From Guayaquil, Ecuador to Panama City, Panama - December, 2000

This was not easy and I was considering not putting this information on here but I guess it may be useful. The only reasons I recommend using these people are that reliable options for freighting out of Guayaquil seem to be limited and it did all work out well for me in the end.

Getting to Panama from Ecuador was a real hassel for me because almost all the aircraft flying there directly from Guayaquil are too small to take my bike. The largest dimensions most airlines could accept was 2m length, 1m width and 1.2m hieght. My bike wouldn't get to less than 2.4m in length so I was going to send it by sea freight. I wasn't happy about that and the shipping line were constantly changing their sailing date. Luckily Lacsa do fly airplanes large enough to take my bike so that's who I used in the end.

I arranged it through an agent called Luis Ernesto Arteaga Nowak who was listed as a customs clearance specialist in the South America Handbook. It is a small father and son company with about 4 other staff. Both father and son are called Luis Arteaga. Luis junior is really clued up and has a lot of helpful contacts. Luis senior is ok but mostly likes surfing the net and reminising about when he was a champion motorcycle racer back in the 1950's. One of the guys who work for them who's about 30 is good but every one else is no more than a minor assistant who won't lift a finger until told to by one of the Luis's.

Luis junior arranged the airfreight, crating and customs clearance. After 10 days of being messed around by the shipping company Luis found out about the flight at 10.30am and the plane was due to leave at 4.00pm. Lacsa agreed to take the bike provided I got it to the airport by 11.00am and had it crated and through customs by 3.00pm. It was completely crazy involving riding the wrong way up a one way street to get around burning barricades erected by striking factory workers (yes, really) but we made it with 15 minutes to spare! Lacsa issued the Dangerous Goods Certificate themselves as I drained the oil, disconnected the battery etc. and had it crated in their warehouse at Guayaquil airport.

I paid every one in cash which was necessary due to the speed of arranging everything. ATM machines in central Guayaquil can dispense huge amounts of dollars at a time. This was a seriously expensive process for a 1.5 hour flight!

You may be able to bypass Luis Arteaga by going direct to Lacsa. They are located near Challenge Air Cargo's offices at Guayaquil airport. The small office with no sign directly opposite Challenge's offices is the Lacsa office nearest their warehouse but there may be no one there. To get to their main office turn right imediately after you enter the access road leading to Challenge Air Cargos offices. It can be found on the first floor of a large building about 150m from the gate. Its not clearley marked so you will have to ask. Oh, in case you were wondering, Challenge Air Cargo won't touch bikes. (N.B. Grant flew our bike from Challenge Air Cargo from Bogota to Miami in April, 1998, so this is either a new rule or the Ecuador operation has different policies than the Colombian one - worth checking with them anyway).

Clearing customs in Panama was no problem. I had to pay Lacsa US$14.00 administration charges and was luckily steered through the customs formalaties by a customs agent for free. The biggest hassel was that Lacsa's warehouse at the airport is about 4km from customs and the weather is very hot and humid. I got a lift. The whole process took about 2 hours.