Sharing a container from panama to Colombia
 

Hey we are two bikers currently in panama.
Apparently it's not possible to take bikes on those sailing cruise boats. Just got a message from a company telling us that new rules apply which forbids to get bikes on a sailing boat into Colombia. Anyhow we still researching and trying to get more informations.

Meantime we also looking into regular shipping via a container.
So if anybody is in panama looking how to get bikes or a car to Colombia we might could share a container to reduce the cost.

Please contact me if you are interested.

We looking into shipping the bikes by mid or end of this month. But we are flexible.

Cheers
Ingo

Tried the 'stahlratte'?

Next ride of the stahlratte is in two month. I wanna go over to Colombia before that.

Ah thats a shame. Good luck with your search!

Yes, I just discovered the ferry stopped in April and won't start again until November !

Now I'm looking for an option going in the opposite direction.

I understand it's possible to do the crossing with a non-commercial ship, but I'm not sure about the rules.

I'm interested to know what you learn. :)

Hey look into the stahlratte. It's s cruise sailing ship who takes bikes. Seems to be the only one who still does it.

Alternative Google for the company girag. They do air shipping. A friend just did it today. They should have an office in Colombia.

Yes, I contacted stahlratte, I don't think I can stretch my visa/permit for the next sailing, but I'm going to try.

Otherwise they gave me contact details for a logistics agent doing containers.

I wonder what the air shipping costs are like. I'll check it out.

I didn't notice this before, but there is a RoRo operating a few dates:

Price is very high for a moto at $750USD

but on further searching from the same website I found conflicting pricing $459USD:

thanks dude- i will look into this. everything i found so far is aboiut 750 to 900 USD to ship the bike via boat or air. the air shipping is the easiest and works well.

container sharing will maybe get the price down. depends. i made a couple of bad experience with sea shipping as they sometimes do not tell you the local port charges at port of arrival. they can be nothing or a couple of hundret bucks (in jakarta it was 600 USD) so then it bcomes quite expensive. so take care to find out all fees before you ship the bike

I have since got more info on container sharing, there's a bunch of people trying to get from Panama to Colombia contact the agent who is gathering overlanders teakalmbach[at]hotmail.com

I know there is at least one group of 4 bikes looking to share.

The container sharing comes cheaper and sums up to about 600$ but considering your won flight and taxt from airport to seaport etc you probably end up at 800-900 dollar and hassle at the ports.

Where the ferry coast $1000 but its more hassle free as you just ride on and off. And as they sorted out from there mistakes years ago it seems to me a good option. i really think to do it with the ferry

I thought sharing with 4 others shoud bring the price down lower than that.

You can then take a sailing boat instead of a flight for $500 (each) but a lot more fun than the flight.

But yes, all in all the ferry could be the least hassle for sure. However, I contacted the owner (Fritz) with all my info, asking for price and availablity. He responded with "Great, we will keep you updated,"

I asked again for avilability and a price, but heard nothing back 8 days ago.

I've heard some others say that the ferry may not travel.

Unfortunately there are quite a lot of bad reviews about Fritz and his time as captain of a catamaran, but I'm not going to speculate here.

I do have regualr email contact with Fritz, may because i can write in german with him.

As well i am aware of the bad reviews from about 2 years ago. But situation changed. They do not go to cartagena rather to a smaller port 160km from cartagena where the port administrator is happy to do business with the ferry so the problem of being refused to land in colombia is sorted.

Prices are the one on theior current website - the one page you found is an old one from 2 years ago with old prices so that just still indicated in gioogle i think. but if you go to the homepage and then to prices thats what it costs now. not cheap but still better then flying i think


Container: i thought the same. but i got a quote sharing with two cars a 40ft container and it would be 375$ + 65$ for port fees + 160$ fees at destination port colombia + my flight from panama to bogota to cartagena which comes to another 300$+ - so at the end the same price :(

Good luck then.

when are you coming from colombia to panama? i have some good road maps for costa rica, panama, the rest and mexico i could give to you.