Hi,

I´m in Guatemala and someone has stolen my Canada, British Columbia license plate.

I cannot cross borders without it (plus we are in quarantine for 14 days cause of corona).

What are my options?

Am I supposed to report it stolen?
How do I get a new one?
I was supposed to head to the Honduran border this morning to try my luck despite the country wide quarantine.

Thanks

>I cannot cross borders without it (plus we are in quarantine for 14 days cause of corona).

Maybe. If you have a police report, they might let you across the border.

If you are indeed required to be under quarantine, then enjoy your time in Guatemala. There are worst places. Lodging and food are both inexpensive.

General suggestions:

- Contact the Canadian embassy or consulate. See what guidance or assistance they can offer.
- Check-in with friends/family in BC and ask if they can request re-issue or replacement
- Have someone call or leave your bike in your hotel and show up at a police station to file a report. Request a copy of the report. This might backfire if police decide to impound your bike because it doesn't have a license plate...you never know what will happen in Latin America (Central Ameria is the craziest part.)
- Fabricate a facsimile license plate. A well-equiped copy shop will be able to make a color print. Mount it and seal it so it holds up in the rain...
- Leave your bike on the northside and walk into Honduras. Ask if you'll be able to import the bike without the original license plate (show the police report.) If they say "No!", then walk back and you won't have to re-import your bike back into Guatemala...

I will be following your story. I am keen to know if the quarantine applies when leaving Guatemala.

PS: Forget El Salvador. "El Salvador’s president has imposed a national quarantine that prohibits any foreigners from entering the Central American country for 30 days to try to keep out the new coronavirus."
https://apnews.com/57d413557858077d861f846670ca3515

__________________
Peter B
2008/09 - NJ to Costa Rica and back to NJ
2012/13 - NJ to Northern Argentina, Jamaica, Cuba and back to NJ
2023 - Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia...back to Peru.

Blogs: Peter's Ride

I don't remember anyone actually looking at my license plate at any of the Central American borders. Certainly, this does happen from time to time (Cuba stands out as an extreme example), and I may have forgotten or not noticed. The general rule is that I go up to a window or inside with my paperwork, leaving the bike with the other vehicles.

I'm always hearing about people who've lost plates and substituted something handwritten, even crudely. This seems to work in at least a lot of cases.

Given all of that, I'd not be inclined to draw anyone's attention to a missing plate. If they noticed, I'd smile and wave my arms around a lot, protesting about los ladrónes in wholly incompetent Spanish. Probably everything will work out from there, although it might be necessary to negotiate a very small bribe.

Hope that's helpful. All usual caveats apply.

Mark

PS: Per the above, it's my understanding that entry into El Salvador is totally shut down at the moment. If you're headed south on the PanAm, divert to enter Honduras thru Copas Ruinas, which is a much friendlier border and route anyway. If you're prone to anxiety, arrange to transit Tegucigalpa during the daytime and you'll wonder what all the fuss is about.

In much of the world, plates are NOT government issued, you get them made for you at a bike shop or sign printers. They're plastic letters laminated to the back of a piece of clear plastic, and a coloured - usually yellow - layer laminated on the back. You end up with black letters on a yellow plate.
As long as the correct numbers/letters per your registration is there, no worries, no one will care. And it certainly won't be the first time someone has had a plate stolen.

And CERTAINLY follow the number one rule of border crossing - NEVER ask for information on procedures where you might not like the answer!!

Hope that helps!

__________________
Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
------------------------
Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

What Giant Johnson said ...


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+2on what Grant says , just make certain you never lose the documentation of ownership , now THAT would give rise to problems .
.
Further to the suggestion by Markharf , which has a spelling slip-up.

The border crossing he recommends is FLORIDA COPAN , which is straight east of CHIQUIMULA ,GT on highway CA 11 . That crossing gets a regular stream of tourist going to the Copan Ruins close to the border .


And are you sure the plate was stolen ,or did it just rattle loose and fall off not being double nutted on ?

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http://advrider.com/index.php?thread....207964/page-5 then scroll down to post #93

either way it's gone.

went to a metal shop and they're banging me out a new one as we speak!

This: Fabricate a facsimile license plate. A well-equiped copy shop will be able to make a color print. Mount it and seal it so it holds up in the rain.

You could ask the local transitos if they "found" your plate. The police in San Miguel Allende, MX have taken my license plate twice when I was parked in a "prohibited" area. I went to the police station and paid a small fine then they gave me my plate back. Buena suerte!

Exiting to Honduras is no longer an option ; the only land borders still open(who knows for how long) for exit only , are Belize and Mexico .

Im gonna sit here and wait out the border. Antigua is nice haha

the metal shop is closed anyways during the quarantine!

I don't post on here often but I use instagram if you guys are curious and what more frequent updates

@hongthetourist

cheers

Questions?

What happens if I over stay the 90 day passport stamp and 90 day bike Sticker here in Guatemala {San Miguel Duenas now - near Antigua}.

How much is the Fine?

Will they keep my bike?

Other options without leaving Guatemala?

Have no plans of leaving even if the El Salvador boarder opens & don’t want to head back to Mexico either.

Any insight\info is much appreciated.

George.

Before we shipped our bike to Europe (from the USA) for extended riding I photographed the plate and had a sign shop print one in color and life sized on the corrugated plastic used for yard signs. I installed it and then threw the real plate in the topbox. Nobody ever questioned it's validity.

__________________

Our Favorite Roads, until the next trip!
Bob & Kathy
The adventures of Lemonade

Similarly, I color copied mine, laminated it and punched holes to mount it. It looked good, wear marks and all copied well. I rode with my real plate and carried the copy, never used it, but it was an easy hedge against a future possible problem.




.............shu

Or you could take a good quality photo and upload that to the cloud. Then if the plate gets stolen, you can print the photo off at any internet cafe, and laminate it at that point.

I did this with all of my important docs (drivers licence, passport, etc) when I was living in Mexico. My wallet was stolen and I was able to make a copy of the drivers licence and laminate it. Looked very much like the real deal.

__________________
Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250