My first border crossing – Colombia to Ecuador

Even though I spent five weeks in Colombia, my first border crossing came upon me quite suddenly. I don't think I realised that I was leaving Colombia until I was on my way to the border, even though the journey to get there was pretty long. Both for safety and convenience reasons I decided to split the journey up a bit. In that way I managed to avoid spending too many consecutive hours on a bus. I also avoided travelling by night, something I wanted because the stretch is known for armed robberies of buses after dark. It probably doesn't happen that often, but I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry.

My journey from Salento to Quito ended up taking me through Popayan, Ipiales and Tulcan, with overnight stays in the first two.

All my posts from Colombia can be found here.

Popayan was a town I was rather happy to add to my itinerary, and I chose to stay for two nights to get a full day there. The town is known as the white city, and it is easy to understand why. All of the houses in the city centre are painted white, and there is even a law that says that they have to be repainted every year before Easter in order for them to stay white. It is very beautiful. To get to Popayan from Salento I first took a local bus to Armenia, which takes about an hour, and then a minibus from there. The minibus took 6,5 hours and was just as unenjoyable as the last minibus I took. No more minibuses from now on. In Popayan I wandered the streets, did a free walking tour and had really nice food. Popayan is recognized by UNESCO as a world City of Gastronomy, so it is a good town to eat in. I was glad that I got to see Popayan, but when I left I also felt like 1,5 day was enough.

Travel time and cost: 1 + 6,5 hours (not including transit time), 4200 COP + 39 000 COP.

I left my hostel in Popayan super early to try and get an early bus to Ipiales. Due to an extremely slow taxi driver I just missed the 6.30 bus and had to wait at the bus station until 8.00 for the next one. This time I managed to get myself on a nice, big bus, which made the 8 hour ride to Ipiales quite pleasant. Most people traveling towards the border choose to stop and spend the night in either Pasto or Ipiales, with Pasto being the bigger and (apparently) nicer of the two. I still opted for Ipiales, as I wanted to get as close to the border as possible that day, and to be fair the town really isn't that bad.

Once I arrived I walked across the street from the bus terminal and got myself a room at Hotel Metropol. You know your hotel is a bit shady when they hand you a roll of toilet paper and a plastic bag with the remote control for the tv when you check in, but what do you expect from a hotel with single rooms for only 25 000 COP (66 NOK) per night? It worked perfectly for one night and the location was very convenient.

Travel time and cost: 8 hours, 40 000 COP. 

Visiting Las Lajas Sanctuary

The following morning I woke up early to visit the Las Lajas Sanctuary before making my way to the border. I walked over to the bus terminal, and quickly located the colectivos headed towards Las Lajas. We waited a while for the colectivo to fill up and then drove for about 30 minutes to get there. Las Lajas is located deep down in a valley and might just be one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen. Another interesting thing about Las Lajas is that all around the cathedral there are thankful messages on the walls. These are set up by people who's prayers have been answered by 'Our Lady of Las Lajas', and there are so many of them. I admired the cathedral for a good hour, before getting a colectivo back to Ipiales. It was time to cross the border to Ecuador.

Travel time and cost: About 30 minutes, 2500 COP each way.

Getting from Ipiales to the border is easy. I once again made my way over to the bus terminal, where colectivos to the border leave from the same place as the ones to Las Lajas – just follow the man who asks if you're going to «la frontiera». Once at the border I was attacked by people who wanted to "help" me. I find it rather stressful how helpful the people around here can get, but I was able to change my last pesos into US Dollars and then went to get stamped out of Colombia. It was a bit of a queue as the line for entering and exiting the country is the same, but the actual stamping out took no time at all. When stamped out I crossed the bridge over to Ecuador by foot. It takes two minutes so there is no need to take a taxi, even though the taxi drivers will claim otherwise.

Travel time and cost: 20 minutes, 2000 COP.

Once in Ecuador I went into immigration to get stamped in. There was no one in line, so less than five minutes later I was officially welcomed into the country. I then went across the street from the exit to find a collectivo that could get me to Tulcan, which is the most convenient hub for onward travel to Quito, Otavalo or wherever you would want to go. I found one right away and we left within minutes.

Travel time and cost: 30 minutes, 2500 COP/1 USD. 

Once at the bus station in Tulcan I was once again attacked by "helpful" ecuadorians, each one trying to make me buy a bus ticket from them. Buying bus tickets in South America is rather interesting as the people selling tickets will literally hang out of their booths reaching their arms out as far as they can get, while screaming destinations to the people passing by, as if that's gonna make anyone want to buy a ticket from them. I eventually got my ticket to Quito, after making sure that I would get a big, air conditioned bus. It left about five minutes later. A really annoying thing about taking buses in Ecuador, which didn't really happen to me in Colombia, is that the bus drivers keep stopping along the road to pick up more passengers, or even worse; lots and lots of people selling stuff. You can get anything from snacks to phone chargers while sat on a bus, and their most popular selling trick is to stuff whatever they're selling into your hand as if that makes it more likely that you will buy anything. Oh well, I guess it's a part of their culture.

Travel time and cost: the ride was supposed to take 5 hours, but took at least 6,5. I blame the frequent stops. The price was 6,10 USD.

Bonus tip: Quito has two bus terminals: Terminal Carcelén in the north and Terminal Quitumbe in the south. Since I was staying in Quito Viejo (the old city) I was told that the taxi to my hostel would be cheaper from the southern terminal. What I didn't know was that the bus takes an extra hour getting to this terminal as Quito is a very long city. Looking back I would have preferred to spend a few extra dollars on a taxi from the northern terminal, and thus arriving at my hostel an hour earlier. This is obviously a matter of personal preference. 

I arrived after dark and as I just wanted to get to my hostel quickly I hopped in a taxi. The driver refused to use the meter, but we agreed on a price of 10 USD from Terminal Sur to Quito Viejo. The ride took forever due to traffic and Quito being the long city that it is. It is safe to say that I was happy when I finally arrived at my hostel that evening.

Read about how I spent three days in Quito here.

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♥ Erica