Colombia - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 485

issues with both borders, so check in
advance. Ormeño buses cover several
international routes to and from Bogotá,
including Quito, Caracas and Lima.
There are three main overland border
crossings with Venezuela (see box,
p.515), the most popular being Cúcuta-
San Antonio/San Cristóbal. The
Maicao-Maracaibo crossing at
Paraguachón is useful if you are travelling
directly to or from Colombia's Caribbean
coast. Expreso Brasilia ( W expresobrasilia
.com) operates a coastal bus service
between Cartagena, via Barranquilla and
Santa Marta, which passes through
Maicao in the remote Guajira Peninsula
to Maracaibo (1 daily at 7am; 20hr;
COP$220,000).
The Panamerican Highway runs south
into Ecuador , with the Ipiales-Tulcán
crossing being the most popular and
straightforward, though slow (see box,
p.558).
There is no overland crossing between
Colombia and Panama due to the
presence of drug traffickers, paramilitaries
and smugglers, and the threat of
kidnapping in the Darién Gap.

days . You can request up to ninety days
but this is rarely granted. Double-check
the stamp straightaway for errors. Make
sure you get an entry stamp if coming in
overland and that you get a departure
stamp upon exiting to avoid trouble.
Thirty-day extensions cost
COP$72,350 and can be obtained
at the former DAS (Departamento
Administrativo de Seguridad) offices from
the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
( W www.cancilleria.gov.co). You'll need
two passport photos with a white
background, copies of your passport
and entry stamp as well as the original,
and an onward ticket.

5

GETTING AROUND
Colombia's generally reliable and
numerous buses are your best bet for
intercity travel, though increased
competition between domestic airlines
means that air travel is frequently only
slightly more expensive than travel by bus
and far faster and more comfortable.

BY BUS, PICK UP TRUCK AND JEEP
With buses , the wide range of options in
comfort and quality is compounded by
the size and diversity of the country; it's
a good idea to shop around at different
companies' kiosks within larger stations.
Generally, the larger, long-distance buses
have reclining seats, toilets, loud cheesy
music and videos; wear warm clothing as
air conditioning is guaranteed to be
arctic. Some recommended companies
are: Expreso Bolívariano ( W bolivariano
.com.co), Expreso Brasilia ( W expreso
brasilia.com), Expreso Palmira
( W expresopalmira.com.co), Berlinas
( W www.berlinasdelfonce.com), Copetran
( W copetran.com.co) and Flota Magdalena
( W lotamagdalena.com), though different
companies cover different parts of
the country. Long-distance buses tend to
stop at requisas (military checkpoints),
sometimes at night; the soldiers
sometimes search everyone's possessions
and make everyone disembark and show
their ID. Each city has a terminal de buses
(bus terminal) where the intercity buses
arrive; Bogotá has more than one.

BY BOAT TO/FROM BRAZIL, PERU AND
PANAMA
From the Amazon region it's possible to
cross to or from Colombia into Manaus,
Brazil, and Iquitos, Peru, by taking a
riverboat (see p.316).
From Cartagena, adventurous travellers
with plenty of time on their hands can
take a sailboat to Puerto Lindo or Colón
in Panama via the remote tropical islands
of the San Blas archipelago (see p.520).
Trips take four to five days and cost
around COP$750,000 per person.
Rough seas can make travelling between
November and February dangerous.

VISAS
A passport and onward ticket are the sole
entry requirements for nationals of most
of Western European countries, Canada,
the US, Australia, New Zealand and
South Africa.
Upon arrival, all visitors receive an entry
stamp in their passports, usually for sixty