Shipping bike into Santiago Chile

[lend]

Looking for information or advice re: clearing my bike through customs in Santiago Chile. Where is the office that I will need to visit? Where will my bike be located? Is this near the airport? Are there low priced accommodations near where I pick up the bike? How long can I expect the entire process to take?

I may be able to obtain a lot of this information through phone calls after arriving in Santiago, but it would be kind of nice to have some idea of what is involved ahead of time.

My bike is scheduled to arrive via air on Friday Nov. 17 while I will arrive on Nov. 15. Is there any chance of picking up the bike on the Sat or Sun or will I have to wait until Monday Nov. 20 to pick it up?

Finally, after months of planning, we are only days away from arriving.
Len and Karyn

[Patagoniax]

Since your arrival date has passed and we presume you have by now received the bike, could you update your earlier posting and let us know how it went?

best regards

[maria41]

Hi Lend, like the other postage above. I will be flying my bike from London to Santiago in Late April and would like to have some details of how it went for you if you can post it?
It would be very useful and I would be really grateful!
Thanks,
Maria

[mmaarten]

Actually you don't need a broker or agent!
You just take a taxi to the cargo-area of the airport.
Go to the office of the airline that shipped your bike.
They will give you some forms (cost aprox 10 U$)
With those forms you go to the cargo-warehouse (close by)
Then to Customs where they will do some paperwork.

Next comes the tricky bit. You take the bus to the airport and, as already stated by FG you go to immigration to get a stamp and a piece of paper.

Back to the cargo-warehouse where you receive your bike.

There is a fuel-station in walking distance
They let you assemble the bike next to the warehouse, but bring tools (they only have hammers and crowbars)

It's an easy 2 or 3 hour job. Everybody is helpfull. Don,t try to bribe anyone, they won't apriciate it. (this goes for entire chile)

Maaten

[lend]

It went very well, even easier than detailed above. Initially I had a real problem finding a shipper in Canada. I finally contacted one of the Chile Airlines which connected me with an international shipping company called Nippon Express. Nippon Express in Canada arranged the shipping of the bike and gave me a contact person for Nippon Express in Chile. The Chile representative met me at the airport with all the necessary papers and helped me through the entire process. Right down to the point of bringing me fuel.

This entire process was a real pleasure. Since then we have traveled into Argentina and Uruguay. Both of those border crossings with the bike were a real pleasure. Completely different that anything in experienced in Central America.

Might also add, I got lost trying to get out of Santiago. I stopped a Motorcycle police officer but was unable to understand his directions. He then told me to follow him as he led me back onto the freeway.

What else can I say, so far any official in South America has been very helpful and very patient. I am not sure a forigner who could not understand the language and customs would be treated nearly as well in my country.