GUAJIRA PENINSULA, LA

Spanish Pennsula De La Guajira, Guajira also spelled Goajira, peninsula on the northwestern coast of South America. It is bounded by the Caribbean Sea on the north and west, the Gulf of Venezuela on the southeast, and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Sierra de Perij on the south. Much of the peninsula lies in La Guajira departamento, Colombia; the rest is in Zulia state, Venezuela, where it is known as La Goajira Peninsula. The climate of the peninsula is generally hot and arid or semiarid; goat raising by Indians is widespread, and there is some pearl fishing and saltworking on the coast. Divi-divi (a small shrub whose pods are used for tanning and dyeing) is an important product of the area, and there are some mineral deposits. Rohacha, Colom., is the principal town on the peninsula and the focus of a limited highway network. Natural gas fields near Rohacha are connected by pipeline with Barranquilla, Colom., to the southwest.