Boarder Crossings: Venezuala -> Colombia

From Puerto Colombia I figured to do a major trip all the way to Santa Marta to hike to the Ciudad Perdida. And yes, I was fleeing from high venezuelian prices. And yes, I never felt really secure, so it is hard to get really into a holiday mood. But a 24 h buseta-bus-taxi-bus ride had to be taken at first, including the boarder crossing close to Maicao. So I took a buseta, a small bus, from the beach through rainy forests all the way up to Maracay. There, I took a 10 h night bus to Maracaibo, a massive town close to the "Lago de Maracaibo". I arrived at 6:30 in the morning, had watched 2 revolution movies and really didnt feel like sitting three hours in a cab to the boarder, sweating my arse off while listening to very loud folk music. And it should came different.

After a having used baños publicos, which is an adventure just by itself - but I skip the details here - I took a cab to the boarder. So I packed my backpack in the trunk, took a seat, but it didnt start. Taxi driving is not like it is back home in Germany. So the driver waited until he had 5 passengers, inclidung me, which took about an hour. so three in the back and 2 plus the driver in the front. So far so good, but after we actually got our arseson the road, I smelled gasoline. and a lot of it. The tank obvioulsly had a whole and gasoline was evaporating into the passenger cabin. It turned out that this was not the only thing that weird: In total we had to pass like 10 military check points, asking for passports. For me no problem as I had mine handy in my daypack. BUT: We had a half-legal and a "nationalisado" in our cab. The half-legal was Colombian and had an expired visa and the other one was nationalized, meaning she was Colombian, but stayed (and maybe worked) in Venezuela for 10 years or so and lost the Colombian citizenship. On the other hand, she didnt had a Venezuelian citizenship either, so everytime we were stopped,she had to get off the cab and was trying to persuade the officers to let her cross the boarder... so instead of 3 hours (for 120 km) it it took us 5 to reach the boarder, of course not without having to bribe 2 boarder officers. They literally said: Either you bribe me, or I am going to inspect your luggage for the next 2 hours.

So we bribed the guys, and reached the second last control. They didnt let the illegal woman cross the boarder and she had to go all the way back...

after bribing the last officer, I finally got the stamp in my passport and crossed the boarder. But the cab with te backpack was gone...

Luckily, it was waiting 500m ahead of us, and brought us to the next bus station. From there, I took another 4 hours bus side to Santa Marta where I found a nice hostel ( Casa Familia ) and I finally found a bunch of other travelers to share my stories with. Puh. That was an experience. But everything went well. That´s the spirit...