Hi any info on getting my bike out of customs appreciated,costs,where do i get fuel..??

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woodduck

Hi Wody

You do not have to pay nothing except transport cost, our custom people are friendly and good.

For gasoline I sugest buy 1 liters from some taxi inside airport, the cost is around 1,6 us$ dolar per litre. Then you go to gas station to full. 2 kms from airport to west.

good luck

I`ll give a quick rundown of how we got our bike out of the airport at Santiago Chile.

We managed to get it out without too much Spanish and without the help of an interpreter but we were lucky. Other people suggest you pay a taxi driver who can speak english to help and I think that would help a lot, but we did manage to get it out, though at times a few people spoke a little English which helped us.

Most importantly - you will need airway bill, passport and bike registration. All musts

Bus to Airport - At Airport you need to get to the LanCargo area - This is about a km or so away from the main airport. We were able to get the bus from the Airport going back to the city to drop us off there for free, you will just need to find the right bus and make sure the bus driver understands where to drop you.

Once you get there you will see a large building on the right (don`t go in there) and in front of you a gate and small post leading into the main depot (lots of trucks and were all the goods are). Show you passport and get a visitor sticker to get you into the large depot area.

We booked on LanChile but our actually carrier was fastair (it will be on your airway bill). We walked down the the fastair building and then in the office. In the officer we got all our paperwork. Someone there spoke a little English.

Once you get your paperwork its back to the gate/post and you go back through it and directly adjacent to it is an office (people know thats where you want to go). In that you fill out a bunch of paperwork and get your import documentation. This was where most of the waiting was as because we couldn`t speak much Spanish the man helped us fill in the paperwork and also served us last. But they were very helpful and very professional. I didn`t have any issues with fumugation or anything as I had brought the bike over in container not made of wood. The easier you can make it, the better.

At the end he stamped all the papers and gave them back to us, he also made it clear (we needed the help of someone next to us who spoke English) that it is important the document is kept with the bike at all time in Chile, since then we now know each country you enter issues you another temporary import permit.

He also asked us at the end how much the bike was worth. Think about what you say as the only real cost we paid was 10% of that. Other than that there were minimal costs.

After we got the paperwork it was back through the gate, to the freight office, where a guy processed the papers, we paid our 10% and then they got it from the shed.

We set it up there and were on our way. The petrol station was probably 800m away, you could see it when you bused in. It probably took 2-3 hours but I would leave the day in case

And that was the start our adventure.

Since then we`ve passed into Argentina and back into Chile, we havent been charged a cent to pass through borders and its all been very straightforward.`

Reece

Aotearoa to the Andes

in your blog you mentioned that you only paid $100 in total to retrieve bike ,

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woodduck

That`s right. It was a $100 not 10%. But the $100 was somehow based on the value of the bike.

Cheers

Hi all,

Following on from Reeces post about importing your bike via plane.

I am touring around for 4 months and flew my bike from Auckland, NZ to Chile. As Reece said basically allow yourself a day, as depending on the carrier you use, you can get sent everywhere, but if you are patient and have time it is not bad at all, kinda fun in a way. I am glad I dropped my bags off and did not try to get the bike as I arrived.

I speak very little Spanish, just enough to be courteous.

First go to Cargo terminal, this is next to the airport as you leave on a bus or taxi you will pass a Shell station and you can see it after that.

As Reece said take your AWB (Airway bill), Passport and Registration of motorbike. I used Qantas and that mean I recieved the AWB physically in Santiago, I had to go to another district to collect which is about 5-10 mins from the airport. This was after being sent to various places with in the cargo area. I did have a copy of the AWB via email but the Aduanas people want the original.

Once I got the original, I went to the Aduanas reception which is in the small office to the right of the turnstiles that actually let you in to collect the cargo. there is another one in the main building but they sent meto this one as Iwas only importing temporarily. I was served by Claudio, who is a good rooster. He worked in Australia as a young man as a meatpacker. Anyway, I digress, once I recieved the Aduanas I went through the turnstiles to the warehouse, Depot Cargo?, and we started the process of recieving the bike.

Reading this it sounds really easy (in a way) but there was a lot of legwork and it did take me the whole day, including the Aduanas office had a long lunch break, especially once I put my bike back together etc.

Weirdly I did not have to pay a importers tax. Hopefully that does not come back to bite me. I asked Claudio why and he said it was because it was tempory...


On with the rest of my trip!!

Kia Kaha,

Aidan