Manaure salt flats: what to see and how to visit them

The salt flats are a work site. Ask permission before photographing someone and do not interrupt anyone working in the ponds. Do not walk on the ponds or take salt from the mounds. If someone offers you salt or handicrafts, pay in cash the amount agreed. Take your trash with you in the waste bag included on the packing list and use your reusable water bottle, so you do not leave plastic beside the ponds.

At the day 1 stop you see the two parts of the salt work in Manaure: brine ponds, separated by earth embankments, and salt mounds beside them, with the sea on the horizon. The principle is evaporation: the water leaves and the salt stays in the pond.

The Manaure salt flats are a work site, not a park, so during the stop you may see people working in the ponds or moving salt. It is the first stop on day 1 and the one that starts the route through La Guajira toward the north; the next stop is Uribia.

Manaure’s “pink sea” refers to ponds in the salt flats that take on pink tones. The color is not the same in every pond or on every visit, so treat it as something that may happen at the stop, not as a fixed part of the route. If you see pink water, photograph it from the edge: do not walk on the ponds or on the mounds.

The simplest way is on a tour. The three Punta Gallinas Tours routes first stop at the Manaure salt flats on day 1, and then continue to Uribia, known as Colombia’s Indigenous capital and the last stop before entering the desert toward Cabo de la Vela, where you have lunch. The vehicle is an air-conditioned 4×4 and the driver-guide is from the region; the driver-guide speaks Spanish and a translator is not included.

For the stop, bring sunglasses, a cap or hat, high-protection sunscreen and a reusable water bottle. Leave Riohacha with cash: on the Cabo de la Vela and Punta Gallinas route there are no ATMs or digital payments.