car insurance argentina south america
 

hello

we just arrived in buenos aires, great
our car is arriving by boat inside a container by the end of the week from le havre france (more info on our website, see va-project)

we are starting a one year or more trip through south america about contemporary art

we wonder how to insure our car here.
for argentina first then country by country
or
is there a company that can do it for the whole countries of south america
???

WHAT S THE BEST OPTION ?

we are french and the car has french papers, we are travelling without carnet de passges en douanes

thanx in advance mates
cheers
happy trails

hi...

you can easily obtain auto or moto insurance in argentina, i did so easily for my moto. two ideas i have:
contact javiar and sandra at dakarmotos.com and ask them what they recommend and secondly ask for the info at the argentina auto club in buenos aires.

good luck and keep us informed. i also am considering shipping my van to ba

Chas Walter

good answer mate :-)

we are in touch with the very kind and helpfull miss sandra from DakarMotos , dakarmotos at hotmail dot com

she just wrote us this :

Hello:
About the insurance, I ask to other traveler who bring his truck a few moth ago.
I copy to you his answer.

"When we got the insurance, we went to see Diego Cosentino at the ACA on Av del libertador, he's the guy who deals with the carnet in Argentina (sorry can't remember what floor he's on) we told him that we couldn't get the vehicle out of the docks without insurance and he phoned Carla Di Gregorio at Seguros Rivadavia. At first they didn't seem to want to insure us without seeing the vehicle but it seemed that he talked them round and they agreed to meet us. She asked us a few questions, charged us £100 for 6 months cover for all of south America and in five minutes we were out. The addresses were as follows:

Diego A. Cosentino
Gerente Regional
Av. Del Libertador 1850 5
C1425AAR
buenos Aires
Argentina
Tel: 541148024385

Carla Di Gregorio
Asesora Comercial
Centro de atencion asegurados
Capital Federal
Humberto 1 922/26
C1103ACT
Tel: (0011)51672400

if you have any other good experiences ...

g'day

Insurance
 

Hi

We were the other travellers Sandra spoke of, if you want any more info just give us a shout, either PM or on the Hubb.

Just one quick note though, we did get stopped here in Colombia a couple of days ago, aparantley it was an insurance check point, so we produced or Argentinian insurance, which supposed to be valid for the whole of SA, and the police officer said that it was not valid in Colombia. I know that he might of been looking for a bribe but he did seem pretty straight and after a bit of a chat he told us to drive very carefully and not to come back to that check point.

Probably best to check again with the brokers if the policy covers all of South America, maybe even get them to print off the terms and conditions or type out an official looking letter stating the validity.

Hope this helps

Jason

car/bike insurance argentina
 

Hi, i was wondering if there is an email adderss or if either of the persons mention speak a little english? I have my bike in storage at dakar motos and I am returning to continue my trip oct 18. i would like to pre arrange insurance as its a weekend , and i have only 4 days to get bike out of country, my 8 months are up. I can make it barely on my espanyol

car /bike insurance
 

Carla didn´t speak any english at all but the guy at the ACA did speak a bit. However, we were sorting out car insurance on a vehicle that had not entered the counry yet, which I think is a lot harder to come by than normal bike insurance.

I vaguely remember Sandra from Dakar motos saying that she knew how to insure a bike, I would probably talk to her and she´ll be able to help you out.

Jason

thanx everyone again :-)

we meet sandra today, she s doing the customs for our toyota coming from france

we called the guy at the ACA, he was not so helpfull ... he gave us the phone number of an other guy at the ACA : mister luis caro, tel : 48 08 40 47 (we could not reach him).
so maybe the best is to go directly to ACA

the phone numer of the insurance company
Carla Di Gregorio
Asesora Comercial
... is not working any more
we did not try to go there to check

finally an argentinian friend who is customer at Herzfeld Willis S.A. (insurance broker) recommended us to them and we managed to insure our car for the whole south america (see their email under) :

-----
La Aseguradora La Meridional nos puede ofrecer cobertura de responsabilidad civil a personas y cosas de terceros hasta la suma de $ 3.000.000.- en Argentina, Uruguay, Brasil, Paraguay, Bolivia y Chile (al cambio de hoy unos u$s 946.000.-); y en Perú, Venezuela y Ecuador con un límite de u$s 100.000.-
Estuvimos chequeando por el límite de responsabilidad civil que te ofrecemos en los últimos tres países, y el propuesto es superior al que se ofrece en los mismos.

Costo final anual $ 1.207.- (pesos)

Plan de pagos: 10 cuotas mensuales, iguales y consecutivas.

Por favor en caso de estar de acuerdo, confirmame pasándome una dirección y el nro y marca de una tarjeta de crédito, y procedemos con la cobertura.

Cualquier cosa a tu disposición,

Roberto Martin
Practice Leader - Automotores
Herzfeld Willis S.A.
TE +54 11 4324 1170
Fax +54 11 4325 7080 Int: 170
mail to: roberto dot martin at willis dot com
-----

they told us also after that it s also working for Colomia (for the same price) but NOT guyana and surinam

Herzfeld Willis S.A. is a big broker, the contract is in fact with "la meridional" as it s written in their email ... we get the papers in a few days

it should be on Meridional Seguros

we gave all this info to sandra too

good luck
happy trails

albertine & vincent : va-project

eg9jc,

so where have you been since argentina ?
how was it on the road ?
how many are you, which car do you have ?
no trouble with police, immigration, customs, at the borders, etc ... ?
all fun i hope ;-)

we are 2 travelling in a toyota land cruiser 75 for 1 year or more + a research on contemporary art

we have no carnet de passages en douanes
after argentina we go to uruguay brazil paraguay argentina again then chile bolivia peru colombia ecuador venezuela (a bit everywhere in south am) ... to brazil again

we hesitate to cross panama to go to central americam according to what we read here and elsewherem it s a bit complicated to cross panama

see you on the road
safe trip

Hi Vincent

We have been on the road for 20 months, we started from the UK and worked our way through Europe, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangldesh where we shipped to Bangkok then drove around Thailand and Malaysia then shipped from port Klang to Melbourne. We toured round OZ for a bit then Shipped to BA. From Argentina we drove down to Ushuaia ( if you are going south from Buenos aires call at La posta in Azul, great guy and a great campsite, ask Sandra about it, please say hello to Pollo for us La Posta Del Viajero En Moto...welcome friends - index). We hit the far south in the middle of winter and it was COLD! so we drove back up through Chile, Peru, Ecudor and have ended up in Colombia.

