With the on-going Venezuelan crisis and the announcement on Thursday 16thAugust 2018 that Ecuador was to only allow Venezuelans with full passports as opposed to ID Cards to cross the border into Ecuador has created a large build up of Venezuelan refugees on the border, we were naturally apprehensive of crossing the land border. At the best of times the border between Ecuador and Colombia is one of the most time consuming of all the land borders in South America, and having already crossed 15 land borders already on this trip this year, we’ve had experience of quite few.
We decided the best course of action was to cross the border as early as possible, unlike many it is open 24 hours a day. This meant spending our last night in Ecuador in the border town of Tulcán so we could make the early start. Tulcán is a typical border town with a population of around 60,000, in that it has many shops and markets specialising in products that can arbitrage the various fiscal regimes in the neighbouring countries. Tulcán does however, have an unusual claim to fame, a massive cemetery with the largest collection of topiaries in the world. The magnificently sculptured hedges of animals, Inca faces, arches are well worth a detour to Tulcán.
We picked up a taxi shortly after 5:30 am to take us to the border. We arrived at the Ecuador immigration at 6:00 am to obtain our exit stamp. Here there is a single queue for both exit and entry, which snakes around the outside of the building. Once inside the building, the queue separates into two, one for Colombians and Ecuadorians and one for all other nationalities. Security guards were controlling who could enter the queue and it was this process that stopped those Venezuelans without passports. Also outside the Ecuadorian immigration building were large tents and the Red Cross. Thirty minutes later at 6:30 we had obtained our Ecuadorian exit stamps, by all accounts probably much quicker than normal.
There is then a small walk over the Rumichaca Bridge, which spans the Carchi River into Colombia. On the Colombian side there are three queues, separate ones for entry and exit and a third queue for Colombian nationals. Here it took only five minutes to get our entry stamp so by 6:42 am, which included a seven minute walk across the bridge we had completed the border crossing in 42 minutes, which made it quicker than most of the times we crossed into Chile.
With the uncertainty over the time it would take to cross the border we planned only to go as far as Pasto in our first night back in Colombia, as all the advice is not to travel overnight South of Popayán. Before boarding the bus from Ipiales to Pasto we took a taxi to the Santuario de Las Lajas, a bascilica church built into the rock face of the canyon of the Guáitara River a few kilometres outside of Ipiales. The altar of the church is built straight into the rock face, which makes it pretty unique in Latin America as so many churches have really ornate carvings behind their altars often complete with gold and silver.
Both the topiary in Tulcán and the Sanctury at Las Lajas are two very worthwhile detours to make when crossing the border, and are major sites in their own right. Pasto in Colombia, was also a pleasant working town to visit for one night. Also typical of Colombia, it had some impressive street art.
The situation in Venezuela is really tragic, and throughout our journey in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina we have met many Venezuelans who are trying to rebuild their lives with dignity outside their county. The numbers taken in by Colombia alone exceed over a million, including a high proportion of young people, which is the future of any country. For the most part the migrants are well supported in their host countries, but tensions are now beginning to materialise amongst the home populations as there seems to be no end to the crisis in Venezuela.
Date: 21/08/2018 and 22/08/2018