32.5 (90.5) | 32.2 (90.0) | 33.2 (91.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 27.5 (81.5) | 27.7 (81.9) | 28.1 (82.6) | 28.7 (83.7) | 29.5 (85.1) | 30.0 (86.0) | 30.2 (86.4) | 30.0 (86.0) | 29.8 (85.6) | 29.0 (84.2) | 28.5 (83.3) | 28.0 (82.4) | 28.9 (84.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 23.3 (73.9) | 23.5 (74.3) | 23.8 (74.8) | 24.4 (75.9) | 25.2 (77.4) | 25.7 (78.3) | 25.5 (77.9) | 25.6 (78.1) | 25.4 (77.7) | 24.9 (76.8) | 24.5 (76.1) | 23.8 (74.8) | 24.6 (76.3) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 2 (0.1) | 1 (0.0) | 0 (0) | 25 (1.0) | 24 (0.9) | 11 (0.4) | 2 (0.1) | 15 (0.6) | 46 (1.8) | 101 (4.0) | 82 (3.2) | 19 (0.7) | 328 (12.8) |
| Source: Climate-Data.org[4] | |||||||||||||
Treasures of Colombia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:Wills, Fernando; et al. (2001).Nuestro patrimonio – 100 tesoros de Colombia [Our heritage – 100 treasures of Colombia] (in Spanish).El Tiempo. pp. 1–311.ISBN 958-8089-16-6. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12°12′27″N72°10′22″W / 12.20750°N 72.17278°W /12.20750; -72.17278
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