From Bogota, Colombia to Miami, United States - January, 2011

OK. current shipping status in Bogota:

As noted above, recent HU recommendations were to see Carolina at Girag.

The directions to the Girag facility in previous postings are accurate, except that there are 2 Girags at the freight terminal: the office and the warehouse. The office in right under the Girag sign and they didn't know any Carolina. She, apparently, works upstairs in the warehouse which is 50 feet toward the airport on the ground level.

BTW, there is an Skypable unencrypted Wi-Fi signal at the base of the stairs going up to the Girag office.

We eventually were referred to the warehouse and were directed to Johanna who, although she was nice, apparently had never shipped a moto to Panama. Carolina was apparently working, but not available and didn't assist Johanna. Estimate for shipping to Panama = $775 per KLR 650. We had expected $350 by virtue of previous postings here.

We did the paperwork with Girag, did the police paperwork and the Aduana paperwork, but we felt like we were working with people who didn't know what they were doing and the price was double those list here.

The high price prompted a question as to how much it would cost to fly to Miami. This led to a referral to Veronica at LynCargo. It was like night and day. Her organization oozed competency and efficiency and the cost was $850 per bike to Miami.

Veronica handled everything: she found us a cheap hotel with Wi-Fi, gave us he cell phone number in case we had any problems and gave us rides to where we needed to go. We were relieved knowing that we were in good hands.
If she had two sisters, I think that we would have had dates.

When it came right down to it, having ridden from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, we did not look forward to 8 more border crossings in Central America and specifically did not want to ride through Mexico and Honduras again.

So, we flew the bikes to Miami.

It should be noted that LynCargo also ships to other locations including Panama City. There would be no question that I would use them again and not Girag.

Prior to turning the bikes over to the shipper, we needed a police/narcotics search of the bikes. He went through absolutely everything and smelled or tasted everything. We had expected dogs as we saw a German Shepard and a pit bull with one of the narco/policio.

Unfortunately, the Girag shipping intermediary was present and looked through all of our stuff, as well. You aren't supposed to carry oil, spare gas or Fix-A-Flat type products. I let the LynCargo guy dump my Sigg canister of it's quart of gas in his moto, but while he was gone, my three quarts of Mobil 1 somehow fell back into my saddle bag.

No one mentioned disconnecting the battery and there was a feeble attempt to drain more gas out of the tanks. We brought them in pretty low and the Girag guy said less than a quarter tank was OK. We lost 2 soda bottles of gas each to the LynCargo guy's bike, but he really help us a lot, so it was no big deal.

You are charged more by the volume of the bike than the weight although they weigh them. It is a combination of the two. So, we took the windshields and rear view mirrors off, but did not HAVE to.

They wrapped them in some Saran Wrap like stuff. I don't know how they were shipped but I am led to believe that they were simply tied down on palates.

For the trip to Miami, LynCargo wants 3 days. We dropped them on Friday and picked them up in Miami Monday AM.

We were told that you can pay for the shipping either in Colombia with their currency or in Miami with US currency (not true).

Veronica gave us a card for www.aerologinc.com in Miami 305 871 0130 to call Monday morning and they referred us to the actual air shipper Centurian Air which is located at 1751 NW 68th Ave Building 706.

This is in the freight area right next to MIA the Miami airport. Enter under the Centurian sign.

They gave us some paperwork and sent us to the US Department of Homeland Security; Bureau of Customs and Border Protection which is a short walk away.

We handed the officer the paperwork and we filled out a form (note that there is a form filled out in front of you on the window showing you how to fill out the form.)

Then back to Centurian to pay and collect the bikes. SO, we have made sure that we have enough $US dollars to pay, but ""No, we only accept money orders, cashier's checks or postal money orders and IT'S MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY AND EVERYONE IS CLOSED.

The guys at Centurian were cool and knew of a gas station that did money orders, gave us a ride there and everything was fine.

We really were expecting another full search of the bikes like we personally got at MIA after flying in from Bogata, but there was no search.

The bikes looked OK on first inspection, but mine would not start. After going through all the causes, I determined that the vacuum hose to the vacuum operated pet cock was off. I plugged that back in and it started and on closer inspection, it looked like the bike had been turned over on the left side. I assume that they pulled the hose off getting it back upright.

It wasn't the first time that the bike had been on its side in the past 2 years. The Jesse Bags and the Maier hand guards prevent any significant damage.

So, there it is: LynCargo and Miami; not Girag and Panama City.

Craig Carr
Minnesota