Our bus is canceled? What? Why? This is how our trip started when we were getting ready to leave Quito, Ecuador. Continue reading to hear more of our crazy story of how we got from Quito to Colombia, helpful tips for along the way and the steps to crossing the land border at Rumichaca.
Don’t Assume – Ask Lots of Questions
We purchased bus tickets online from Quito, Ecuador to Popayán, Colombia, well in advance of our trip. They were about $70/person. I assumed we were all set. A week before taking off, I went online to get the tickets printed and to make the final preparations.
Oh, but what did I find, the trip had been canceled!
I had no idea.
No email, no communication, no nothing.
Come to find out, this may happen unless you are in direct communication with the bus company.
If you know what number to contact and that you need to initiate the conversation in advance, the company is very pleasant to work with. Unfortunately, we didn’t know this until halfway through our adventure, which caused some anxiety and frustration.
As we were unable to find any informative write up online about getting from Quito to Colombia by bus, we wanted to share our own experience and some helpful tips.
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Purchase Your Tickets
I booked the tickets from Líneas de Los Andes. As I explored the website to figure out why our tickets were canceled, I realized I wasn’t going to get anywhere fast. It didn’t have great information on it. I did, however, find the WhatsApp number on the website and proceeded to contact them through that.
I would recommend reaching out to Líneas de Los Andes on WhatsApp before booking your trip from Quito to Colombia. Also get any other WhatsApp numbers you might need for along the way!
It might have taken the whole afternoon, but I figured out that their buses only run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 8am. Randomly the trip includes lunch, which is a nice bonus. I got the ticket confirmation, and we were one step closer to making the trip.
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What To Expect at the Quito Bus Terminal
We hopped in an Uber and started towards the bus terminal Quitumbe. Our Uber driver thought it was odd that we were going to the southern bus terminal. Normally Colombian buses leave from the northern terminal. After a quick double check with the bus company, we confirmed we were heading to the correct location.
Arriving at the bus terminal, especially at 7am in the morning when folks are leaving for work, was chaotic! They have 2 areas in the terminal, the local buses and the ones leaving the city. As of December 2022, you had to pay 37 cents to get into the local side of the terminal. Ask when someone before you get in line how much it is in case the price changes. Get your coins ready because everyone expects you to go go go when you are in this line to enter! Then you walk through that outdoor area to the main indoor terminal.
When we entered the building, we had no idea where to go. Thankfully a security guard noticed our confusion and asked us where we were going. He had never heard of Líneas de los Andes. (Very comforting 😬) He asked around and eventually guided us to the correct ticket office.
If you do use Líneas de Los Andes for the bus, you need to go upstairs to where you see all the different windows. This is where you would normally buy bus tickets to various locations. You will need to go to window 10.
The company had told us to arrive an hour early. There was nobody at their window an hour early though. 😅 We ended up speaking to the booth next door to get started. Then we waited until the employees of Líneas de Los Andes arrived. When they did, about 20 minutes before we had to board the bus, they printed our tickets to Tulcán*, took our picture and directed us to the location of the bus. We had no idea what was going to happen after that, but we were along for the ride! 😃 My mediocre Spanish didn’t help the situation.
*Tulcán is the first destination on the trip. If you are crossing at Rumichaca this is the bus you want! This will get you to the town closest to the border on the Ecuador side. There is not a direct bus that goes all the way from Quito to Colombia. Note: Our original tickets said that we were going the whole way to Popayan (our final destination) though.
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Adventures on the Bus Ride to Tulcán
The trip to Tulcán was eventful! About an hour into the trip, in northern Quito, our bus broke down. We all got off the bus and waited about 30-45 minutes for a replacement bus to arrive.
The new bus had different seat arrangements, and somehow we lost a seat. Mike and the boys squished into two seats for the majority of the ride. I found a seat in the front. There were multiple stops along the way to Tulcán where folks got on and off the bus. At one point the woman next to me got off the bus, so I waved Levi to the front with me.
The bus attendant, however, didn’t like this and told Levi to go back to Mike. I was confused why and ultimately got in an argument with him. I told him that we had paid for 4 tickets, and Levi should get his own seat. It was a short argument, but since my Spanish isn’t perfect, it was a little uncomfortable. Fortunately, the people that were sitting in front of us on the original bus overheard the argument and backed me up. Levi got to keep his seat!
During the trip, I also reached out to the company via WhatsApp and found out that someone was going to meet us in Tulcán to guide us through the next steps. We didn’t really know what that meant, but we got their WhatsApp number so we could at least contact them. I felt a little better knowing I had a way to contact someone there to help us. Most people that we spoke to at the bus terminals thus far had no idea what we needed. 😀
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Arriving to Tulcán, Ecuador
When we arrived in Tulcán, I WhatsApped the new number and found a person waiting for us! Yay! And he had pictures of us on his phone! So, that’s why they took our pictures back in Quito. 😂
We put our luggage in their office and walked down to a restaurant for lunch**. Someone from Líneas de Los Andes was with us the whole time. He paid for the lunch as it was included in the price of our tickets.
