We will be close to Colombia around October - November, but now all travel advice tells us that all borders with other countries are dangerous. Assuming the official information is on the cautious side, what can you advice? Is it possible to get in one piece from Colombia to Venezuela and Ecuador?

Thanks ..
Auke

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Auke
http://aukemarieke.blogspot.com

There are bikes moving through Colombia constantly these days and no reports of problems other than the usual falling off stunts.
Don,t belive the hype,Colombia is OK!!!
Al thebarkingspider

To Ecuador there's no problems at all, just went most of the way to the border Friday to recover a crashed bike from an American.

The border to Venezuela should be no problem either. Only concern are reports from travelers in Venezuela being spit on on the street and told to get the **** out of their country.

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Keep On Ridin' In The Free World

- Mike

Putting together a plan to make Cali by the 25th of Oct. and after the gathering heading to Panama. Ran across a contact for sea transport of me and my moto north. (metacometpassages@yahoo.com) They make regular runs back and forth so thought that some heading south to the gathering might want to look into coming by sea. Now if I just did not have to stay and work I could be ready to leave sooner.

Robert

Great - join our group ride north from Cali if you want!

See ya!
Mike

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Keep On Ridin' In The Free World

- Mike

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Keep On Ridin' In The Free World

- Mike

Mike,

in Fortaleza now and with the pace that I'm going it may take me up to november till I get there. If not I'll drop by in Cali.

Take care till then.

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Gertmans
Looking for his buddies on the South American continent
KLR 650
www.gertmans.wordpress.com
www.picasaweb.com/gertmans

I went through the Ecuador/Colombia border yesterday (Tulcan) and it's the easiest South American border I've been through. Also Natalia (the Colombian aduana/customs woman is the most unbelievably beautiful human being on the planet. If you don't get her when you go through customs, refuse to continue until you do!

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Simon

London-Cape Town 2004-06
Buenos Aires-Vancouver 2008-10:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/fitzpatrick

Colombia is absolutely no problem and the border crossing that most bikers do between Colombia and Ecuador (Ipiales) is the easiest and fastest border crossing in South America.

If there should be any problems it would maybe be inside Venezuela, where several travelers now report about being treated badly, two British girls where spit on on the street and told to get the held out of the country. Other similar stories have been told here at my hostel the last couple of month, but I would not worry to much and probably just go there to see for myself

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Keep On Ridin' In The Free World

- Mike

Hey guys, my friend and I are buying ATK bikes when I arrive in Bogota on the 17th of July, when searching their website I found this page of PDF magazines for download:

Rutas AKT - AKT Motos - Poder a tu alcance

Each magazine has heaps of routes and stuff to do, I'm stoked & can't wait!

P.S. do houses / hostels in Colombia usually have gas heated or electric heater water?

Not to burst your bobble, but it is illegal to buy a vehicle new or used in Colombia on a tourist visa. Its not possible to register the bikes and thereby also impossible to sell them again later.

Just had two Danish guys in big trouble here in Cali. They bought two small bikes used in Santa Marta (at gringo price). Never where able to register them and when they tried to sell them they found out it was impossible. Luckily they where never stopped by the police, which would 99% sure have meant confiscation on the spot.

Me and my wife tried to help them get the original owners to sign a new sales contract leaving the buyer space blank, so we could sell them to a Colombian, but they then claimed they never received any money and that they would make a police report of theft if the guys didn't pay even more money.

I eventually managed to sell the bike without papers to 1/4 of the price they paid a month after the guys left the country. But that was not easy!

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Keep On Ridin' In The Free World

- Mike

I don't think it will be that hard from a dealer, last week I sent out an email to about 50 dealers in Bogota and the response was overwhelming, all of them trying to help me and giving me some fantastic offers even after I said we are two Australians only staying for a month.

I believe the very worst case scenario is that I'll have to put it in someone elses name and visit a Notoria to have an agreement stamped, afterall we don't plan on crossing any borders.

Anyway I'll give it my best go and if I'm successful I'll write up a guide for the HUBB so people know.

Hey guys,
I posted this in the other thread but believe I should post it here as well as I said I would make a guide so here it is.


I would like to confirm that my friend and I have successfully purchased two motorcycles from a dealer and have all of the paperwork in our names.

It was a little tricky however there is a box on the papers you fill out which says 'c.extranjero' make sure this one is crossed, it's for foreigners. They will tell you that you need a number from your identification, the number they ask for is only available to Colombians as they don't often sell to tourists however we used passport numbers but I think you can also use the number from your 'International Drivers License' which you should definitely have already if riding in Colombia.

Apart from this all we have to do now is take our licenses to the transito and obtain some stamped piece of paper which says we're licensed to ride in Colombia, we're doing this on Monday.

I would like to recommend this dealer because they helped me with the process immensely, it was AKT Motos on Avenida 1 de Mayo, one of the girls there was very kind but I don't remember her name. Their website is www.aktmotos.com. I do not believe this process to be easy if you do not speak Spanish, take a translator with you if this is the case as nobody at the dealer spoke English.

For $2.800.000 pesos each (approx $1350 usd I think) we purchased two brand new 125cc motorcycles with helmets, jacket for numberplate info, SOAT insurance all ready to go, overall took 5 days but it should take between 3-5 days depending on how busy the offices are.