Blogs from Ipiales, Colombia, South America - page 3

Advertisement

South America » Colombia » Ipiales November 23rd 2008

I have just crossed the boarder from Tucan (Ecuador) to Ipialas (Colombia) and it was surprisingly easy. We had absolutely no problems, for the first time everything went incredibly smoothly. The night before entering Colombia, I sat at the bar in the Secret Garden Hostel (Quito, Ecuador) nervously discussing the safest approach into Colombia. We talked to other travellers heading south and got information on the current political situation. We were warned not to catch any night buses in the South of Colombia. Apparently you get a lot of shakedown in which the army take everyone off the bus at gun point and make you stand in line with your hands and feet apart against the bus while they search you. We were also told that the FARC regularly intercept buses, get everyone off and then ... read more
Jerry At Immigration
FARC Reward Poster
Sanctuario De Las Lajas

South America » Colombia » Ipiales April 7th 2007

For more photos including some of actual people check out Katie´s flickr site: KatiesPhotos Colombia has always been something of an enigma to me. Growing up I believed, as I’m sure most you did too, that it was an inherently dangerous place, like it was usually portrayed within the media or by popular culture. In researching the country before I came I even found one red neck American website, that ranked Colombia equal with Iraq as place you are most likely to die while on holiday. But traveling through Central America a few years ago I meet a lot of people who had just come from there and I started to hear an incredibly different view. One of gorgeous lush landscapes, friendly and beautiful people and a vibrant, proud culture. It was a place that ... read more
Off the pier, Taganga
Katie La Colombiana
Off the pier, Taganga 2

South America » Colombia » Ipiales February 5th 2007

To get our Ecuadorian Visas that will allow us to stay in Ecuador for more than six months, you have to leave the country and file the paperwork in a consulate located in another country. (They prefer that we do this paperwork in the states before we come to Ecuador - The closest US consulate was in San Francisco.) The closest consulate to Quito is in Ipiales, in Southern Colombia. We had heard mixed remarks about the border crossing into Colombia, so were a little nervous. We rode a bus from Quito to Tulcan (in the very north of Ecuador) and went to the border to leave Ecuador. After standing in line for five minutes and getting a friendly exit stamp we were officially out of Ecuador and crossed ¨La Frontera¨- the no-man´s land between ... read more
Tony at the Border
View of Ecuador from ¨La Frontera¨
Ipiales Church

South America » Colombia » Ipiales October 4th 2006

First thing was a 'collectivo' - shared minibus taxi - to the border. Then getting an exit stamp from Colombia, before walking through no-man's land to the Ecuador side. Here you pay $200 if you forgot to get your exit stamp, but we were obviously fine so went off and found another collectivo for the few miles to the first Ecuadorian town. When we pulled up in front of the almost deserted bus station we saw the strange sight of a dozen people literally sprinting towards us, all trying to persuade us to travel to Quito (the capital, and given our appearance clearly our destination) with their firm for a standard $4pp. We chose the lady in the bright orange jumper as there wasn't really anything else to differentiate them by. And she also ran ... read more
The equator is somewhere near here.




Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.004s; cc: 7; qc: 42; dbt: 0.0444s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb