Maracaibo Transportation

I took a taxi from Casa Familiar to the terminal in Santa Marta and it was 4000 pesos (August 2008). Brasilia Expresos had a bus to Maicao at 7am for 20 000 pesos. The bus arrived at 7.15 and it was a small comfortable bus. It took four hours to Maicao and I had not even left the bus before men started to call Maracaibo, Maracaibo.
Before going to Venezuela I wanted to change my Colombian pesos for Venezuelan Bolivares and that you can do in an office inside the terminal (It is a better rate here than the money changers have at the border in Paraguachon).
I took a shared taxi to Maracaibo and there was only one other passenger, a woman. The taxi was 23 000 pesos or 40 Bs (August 2008). The other passenger didn’t have to get a stamp in her passport so as I went inside the immigration office on the Colombian side the driver said they were driving on to the Venezuelan side because there were a lot of cars. I was a bit worried about my luggage in the back of the car but as I came walking to the Venezuelan side the car was waiting there and it had already passed the line of cars that were waiting. After leaving the border we were stopped several times, five times I had to show my passport and other times the police only looked in through the window and said we could pass.
About halfway we stopped at a shop (for water and bathroom) and the driver was checking the engine of the car. After that we drove even slower and all other cars (and taxis) passed us. As we reached Maracaibo we went to a gas station and then we stopped along the road to wait for a taxi for the woman who was going to another part of the town. The driver thought I could take a taxi from the same spot but I wanted to go to the terminal as it is not far from the hotel where I stayed. I was dropped only one block from the hotel. The taxi drive from Maicao took more than 3,5 hours.