This post is a series of steps intended to help other travelers who may be doing the same over-land border crossing from Ecuador to Colombia that I did.

Some things to note before we begin:

• This applies to the border crossing between Tulcan (Ecuador) & Ipiales (Colombia). The actual border is at a place called Rumichaca.
• Citizens of many countries need to have a Colombian visa before-hand in order to enter Colombia by road. India is one of those countries, and I got my visa from the Colombian consulate in Quito.
• The below steps are based on my personal experience only, so YMMV.

With that out of the way, let’s begin:

1. Check out early from your hostel - I would say 6 am is a good time to start (this means avoid partying late into the previous night, and finish your packing the previous day itself)
2. Get a Trole bus going north (make sure to take one that goes till “Estacion Y” - some buses stop in stations midway)
3. Take the Trole bus till its last stop, i.e. Terminal Norte
4. Ask someone where you can get a bus to Terminal Carcelen, and take one of these buses
5. Ask someone in the bus to let you know when you get to Terminal Carcelen (most buses will continue ahead)
6. At Terminal Carcelen, get a bus going to Tulcan
7. Watch the back-to-back violent movies shown on the bus (its a 5 hour long journey, and all movies shown in buses in Ecuador are invariably violent Hollywood movies dubbed in Spanish)
8. At Tulcan, look around for other tourists to share a taxi to the border
9. There’s a bridge that separates Ecuador from Colombia and taxis can go across the bridge to the Colombian side. But you need to get your passport stamped, so ask the driver to stop before the bridge
10. People might approach you here and offer to help with the process, but politely refuse everyone. Also, refuse offers of exchanging money
11. Find the immigrations office and get inside
12. If you are leaving Ecuador, you don’t need to fill in the immigrations form. You would already have a copy of the Andean immigration form that you filled when you first landed in South America
13. After your passport is stamped, you can eat at the nearby restaurant if you’re hungry. Here is also a good idea to get rid of your dollar coins. There’s a postbox on the wall just outside the immigrations office in case you want to send some postcards to use up all your Ecuadorian stamps
14. Walk across the bridge to Colombia (I’ve heard it is unwise to click pictures here, so do so at your own risk)
15. Go to the immigrations office on the Colombian side, and get in line
16. Once your passport is stamped, you can stay legally in Colombia for the number of days mentioned on the stamp
17. If you don’t have any Colombian pesos, you can exchange a small amount from one of the many guys walking around (they might offer attractive rates, but I prefer to do it from an official-looking currency exchange place)
18. Congratulations. Enjoy your stay!