Canadian riding Vancouver to Argentina, insurance and paperwork, whats missing?
 

I'm leaving on a bit of a short notice, all around the trip planning has been a bit short, I got the idea about a month ago, serious two weeks ago, and leave Oct 4th.

I'm currently awaiting a new passport, got a new birth certificate since both got stolen.
doh Some crackhead kicked my door in and swiped my laptop at the same time. Vancouver PD know who works this area, but without proof for this theft.


My bike isn't currently insured, I'm wondering if it's possible to insure it somewhere else, the guy who got the idea stuck in my head has his bike insured in the USA, and he's from Oz. I'll be paying about 1400$/year for basic liability here in BC.

I've got blue cross medical insurance here in BC, but I'm not covered for travel, trying to find the cheapest effective travel insurance, has anybody had success with the GEOS service(the people who provide SAR insurance for SPOT trackers) I was thinking of getting a spot tracker, and their medivac coverage, it seems a lot better deal than medijet

https://www.geosalliance.net/geoslogin/orderstart.aspx


But for the basic travel insurance I don't know who to use, blue cross on their website wouldn't cover me more than 182 days.

I'll be getting my full license in the next couple weeks I hope, I have a full drivers license, and L permit on the bike(had that for a year at a time twice now, never got around to the road test)
I think to keep my medical coverage valid I need to get that sorted?

Is it worth getting the CAA international drivers permit?

Once I have all my documents I'll sit and scan and print good copies of all, so I'm not really worried about it for ID, just not sure if it's required.

Much like my HUBB meeting trip, this is being done on a shoestring budget(under 4000$ to go with for a year)
so anywhere I can avoid spending money is good.

Visas I'll try and do at the borders, no time to sort them out before I leave. I think I'm up to date on vaccines except yellow fever, but I'll have to get my vaccine book and verify.

Ummm, where's that little bug-eyed emoticon? :eek3::eek3::eek3:

This is about sufficient to buy you gasoline, nothing else, for a year of riding. No visas, no food, no lodging, no insurance, no fees, no repairs, no tires, no tours, no (gasp!) beer..... Or at least that's more or less what I spent on fuel.

Best factor in some sort of backup plan, because you'll probably need it.


Mark

As for all of that, I'll be camping a lot, most food will be just whatever I can cook up on top of a pop can stove(Half-Penny version), a family member has promised to teach me how to properly prepare and eat iguanos in Mexico at least:)
. And not much beer at all. :frown:
But given a choice of beer or the trip...
I have Visa to help cover the end of the trip, and potentially another bit of money coming in in January but I don't want to count on it until I have it.

Also, the person who invited me down graciously offered to pay for the rooms where we stay once we meet up because he'd have to anyways, not entirely true but very generous!

EDIT: I am mostly kidding about the iguanos.

It's your trip, not mine. But unless you find someone to also pay your gas, Darien transport, import fees, insurance, tires and all else you're going to come up short. Plus, unless you are spectacularly well-suited to each other you're going to get pretty sick of piggybacking on someone else long before a year is up.

I'm happy to be proven wrong. Enjoy your trip and post back here in a year!

Mark

Sorry, there needs to be a funny face on here for silly comments, I'm not going to be piggybacking on anybody, merely stating that it was offered, and that I'm trying to spend as little as possible on extraneous crap that I will never use.beer

3000$ cash is what I expect to be starting with, after I insure the bike, and buy the last odds and ends my expenses tend to be minimal.

At any rate: I will have some work available on the way, a friend who is selling whatever I haven't got rid of by the time I go, and I am hoping to make more up as I go along. There is a bit more money I am hoping for in January, but not expecting as things tend to go sideways when you expect them.
There is a chance the school I go to may chip in a bit later on.
But every bit of that is dependent on things out of my control so I won't be counting on it until I see it.

but if all else fails, I am riding a 30 year old 500$ bike. I will have a DSLR and decent laptop that should fetch a bit of money if I run too far out of funds, and beyond that my good friend Visa will buy me a ticket home, and I'll start over again when I can, or continue with my pack.
Tires; I am looking at about 70$ a tire, I haven't any choice on those, as the only company making dualsport tires in my wheel size(120/90r16) is Duro. Insurance etc can all go on the non emergency credit card.


