{"id":17533,"date":"2015-02-17T09:30:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-17T14:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?p=17533"},"modified":"2016-03-19T05:38:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T10:38:38","slug":"colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As much as well love Colombia here at the Colombia Travel Blog (and we do, you know we do!), <strong>sometimes we have to accept that not all of you who travel through our adopted homeland plan on staying indefinitely<\/strong> (your loss I say); many of you will move on to other Latin American countries, many of which <strong>share a land or river border with Colombia&#8230;Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador.<\/strong> The latter seems to be the most common country that backpackers traveling overland leave to from Colombia, so we thought we&#8217;d offer you all <strong>a little updated border crossing info, just to make the nightmare of leaving Colombia a little bit easier&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First thing&#8217;s first: we&#8217;re going to look at the Ipiales border-crossing, which <strong>conveniently links to Colombian cities like Cali, Popayan and Pasto, and Ecuadorian hotspots Otavalo and the capital Quito.<\/strong> There is a border crossing point in Putumayo in Colombia, however very little information exists about this border, and, theoretically, the process should be the same. So, back to Ipiales;<strong> the first thing to do is decide when you want to cross<\/strong> &#8211; honestly, Ipiales is not much to look at, so staying there might not be worth it. My suggested itinerary would be as follows:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17542\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17542\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/las-lajas-colombia\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17542\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17542\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Las-Lajas-Colombia.jpg\" alt=\"Las Lajas Colombia\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Las-Lajas-Colombia.jpg 800w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Las-Lajas-Colombia-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17542\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Las Lajas, combine it with your crossing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Stay the night before in Pasto<\/strong> (The Koala Inn in the old-town is a good, simple budget option).<\/li>\n<li>Grab an early bus bound for Ipiales;<strong> this shouldn&#8217;t cost more than 10.000 COP<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>When you arrive in Ipiales, check your bag in the luggage room for 4.000, and <strong>jump in a 2.000\u00a0<em>colectivo\u00a0<\/em>taxi to Las Lajas<\/strong>, and check out one of Colombia&#8217;s most unusual and interesting churches.<\/li>\n<li>Return to the border, get your bag and <strong>jump in a\u00a0<em>colectivo\u00a0<\/em>to Rumichaca (Colombia&#8217;s border town) for 1.600 COP.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_17541\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17541\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/border_colombia-ecuador\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17541\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17541\" src=\"http:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Border_colombia-ecuador.jpg\" alt=\"Colombia Ecuador border\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Border_colombia-ecuador.jpg 800w, https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Border_colombia-ecuador-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-17541\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8216;Welcome to Ecuador&#8217;&#8230;more like &#8216;Sorry you have to leave Colombia&#8217;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So there&#8217;s the itinerary for the Colombian side of the border; <strong>here&#8217;s the Ecuador side for you:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Once you have your Colombian exit stamp in Rumichaca, <strong>walk across the bridge (as seen in the cover photo)<\/strong> to Ecuador\u00a0<em>Migracion<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Fill in your entry card (fun game: see how much of an outrageous &#8216;career&#8217; you can make them think you have), and<strong> present it along with your passport for your Ecuador entry stamp.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Behind the\u00a0<em>migracion\u00a0<\/em>building you can <strong>jump in a $0.70\u00a0<em>colectivo\u00a0<\/em>to the first major town in the country, Tulcan<\/strong>, from where you can jump into a new bus.<\/li>\n<li>A bus to Otavalo takes a couple of hours and costs $3, and the same bus will carry on to Quito (about 4hrs) for $5. <strong>Sorted.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The process can take as little as 20 minutes on a quiet day, and as much as 3 or 4 hours when the border is chocka. <strong>Plan accordingly and make sure to leave Pasto really early to give yourself time for Las Lajas and the border crossing<\/strong>. Or ignore everything I&#8217;ve said and stay in Ipiales; you have free will!<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, we hope this helps you leave Colombia, but, as I&#8217;ve mentioned, <strong>hopefully you&#8217;ll be back as soon as possible!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chris<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; As much as well love Colombia here at the Colombia Travel Blog (and we do, you know we do!), sometimes we have to accept that not all of you who travel through our adopted homeland plan on staying indefinitely (your loss I say); many of you will move on to other Latin American countries, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[115,626,4,2615,2616,1346,1],"tags":[2735,2884,1570,2900],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.4 (Yoast SEO v18.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; As much as well love Colombia here at the Colombia Travel Blog (and we do, you know we do!), sometimes we have to accept that not all of you who travel through our adopted homeland plan on staying indefinitely (your loss I say); many of you will move on to other Latin American countries, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-02-17T14:30:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-19T10:38:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ecuador-crop.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel\",\"description\":\"Colombia Travel Blog: An international perspective on travelling in Colombia by world travellers.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ecuador-crop.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ecuador-crop.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":336,\"caption\":\"Colombia Ecuador border\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/\",\"name\":\"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-02-17T14:30:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-19T10:38:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06325007b1e564f887bb4e43855a53dc\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06325007b1e564f887bb4e43855a53dc\",\"name\":\"Chris\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25ee1ba433dbef5f2ed1e6d6275605e9?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25ee1ba433dbef5f2ed1e6d6275605e9?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chris\"},\"description\":\"I'm Chris and I'm the Colombia Travel Blog's resident Colombia travel expert and our editor. In nearly 4 years in the country, I have visited 31 of Colombia's 32 departments, and that last 1 is on the way! Colombia has been my home for years and I'm still not bored of exploring its diversity and magic, and getting to know its wonderful people. You can follow more of my adventures on Facebook @ChrisBellTravel and Instagram @ChrisBellColombia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/author\/chris\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide","og_description":"&nbsp; As much as well love Colombia here at the Colombia Travel Blog (and we do, you know we do!), sometimes we have to accept that not all of you who travel through our adopted homeland plan on staying indefinitely (your loss I say); many of you will move on to other Latin American countries, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/","og_site_name":"Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel","article_published_time":"2015-02-17T14:30:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-03-19T10:38:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":336,"url":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ecuador-crop.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chris","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/","name":"Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel","description":"Colombia Travel Blog: An international perspective on travelling in Colombia by world travellers.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ecuador-crop.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Ecuador-crop.jpg","width":800,"height":336,"caption":"Colombia Ecuador border"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/","name":"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide - Colombia Travel Blog by See Colombia Travel","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2015-02-17T14:30:13+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-19T10:38:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06325007b1e564f887bb4e43855a53dc"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/2015\/02\/colombia-ecuador-border-crossing-a-practical-guide\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Colombia-Ecuador Border Crossing: a Practical Guide"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/06325007b1e564f887bb4e43855a53dc","name":"Chris","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25ee1ba433dbef5f2ed1e6d6275605e9?s=96&d=retro&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25ee1ba433dbef5f2ed1e6d6275605e9?s=96&d=retro&r=g","caption":"Chris"},"description":"I'm Chris and I'm the Colombia Travel Blog's resident Colombia travel expert and our editor. In nearly 4 years in the country, I have visited 31 of Colombia's 32 departments, and that last 1 is on the way! Colombia has been my home for years and I'm still not bored of exploring its diversity and magic, and getting to know its wonderful people. You can follow more of my adventures on Facebook @ChrisBellTravel and Instagram @ChrisBellColombia","url":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/author\/chris\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17533"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21309,"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17533\/revisions\/21309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecolombia.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}