If one wanted to unofficially cross between Ecuador and Colombia it would be an easy thing to do. The two countries are separated by an unguarded bridge that anyone can walk across without needing a passport. The official border crossing stations of each country are not in sight of the other and there does not appear to be any sort of communication between the two. If one were so inclined they could walk across the bridge without stopping at either immigration building and they wouldn’t be stopped by anyone. Unless you have a good reason for crossing unofficially you should go through the official process to make your life easier and avoid answering uncomfortable questions at a later date.
I was standing in line on the Colombian side of the border waiting to get an exit visa and there were a few men trying to get me to convert Pesos to Dollars with them. On the ride to the border someone in the bus had warned me not to trade money with them because their calculators are programed to rip you off. I wanted to see for myself so I asked one of the men for his rate of exchange. 1900 COP to 1 USD, not a terribly bad rate. I did the math in my head and figured I would get about 105 USD by changing 200,000 COP at that rate, so I tell the man “I want to change 200,000 COP.”. He punches the numbers in his calculator and it comes back to 85 and some change.
When I see the number on the calculator I immediately start laughing an exaggerated laugh to let the guy know I think he’s an idiot. I tell him “no gracias” and turn away from him, but he wasn’t done trying yet. He asked me why I didn’t want to change money with him and I told him he was a thief because the numbers didn’t add up. He gave me the calculator and I punched in the numbers but I couldn’t find the equals button and he took it away from me before I had a chance to either oust him as a thief or prove his calculator to be faulty. At the point one of the men in front of me in line tried to tell me that the numbers were right. This just makes me laugh some more; someone with a knowledge of math that is probably less than what I had by age 7 trying to tell me that 1900 x 85 = 200,000. Even an idiot could do 1900 x 100 in their head and realize that it still doesn’t add up to 200,000. I was done with this shenanigans so I waved off all of the guy’s future attempts at talking to me.
After waiting in line for an hour on the Ecuadorian side of the border I finally got my entrance visa. As I walked out of the office a man walked up to me and tried to sell me a ride in his taxi to the nearby town of Tulcan for 3.50 USD. I told him 2 USD and he said “Nooo I can’t because it’s really far like 20 KM away.” I asked him if there was a colectivo that would take me there for cheaper. He hesitated for a second then said “No there aren’t any because it’s Sunday.” If there’s one thing I’ve learned in South America is that you don’t get in a taxi with the first guy who comes up to you, you go and find the group of them that are sitting around nearby. I walked away from the guy and 3 seconds later when I get around the building I see a bunch of colectivo buses sitting there. How much for the same ride to Tulcan? Seventy five cents.
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You’re a smart cookie.
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