Colombia to Caracas to Manaus

This entry is more to put information out there on the bus ride from Colombia, through Venezuela (Caracas) and down to Manaus, Brazil. Prior to doing the trip myself, I wasn't able to find much good or useful information on the route and how safe or unsafe it really was. Most information did point to the latter however when looking into flights to avoid Venezuela altogether, it was just way too expensive ($900USD). So the bus it was.

The bus from Santa Marta to Caracas itself wasn't too bad. I used Brasilia, one of the companies recommended by the Lonely Planet. The journey was pretty easy and the border crossing no hassels what-so-ever. Over the 14 or so hours of the trip there were no police and no bribes requested.

While on the bus, I met two Australian guys who were headed to Caracas to meet a friend of theirs who was now living there. They kindly invited me to have breakfast with me at their place to avoid a 6 hour wait at the bus terminal. I took them up on the offer and it was certainly a much more pleasant way to pass the time.

The bus from Caracas to Manaus was not quite so easy but again, no dramas. There is no longer a direct bus service between these two cities, despite it being advertised on the side of one of the bus companies. I ended up taking a bus from Caracas to Santa Elena, the Venezuelan border town. The company I used was Los Llanos and they were quite good. The ride took approximately 24 hours and they had enough breaks for food and drink. They did however stop at places that seemed to be owned by the bus company and snacks and meals were very expensive. The bus was stopped twice on route by the police to check identification but again, no dramas and no bribes. A group of Venezuelan girls on the bus that could speak English informed me though that we were really lucky at the second check point as they'd done that trip many times and that was the first time the police didn't search the bags as well...a process that can take over an hour.

Once in Santa Elena the easiest, though likely not the cheapest way of getting across the border was via a taxi. It cost approximately 40Bolivars which I didn't think was too bad given the convenience. The taxi stopped at both immigration points and then took me on to the bus terminal. Oh and he also found me somewhere I could change my remaining Bolivars to Reais. This took almost an hour in total.

The border town on the Brazillian side is Pacaraima. I was very lucky here as a bus was waiting to go on to Boa Vista so there was no wait at all. The bus company that does this section of the country is Eucatur and they are quite good. I wasn't able to pay by visa at this place but I was able to once I got to Boa Vista for my onward journey. The ride from Pacaraima took roughly 3 hours and was pleasant enough and once in Boa Vista it was again easy to get an onward bus to Manaus though this time there was a wait...both for buying the ticket and the bus. The constant power outages didn't help the process though.

The bus from Boa Vista to Manaus takes roughly 12 hours though they really race. The bus I was on (a 9pm bus) broke down at one point and when I woke to realise this, the 10pm and 11pm bus had both caught up with us and had stopped to help. Despite this long delay in the middle of nowhere we still arrived very much on time. I'm glad I didn't have a window seat at this point as the speeds might have scared me just a little.

So that's the journey in a nutshell. Again no direct services and from Santa Marta to Manaus tooke me a total of four days. I left on a Wednesday and arrived on Saturday. Good luck to anyone else who decides this is the trip for them!