This thread is not really intended to be about my finances, more about the paperwork, what I may be missing, and what I can avoid spending money I don't absolutely need to.

Does the IDL fall into this category? 15$ is 15$.
What about insurance for Canadians, is there a cheaper travel insurance to look at, maybe if I am carrying bike and travel through CAA at the same time? With all the temporary insurances I must carry elsewhere, can I avoid paying for more than liability(half the price)and assume that travel insurance will pick up the slack if I am injured and can't work.

I'm not trying to be rude, and I do respect your opinion on the costs of doing this trip, but I need to go, and I've got what I've got to work with, so I'm trying to do what I can.

EDIT: there will be a lot more than a post back in a year, my school is backing me for doing this trip in terms of paperwork, that's the reason I must go now, no go, lose 3 credits. Not enough credits and the student loan people come after me with fees and interest.
I will be doing website/trip report as a requirement for those credits.

Insurance differs by country, state, province (I assume) and whim of the seller. Answers applicable to me won't work for you. In fact, answers applicable to me won't even work in Oregon or Idaho. And most insurance is not obligatory anyway; you're just taking bets on yourself, other drivers, political trends and your own dumb luck. You could go without any insurance at all in most countries, including travelers insurance, health insurance, drivers insurance, whatever. That'd save you a bunch....as long as you don't ever need it.

In Mexico, as many places in Latin America, you'll get jailed if you're in an accident and don't have Mexican insurance (online for US$70, at the border for $100)---maybe for a month, maybe for a year. In Peru there's a cop on the PanAm who's been extracting US$200 bribes from riders without insurance, which is only available locally for several hundred bucks, one year term. In Colombia some borders require it, others strongly suggest it. I always buy for Mexico, not for Peru and one of two times in Colombia. I skipped it in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and other places. What's your risk tolerance?

IDL is generally not needed....until it is. I always carry it, rarely need it, but save on bribes when I do need it.

Get the drift? You need to answer these questions based on yourself and your own situation and willingness to embrace risk, not mine.

Of course in the end you'll be fine regardless. You've got a substantial safety net as a First World citizen with all sorts of plastic cards and connections and possessions to flog off along the way. I'm just saying you need more money to do what you're proposing to do. If you're content to make the necessary adjustments on the fly, that's your choice.

Maybe someone else will chime in more productively than me.

Mark

PS: Did you say birth certificate? What in the world would you want a birth certificate for?

:thumbup1::thumbup1:

Thank you! That was exactly the kind of great insight I needed, and very productive. Completely invaluable to this sort of badly planned plan, especially the tip about saving 30$ on Mexican insurance.
I'll be carrying full coverage from BC(liability 2million, and underinsured motorist, which uses that 2m to cover me in case of hit and run or uninsured drivers incl as a pedestrian)
full travel medical from CAA(5m) was only 180$ for 6 months, I'll renew then.

It was mostly the difference in cost of different insurers within Canada I was wondering about, but it seemed that blue cross wouldn't even touch it so that solved that.


I'll get my IDL this week, knowing that I won't need it until I do is exactly the info that makes me reconsider the 15$ expense.
The birth certificate is required before you can replace a passport when some inconsiderate jerk kicks your door in and steals the stuff in your house along with your laptop. And notarized forms, and more money and so on.

OK,

First of all, your ICBC coverage is not valid outside of Canada and the USA. So just take out enough months in insurance to get you to the Mexican border. You could take out a full year in order to have a later expiry date on your registration papers (it might be better for border crossings and police checks). Then give someone legal permission to cancel the insurance for you while you're away. This has to be in writing. Check with ICBC on how to do this.

