No documents for my bike in Guatemala
 

When I crossed the border of Guatemala at Frontera Corozal i only got a spamp no paperwork for my bike. Do I need any and if I try to leave what kind of fine am I looking at? Any info would be great.

You need to get the temp import documents in order before you try to leave Guatemala.It is not so much a fine I know about but I do know from experience that if your import papers are not in order or lost in your luggage or stuck in the computer without access it gets to be a looooong drawn out process.
They will phone and fax back and forth to La Capital and the othe r border you crossed for hours on end. They will not process you and bike out unless you can prove you brought the bike in legally
Go to the nearest SAT office and get your bike processed in with al the papaerwork and sticker. Keep the papaerwork handy, do not misplace it.
Depending on where you are now you could go to Coban, where I think they have an office, or to the nearest large, full service border crossing .
I know for a fact that you can do it at El Naranjo ,Peten SAT office and at Puerto Barrios at the SAT office on the waterfront at west end of Centro of city .
Also if you are planning to leave Guatemala at the Corinto, Honduras crossing you need to do the Guatemala departure formalities/paperwork at that same SAT facility in Puerto Barrios. That wasl the case this past April'08, I doubt that they have yet built a customs house at this exit on CA 13. The Honduras side does have a new setup there.

In 2006 I managed to skip out of Guatemala without any paperwork at Corinto. I waited until a bus pulled over and then gassed it. I couldn't process my bike into Honduras at the border, so needed escorting to the nearest city to do it, but all worked out well in the end.

If you get caught without paperwork, you risk losing the bike. Never had to, but I think the cops in Guatemala are fairly bribeworthy - pero con cuidado!

Last thought: If you have the stamp in your passport, and you have legitimately imported the bike, why not report your docs. stolen? I assume you are not talking about your immigration stamp?

Suerte

No real idea how Guate Aduana works these days.

Same thing hapened to me (Early 2007). I just stamped out of Guat and did everything properly at the El Salvador boarder. No problems.

El Salvador is close to Guat City, try it. If it fails, just hump back a couple hours and spend a day dealing with it.

No stamp
 

Made the same trip in Jan. Left Corazal without turning in our Mexican import papers and then didn't get the proper stamps in Bethel. On the way out a of Guatemala we paid the fee - seem to remember $24 - and everyone was happy. We still had our Mexican paperwork as if we hadn't left Mexico so the departure back into the US was simple.

Thanks for the information guys. I am with two other bikers as well. They crossed at the same place I did and said that we can just pay everything at the next border. Not sure if that is true or not but I will find out in a few days, Guatemala sure is beautiful!

should not be a problem
 

i crossed into guatemala in the same spot in those dodgy boats and had no paperwork at all ,when leaving i played dumb tourist and it never was a problem ,they cursed at me then gave up and sent me on my way ,playing dumb always works for me ,but then again i am pretty dumb

Guatemalan borders are indeed computerized and any missing doc's will cause delays .Best to have everything in order.
All this paperwork is a pain, but it is their country and their rules and it is a form of job creation.They are not the only ones .The US border on entering is getting to be just as much trouble.

canoe guy great relpy, I got a kick. I am going to chat with some people today in Antigua and see what I can do about the paperwork. I will keep everyone updated. I have heard it is not a big deal because you can buy the permit for the bike at any of the CA4 countries like Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala because they have some kind of unity. Anyway I will add more info when I get some.