I had just finished a visa border run to Venezuela.  Juan was my taxi driver from the Venezuelan border to the Cúcuta airport.  Our total time spent together was about 25 minutes.  But in that time he would remind me again of the spirit behind one of my favorite quotes from Nehru, “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” 

I was trying to get out of Cúcuta and back to Medellín as fast as possible. Sitting in the back of the taxi I re-read the

A couple weeks ago my Colombian tourist visa was expiring so after a bit of research, I found myself having to take a quick border hopping trip to Venezuela.  It was on Saturday, March 10th and I had a few objectives for the day:

1. Obtain the visa in the least amount of time possible in order to...
2. Make it back to my friends' Chad and Alejandra's going away barbeque at 7p.
3. Test my theory of whether or not it was actually possible to do this in one day.

Before travelling anywhere in Colombia and Central and South America for that matter, I always check the flight prices vs. the bus prices first.  Oftentimes, you will find flights for close to the same price you would pay for the bus and you'll end up saving a lot of time.  These are some of the airlines I check for flights within Colombia:

1. Avianca
2. Lan
3. Copa Airlines
4. EasyFly
5. ADA
6. Satena

Some of these are local discount airlines which don't show up on consolidators such as Hipmunk, Kayak, and Google Flights so I suggest checking their sites individually for the best prices.

In this instance, the bus from Medellín to Cúcuta was going to take between 13-17 hours and cost $100,000 COP.  I found a flight on EasyFly for $139,000 COP that only took a little over an hour.  Around $20 USD more to save up to 16 hours.  Perfect!

So Saturday morning I woke up bright and early for the 7 a.m. flight and hopped in a taxi out of El Poblado heading to the Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport (EOH), the airport in Medellín for domestic flights.  The great thing about this airport unlike the José María Córdova International Airport (MDE) is it's located about 5 minutes from El Poblado and only costs about $5,000 COP whereas getting to MDE takes about an hour since it's in Rio Negro and costs $50,000 COP.  

After a quick 1 hour flight, I landed in Cúcuta.  Now I had to get to the border.  There are local buses that go from the airport to downtown Cúcuta for around $2,000 COP where you can then transfer to another bus (an additional $5,000 COP) that drops you off at "Puente Simon Bolivar", the bridge which passes over the Tachira River and marks the border between Colombia and Venezuela.  Taking the local buses would take around an hour while a taxi was about 20 minutes, so in the interest of time I negotiated a taxi fare to the border for $15,000 COP.

Before crossing the bridge, I stopped at the C.E.N.A.F. building (Centro Nacional de Atencion en Frontera).  It is the white building on the left just before the bridge and where the DAS (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad) office is located.  Here you will obtain your Colombia exit stamp in order to properly leave the country.  

Now I made my way across the bridge.  You can either do it on foot or hire a motor-taxi for $2,000 COP.  This is an open border meaning that you need to announce your arrival and departure at the appropriate offices.  There are no customs, immigration or border agents who will manually stop you from entering Venezuela.  You can simply walk right in.

Once you cross the bridge, you are now in the city of San Antonio del Táchira, Venezuela.

Now I needed to obtain my entry stamp to Venezuela.  There's a little office called SAIME right at the border which I stopped at.  This is not the office you want.  I waited in the line at the left for about 10 minutes before an agent appeared in the window on the right.  I asked him about obtaining an entry stamp and he told me that the office is not actually at the border but in the middle of the city.  

This was going to be a little more complicated than the simple in and out mission I expected but I was down for the challenge!  I was told to ask for the ONIDEX office so I made my way into Venezuela. I passed an intimidating looking military checkpoint and really wanted to snap a photo but I'm always wary of photographing soldiers or police.  So I decided to hide behind a van and try and take a stealth photo.  Just as I peeked around the corner to take the shot, of course at that moment a soldier walked into the frame and scolded me, informing me that photos were not allowed.  Whoops, my bad!

I stopped and asked for directions a few times and finally found the nondescript office about 6 blocks up and 5 blocks to the right from the bridge.  It is located on Carrera 9 between Calle 6 and 7.

As I walked into the office I was surprised to be welcomed by the grinning Hugo Chavez himself!  

After filling out the customs form and talking briefly to the immigration officer, I received my entry stamp into Venezuela.  However, he looked at my form and asked me why I was only spending one day there.  I told him what I was trying to do.  I asked him if this was the same office where I would get my exit stamp from Venezuela.  He replied that I would need to come back in about 3 or 4 hours to allow my information to get into the system.  I told him I was trying to catch an early afternoon flight out of Cúcuta and if there was any way to expedite the process.  He paused for a second, shrugged and told me to come back in an hour. 

I made my way across the street to a little refresqueria where I noticed a big FC Barcelona poster on the wall.  I grabbed some lunch and chatted with the owner about soccer for a bit.  When travelling almost anywhere in the world, bring up the subject of soccer and you'll instantly make a new friend.  We both agreed on the prowess and work ethic of Messi and how overrated Cristiano Ronaldo is.  

After the lunch break, I went back into the office and was informed that I needed to buy stamps (impuestos de salida) at a small office across the street before getting my actual exit stamp.

The stamps cost 90 BsF or $20,000 COP (prices as of March, 2012)

After obtaining my exit stamp from Venezuela it was time for the last and most important step and what I had come for...my entry stamp and new visa for Colombia.

I made my way back to the border and hopped on a motor-taxi to cross the bridge.  I could have walked it but I thought what the heck, it was only a dollar and would make for a fun photo.

