Border crossing primer
 

Spanish to English

What about a basic list of words and phrases, and the
english translation ,that would be very handy for non-Spanish speakers trying to cross Central and South American borders for the first time?

A printable form the size of a folded over business card? Really basic things that are essential – like – migracion, aduana, copias, entrada, salida, tramitadores(ugh!), quanta, aqui, a few basic phrases like “where do I go next”?, “how many days is it good for”? "Is insurance required"?

Just a quick- BORDER SPECIFIC - reference without having to paw through a book full of other non related things. I know I was lost the first time I faced a border knowing no Spanish – pretty much still am.

Anyone, Spanish speakers familar with CA borders, care to help compile a SMALL list of easy to use basic stuff that maybe if we are real nice we could get Grant to host on the HU site?

I keep reading horror stories about travelers having a tough time and getting ripped off at borders. I have some of my own. Any help at all would have been very welcome.

This would not be a "how to" guide but help in understanding signs or what you are told. Or does something like this already exist??

Hello. My girlfriend and i have been travelling thriugh C.America for the last few months and have crossed every boarder except Panama. The experience has been quite simple, although quite tiresome crossing from El Salvador to honduras. I speak VERY basic spanish and most of the time cannot understand what people say to me. I discovered that the boarder officials pick up on this and usually find someone to help my through all the beaurocracy. I spent 3 1/2 hourd in Honduras and was assigned a lovely lady who walked me through the whole process. In Nicaragua, an official made sure i crossed with no problems and the kids were very helpful, didn't ask for a penny. Today i crossed into Costa Rica and paid a guy $5 to help me out, but in the end i'm really not sure if his "help" made things any easier. All the crossings are the same, first you have to exit the country your leaving. This means Imigration and the police cancelling your bike permit. Then you will probably get fumigated , sometimes a small fee attached. Then you will give a guy a final receipt showing your bike has been checked out before entering no-mans land. Then you have to go to imigration of the country your entering. They stamp your pasport and send you on your way. Go to Aduana and be prepared with your passport, title and license. You will probably be asked for photocopies of each, so carry some with you to save time. Pay another fee and drive until someone stops you. Give him the stack of papers you just received and he will take what he needs and send you on your way. Continue until the next guy stops you and proceed the same way until your left with a permit and a few receipts. There's usually a police check within a few k's of the border, so be prepared with your passport, permit and a big smile. If you run into any problems at the boarder , ask the officials to help you and they will. They're really not interested in dealing with you much longer than they have to. Oh, it helps to be cheerful and crack the ocasional joke once and a while too.
Have fun!

Hey Mr Ron,

Have you been asked for a Carnet on any of your border crossings?

Cheers,
Justin

Park your bike w/gear as close to the gun-toting military guys as you can. :)

just drop the word huevon a few times in chile and you will be the most popular guy in the room. that is unless of course the transference on your bike never really went through and you really arent the owner......

Best/worst CA borders?
 

Hi

We will be up in Panama hopefully at the end of March and then heading north to the US.

In your opinion, what would be the better Central American borders to cross or the ones to avoid?

Cheers

big reply
 

Hi,
From my name you might not get that I'm currently living in Nicaragua, and has done so for almost 7 years. I cross border every 2 months on an average so I've had my share of CA border crossings.
First of all, the "tramitadores" are usually looking to rip you off.
There are NO oficial tramitadores, and all their carnets don't really mean anything.
If you're caucasian, as I am, they will suerly try to rip you off. They CAN be helpfull if you get to a border crossing that's completely full. They just get ahead in the line and can save time if the border is really full.
DO NOT BELIEVE ONE WORD THESE GUYS SAY!!!
If they don't have a receipt don't pay, they say they had to bribe someone that's bull.
No receipt=no money
You DON'T have to pay for your vehicle to get into, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua. Nicaragua charges 12 bucks or so for mandatory insurance, and they usually charge you even though you already have one (if it's not from Nicaragua).
Guatemala might have some minor charge, I've got a sticker on one car from Guatemala. If they do it's cheap since I don't remember.
Mexico also charges for the vehicle, that's like 80 bucks or so.
You DO have to pay to get your vehicle into Honduras. That fee varies according to border crossing, but is between 29 and 40 U$ for US registered vehicles.
NO WAY WILL THEY EVER CHARGE YOU 140 U$ as they charged a Swiss guy I met.
Nicaragua and Honduras charge you, as a person, for entrada and salida. It's like a 10 bucks total, between Honduras and Nicaragua or vice versa.
All borders are ok except:
El guasale (Honduras to Nicaragua) HOT, FULL OF PEOPLE and currently BAD roads on the Nicaraguan side.
They're repairing so in 6 months that road should be ok. The border crossing still sucks bigtime here.
Las Manos is the best crossing, cool weather, not a lot of people and you pass in less than an hour.
El Espino is ok but can sometimes be full, they're less friendly at this crossing compared to Las Manos.
Las Manos makes some extra hours of driving, if you're planing on stopping by Tegucigalpa, cross into Nicarauga via Las Manos.
The time you might loose crossing El Espino in the crossing itself, you make up bigtime for not having to drive to Las Manos.
From Honduras to El Salvador you really only have one option. I can't remember the name of this border but it's HOT and usually pretty full. Sucky.
I recently crossed into Mexico from the Us using Matamoros/Brownville.
Perfect place to cross!
Oops, now I saw that you're going south to north. Well, I'm confident you'll get my writing anyways.
Costa Rica/Nicaragua has one place of crossing with decent roads, Peñas Blancas. DO NOT CROSS during semana santa or close by christmas. I spent 4,5 hours crossing this border once.
Finally, ask people with proper border crossing clothing. With emblems on arms and such, that look official and not only carry a carnet around their neck.
The official people never asks you for money, but you can give them "gifts" if they were really helpfull, that's up to you.
Well, that's a lot of text so I'll stop writing now. Hope I helped you out some.
Anyone got any tips on tranporting an SUV from the north american continent to far east Russia???
By cargoplane or smaller boat, want to hitch it so big shippers won't do.

