Colombia > Ecuador: Rumichacha
- May 6
- 3 min read
Mar 2026 |
This was a bad crossing due to Colombian customs, which took 2.5 hours.
Preparation
Rumichacha is the only border crossing open as of Q1 2026, due to intergovernmental and crisis issues between Colombia and Ecuador. In general, the border area is not safe, other than a small corridor through Rumichacha. If you are planning to cross, you should check the border status as it is sometimes closed or there are other issues like protests (honestly, I didn't check, but a contact of mine experienced a closure due to a roadblock the day after I crossed).
Riding to Rumichacha
I started the day at Pasto. The road is great, smooth, fast, nice views. I made an essential stop at Las Lajas Cathedral near Ipiales -- it is truly stunning, and a short diversion to see.
The process for exiting Colombia in brief
Parking: ride into the immigration complex, do a U-turn, and ride to park at aduana/customs, which is near the exit for Ecuador vehicles to Colombia
Immigration: walk 20 m to immigration and stamp out
Customs: walk back to customs and get in the probably informal "line" and be ready to assert your authority in the order if required; it was a bit of a free-for-all when I was there
Documents: passport, license, registration, TIP document, email from customs: make sure you have the email that you received when you imported your bike when you entered Colombia, they will ask for it; I got mine at Bogota airport, and I completely forgot about it (they pulled it up online)
My (crappy) experience at the Colombia border
I rode in, parked in the main lot, went through immigration, stamped out. It was fast and easy.
After that, I had a bit of a hard time locating customs, which is at a nearby office in the same complex. From the main parking area, I did a U-turn back towards the Colombia entry, where the customs office is located.
There were 2 Argentina-plated bikes outside when I entered, and 1 person at the counter, no other people waiting in the room. I sat down, next in line, I assumed. The office is small. There was no order, line-up, or number to be taken. It seemed like it would be a fast process (as it usually is departing, like in every country I visited thus far in my Pan-American trip). An older couple entered the room (French), sat down. When the person ahead of me finished, I stood up to proceed to the counter, but the French couple waved me off, "we are next". Turns out, they had come to customs first, not immigration (whereas I had done the order correctly). The clerk waved them forward and did the slow process to cancel their TIP. When he finished, I went to the counter -- and the clerk got up and left! Then there was no one at the desk for 90 minutes. By the time the clerk arrived (late, apparently), there were about 10 people in the room. Fortunately, a local truck driver was aware of my place in line and helped me get back in order. The process was so bad, the 2 Argentinian riders gave up on entering Colombia and turned back to Ecuador (they were entering Colombia for only 1 day -- but still, what a waste of time!). This process took me 2.5 hours. Once done, I rode the short distance to the Ecuador side.
At the Ecuador border
This side was super easy, immigration, customs, all done in 1 hour. I went to immigration, then to customs (all at the same building, clearly marked). I don't recall any fees in Ecuador.
Documents: passport, license, registration, TIP document, email sent by customs
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