Once across I went back into the DAS on the Colombian side and walked up to the booth for my entry stamp.  The immigration agent slowly looked through my passport and started asking me a bunch of questions.  "Why have you spent such a long time in Colombia?" "What have you been doing here?" "Why do you need more time?"  I told him the truth - that I loved Colombia, I had a lot of friends in Medellin and needed more time here to explore this beautiful country.  He walked away for a little bit and talked to another agent.  I started to get nervous.  Had I traveled all the way out to the middle of nowhere just to be denied a visa back into the country?  

The agent came back.  I held my breath.  He looked down, stamped my passport, wrote something in it and handed it back to me.  As I walked away, I peeked inside.

A 3 month extension...great success!  Alright, now time to get back to Medellin.  

I hopped in a taxi and made my way back to the airport.  Because I didn't know how long it would take to get across the border, find the appropriate offices and account for any delays for the bureaucratic process I hadn't bought my return ticket back yet.  I stopped at the ticket counter and inquired about prices.  The ticket was going for about $250,000 COP.  I pulled out my phone and went online to see if I could beat the price.  I found a cheaper one online and went back over to see if I could just buy it at that price at the counter instead of wading through the screens on my phone.  As I walked up the agent informed me that the lady in front of me had just bought the last ticket back.  Doh!  Then I looked up and saw that I was in the line for ADA and not EasyFly which was right next door.  Pulled out the phone again and was able to snag a ticket back for $190,000 COP on EasyFly, not bad.

Wasn't quite done with the fees yet though.  Paid one last airport tax of $4,500 COP before boarding the plane.

The flight left at 4:20 p.m. and got me into Medellin just before 6 p.m.  As we landed I texted my friend Joel telling him I'd be at the bbq at 7p.  He couldn't believe it!

I had left that morning at 7 a.m., made it across the border to Venezuela, received my new entry stamp and was back to Medellin in less than 12 hours...just in time for my friends' barbeque!  A very productive day indeed! 

A summary of how to obtain a visa extension by crossing the border at Cucuta:

1. From Medellin, take a bus or flight to Cucuta, Colombia.
2. Obtain your exit stamp before crossing into Venezuela.
3. Locate the Onidex in San Antonio del Tachira and get your entry stamp to Venezuela.
4. Purchase "impuestos de salida" stamps from the small office across the street from the Onidex. 
5. Go back into the Onidex and obtain your exit stamp from Venezuela.
6. Cross over the bridge and go back to the DAS office to receive your entry stamp back into Colombia. 

If you're just looking to renew your tourist visa in Medellin and you still have extensions remaining, click here for the current requirements and how to do it.


If you've been in Colombia for 6 months already and you're not sure if you have extensions left or what to do, check out this post, which might help.

Let’s do this Tarantino style and start with the ending first...I have to go to Venezuela this weekend in order to stay in Colombia.  Que?

Okay, now let’s back it up a bit.  Colombia’s official tourism slogan is “Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay.”  This is definitely true as I and many others I know can attest too.  I have to be honest though, before I left on this trip Colombia wasn’t even on my itinerary because I thought it was too dangerous.  But rather than fearing for my life here, I have instead fallen in love with this country, it's landscapes, and it’s people.  That’s why my original plan to stay 2 weeks has turned into 6 months, which brings me to my current predicament. 

The tourist visa allows you to stay in Colombia up to 180 days per calendar year with each stay capping out at a maximum of 180 consecutive days (as per amendments to the immigration law titled "El Decreto 2622 de 2009").  This is a bit confusing so let me explain with some examples:

1. Let’s say you enter the country on July 1st, 2011.  You can stay until Dec 31, 2011 which is 180 days in the 2011 calendar year.  However, you can not claim on January 1st, 2012 that a new calendar year has started and that you now get a fresh 180 days.  This is due to the consecutive days stipulation.  You may, however, leave the country and re-enter, thereby resetting the consecutive days clock and thus allowing you to take advantage of the new calendar year.
   
2. Another example.  I entered Colombia on September 12, 2011.  My 6 months expires Monday on March 12, 2012.  I have to leave the country to reset the clock on the consecutive days rule but when I return, since I have only been in Colombia for 2 months in calendar year 2012, I have an additional 4 months left.

There are other types of visas that you can obtain that offer longer stays:

http://www.investincolombia.com.co/Adjuntos/105_Chapter%205%20Immigration%20Rules-%20Visas.pdf

I researched all of them and the only other one that would apply at this time would be the student visa.  I looked into registering for Spanish classes at EAFIT, the local university.
  
http://www.eafit.edu.co/idiomas/spanish-program/Paginas/inscripciones-matriculas.aspx 

This was a great option!  Not only would I get a longer visa, but I’d also get an intensive Spanish course as well.  Unfortunately, the classes don’t start until March 20 and my student visa would not be processed in time.

Which brings us to the last option which many long term travelers become quite familiar with:  the infamous border run.

My objective now is to obtain the visa in the least amount of time and in the most cost-efficient way.  Here is the breakdown:

Colombia shares land borders with five countries, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Peru.  The land border between Panama and Colombia is a little bit sketchy to say the least.  The Pacific side is too dangerous as you venture into the Darién Gap, aka 'no man's land' and have to worry about having coffee with the bandas criminales such as the Urabeños or other paramilitary groups like the FARC.  I like adventure but I have my limits.  The Atlantic side is doable but a little more complicated than I want at the moment due to numerous reasons.

The crossings for Brazil, Peru and Ecuador are either too far or you face the problem of the Amazon, which leaves me with the the crossing at Cúcuta for Venezuela.   Since I’m in Medellin, Cúcuta ends up being the closest and easiest.

And that my friends, is why I am going to Venezuela this weekend, in order to stay in Colombia.

These articles might be helpful as well:

My adventure to the wild and crazy frontier town of Cúcuta and how I crossed the border into Venezuela to renew my Colombian visa.

Current requirements for renewing your visa in Medellin, Colombia.