Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [221]
Hotel Los Andes ( 773 4338; Carrera 5 No 14-44; s/d/tr COP$48,000/68,000/98,000; ) The top place in town, Los Andes has 33 rooms around an interior courtyard. A loud TV in the lobby echoes up to all the rooms. Some of the rooms have street views – not necessarily an improvement.
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Eating
Budget restaurants cluster around Plaza de la Independencia. Vendors sell Colombian and Ecuadorean favorites at Las Lajas.
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Getting There & Away
AIR
The airport is 7km northwest of Ipiales, on the road to Cumbal, and is accessible by taxi (COP$10,000). Satena has flights to Cali, with onward connections to other cities.
There are no direct flights from Ipiales to Ecuador, but you can easily get to Tulcán, from where Tame has daily flights to Quito. Heading to Tulcán from the border, you pass the airport 2km before reaching town.
BUS
Ipiales has a new, large bus terminal, about 1km northeast of the center. Urban buses can take you into the center of town (COP$900), or grab a taxi (COP$3000).
There are frequent buses to Bogotá (COP$100,000, 25 hours). Several companies run regular buses to Cali (COP$68,000, 10 hours). All these buses will drop you in Popayán in eight hours. Don’t travel at night on this route; Click here for more information.
There are plenty of buses, minibuses and colectivos to Pasto (COP$5000 to COP$8000, 1½ to two hours). They all depart from the bus terminal. Sit on the right for better views.
Frequent colectivos travel the 2.5km to the border at Rumichaca (COP$1300), leaving from the bus terminal and the market area near the corner of Calle 14 and Carrera 10. After crossing the border on foot, take another colectivo to Tulcán (6km). On both routes, Colombian and Ecuadorean currency is accepted.
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SANTUARIO DE LAS LAJAS
elev 2600m
Built on a stone bridge spanning a deep gorge, the neo-Gothic Santuario de Las Lajas is a strange but spectacular sight. It’s also a hugely popular destination for pilgrims in need of a miracle. They place their faith in the Virgin Mary, whose image is believed to have emerged from an enormous vertical rock 45m above the river sometime in the mid-18th century. Plaques of thanksgiving line the walls of the canyon, many from prominent Colombian politicians.
The church is directly against the rocky wall of the gorge where the image appeared. A gilded painting of the Virgin, accompanied by Santo Domingo and San Francisco, has been painted directly on the rocks just to be sure there is no confusion. The first chapel was built in 1803; today’s church, designed by Nariño architect Lucindo Espinoza, was built between 1926 and 1944.
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BORDER CROSSING: FROM ECUADOR
Passport formalities are processed in Rumichaca, not in Ipiales or Tulcán (on the Ecuadorean side of the border). The DAS office, on the Colombian side of the border, is open 24 hours; the Ecuadorean post, across the Río Rumichaca, is generally open from 5am to 10pm.
Upon arrival from Ecuador, Colombian officials may require you to show an onward ticket. A printout of an unpaid-for flight reservation is usually sufficient to meet this requirement.
Arriving from Ecuador, your safest option is to get cash from any of the several ATMs on Plaza La Pola. Numerous ambulatory money changers on the plaza will change dollars and pesos, but watch out for counterfeits.
Avoid changing money at the border crossing. Beside the risk of receiving counterfeit notes, many money changers use ‘fixed’ calculators.
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In the lower floors of the church a museum (admission COP$1000; 8:30am-5pm) has exhibits on the history of the church, plus some religious and pre-Columbian art.
The sanctuary is located 7km southeast of Ipiales. Shared taxis and vans run regularly from the corner of Carrera 6 and Calle 4 in Ipiales (COP$2000, 20 minutes) and from the town’s bus station (COP$1800, 15 minutes). You can also