A short note on the ins and outs of collecting your bike from Buenos Aires airport.

If you have the shippers original of the
airway bill (copy 3 of the document), bring it with you. If you don't you will need to get this from the airline or from your chosen freight forwarder's local agent before proceeding to customs.

Don't forget to bring some petrol with you if you drained your tank for the flight!

Once you have this and are at the airport, you need to go to the cargo area. To do this, turn right after exiting the arrival hall of the international airport. After about 300 meters you will see a passage way
surrounded by a white fence. At the bottom there is a security post where you have to show your passport to be let in.

After security you walk straight ahead towards the main warehouse. To the
right of the loading ramp there is a passageway separated from the secure
area by a blue fence. Follow this around until you see a counter on your right. Continue straight on through a doorway where you will have an office on your right. When I was there this office contained three ladies one of whom was tall, good looking and had great legs. Her name is Andrea, she is very helpful and
speaks English.

The three ladies will fill in lots of forms and ask for your Carnet (I had one and I would not liked to have tried without).

They will call a customs official who will go with you to inspect your bike (checking frame numbers etc). He will check the numbers against those shown in the Carnet and stamp it.

Next you go back to Andrea to pay the storage charge (US67 per day, so don't leave the bike sitting there).

Once this is done you are free to go and get your bike. I had taken my front wheel off etc. and the guys in the warehouse were great helping me out, they even used the forklift to lift the front of the bike so I could get the wheel on and helped me push start when my battery failed.

Hope this is useful and if you see Andrea, tell her I said hello!

Fred Muchardt

Update

As of beginning of December 2003, Andrea was still there and as helpful as ever!