Crossing the border into Ecuador

We really liked the 70 Km road from Pasto to the border.
Unfortunately we could not stop to make enough pictures....

7 Km from Ipiales, on the border with Ecuador there is a canyon with a small river and a tiny waterfall. This place is famous (in particular among Christian pilgrims) as it is the site of the Las Lajas Cathedral. The church has been built on top of a cliff from 1928 to 1952 and the result is pretty spectacular.

We have crossed borders outside Europe before and we are well aware of 3 of the main problems that travellers face:

1)      Spending hours filling up endless forms and moving from one office to another waiting for the relevant officer to finish his breakfast/lunch/dinner/coffee break, cigarette break etc

2)      Ending up in paying a bribe to a professional “helper” to accelerate the process

3)      Doing all the above and yet keeping your eyes fixed on your belongings as the faces of the people surrounding you become dodgier by the hour.

Well, that is definitely NOT the case on the border between Colombia and Ecuador.

There is even a clear sign that tells you that you don’t need to pay bribes. Crossing the border is free and should be fairly straight forward.

It took us only 25 minutes to clear Colombia and 30 minutes to clear Ecuador, a record, considering we hit the border at lunch time!!!

Passports stamped in and out, Carnet the passage stamped in and out.

And since I mentioned it I would like to spend 2 lines on the “carnet” subject.

There are 2 schools of thoughts about the use of the carnet in South America.

Some riders say you don’t need it, others say it is often required

The RAC says that the Carnet is not compulsory in South America but only recommended.

Personally I am happy we spent the £225 to get it. It was useful in Cartagena to get the bike from the DIAN and it made things very easy on the border between Colombia and Ecuador. Your call!

Cleared the border we hit immediately the road (E35) towards Otavalo.

On the Ecuadorian side the sceneries are a bit less dramatic (fewer cliffs and canyons) however you begin to see more volcanoes. The road is larger (3 lines between Ibarra and Otavalo!!!) the asphalt is almost immaculate and most importantly the price of petrol drops from £0.60 per litre to £0.30 per litre. Yes, we filled up the16 litres tank with £3.5. WELCOME TO ECUADOR.