Border Crossing in La Balsa: A new way to enter Perù

Nowadays, the most travelled border to cross into Peru from Ecuador is known as Macarà and it’s very well-connected to the city of Loja with buses heading all the way to the city of Piura in Peru. Even though, only the most avid adventurers have been using the lesser known border of La Balsa things might be starting to change.

The Old Adventure

Since the beginning of July 2018, there was only one way to achieve the border crossing in La Balsa and this took at least two days (you had to sleep either in San Ignacio or Jaen) to reach the famous destination of Chachapoyas on the other side.

This usually involved taking the 5.45-6am bus from Vilcabamba (the starting point for anybody willing to cross) and arrive in Zumba after 5hrs (7$). From there you had to take a ranchero, some chiva-looking truck, to La Balsa (1h and 2$/pp) and once at the border you had to hope that the officer in charge was not taking a lunch break (honesty there’s a great number of traveller that had to wait 2+ hours for him to show up).

The windy road to La Balsa

After crossing in Peru, you’re next step would have been taking a colectivo to San Ignacio (1h30min – 15 soles) and if you really fancied making the most of the day, you could have potentially taken another colectivo to Jaen (2h30min – 15 soles).

One bus, one ranchero, two colectivos and a lazy border office: what if we told you that there’s a bus leaving from Vilcabamba and going straight to Jaen?

Waiting for the bus to pass in front of Vilcabamba bus terminal

The New Adventure

A couple of weeks before writing this post, the bus company called Nambija started offering a new direct bus service between Yantzaza and Jaen running once per day. The yellow bus leaves at 3.45am from the Terminal Terrestre of Yantzaza, stops in Loja at 7am and goes through Vilcabamba at around 8-8.15am. Be aware that in Vilcabamba it passes on the main road next to the terminal but stops only if flagged down!

Ecuador border office

Once at the border, the officers know that this bus runs daily and so they’re expecting it. Getting an exit stamp for Ecuador and an entry one for Peru took no more than 30min altogether! Possibly the quickest border crossing ever!

The bus waiting in the bridge “no-man-zone”

The journey takes around 10 hours including the border crossing, bathroom breaks and the short breakfast break in Yaganga (20min down the road of Vilcabamba). Currently the price is 21$ if you depart from Loja or 20$ if you catch the bus from Vilcabamba.

Peru border office

FROM JAEN TO PEDRO RUIZ GALLO OR CHACHAPOYAS
Once in Jaen you will still have to get a taxi to the colectivo “terminal” (10min – 3 soles/pp), then catch a colectivo to Bagua Grande (1h – 6 soles), a tuk-tuk to the colectivo “terminal” in Bagua Grande (5min – 2 soles/pp) and then take another colectivo to Chachapoyas (2h30min – 25 soles).

After the changes and a short dinner break, it was too late for us to catch colectivos running directly to Chachapoyas and hence had to take an auto (kind of 6 people comfy taxi) for 10 soles/each to Pedro Ruiz Gallo (1h15min). Once here, even if it was around 9.30pm at night, there were plenty of cars running to and from Chachapoyas for just 10 soles (1h) but we decided to stay in this town for the night. The 14 hours of traveling were enough and tomorrow we’ll have a chance to visit the third highest waterfall in the world: Yumilla Waterfall!

Potentially, you could do the entire Vilcabamba (or Loja) to Chachapoyas route in a single day but be ready for a good 15hrs of travel on different transports!

What’s best ?

Well, this bus leg is definitely taking away most of the “adventure” part from crossing at La Balsa but on the other hand, is much more comfortable and less-time consuming giving you a chance to to be able to get to Jaen without too many changes.

In regards to price, taking the direct bus is slightly more expensive by just one dollar as you would pay 20$ instead of 19$ (if you sum up all the legs of the journey).

In terms of time, going the old way or the new way is pretty much the same (10hrs) but with the new way the 10hrs would include breaks and such, whereas for the old way that would have to be summed to the total travel time. In other words, let’s just say that taking the direct bus would give you around a couple of hours of advantage!

So, have you decided yet which way to go ?

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