...nada :)............

dictionary like reply
 

Se necesita seguro OR es obligatorio el seguro vial?=Is insurance required?
I don't recommend you ask tramitadores this question, as they might sell you any piece of paper for 50$. Ask oficials. They won't let you leave anyways, without it.
por cuantos dias es valido?=for how many days is it valid? (asked in the correct context)
Adonde voy ahora?=where do I go next
estamos listos?=are we set/ready
puedo salir hacia [destination country here] ahora? Can I go to [destination country] now?
If they "Si" you, get on your bike and and rev it up. Sometimes you have to show all the important papers before leaving. passport, vehicle permit (the one you should have done by now), sometimes just a stamped piece of paper and so on...when the guy lift the wooden or metal bar. Step on it!
titulo=vehicle title/registration (original papers from your country)
Permiso de el vehiculo ("la moto" in this forum)/permiso vehicular = vehicle permit
licencia de conducir=drivers license
migracion=the guys who stamp you passport
aduana=the guys who fixes your vehicle papers
policia=the bored guys doing nothing, sometimes required to inspect your vehicle
Buenos dias=good morning, before 12:00
buenas tardes=good afternoon, after 12:00 but before 18:00
buenas noches=good evening
Señor and señora are good things to say
"señor oficial" or "señora oficial" are better and are much apreciated
señorita is offensive in some countries, not in CA though
te invito a cenar esta noche, quieres ir? = let's dine tonight!
not so usefull on border crossing but very usefull once you've made contact with the local flora
adios=good bye, also usefull when seeing an interesting looking [whatever attracts you here] going by. Add a smile to that phrase and you are sure to get one in return.
These countries are the homeland of flirting, so practice!
Mr Ron commented on this, but it's worth repeating.
Finally, the universal language of smiles can help A LOT!
Sometimes it doesn't but sometimes you smile at the correct person and you can reduce border crossing time to 10 minutes. (Have had this luck 3 times, so it's not usual) But they of course treat you better, and help you more, if you smile.
If you don't know for sure who someone is (their border status) just be friendly. The guys with homemade (id/oficial-looking) things hanging around their neck are the tramitadores and don't smile at them unless you want "help". These are the same guys cropping around your vehicle once you hit the border (some don't carry homemade carnets).
Someone just looking bored close by the cops might be the guy who runs the border, so smile at him!
SMILE!

hmm
 

I might be wrong on the Mexican costs, that might be the total with full coverage insurance, for a car (with american plates).
Honduran costs are correct though. All my prices is for cars or Suv's as that is what I use (Broken knee/near death and now with kids, I don't ride bikes).
Hopefully when I reach 50 I can start biking again as my kids would be auto-sufficient.

Cheers!

I found this to be the best document on central america border crossings. writen by jeff munn of globalriders

Central America Ride Planning and Road Wisdom - ADVrider

Honduran border update
 

Since I'm crossing the border to Honduras once a month and have noticed some changes, I thought I'd share this info:
The crossing INTO Honduras now takes from 30 minutes up to 2 hours, because of new stricter rules (new government new border officials), yepp it really sucks because it used to be really nice, at least some crossings.
This above wainting time is for fixing the papers for vehicles, passport stuff is fast, if you hit the border when there aren't a lot of people around.
Passed this Sunday into Nicaragua and the border took about 15 minutes.
Sunday at 3 pm=perfect border crossing time.

Cheers!