**Lunch was late, at around 3pm, so bring many snacks on the bus! It may be earlier if your bus doesn’t break down. However, that probably only held us up for 30-45 minutes or so.
After lunch, we walked back through the bus terminal and to the office to pick up our luggage. Then the company hailed a taxi for us to ride 10 minutes or so to the border. This cost was covered in the original ticket purchase. Also, it was helpful that the company sent a guide with us to direct us around the border. Our guide showed us where everything was and took the guessing out of it for us. Super helpful!
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Crossing the Border at Rumichaca
Here’s what to do when you get to the border:
- Step one to crossing the border from Ecuador to Colombia is to fill out the Check-Mig form. I tried to fill this out online before we left Quito but I always got an error message. If you can do it before crossing, this will save a little time and money at the border. Since my form didn’t work, we went to a little store that did it. It was $10 total for all four of us.
- Get your passport stamped to leave Ecuador. You must go to the immigration line to get your passport stamped that says you have left Ecuador. I’ve never had to do this, but it is a requirement. This station is on one side of a river, and we had to walk over a bridge to get to this area.
- Get your passport stamped to enter Colombia. Next you wait in another line to enter Colombia. This is located on the opposite side of the river, so more walking and more waiting. This is where you need to give them your Check-Mig form.
That’s it. Sounds simple, right? It is, but it is a slow process and may take a few hours. Wear comfortable shoes. For us, it took about 45 minutes to get the Check-Mig form completed, 30 minutes to get our passport exit stamp in Ecuador, and well over an hour to go through immigration in Colombia.
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Get Bus to Final Destination in Colombia
After this you have some options on where you want to go as a final destination. Our guide arranged for another taxi to take us to the Colombian town of Ipiales for our next bus. Once again, this cost was covered by the company. Our guide paid the taxi driver at the border, and that is where he left us… in a taxi, in an area we weren’t familiar with, in the dark, with no real understanding of what the next step was.
At this point we were 12 hours into the trip. We were still nowhere near our end destination of Popayán. Did we mention that we were told the entire trip from Quito to Popayán was supposed to take a total of 12 hours?!? Nothing we could do about it, so we just kept going. ¡Qué será, será! 😁
The taxi driver who took us to Ipiales was great. The trip there from the border took another 10-15 minutes or so. He dropped us off at the bus terminal. Then we wandered in and found the correct ticket office after messaging our helpful guides from Los Líneas de Los Andes. Fortunately they knew who we were and where we needed to go.
Woohoo!
He asked if we were ready to go “ya” (now!). I don’t know what the other options would have been, but we said “yes”. He printed the tickets, and directed us out the correct door to where the bus was waiting.
We gave our luggage to the bus attendant, jumped on, and immediately left the station. It was about 7:00 pm at that point, and the bus was scheduled to arrive in Popayán at 3:30am. Great. 🤦♀️ Who cares anymore. Just get us there, and we’ll figure it out from there.
We Whatsapped our hotel in Popayán, Perugino’s Hotel Galería, which I booked on Booking.com. We let them know we’d arrive in the middle of the night. They said it would be no problem. Phew…so, we settled into our seats, watched a great telenovela about bank employees who of course end up in a dramatic sexy pool scene, and then attempted to get some fitful sleep.
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Arriving to Popayán, Colombia
We did in fact arrive in Popayán at 3:30am. Being a new city for us, and not knowing how secure we were as foreigners walking with all of our luggage in the middle of the night, we opted to hail a taxi for the 2 minute ride (would have been an 8-minute walk). It was worth the $1.50 to be sure we’d make it safely!
We checked into the hotel, Perugino’s Hotel Galería (which I would recommend!). We walked up the 4 flights of stairs to our top level $47/night suite, and immediately went to sleep. Mike had to be over to the car rental office at 8:00am. Lucky him. 😩
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Summary our Trip from Quito to Colombia
The trip from Quito to Colombia was long. It was confusing. It involved an Uber, 2 (3 in our case) busses, 3 taxis, and a lot of hoping things all worked out. They did, but I cannot imagine a scenario in which the trip from Quito to Popayán, Colombia would actually take 12 hours. In our case it took over 20 hours, and even in an absolute best case scenario it would likely take at least 16 hours. Plan accordingly, and expect changes and/or delays to occur!
Finally, we had made it to Popayán. We were excited to see downtown with its white colonial buildings. Also, we were pumped get a rental car for the next leg of our journey through Colombia. Hopefully your trip from Quito to Colombia ends up easier for you with this helpful guide!
Stay tuned to hear how our road trip to the Tatocoa Desert turned out. Teaser, it did not go according to plan! Of course! 😅
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