Quito, crossing the Equator and border into Columbia

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We wanted longer in Banos so we only had the afternoon in Quito for a quick look around the new town, to have an amazing Pad Thai in a recommended restaurant of Lonely Planet and at last, found the best book exchange shop in South America. We have become really desperate for books. It’s not like Asia where there seem to be books everywhere, like they grow on trees, which I suppose in a way they do.

We got to see a bit of Quito in our taxi the next morning on the way to the bus station and it was huge. It was set out a bit like La Paz, only much bigger. It’s so big that they have 2 bus terminals, one to service destinations to the South and one to service them to the North, yet they were both so far apart which was obviously demonstrating the scale of the city. So after a 50 minute journey to the North Terminal, we got our tickets to Tulcan.

We had both been quite nervous about the today and the next couple of days, as for the first time on our travels, we were having to do a border crossing by ourselves. All other countries in SA offer a bus service which will take you from A to B, A being one country and B meaning you’ve crossed the border on the bus and arrived in the other country. For some reason Ecuador and Columbia don’t offer this service so you are left to your own devices.

Well already we had made a huge mistake and took the first bus they offered us. It was horrendous looking and gradually was being filled up by every tom, dick and horhey. There were people trying to share your seat with you, lean on the back of your chair, sit on your head, try to sell you things that you would never in a million years want and generally just make a lot of noise and smell, a lot.

But after 5 painful hours, which felt like 50, we arrived at Tulcan. We didn’t really know what to do from here but after a bit of research knew it involved a taxi somewhere. Well luckily the taxi took us to the border and we could understand why no bus would cross here. It was chaos, it would take a day at least to get any vehicle across it, so by foot was clearly the better option.

Our taxi dumped us at the border, and feeling quite uncertain we approached a building on the Ecuador side. It was the immigration building and within minutes we had an exit stamp for Ecuador, we then walked over a bridge, whilst trying to dodge people asking if we wanted a taxi or to change our dollars for pesos and eventually came across another building on the other side of the bridge. Simple. This was now the Columbian immigration, and within minutes had our entry stamp. No problem at all. We had heard such horror stories about the border crossing and that it’s a complete nightmare. Surely if anything was to go wrong with the crossings it would happen to us, but it was no problem at all.

We then asked a taxi driver to take us to Ipiales, the nearest town to the border where we’d spend a night before heading further into Columbia the next day.
Now, the 2 only rules we have been given all around South America by everyone we have met when dealing with taxi’s are

1. Don’t ever share a taxi with someone you don’t know or get into a taxi if there is someone other than the driver in there

2. When in the taxi, if the driver is to use his cell phone to make a call ask him to stop immediately and let you out there.

So, what do we do. Get into a taxi, the driver then lets another man into the passenger side, who he clearly knows and then the driver starts to make a call as he pulls away. Well we both knew we were thinking the same but really didn’t know if we should make him stop. Ipiales was only 10 minutes away but it felt like the longest 10 minutes of our lives with our imagination running wild. But once again, we were terrified for nothing. Now we aren’t saying people shouldn’t be on their guard or get complacent in any way and we have met a few people were unfortunately they haven’t been so lucky in a situation like that in a taxi, but we have just found that everywhere we’ve been we have been warned about the dangers and its turned us into nervous wrecks. The driver was just giving his mate a lift and he turned out to be really helpful and found us a hotel and even carted us around town to find an atm that worked. Granted we gave him quite a large tip for not robbing us and leaving us stranded on the side of the road.

We did lock ourselves in our room after that though as Ipiales isn’t the nicest of places and really only a stop off for people doing the border crossing. We wanted to go to Popayan which was 10 hours away and it was already 5pm. We have read and been told many times not to do this particular journey in Columbia because of bandits and the night buses are frequently targeted. Apparently the rest of Columbia is fine it’s just this particular journey. So the next morning we made our way to the bus station and got a bus to Popayan.

The bus station at Ipiales was a bit intimidating, as soon as we walked in we were being shouted at all the companies had staff banging on the glass and whistling for us to come over. They were like caged animals. Everywhere else in SA, they are roaming free around the bus terminals trying to sell you tickets, these were locked up, as though it was the bus station rules that you can’t leave your hatch but you can whistle, scream and break the glass down. Very strange.

We took the 10 hour bus to Popayan which starting turning into over 11. We was getting a bit concerned as we knew the bus carried onto Cali where most people were getting off and the later and later we got we were convinced he’d not stopped at Popayan for us. Thankfully after nearly 12 hours we arrived late at Popayan. It was a beautiful journey so it wasn't all that bad. Looking for a bit of a treat after surviving what is supposed to be the worst border crossing, we were told about a nice Italian place. Well if by nice they mean serve us our main course 1 hour and 40 mins after we arrived and then it takes awful anyway and costs a bomb, then they can leave their nice. We were so disappointed, had a bit of a sulk and went to bed.

We only had the morning in Popayan before flying to Bogota so we got up early and it turns out that’s all we needed really. It’s a lovely place but very small.
When we arrived at the airport, we realised it was even small than Galapagos. We hadn’t realised just how close the airport was to town so we were about 3 hours early. We managed to check in though and just had to sit and wait. After examining the tickets a few times we realised that something didn’t look right.

Our 3.30pm flight to Bogota was saying 4.20pm to arrive at 6pm, but our connection from Bogota to Cartagena was due for 6.10pm. Just as we went to enquire at the desk, the Aires man came over to see us to explain that we would not be making the Cartagena flight as our flight was later than scheduled. We didn’t really get the chance to get the ump really, as he then explained that when we arrived in Bogota we’d be transferred to a hotel, have our meals paid for and then be on a flight first thing the next morning. So it didn’t really affect us, we didn’t have accommodation for Cartagena and we’d be arriving late at night and we’d save a nights accommodation and the morning flight was arriving at 8am so we’d still get our full day in Cartagena anyway.

Well our flight got delayed even more and we didn’t end up leaving the shed
airport until gone 6. Nearly 6 hours from when we first got there, but we were rewarded for that when arriving in Bogota.

We was getting concerned on the plane that no one in Bogota would know anything about this arrangement and we’d be stuck there and have no forward flight, but bizarrely everything ran smoothly. We were directed to a taxi, to jump the queue of about 40 people waiting, and taken about 10km from the airport to the 5 star Augustus Hotel. This was definitely the first time in our trip we’ve had a bell boy come out to the taxi and take our backpacks. The reception was beautiful and we had high hopes for the rooms. This was exactly the relaxation we needed, we just wish we had a bit longer. We were shown to our room and given a meal voucher for the very plush restaurant attached to the hotel. We thought we’d better make an effort and tried to find the smartest thing we had in our bags and make it look like we belonged there and not just been dragged through the jungle.

Even though what we ordered was simple, Smoked Salmon Wrap & chips, Chicken Wrap & mashed potato, Applie Pie & Pecan Pie. It was probably the best dinner we’d had away, perhaps in our lives. Maybe we have just been craving some really good food but this was incredible and a lovely beer to wash it down. Certainly made up for the night before. It felt we were living the high life. Extremely full and satisfied, we got back to our room with a view, showered and fell asleep in our robes. Now why can’t all traveling be this good.

Unfortunately it was short lived and we had to get up at 4am as we now had a 6am flight to Cartagena.

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