The second largest Colombian city - Medellin - has two airports. The Aeropuerto Olaya Herrera (EOH) is located in the city and serves only few national flights (short-distance). The international airport José María Córdova (MDE) is located about 35 km from Medellin (near the city Rionegro).
How to get to the airport from the center: The Combuses company operates shuttles from the center (behind the Hotel Nutibara) from 3:30am until 9:30pm (based on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Aeropuerto-combuses-712819882145813/). The last shuttle from the airport for direction to Medellin departs between 12am and 12:30a (based on the information from the company's staff). The facebook claims that the buses leave every 10 minutes, but when I was taking the shuttle at 4:25am, we waited about 15 minutes (but usually it is every 10 min.) and the ride took 50 minutes. The charge for transfer at the time of publishing this post was COP 9,000 (about $3) - payable in cash only. This bus also passes by the San Diego Shopping Center (about 3 blocks from metro station Exposiciones). There is also an option to take a shared taxi from the highway behind the San Diego Shopping Center (the cost is COP 15,000; leaves once is full). From the Airport to the Center: If you travel from the airport MDE to Medellin, you can catch the shuttle right by the airport hall exit (to the right). The international airport is not big and I am sure you will find this shuttle easily (just look for the destination Medellin as there are also shuttles/collectivos going to the center of city Rionegro). The exact location of the buses behind the Nutibara Hotel in the Center: Carrera 50A and Calle 53 - about two blocks from the metro station Parque Berrio (there is a 24hr bakery right at the corner and the bus company staff are on site as well during the hours of operation):
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I traveled on a bus from Quito, Ecuador around Cotopaxi - to Lataconga: on 4th of April, 2015. I and a hostel friend from historical center in Quito took a cab to Quitomba bus terminal in southern Quito. The cost was $7. There is an option to take a trolleybus to Quitomba bus terminal but they are sometimes overcrowded in the center (plus, not all of the trolleybuses go to the Quitomba bus terminal), so we opted for a taxi. After about 45 minute ride, we got off in front of a modern bus terminal. The ticket booths are well organized by destinations. Once we got our tickets, we headed down through the checkpoint to the secured area of bus terminal where only passengers with purchased tickes could enter. We stored our big luggage in the bus'es lower storage. Once on the bus, a young man checked our tickets and showed us our seats. He asked us to store our small backpacks in the overhead space, assured that it is safe and made some comment about food and garbage (pointing to the plastic bags by the seats) which I did not understand completely. There were various distractions during the ride such as woman selling and presenting healing benefits of chia seeds or various salesmen selling "papas" or "frutas." There were also several people standing in isle of the bus. In the middle of the road, when Cotopaxi peak took our attention, my friend noticed that someone tried to open his backpack. He took it down and searched if everything was fine. Nothing was missing. Then I checked my bag, and although the bag seemed untouched, my photo camera, cables and various chargers were stolen. By the time I noticed it, the thief was gone. And who was it? The guy who pretended at the beginning to be the bus employee (who checked our tickets). As I learnt along the way, the thefts are very common in Ecuador, unfortunately. So no matter what circumstance, do not let your bag to be anywhere else than in your lap. Numerous of tourists I have met got robbed in Quito and Guayaquil. The smaller cities and towns are safe in Ecuador. In the same time, am not trying to be bitter at Ecuadorians. About 15 millions of them did not steal anything from me...
Bellow is only an illustration photo of one of the buses in Ecuador (the theft did not occur on this bus) |
AuthorI like to travel by bus and would like to share my experience from airport transfers to long distance bus travels as well as practical information from inspiring destinations. If you would like to support this page, you can do so through paypal. Thank you. Archives
June 2017
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