Hello Ecuador

One of those long lines

I can't remember who told us that the border crossings in South America were a breeze but....after 5 1\2 hours at the Columbia-Ecuador border we were more than a little fatigued with the whole situation. The root of the problem was the Carnival de Blanco y Negro in Columbia, a weeklong celebration that dates back to the era of slaves and the Spaniards etc., it seems lots of people cross the border from country to country to partake in the festivities. When you are going to party your face off for a week, what is another 5-6 hours? Party on dude!!! I'm not quite sure if the guy that works at the Aduana at the border was at the party or what, but he wasn't where we needed him to be to import our bikes. The only place we could do that was a 10 minute ride away in Tulcan and that Aduana was closing for the weekend at 4p.m. an wouldn't reopen until Monday morning. Yiks! in only 20 minutes. We pushed through the line and tried to explain the situation, not an easy task in our broken Spanish, to the custom officers "This is an emergency, we need out!" It was now or never the thought of spending another night in Columbia in a border town didn't appeal to us. They obliged and off we went Kelly, Della, Ken and I, hair straight back and passports in hand into town. After a few attempts to find the building we finally got there, 4:02, crap! We noticed that the people in Ecuador are generally more friendly, happy and helpful than they had been in while and our Aduana guy was no exception. He signed and stamped, smile intact, even if he had to reboot his computer that he already turned off for the weekend. We were all more than grateful and gave him a little something (for his kids' education you understand) and rode off the find our hotel for $8 per person and dinner for $3 each. A rough day, but a smooth end that was easy on the pocket book. It's o.k. it was nothing that a good night sleep won't fix, it's exhausting standing in line all day.