There are two of us aswell and we are driving a 30 year old Land Rover defender which looks like its 60 years old! I think we have avoided a lot of problems with the police because they see the car and don´t think we are worth shaking down. However, we did have problems on the Pan American heading North from Lima, the police are NASTY! on this bit of road and they will try every trick in the book to get money out of you, I think everyone who passes this way has the same problem. We just kept saying that we didn´t speak spanish and they got bored after half an hour and told us to go. Other than that the massive military presence in Colombia has lead to a lot of roadside checks and we have come in contact with a few bad police but the usual " I don´t speak spanish" did the trick with them too.

Oh yeh and if you want to go to central America from Colombia you can go with Hornlinie ( Horn-Linie Hamburg Reederei Frachtschiffreisen Frachterreise Karibik Cameroon Freighter Cruises ship cargo cruises travel - Hornbay, Horncap, Horncliff, Alicante Carrier, Algeciras Carrier ) who do ro/ro to Peurto Limon in Costa Rica. But beware do not attempt to ship a right hand drive vehicle in Costa Rica because it can cause lots of problems.

We have travelled on a Carnet all the way round the world and it is easy, but I don´t think you will have any problems in South America as temporany import papers are used all the time, by locals and travellers alike.

Have a safe journey, and enjoy South America there certainly is an awful lot to see. By the way camping is easy all the way through Argentina and Chile but gets a bit more difficult in Peru , then ecudor is pretty impossible but in Colombia we found that the fancy campestra hotels you see in the country will let you camp on the lawn for a small fee and you usually get to use the swimming pool and other facilities for free.

Best wishes

Jason

dear jason,

thanx a lot for all this info
are you going north now to central america or ?

we hope we ll enjoy as much as you did

we wish you a good trip too

our itineary : argentina, uruguay, maybe a little tour to sao paulo for the bienal art fair, paraguay, back to argentina to ushuaia, then chile bolivia peru, colombia, ... end in brazil

we think one year maybe more

we may go to central america so thanx for the link

enjoy
happy trails

you are on the road again ... bueno amigo
 

Hi Vincent,

good to read that you are on the road again. and you are on my favourite continent - saludos a Argentina, Colombia, Guyana y Brazil, Bolivia, Peru .... todos !!!!

a year is not enough time, but you will find that out sooner or later. did you quit your job, or they gave you a long holiday again???

Saludos a Sandra y Javier en BsAs, un abrazo a Pollo en Azul (you must go there !!!)

I have another four weeks in Europe and than I fly to Southern Africa for the winter (five months only .... Botswana, RSA, Namibia, Sambia)

Suerte

Mika

Vehicle insurance Argentina
 

Hi there,

I have seen there is some confusion about insurances taken in Argentina.

Some issues to take into account:
1.- Insurances taken in my country (Argentina) are also valid in the MERCOSUR (South American Trade Union) countries. ASK FOR MERCOSUR COVERAGE!
2.- Pay attention: not all South American countries belong to MERCOSUR.
3.- For an Insurance Policy being valid in these countries, you need the insurance policy and a certificate issued by the insurance company, saying in which countries you are covered, as well as the amounts of the coverage.
4.- This certificate also provides 0800 numbers for each country you can call in case you require assistance (towing, legal, etc)

There are a lot of brokers and insurance companies here. ACA (Automobil Club) is good, but it´s just one of the bunch.

Finally: very FEW insurance companies are happy to insure motorcycles. Most are the kind of companies that are there to send you a monthly bill... if something happens, they are GONE.

I have my BMW GS covered at ZURICH insurance company: to buy the insurance here you have to do it via a broker: they don´t deal directly with customers.
Well I hope having shed some light about this issue.

dear mika
yes, i m off again with my girlfriend, albertine, in a toyota land cruiser hzj75:
for a year, we may stay more ... as you wrote, it s short.
we may go north of panam also if we have time if it s not too complicated
my company gave me again on unlimited time to enjoy :-)
sandra did the customs clerance for the car and the first person she talked about was ... you, she really really appreciates you !!! she s very nice and has very very helfull and professional with us TO BE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED :-)
enjoy in africa

neurodoc
thanx for your advice (i m not sure i understood everything)
hope we dit it right with this insurance
we ve been in BA for 2 weeks now, very busy meeting collectors, curators, galeries, artists for contemporary art ... we ll be in BA until 10-13 oct (then uruguay paraguay then back to argentina north to south on the west coast) , the car is safe at the french embasy, we are staying around av de mayo / 9 de julio in microcentro, hostel sudamerika hipolitoyrigoyen 951, our mobile :11 6900 3595, maybe we can meet

happy trails

Hi Vincent,
glad to know you solved the insurance issue! Im heading tomorrow with some friends for SAn FRancisco(US) were we rented 3 bikes to drive around for 2 weeks. Upon return it would be great to meet and chat about our trips. I have lived in Bariloche for 15 years and may have some info of interest for you. Feel free to contact me anytime: (011) 1551827277.