Wiwa Tours Tour Agency Office — Attraction in Santa Marta

WARNING regarding WIWA TOUR agency tours to LA GUAJIRA

La Guajira really is a beautiful and exceptionnal place. Please go there, with another agency or by yourself.

I had a terrible experience this December with WIWA TOUR. First of all, WIWA Tour does not realize the tour itself, it subcontracts it to another agency, Wayuu Tours.

Regarding the food and hostels. We were promised local food and local housing. It was nothing like it. We arrived in a place with hundreds of tourists, completely isolated from the village of Cabo de la Vella, were the food served in chain as a buffet was disgusting. The agency had planned that we would eat there for lunch, diner and breakfast. The atmosphere was everything but local, you could find the same hostel in Punta Cana. We asked the driver to drop us in the village to see the atmosphere look at some shops and restaurants and take us back 2 hours later. The agency refused that treatment. Does anyone want to do a 5 hours drive to go to Cabo de la Vela and not see Cabo de la Vela ? We also got food poisoned in the last restaurant we had lunch on the way back, great way to end our trip ...

Regarding the car. It had no seatbelts at the back. At night, we had a flat tire and were very lucky to find another car passing by as our driver had no idea as to how to replace it. We were also told that we would be back in Santa Marta at 5pm and booked a plane accordingly. The car booked for us to Santa Marta was scheduled at 3:30pm and it is a 3 hours drive to Santa Marta...

Regarding the different steps of the tour. Well you should expect to find everywhere you go around 80 other 4x4. Yes, all the tours propose to go to the same place at the same time. La Guajira is supposed to give you a feeling of calm and serenity. But at some point it felt like Disneyland.

Regarding our contacts with the Wayuu culture. The driver was supposed to be our guide as well and a Wayuu. However only very few explanations were given. No meal with the locals, no interactions but the giving of cookies through the windows of our big 4x4. It feels unconfortable to come to such a beautiful place and ruin it as all the food you give is in plastic and plastic is not treated there. We were told that some people bought a pack of apple or big bottles of water, it seems like a better idea than the small water bags our driver suggested.

La Guajira is a beautiful place. And we realized once there that YOU CAN GO THERE BY YOURSELF. You can easily take public transports to Cabo and then find locals to take you to Punta Galinas. So...

I am quite surprised of the constant 5 star reviews for this company. In my opinion they fell quite short. I have done 10+ trekking, adventure travel tours around the world and this company was subpar.

My biggest complaint which tainted most of my impression of Wiwa, was our English speaking guide, Gen. whom apparently he has been working as a guide for 3 years. He was terrible. He Did not care to do his job. He was Completely disinterested and disengaged with us the entire trek, he seemed annoyed when I asked any questions and did not answer them when I did ask or if I did it was a one sentence answer. He also was a poor translator and missed a lot of translating information (according to other Spanish speaking participants in the group who did most of the translating for me). He took frequent smoking breaks at every break instead of translating for the indigenous guide. The indigenous guides were smiley, friendly and engaging, same with the cooks, but I had no idea what they were saying. This part is the biggest upset from my experience, since I still have little knowledge about the history and culture and feel like now I need to do the research myself.

Also other minor complaints. When deciding between different tours I asked Wiwa what differentiated themselves with the other companies. They said the smaller group size of their tours, however our Group Size was larger than what they said was their max size and actually the largest group out of the other tours that started our same day. I also was told I could hike at my own pace since I am a fast hiker , but when I asked our English speaking guide, he said we had to hike as a group of 13. With three guides, the group should be able to at least be split up into closer pacing. Also the other tour companies have indigenous guides, so when Wiwa tells you otherwise, this is not true.

The hike was obviously beautiful and our group dynamic was great. I do recommend bringing hand soap/ shower soap as this was not at the camps. Also may recommend brining your own electrolytes to have in hand because it is so hot/humid.

I wish I was writing a better review but think others should know what to expect. I was just quite disappointed after all the 5 star reviews for Wiwa Tours before and after my experience. The other tour operator English guides seemed to be a lot more interested in actually doing their job, engaging with the group, AND actually translating correctly. For what it’s worth, I wish I booked with a different company for the sake of the translator and cultural...

So many déceptions. We have booked a tour in la Guajira (the desert), a tour which costed us around 110€/pers (quite expensive here). It's a two days tour starting from Santa Marta. First of all we never got information about preparations, things to cary on (like water, hot cloches for the night). We had an appointment at the hotel at 4.30 am the first day. The thing is we couldn't stay inside because we couldn't the the bus arriving. So we waited outside 45 Minutes with no information. We thought they had forgotten us. Then when the bus arrived : no excuses. After having collected every members of the excursion in the bus (very old bus with really bad dampers), We finaly started the tour arround 6.30 am. The first day was a long Journey to get to the point, but we knew that. We arrived at Cabo DE la Vela in the desert and visited the pilon de azucar. Worth to be seing. During the day we had lunches in the same restaurant. Same meels. Some were proposed Langustines, but not us. When I realised that, I asked for the diner this plate. I was told that There were no more. The problem is some people had it for diner. Then started the night in hamacs on the beatch. Really humid, uncofortable, and noisy. In the morning, waken up by a horn of a car at 5.30 we took a breakfast and went to the salt "factory". Nothing different from other contries' factories. We stoped at Riohacha to eat and to visit. The City is not beautiful and There is nothing to do. The guide gave us 1h after the lunch. But at the meeting point we waited one hour more. 40 degres, No information. The bus had to change a wheel. But no information still, while guide was informed and not far from here. Then took the bus and made a longgggggg Journey. I am desapointed about all this things compared with the price. But also, the tour could be magnificient by visiting families or other things original. Moreover the guide explained us some things but didn't do his job. He should have explained us lot of things insted of sleeping at the back of the bus. We recomand to make such a tour but with more than two days and deffinitely with...