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Colombia to Brazil - by boat??

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We are currently travelling in Colombia and want to get to Brazil. After travelling for 9 months in SA so far which has been longer than we anticipated, we ended up cancelling ALL our internal flights. Therefore we need to find the cheapest way to get from Colombia to Brazil. Flights are about $750 and dont want to spend that much - help!
13 years ago, July 17th 2010 No: 1 Msg: #115918  
We are currently travelling in Colombia and want to get to Brazil. After travelling for 9 months in SA so far which has been longer than we anticipated, we ended up cancelling ALL our internal flights. Therefore we need to find the cheapest way to get from Colombia to Brazil. Flights are about $750 and dont want to spend that much - help!

Also read a little bit about getting a river boad from Colombia to Manaus in Brazil but was wondering if anyone else has done this. How much was it and how long did it take?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Reply to this

13 years ago, July 27th 2010 No: 2 Msg: #116588  
If you want to do that, fly to the city of Leticia. That's the Colombian Amazon city.
But I don't know what boats services get there. Reply to this

13 years ago, August 13th 2010 No: 3 Msg: #117488  
You can cross in between Laticia (colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil) - this is only something like a 10 minutes ride by boat... but I have no idea what is the cost of getting to Laticia.
From Tabatinga, you take a river boat going down the Amazon river to the city of Manaus. 3 nights, 2.5 days (this boat does not leave every day - I know that there is one leaving on wednesday around 14:00 arriving in Manaus on Saturday morning), but not sure what are the other days). It is 170 reales per person and you need to bring your hammock with you - sleeping in hammocks.
From Manaus you can either take a flight to other places in Brazil or continue with another river boat toward Belen, from where you can already start using busses...
Note that the internal flights in Brazil on the more traveled lines are sometimes not much more expensive than the bus rides - so worth looking into this option, even when you are short on budget.
Amazon River Cruise - Peru to Brazil Reply to this

13 years ago, August 24th 2010 No: 4 Msg: #118137  
Hi Mandy,
Did you manage to get across in the end? I'm planning to do the journey from Bogota / Leticia onto Manaus and eventually Sao Luis. Any tips you could give me would be fantastic!
Thanks Reply to this

13 years ago, August 24th 2010 No: 5 Msg: #118144  
Hi,

We are still in Colombia and are trying to decide between travelling along to Venezuela and going by bus to Manaus and then by boat to the coast of Brazil. Or flying to Leticia and taking the boat from there. We want to go to Venezuala but in the current climate I'm not sure about that but I'll say we'll probably just risk it and go and take the river boat from Manaus. I will let you know how it goes!! Reply to this

13 years ago, August 24th 2010 No: 6 Msg: #118145  
I thought about going over to VEN too. Where would you go from in VEN to get bus to Manaus? I have a friend living in Venezuela (Merida) who was told by locals there that it's not safe to travel overland between VEN to COL at the moment, but he did it last week and was fine. Do let me know what you decide and how it goes. I'm in 2 minds too. I just need to be in Belem by 23rd September to meet a friend...thanks. Reply to this

13 years ago, August 25th 2010 No: 7 Msg: #118180  
Hi,

We will probably go over the border at Cucuta - a friend did it a few weeks ago and said there were no problems. Then we will go to Merida and from there up to the coast and work our way along the coast. You can get a bus from Puerto La Cruz on the coast all the way down to Manaus and apparently (according to Lonely Planet) it is a good paved road. I think the journey is about 40 hours so we would need to break it up and stop off for a night somewhere. The only thing that is worrying me at the moment is the whole money situation in VEN. We have to take dollars with us as we cant get money out the bank as you need a Venezuelan ID number to use the cash machine. So that means carrying a lot of dollars which might get stolen. Then, the official exchange rate is abusurd and would make the country unaffordable to most people so we have to use either the tourist market or the black market. I have been advised that in Caracas the black market is a complete no no, really dangerous. (we are actually not even going to go to Caracas as I heard it is a nightmare there). Outside Caracas though in the touristy areas the black market and tourist market blend into one and it shoudl be safe enough and we should get between 6 and 8 bolivar fuertes for the dollar (official is less than 4!!!!)

I have also been told off a guy whol lives in Caracas that on an exchange rate of 7 to the dollar a double room should cost about $35, a cheap meal $5 and the travel is cheap and the buses are good. My boyfriend and I are on a budget so we didnt want to blow it in Venezuela but looks like it might be ok. If its not we will just have to hot-tail it out of there and get to Brazil asap!!

We will be leaving approx 11/12 Sept so if you go before us that would be great if you could let me know how it goes. Good luck!!! x Reply to this

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