Make sure that someone trustworthy has copies of all your documents back in Vancouver, including any credit cards you take with you. Also, take a digital photo of them all, or scan them, and send them to yourself to a web based email account. That way you can access them from anywhere. If you have a passport you should not need to carry your birth certificate. In fact it's probably a lot safer to leave it at home. Passport and Birth Certificate are best kept in different locations so you don't risk losing them both at once. Leave the birth certificate with the trustworthy person back home.

Also make sure that your passport will still be valid for 6 months for the last country you're planning on entering. So if Argentina/Chile will be the last countries in December, 2011 make sure your passport is valid until May/June, 2011. Countries vary but some need your passport to have 6 months remaining on it. Those with South American experience might be better able to give you details on this.

You can buy Mexican insurance online or at various agencies in the southern USA, or at the Mexican border. It's not mandatory but highly recommended since Mexico, and Central America, can detain ALL parties involved in a motor vehicle crash until fault and liability has been determined. Having Mexican insurance, or being willing to quickly make a deal by the roadside could keep this in check. But based on your budget that may not be possible.

Most Central American countries involve some kind of fee to get yourself and the bike into their countries. This ranges from about $0(El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama) to $5-$10 to $35(Honduras) to $60 (Mexico). In addition, insurance is mandatory and sold at the border in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Belize. This ranges from $15 to $20 each. They'll all be asking for multiple copies of bike registration/title, passport and driver's licence. It's advisable to carry at least 5 copies of each for each border. But they can usually make copies at the border.

I know you've said that this is not about finances. But here is more of a logistical thing you need to consider. Once you've taken the bike into a country they expect you to take it back out. In some countries the bike is stamped into your passport. So if you end up running out of money it's not really a simple case of selling or abandoning the bike and heading home. Some countries may not let you leave until you've paid the import duties. Others may not stamp your passport, or may fail to properly check on the way out. But you may then run into problems should you attempt to enter the country again at a later date, after your vehicle import permit has expired.

Also make sure to search this site for stories on crossing the US border as a long term traveller. The US border can in some ways be the most difficult one. If they learn about your actual plans and your budget, I can almost guarantee that you'll be riding back home to Vancouver before the trip even starts.

I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing this trip. In fact I'm absolutely fascinated by what I see as a grand experiment. Please do keep a blog or make ride reports.

Good luck and have fun.


...Michelle
www.scrabblebiker.com

Thanks, but because ICBC takes so long to cancel, the insurance agent recommended the minimum term of 3months. Last time it took them almost that long to refund my money. I have a friend who will have copies of everything, and has power of attorney as well.

The birth certificate was just for getting passport, drivers license and that sort of thing replaced locally, not for taking with. Just begrudging the expense and irritation of waiting for it.
US border, I know the drill. Had enough run ins with them in the past, comes with driving beaters I guess. I'm just going to visit family in eastern Mexico, got address phone numbers etc to back it up, in reality I won't have time on the way south but I will on the way back.
Wow that many copies, eh?
Would you recommend leaving with 10 copies and getting more on the road then to have the 5 per border?
I thought the Mexican insurance is only 70$? Is that on top of the entry fee?
What about the remaining countries, like Peru, where it's supposed to happen but you just risk a large fine by not having it. I wish there was a universal travelers insurance, but obviously that's too much to expect, everybody needs their cut right.


It was great meeting you at HU West(I was on the GS400 with the mask on the front)

That's pretty much what I did. When down there look for signs on stores saying "fotocopias". They're plentiful and cheap. You could even get them at the borders but I prefer being prepared and not leaving the bike out of sight for too long at the borders.

Insurance for Mexico varies. If you can get it for $70 ...great! Mine was substantially more but included coverage for my relatively new and more expensive bike, on top of liability. The amount I quoted in my post was for the Tourist visa ($35) and the temporary bike import ($25) ...approximately.

Can't help you with that one. But I suspect that if you search the HUBB you'll come up with some answers.

LOL!! now I know who you are and your whole plan is starting to make sense. I guess the bike did make it all the way from Saskatchewan to Vancouver after all.
:thumbup1:

...Michelle
www.scrabblebiker.com