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Bus trip from Caracas to Santa Marta including smuggling Contra-band.

I just returned from Venezuela and I suspect many might be curious about the bus trip from Caracas into Colombia.

Half of my wife’s large extended family lives in Venezuela and often make the trip to Colombia by bus every year. They know all the ins and outs of the trip. They advised us to take the Amerlujo Bus Company because it involves the least exposure to the crooked police as one crosses each of the check points when approaching the Colombian border. Since it is one of the two companies that offers direct service (the other is Brasilia) to coastal cities in Colombia, I would avoid the overnight stay as well as the problems of transferring buses in Maracaibo. Since I have heard nothing but bad stuff about Maracaibo here on PBH, I took their advice. They explained to me that during the trip each person on the bus would likely be asked to pay 10 Bs on two occasions to pay off the police so they do not stop the bus to check the bags. I was not too happy about this but had the money just in case. There is also a 46 Bf exit tax that one pays when leaving at the border.
I bought the tickets two days in advance at the Eastern Bus terminal in Caracas. They do not accept credit cards so I could not purchase the tickets by telephone. I wanted to leave right away, but the weekend departures were full. The cost was 250 Bolivars Fuertes (1 Bf = 1000 Bs = 1000 COP) for the trip from Caracas to Santa Marta (300 Bf to Cartagena). Fortunately there was a bank machine that accepts ``plus`` system cards at the terminal (not an easy thing to find in Venezuela). My in-laws were surprised by the recent price increase. On another bus line it cost 75 Bf to get to Maracaibo and 140 from Maracaibo to Santa Marta but it involved staying the night in Maracaibo which is not cheap. Brasilia was also 250 Bf but they ``drive too fast`` my wife`s family explained.

I was concerned that they stamped ``one bag or two carry-on bags`` on my ticket. We had three bags between the two of us. My family said don`t worry. Sure enough they were right. Some people had all kinds of bags and no one batted an eye at our bags.
I saw one tough looking old peasant woman who had about 30 large bags bound in Chinese tarp material. I watched her pay off the baggage boy who loaded her bags onto the bus. There was an incredible amount of space for bags in the belly of that bus. Clearly she was carrying goods for resale that would avoid the Colombian import tariffs.

The bus company checked our documentation very thoroughly before we boarded. We both had Venezuelan visas obtained at the Consulate in Toronto. Venezuela has such ridiculous visa rules such that they do not require a visa for Colombians to arrive by air (which we did), but requires the Colombian to have a Venezuelan visa in order to leave Venezuela by surface travel. Effectively, they require a Colombian to have a visa (or a Venezuelan cedula) to leave Venezuela by bus. Can you imagine if the USA did not let Mexicans leave if they did not have a visa? I also paid the Consulate $30 for a visa for myself whether I needed one or not. I did not want to give those crooked police any reason to extort money from me.
We got on the bus and it was luxurious. Choose seat number 3 and 4 when you buy your tickets. They are the seats in front of the staircase so they recline more than the others. The bus departs at 8pm.

The next morning as we closed in on the beginning of the checkpoints near the border, the old peasant woman went to each passenger asking for money to pay the police. She explained that if we do not pay, we will all have to stop and they will go through all our bags. A skinny girl from Barranquilla, who was clearing new to this trip, resisted. She said they can check her bags all they want. She was not going to pay a dime. A big argument broke out. Other old women sided with the peasant woman. Eventually the peasant woman, a bit cowed now, gave up and came and asked me for money. I gave her only 10 Bf total for my wife and myself. I figured she was already worn out and would be glad just to get something from me. Although I was not carrying anything illegal, I figured 10Bf was a good value in order to save a potential hour of time that it would take for the police to check the old woman`s bags. At one of the first check-points, an officer came on board and checked all the passenger`s documents. They only found one lady, who sat next to us, that did not have her Venezuelan Cedula with her, but did have a surface travel Colombian passport. I suspect that her cedula was fake. She showed it to the driver before she boarded, and then handed it off to a family member who remained in Venezuela. The officer figured she was too old to bother with (which means too old to try and extract money from while a foreigner with big ears sat next to her). At another checkpoint, the bus driver announced on the PA system that the police wanted 300 Bf or they would check the luggage on the bus. No one asked me for money and I am not sure if the bribe was paid, but the bus was never checked. I saw the police with red berets and semi-automatic rifles going through smaller vehicles at the side of the road.

About a kilometre from the border, we all got off the bus and paid the 46 Bf exit tax. We then all got on the bus and an official came onto the bus and checked that we all had receipts. That same old peasant woman did not pay the tax so she was escorted back to the tax office where she paid her exit tax. I guess she knew that sometimes they do not check for receipts.

At the border, we got off the bus and went into the Venezuelan Immigration office and got our exit stamps. We then walked 100 metres across the border and got our Colombian entry stamps from their counterpart. Everything went smooth as the bus picked us up again on the Colombian side.

In Colombia at Rio Rancheria, the traffic was stopped for two hours because of Indigenous Indians demonstrating on the highway. We were also stopped for another hour because of road construction. Our 18 hour trip had now become 21 hours by the time we reached Santa Marta. The bus stopped at a roadside restaurant near Parque Tayrona. My wife`s family in Venezuela have been raving about the food at this establishment. We were not disappointed by their special beef meal. It was so nice to be paying the cheap prices of Colombia again. The lush green environment surrounding the restaurant was a breath of fresh air.

In summary: don`t go to Venezuela. It is too dam expensive, the police are corrupt, and the Venezuelan people, on average, are rude. When you say ``thank you``, they look at you as if you are weird. I wish I took the advice of other travellers who had been to Venezuela and not gone there in the first place. It will be my biggest mistake for 2008. I do not regret taking this bus trip because I avoided the two required flights (CCS-BOG-SMR) to get to Santa Marta. If there is ever a direct flight from Caracas to Barranquilla or Santa Marta in the future, I would take that instead of the bus trip.

By guacharaca on Oct 21, 2008, 11:36 in Venezuela forum.