Valledupar Overview

By Lorraine Caputo

From Bucaramanga, the north highway continues to Bosconia (405 kilometers / 243 miles, four tollbooths). There, the road turns eastward, skirting the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. A wonder is, when travelling by night bus, to see the sunrise reflected off the snow peaks of the range. After 89 kilometers (53 miles, one peaje) the road arrives at Valledupar, the purported birthplace of Vallenato music. It is the capital of Colombia’s newest department, established only in 1968, having been carved out of the old Magdalena political district. This is the beginning of the Caribbean region of Colombia. The near-by Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is home to four indigenous nations. The Valledupar region is the furthest south of Wayuu territory. This city’s main square, Plaza Alfonso López, is an enigmatic mango-tree-lined island in a sea of wonderful colonial buildings with plaques proclaiming which personage of Valduparense, or Vallenato, history had lived there. The town has many carreras and calles with both numbers and letters; these are more like diagonal streets, thus making the city a bit confusing with odd angles.

(Altitude: 169 m / 554 ft., Population: 354,250, City Code: 5)