Bordercrossing to Ecuador

I was planning on making my way to Quito in one day so I knew I would have to take an early bus leaving Mocoa. The first decent one was at 6. To get to the bus terminal I had to take a collectivo from my hostel. The pick up trucks usually passed by every 10 minutes but I wasn't sure if this would be the same early in the morning. I asked the lady from the hostel and after saying a really long sentence which I didn't understand at all she just said "Si". I still decided to get out to the street around 5 to make sure I made it to the terminal in time. This means I got up around 4:30 and when I left the house I realized the gate of the fence surrounding the hostel was locked. So I climbed over the fence with my big backpack. Once outside I found my spot under the one light on the street outside the hostel waiting for a collectivo to pass by. As soon as I got there the dog from the house across the street started barking. This set of the two dogs from my hostel behind me. Shortly after I saw a fourth dog coming my way on the street barking at me with the others. This whole situation did feel kind of spooky but I decided not to freak out and actually managed to send of the dog on the street.
The first car that passed in the direction to town was an ambulance which didn't stop to pick me up. For the longest time no car would come. 2 motorcycles passed by and some cars leaving town. After about 20 minutes I finally saw a pickup truck approaching. He did stop when he saw me and I jumped in the back. I realized that from the back I couldn't tell the driver where to drop me off but luckily he went straight to the bus station. When I went to the front to pay the driver asked where I was going. He was actually going to Pasto and could take me all the way. He gave me a really good price and so I ended up going on the back of a pickup truck over the bumpy roads back towards Pasto. After 3 hours when we had made it back onto paved roads they did change the car to a minivan. Around midday we arrived to Pasto where I caught another bus to Ipiales and from there a collectivo to the border. The bordercrossing was easy and the view towards Ecuador so beautiful. For some reason there was absolutely no line to get the stamp out of colombia but I had to wait almost an hour on the Ecuadorian side. From here I took another collectivo into Tulcan from where the bus went straight to Quito. It was a really long day of traveling and I was happy to finally arrive at my hostel at 10pm but the views from the bus were amazing so I was excited to get to know Ecuador next.Read more