Advertisement
Published: October 8th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Heading to Ecuador-1
A cheap way to travel - on the back of a full petrol tanker Colombian timing is a little bit hit and miss and this was particularly evident when we tried to leave San Agustin. As requested we turned up at 8am to buy our tickets and were told the bus would leave at 9:30 instead of 9am. OK, no problem. However, about 8:45 we find out from Olga that the 9:30 bus has been cancelled, due to lack of passengers and that the next bus won't be until 11:30. We went down to the small bus company office and talked with the girl there. Our first thought and question was, well are you sure that the 11:30 bus will run. Oh yes its 'Seguro'. We accepted our fate and went to find somewhere to get a coffee, not 100% reassured that we'd get away at 11:30. Given the state of the roads, we wanted to avoid travelling that route in the dark.
At 11:00 we returned to the hotel, checked out and lugged our backpacks down to the bus company office to be advised that the bus was running late and wouldn't arrive in San Agustin until 12:00. To cut a long story short, it was 12:40 by the time we got away.
Heading to Ecuador-2
My wandering hands ecuadorean traveling companion Even the bus company girl referred to this as Colombian timing, which we had to accept.
The bus wasn't full after we and a couple of other tourists jumped on, but it soon filled up after various kerb crawling stops, to the point where people were standing up in the aisle as we bumped our way down the winding road in the direction of Popayan. Some of the kerb crawling pickups were for people who weren't heading for Popayan, so there were plenty of drop off stops too.
Five and a half hours after leaving we arrived back in Popayan. But with the delays it felt like 9 hours of travelling. We returned to the Hotel des Balcones, but unfortunately not to the same room (306) we had had last time. It wasn't as big or as nicely laid out as our previous stay. It was a bit of a shabby room really and a bit of a disappointment. Of course the Internet connection was unavailable for most of our stay. But hey, what's new ?
The next day, our last full day in Colombia, we had another 5 hour bus journey down to the town of
Pasto, around 2 hours from the Ecuadorean border. We could have gone the whole way down to Ipiales, the town right on the border, but the Lonely Planet guide said there's hardly any reason to visit Ipiales, other than a rather impressive Church - Pasto is a far better place to stay. Plus we wanted the next trip to be all the way to Quito which is a further 5 hours from the border. So Pasto it was.
When we arrived there, it looked distinctly unimpressive and in fact somewhat seedy in most parts that the taxi drove through to our chosen Hotel. We hadn't booked ahead and it seems that Pasto is quite a thriving business town, so all the rooms in our chosen place were full. That seemed like a shame, since contrasting with what we'd seen of Pasto, this looked like a really nice place to stay. However, the owner contacted somewhere a few blocks away, the Fernando Plaza Hotel, and we were guided in that direction. This was clearly a new business Hotel and so the staff were very attentive and all the services - including the WiFi - worked. In fact after we had
Heading to Ecuador-4
Crossing the bridge to Ecuador been in the room for a few minutes there was a knock at the door and the staff delivered a hot drink and a hot water bottle, courtesy of the Hotel. It also had a reasonably priced Restaurant and after our taxi tour of Pasto and not seeing any restaurants when transferring hotels, we opted for a night in. The food and service in the Restaurant was good, so it was the right choice.
The next morning we hit the road soon after 8:00am, destination Quito in Ecuador. We knew we had a long day of travelling ahead of us and wanted to reach Quito in the daylight. Our first destination was Ipiales. One thing we've found is that with the competition on many routes, we've never had to wait long to catch a bus to where we wanted to go - San Agustin excepted. So it was with the Ipiales journey and 8 of us slotted into a Kia minivan, which just had 3 rows of 3, including the driver.
I sat in the middle of our back seat row next to an old Ecuadorean guy who had been living in Ipiales for 15 years he proudly
Heading to Ecuador-5
The landscape up to Quito is quite different to the lush green of Colombia told me. He appeared to be with a younger guy who sat one row in front, but they never exchanged words during the journey. This guy kept dropping off to sleep, but also seemed like he had wandering hands and I'm pretty sure he undid the left hand Velcro-sealed pockets of my trousers. There was nothing to find there, since prior to him boarding I'd transferred anything of interest to pickpockets to pockets on Felicity's side. I can't be sure he was looking to steal anything, but with a big blue poncho on that covered his hands, it was possible.
We also shared this minivan with another Australian girl who was heading our way, but was due to catch a flight out of Quito to Lima, Peru that same evening. Together we caught a taxi to the border. The Colombian side had no queues and was hassle free and within 5 minutes of arriving, all 3 of us had emigrated from Colombia and were carrying our backpacks across the bridge to Ecuador.
Ecuadorean immigration was much busier and we ended up behind a large queue of mainly Colombian or Equadorean nationals. The process here was to move from seat to seat set in 3 rows, before you got to stand in the last queue for the immigration officer. It took around 40 minutes to complete formalities there.
Once in Ecuador, we had to get a taxi to the Tulcan bus station. Some touts tried to persuade us into their unregistered new car, but I thought this a little dodgy and instead we took a licensed taxi. Given that the taxi driver flew through the streets at speeds of upto 140 km/h to the bus station, on reflection I wasn't sure what was the most dangerous option. But we got there in one piece with all our belongings, so it didn't really matter.
Crossing the border to Tulcan had taken us just over 1 hour. We easily found a bus that was leaving for Quito in the next five minutes and, unlike Colombia, although the bus wasn't full we did leave 5 minutes later. But this full size bus was more like what they refer to as a 'Collectivo' as it stopped on a regular basis to pick up and drop off people on the way. So much so that it soon filled up and at times, with people standing in the aisles, it was overfull.
However, by the time we hit the first Police road block, we'd dropped off all the aisle standers. We ended up stopping at 3 Police blocks on our way to Quito and each time we were singled out and asked for our passports. I guess they wanted to check we weren't illegal immigrants and our nice electronically printed 90 day visas that we'd received at the border proved we weren't.
Quito lies 2800 metres above sea level and just south of the Equator. There are places which mark the crossing of the Equator, or Mittad del Mundo as it is locally known, but unfortunately not on the road we were travelling, so we slipped unnoticed into the Southern Hemisphere and arrived at the highest City in our plans just before sunset. Just under 9 hours after leaving Pasto.
This was our last long bus trip for a while and I was pretty happy to have those behind me. Colombia had been a truely wonderful country to visit. Very much a "Green and Pleasant land“ and one of great culture, cuisine and contrast. Certainly one that wasn't a country to avoid or fear and one that was increasingly focussing on making itself tourist-friendly and safe for all to live in. Despite the sometimes scary, or at least long, bus trips I really enjoyed the time in Colombia and would certainly recommend it as a place to visit for those with a sense of adventure.
Places we have visited and can recommend Hotels
Popoyan: Hotel des Balcones: See the rooms on offer and haggle them down to 100,000 Pesos or less
Pasto: San Fernando Plaza Hotel: New modern business hotel, with all you need for a nightstop
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0285s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Laura
non-member comment
Border Crossing Information
Buenos tardes, Martin and Felicity! My husband and I are very much enjoying your terrific blog and great insights and recommendations. We will be arriving in Colombia the end of the month and plan on exploring that country and Ecuador for a six month period. We are expats from California who have been living in various Latin American countries for fourteen years. Following your blog along with other enthusiastic travelers is a new experience for us. Keep up the fantastic work. Wishing you both safe and rewarding travels. Laura in Mexico