Venezuela Border, Maracaibo

Day 109, Oct 19, 2013, 435km

Made it to Maracaibo,Venezuela and staying at Hotel Caribe for 290Bs, it was late and I had not eaten since breakfast so the first one that did show up was good enough for me.

The border crossing near Maicao, Colombia into Venezuela is very simple and did take 1.5hrs to complete. Both Colombian Aduana and Micracion are at the same place but in two building across from each other, there is space to park at Aduana on the left and then walk across to the other side. Then drive to the front of this huge line up of Venezuela plated Chevy Impala's and every other old (60s 70s) piece of gas guzzling US metal. Most of them are being held together with some make shift welding and parts from anything and everything attached (Mad Max style), sorry no pictures of the cars at the border decided not to because these guys are smuggling gas and goods to Columbia and back. I don't think they would like it if I took there picture. In front of this row of cars you will find the Venezuela Micracion for an easy hand over your passport and get
a stamp. Next drive about 2km down the road for Aduana and have a copy of your passport, vehicle registration and drivers license with you, also show him your Colombian SOAT and he won't ask for you to get Insurance while in Venezuela, he will ask how long you plan to stay and I said 1 week and he gave me 30 days on the papers, okay that was good.

One of the first thing you notice in Venezuela other then the bad ass cars is the amount of plastic bags along the streets. Most bags are shredded by the wind and stuck in everything, trees, shrubs, fences, it looks post apocalyptic and strange.

 
 

Some pictures of cars that were at the gas station.