RUMICHACA
BORDER CROSSING
Land borders can be daunting, throw in additional covid restrictions an prior research becomes essential. This one, we're please to say almost ran smoothly.
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ECUADOR TO COLOMBIA
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Land borders are always a mix of excitement and concern. We thought this one would be the most complicated but it was not too bad at all. The journey is long so start out as early as you can as you don’t really want to be at the border any later than 1pm.
We left from Quito but if you are coming from Colombia then just do the opposite to what we did.
From our hostel we got an Uber at 5:30am for £4.90 to the Northern Bus Terminal at Carcelén, the local buses do run this early so this might be a cheaper option for you but it will take longer. This journey took us 20 minutes.
The next step is to take a bus to Tulcan. There's plenty and no need to book. We decided to get the first bus that was leaving and direct - that was with Voretex. There are plenty of other bus companies to choose from. Our bus was due to leave at 6:10am and cost £5.70 each, it actually left at 6:40am but still got us to Tulcan at 11am.
Once we arrived at Tulcan you can get a Collectivo or a taxi for the 10 minute journey to the border. We got a taxi which cost £3.30. Ask for the Frontier or La Frontera.
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AT THE BORDER
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On the Ecuadorian side there is one office for entry and exit so the queue can get pretty long. We crossed on the 19th December it only took us 15 minutes to exit and had no issues at all. If you're entering you need to show your COVID Vaccination. You are not allowed to take your backpacks in, there is a space to leave it outside which is blocked off from the queue but if you are concerned and there’s two of you the safest option is to take it in turns to go in. Our guard allowed you to wait at the door to watch you bag and then swap so you didn't have to rejoin the queue.
After a smooth exit we walked across the yellow bridge to Colombia.
There are two queues on the Colombian side; one for international travellers and one for Colombians. With smaller facilities and less staff it's a slower operation than the Ecuador side. luckily there was no queue when we arrived. What we didn’t know though was we had to fill out a form online called Check - Mig. The website cna be found at Migracioncolombia.gov.co and you can’t enter until it is filled out.
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I would highly recommend filling it out when you have good signal or WIFI before you get to the border. We managed it after much frustration and finding one bar of 3g in a corner, with my hand in the air. Conveniently (for them) there are SIM card vendors everywhere. Our English sim works in Colombia but thought I was still in Ecuador and my Ecuador Sim thought I was in Colombia. Stuck in no mans land Paul had to fill in both. We queued for 10 minutes and then had no questions asked, no evidence was requested of any form filling and got our ninety day entry stamp.
UPDATE - Our friends crossed the border 2 days after and were not ask for the Check - Mig confirmation.
Once you’re in, there are many taxis and collectivos waiting that you can catch to Ipiales. We paid £4 which is over the odds for the 10 minutes journey but sometimes you just want an easy life.
from Ipiales it is up to you where you decide to go to next. We were going to spend the night in Pasto which is 2 hours away.
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You can catch a bus to Popayan if you were heading further. This is a long journey around 9 hours and you won’t arrive till late evening.
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We recommend Trans Ipiales to Pasto. Our minibus left at 13:30 and cost £2.50 each. You can buy a ticket from their ground floor office in the bus station. It's situated at the back right next to the exit. You get an assigned seat in a mini bus. The locals don't take much notice of the assignments so board early.
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To PASTO
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We used Pasto as a stop over from the border to Medellín, it’s very cheap and super busy.
We stayed at Hostel Casa La Bohemia which was really nice and the owner is so friendly. It was £14 for a double room and a shared bathroom, use of the kitchen and a dining area and also some outdoor seating.
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