Bordering on dangerous in Ecuador

Problems with Colombia's drugs trade are spreading to Ecuador

By James Reynolds in Ecuador

I had gone to Ecuador not really knowing what to expect.

Ecuador borders Colombia's Putumayo province, its largest cocaine-producing region, an area disputed by paramilitary groups, from which thousands have fled in recent months.

On arrival in Lago Agrio in Ecuador's Amazon region I looked for a driver to take me the short journey to the border and found a man called Cesar.

As we drove along the road towards the border in his yellow jeep, Cesar tried to reassure me, saying: "I am pretty sure you will not be kidnapped."

Safety fears

Alarmed, I took out a BBC card and handed it to Cesar, adding the words "please call this number if something happens to me."

He took it without even glancing at it and put it in his pocket.

He then gave me his card and we spent a few minutes admiring the fact that his mobile phone number was printed on it.

Eventually we reached what appeared to be a checkpoint - a small hut and a wooden barrier.

A guard in a blue t-shirt looked at me and examined my camera tripod on the back seat.

Don't speak

"Is this a tent?" he asked. "No, it is actually a tripod, I am a journalist," I told him, at which he laughed.

"It is probably best not to say anything to anyone anymore," Cesar warned me as we left. "Just sit there and look straight ahead."

"Have you got a hat?" he asked. I had a baseball cap. "Put it on, it will make you look less American. They hate Americans here," he added.

Despite concerns that a baseball cap would in fact make me look more American I did as told and slumped in the passenger seat looking straight ahead, trying to look invisible and un-American.

"Do not slump - sit up straight," Cesar ordered.

Symbolic border

A few minutes later we reached the border at La Punta, but it is not much of a border.

Ecuadorians and Colombians can cross at will.

There was a symbolic border control hut by the river where I saw a soldier slumped in a chair - perhaps only soldiers are allowed to slump in these parts.

"It is best not to take any pictures here, everyone here is in the drug trade," Cesar told me, "and it is best not to get out of the car."

Lucky escape

As people peered out at us from bars and houses I looked back with what I hoped was an expression of total boredom - as if I had been to La Punta so many times I could not even be bothered to stop this time round.

When the tour finally ended and we were safely headed back towards Lago Agrio, Cesar turned to me and said:

"You know the soldier at the checkpoint didn't think you would make it out of there, he told me he thought you were a goner."

Whether he was exaggerating I do not know - I didn't particularly care to find out.