G'day all

Just wanted to share my experience, this is what happened to me. Ymmv of course but this might help. Don't come back at me if it doesn't work for you.

In January 14 I flew into quito planning to buy a klr from another Australian here.

The bike was Californin titled. He had ridden it down from tthere.

The first thing is that he didn't have a title. He only had a registration. We dont have titles in Australia so he was genuinely surprised that he needed one. He did have the registration in his name and was the original. He was also still in contact with the dealerhe bought it from and so we called them and they were able to assure me that it was titled and clean.

The dealer also was very kind and offered to do the transfer for me. I had to just pay money for the lost transfer and the title swap and wait.

Obviously I was taking a bit of a risk thatthey were telling the truth. BBut Ifigured iit's unlikely to get repossessed. The bike was reasonably priced so I took a chance.

The title would take a few weeks so I asked him to sign a power of attorney note saying I would have permission to use the bike anywhere in the Americas including crossing borders. We couldn't find a notary and I decided to take a chance in this, this was a mistake. We did get it retype in spanish and signed by both. I took a photocopy of his licence and obviously got the registration papers in his name.

I also had the SOAT in his name. I am not a lawyer but even with the POA I was concerned this might not cover me in an accident, but I had insurance on my travel insurance that covered me for negligence. I had this printed as well just as a back up. Ecuador is small so was not a big risk.

I did get stopped twice for paper checks by the ecuador Policia (random paper checks is normal here) but they seemed to be happy with that and my international licence though.

I didn't think I would get over the border with this because it wasn't notaries. At that time I was riding with two other riders one who had great difficulty getting into ecuador with a bike in someone else's name. I would have two wait for my title. I looked at the map. Though what the hell , let's try the border it'sonly a days extra ride. The worse that will happen is ill get knocked back

I went to the main border on the pan American South of Guayquil at 9am. We hit immigration then we realise sign out for the bike is 5km back. Well the Peru sign in for the bikes is just there so we ask the guys if the paperwork was ok. They said no notary on my power of attorney for the bike so no go.

So I decide to ride back in town. I find a notary and they gave me the stamps took half hour and cost five dollars us. I went and signed out of ecuador. The notary shouldn't really have given me a stamp without the seller, but I had it.

I came back to the guys at the Peruvian aduana office. For about 20 minutes they gave me shit about my notary being signed today only. The vin was wrong (my bad) shouldcheck that. And that our passport numbers wweren't on. (only licence). I thought they might want a "fine". As I was only trying my luck, and because my Spanish was poor, I couldn't either understand or Iccouldn't respond. Then they decide to give me the permission all of a sudden and I was in Peru.

If i was going to do it again Iwould type a letter in spanish correcting all the details add the opassports then photocopy both our passports on there. Even the sellers passport plus your passport number would be better,. And notarise it immediately with the seller. Also just put it so it covers the whole of the Americas my friend only had ecuador and colombia so didn'ttry Peru immediately because of that. It's no harder.

Something like in spanish and maybe Portuguese and English : I '"sellers name " passport number give permission for" buyers name"passpoort number..... To ride and cross border to any country in North, South or Central America on my motorcycle plate number ..... And vin number....

I got emailed the title and got into bBolivia then back into Peru and back into ecuador with just that. I am now heading north

Good luck with your borders.
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