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Published: August 26th 2010
After arriving back to
Quito from the
Galápagos Islands we stayed overnight there, and the following morning got a ride to the bus station. We didn’t even make it inside the station building, before some guy approached us; said something in Spanish that we thought sounded like “where are ye going?” - “Tulcán” we responded (which is the most northerly border town in Ecuador), and he started shouting to jump on the bus, which just happened to be passing. Hmmm… all sounded very suss, but convenient, so we chanced it and boarded.
It wasn’t long before all the seats were full and the aisle too - and then the food sellers came on, which is always my favorite time as you never know what sort of goodies they’ll have! We had a crazy driver and the roads were very windy, but because we were up front it wasn’t too bad. The driver seemed to be in a race with another bus driver, and was constantly overtaking the other guy if he ever fell behind picking up new passengers; blowing his horn as he passed! Scary and crazy but we watched with intense curiosity all the same; how someone could not
realise this was dangerous is beyond me!
We did arrive in
Tulcán in one piece thankfully; from here we got a taxi to the border crossing; a somewhat unusual situation when we arrived. You could cross the border from
Ecuador into
Colombia without any formalities, but you were supposed to get a stamp inside the offices of each country (one for exit and one for entry). There was virtually no one in either office and it made me think there must be lots of stuff being smuggled in and out, as there was a big traffic queue crossing the border outside! With no other westerners about, it wasn’t long before a tout spotted us, brought us across the border and dropped us at the bus station in the border town of
Ipiales…. and TRIED to rip us off in the process!.... Colombia, we had arrived!
Colombia’s History Like many other South American countries, Colombia was colonized by the Spanish up until the early 1800’s when revolution was in the air, which sparked the indigenous people to oust their former task masters. Initially part of
Gran Colombia (a regional area of Panama, Venezuela and Columbia); the former two
being eventually lost to separatists.
From its inception as a free state, it began to disintegrate with internal disagreements on how the country should be run, leading to at least eight civil wars in the 19th century.
The U.S. took advantage of the internal strife and supported a breakaway movement in Panama (a Colombian claimed province at the time), where Panama agreed a deal to allow the U.S. to build the Panama Canal on their land - linking the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean. Subsequent failure by Colombia to recognize the deal, resulted in Panama declaring its own independence in 1903.
After continued unrest and a military coup, the main parties - Conservatives & Liberals - in the late 1950’s signed a pact to share power…. and outlaw all other political activity that remained outside their field of vision. You can guess what this led to - Yip… as countless other countries have found out over the years, it sowed the seeds for a plethora of guerilla activist groups.
This biggest and baddest of these groups and most well known worldwide was
FARC - a movement with its own political and military ideologies. Initially treated like
social pariahs, the government eventually opened talks with these groups; some agreeing peace deals and disarmament; while others like FARC not-so-much. FARC still remain somewhat active today with 35% of the country under guerilla “influence”. With an intense government crack down on their activities and having limited funding; they have in the past had to rely on high profile kidnappings, and the shipment of cocaine to fund their activities. Violence has been decreasing in later years though, and the government has stepped up its presence in all of its administrative departments.
* * *
The bus station in the border town of
Ipiales didn’t look the busiest and the town itself isn’t much to look at. Hawkers in the station shout out the names of different destinations, and if you want to go to any of those places, I guess you approach them and barter for the best price. Bus prices aren’t fixed in Colombia, so you can put your negotiation skills to the test here. Without Spanish I found it somewhat difficult, so I just resorted to making a “sad face” when I heard the price, shook my head and waved my hand in a downwards
Border crossing anyone?
Having just went from Columbia to Brazil... in a matter of seconds!direction. Amazingly it worked, and he took about $10 off our tickets to
Bogotá - the capital city.
The bus was supposed to leave in an hour but didn’t leave for two, as there weren’t enough passengers… so the bus was cancelled… and we had to wait until the next one. Eventually we did get going. The trip up to Bogotá was pretty straight forward, and we even arrived about 4 hours earlier than the originally advertised 24 hour journey. Some of the buses are reputed to be notoriously dangerous (especially at night) so you’d be well advised to choose your bus company carefully.
We arrived the following day about 3:30pm. We got a cab to the hostel which was on the outskirts of the
La Candelaria area of town. Our first impressions told us that this was a pretty run-down part of town. Police on the streets at every corner with big machine guns… and as we were stopped at traffic lights, there was some guy being nailed to the wall and being arrested. Needless to say, we looked away quickly…!!!
The local hostel was barely functional yet friendly. Not ones to be scared off by
It’s not the Queen Mary!
The cargo boat that we are soon to board for our 3 day trip down the Amazon the look of an area, we headed into the city centre - and 20 minutes later, it was like being in a different city. Fashionable, smart and cosmo; the centre could have been the downtown capital of any modern first world country. It had a good vibe (still lots of police on every corner though) with funky bars, cafes, all the top brand shops and even an Irish bar to boot (called "The Pub"). The contrast between the upscale communities and shimmering skyscrapers in the centre, versus the poor slums on the edges of the city was startling to say the least.
We dodged around town for a while, ate some food, and even took in a film in the plush cinema while we were here. Later that evening we headed back to the Hostel. Bogotá is certainly no place to be wandering the streets at night… and if the empty streets don’t give you the jitters, the police in riot gear with big machine guns in hand, still standing at ever second corner just might!
The following morning we were up early as we had a flight to catch. We were heading to
Leticia in the south
eastern most part of Colombia. There were no bus routes; and some of the jungle area in-between Bogotá & Leticia is controlled by FARC rebels; not somewhere you want to be hanging around for long!
When we arrived in the small town of
Leticia, we were picked out quick enough as the only two tourists on the plane… and therefore had to pay an $8 arrival tax each! The weather was very hot and humid. We managed to find a place to stay in town and then it was time to step out into the steamy streets….
Our main purpose for being here was to try and get on a cargo ship that goes from Leticia (which borders with Brazil) down the mighty
Amazon as we wanted to do a jungle trek in Brazil. The three day boat ride to
Manaus carries a few local passengers strung up in their hammocks and a handful of intrepid travelers (meaning us!), once we could figure out how to get ourselves onboard.…
After asking around town we headed over the border into
Brazil. There are no border formalities and you don’t even need your passport - providing you don’t go any further than the nearest Brazilian town of
Tabatinga.
Hey presto! - we were suddenly in Brazil just like that (about 3 minutes later!) - and straight off we noticed the different faces, music, atmosphere and all the rest. We were trying to get to the port in the town to possibly talk with the captain of the boat to negotiate passage, when a local guy who runs a hostel stopped us on the street and tried to sell us some tours!
We hadn’t time to be side-tracked but in fairness he did help us enormously, and brought us down to the boat to look at the make shift cabins and negotiate a price with the captain. Hmmm… this boat wouldn’t be categorized under “luxury” boat… you wouldn’t even call it “economic” class … but it would suffice for the three day stint down the Amazon river into Brazil…
I can’t imagine too many tourists enter Brazil via this route, but ready or not - here we come… 😊
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