Thewesternprovinceblog

Hola todos. It has been a few days and I’m still behind on the blogging having not yet written up the blog for Cali yet. It will be coming soon. I have had to make the difficult decision to skip Ecuador. Why exactly? Well this leg on paper always looked difficult with the border crossing passing through regions that can be quite dangerous though not necessarily any more than some of the places we have already been through back in Central America. 

As far as Cali I was initially still going to give it a go but weighing everything up I have admitted defeat on this one.

I had been keeping an eye on the situation for some time and Ecuador seems to be getting more unstable especially on the coast and border regions with the coast being an avoid travel area as it is practically under martial law and with most of their land border crossings closed it cast doubt on if I would be able to pass into Peru with the only border crossing still open going through one of said coastal regions. 

To further complicate matters there is a fresh new ongoing diplomatic spat between Ecuador and Colombia still ongoing – basically Ecuadors president accused Colombia of not doing their bit to stop el narcotráfico and decided to put a 30% tariff on all goods going over the border, which Colombia hit back by turning off the electricity they were selling Ecuador. This has caused big tailbacks at the one border still open which I was going to cross. The other week the Governors of the border States; Ecuador’s tried to sort out a meeting with the Colombia’s and apparently the Colombian refused to even have a phone call with him. So yeah total mess it sounds. 

There is also a matter of potentially needing to have a criminal record check notorised and translated by a proper place if you enter Ecuador by land though information is wooly at best about just how much this is enforced with a lot of people online saying they got through no problem but if you get unlucky then what? 60 USD I still got from Panama enough to Bakhsheesh your way in? If not your shit out of luck and it’d be a long backtrack to Popayán then.

Three other things sort of confirmed this, firstly the obvious lack of other travellers coming up the other way in Cali – hanging round the Viajero hostel most nights I was sure I would meet some if the way was open but I did not. Everywhere else we were meeting others coming up the other way.

Secondly I met a geezer on my last night in Salento who is a seasoned traveler who has done many Overland crossings in Asia and the Middle East and decided to give it a go and went on ahead of me, we kept in touch and he got down as far down as Pasto then he decided to bail and fly to Peru via Bogotá.

Thirdly there was still the unknown of if I would be able to get through to Peru once in Ecuador. I predict if I could get through to Quito It would be smooth sailing through the safer mountainous regions to Cuenca but then getting from there to Peru the only option online at least is a night bus via Machala which is at least according to travel advice a sketchy place you don’t want to be stuck at if you can’t get through. Not to mention another lengthy backtrack to somewhere you could get a flight out. Had I committed to this original plan I would have had to be crossing not one but 2 sketchy borders which I don’t know if I’d be let in through each with a long backtrack if things didn’t go our way.

So yes friends I have begrudgingly had to admit defeat on this one and so decided to follow a similar path as my mate in Salento.

I am currently leaving Popayán and heading for Neiva, the desert region of Colombia then heading back to Bogotá by Saturday or Sunday then look to fly to Lima mid next week. From there I am going to kick it for a bit and chill in Lima since I am reading good things about it online. From there I will slowly make my way towards Cuzco but no idea what I will get up to in between. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.

I’m trying to make a promise of no more major skips from here but time will tell if we can keep to that – it is still a loooooong way to Trevelin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇦🇷 from Lima!

Also noticed I am nearly *finally* at 1000 followers over on the IG account – Please keep following this insane adventure and consider subscribing to my blog over here on WordPress so you don’t miss any updates.

Thank you so much for your support – it keeps me going through the lows of this trip and there have been many!!