Shipments done by Travellers

The new habour, formerly only Baku, is finished at the location of Alat (Elat) 70 km south from Baku. Ships are only for trucks, busses (our 6m-expedition mobile has been declared as "minibus" ...) and motorbikes, not for travelling passengers without vehicle. The ferry usually seems to arrive at 2 p.m, and tries to leave at 5 p.m. This may be delayed, yesterday it was 7 hours late. The officer told us, that the ships will only start when they are full, this may last three days in unlucky case.

I tried to ship the bike on boat from Gothenburg. But there were so many problems. Bilding a create with approved wood, uncertenty about reloading in germany and the time for that, the paperwork.

I decided to fly it over and contacted darryl at james cargo. From that point there were no problems. They could shop the bike from stockholm but I drove it to london so I could have a small trip as a wormup. The build the crate. They handle a lot of the paperwork and they checked for dangerous goods that wasnt allowed on the plane.

I went back home and worked another week. Then I was lucky too go on the same plane as my bike. The custom did the paperwork on arrival, lucky me. And the day after I could get my bike at air canada cargo servise. The were very helpful. My battery was without power so they fixed jumper cables and solved the situation.

Thanks to them and darryl it went so smooth. Mayby a little more expensive than boat shipping but not much and it went so smooth. Definitely worth it.

We traveled from Peru to Ecuador via the Amazon and really enjoyed our trip.
This trip can only be done by motorcycle as you'll need a few canoes in the process as well. As you will have to reload your bike a few times, a few scratches are hard to be avoided, but also during the trip. We broke our mirror on the last boat and the bike fell over on the second boat, breaking our windshield among a few other things.
Again, we loved it, the trip was really cool. As mentioned before, you will need four boats. Our trip goes from Peru to Ecuador but the other direction will be the same.

Yurimaguas - Iquitos
The furthest you can drive is Yurimaguas. Here you go to the port and ask around for the next boat to leave for Iquitos, our boat was Eduardo X. The captain will tell you he will leave today, but in reality it will leave when it's full of cargo. It could take a few days but not more. You can live on board during this time and save some cash on accommodation.
The boat takes three days and costs 300 Sol for two persons in a private cabin including three meals per day. We paid 150 Sol for the bike and two times 20 Sol to the porters to help getting the bike on and off the boat.
It's only 100 Sol per person if you sleep in your hammock on the deck. But there are few advantages that come with the cabin: You don't need your own bowl and cutlery and no standing in line, all meals are served to your cabin. On top of that, dinner is always much better for the cabins. Also the cabins are good to keep your equipment safe.
If sleeping in a hammock sounds cool to you, there'll be more of that later.

Iquitos - Pantoja
Basically as soon as you leave the boat coming from Yurimaguas, you should ask around for your next boat. It's probably not far from where you are and you can go have a talk
with your new captain. The same story here: don't believe what he says, even though he really seems sure that he will tomorrow. Here's the tricky part as it can take up to
two weeks before departure. We were lucky and waited only three days (everyday we were told that it would be tonight).
As there is no customs office at the border, you'll have to cancel your TIP here in Iquitos (Coordinates for the aduana office in Iquitos: -3.72757 ; -73.24857)
Our boat was the Heroica and it took five days to reach Pantoja. There are no cabins on board so you'll need a hammock to hang on deck. Price is 100 Sol per person and 200
Sol for the bike (we got 50 Sol discount for the damage on our windshield), and again 20 Sol to load our bike. The conditions on board are not so good as on the previous boat. There are lots of hammocks on a tight space and the food is pretty bad. Take some snacks!!!

Pantoja - Nuevo Rocafuerte
Pantoja is the border town in Peru, here you have an immigration office where you need to go to get your passport stamped.
Take your time here, Pantoja is a nice little village with one or two basic places to stay.
There's no waiting anymore, you'll need to look for the biggest canoe and arrange a time to go to Nuevo Rocafuerte.
We left our bike on the Heroica and paid the porters 20 Sol for unloading the bike and rolling it straight in the canoe.
The boat was USD 60 for the ride, could be cheaper if you find people to share the trip.
We paid a few beers to some guys in Nuevo Rocafuerte to help unloading the bike, it's a bit tricky here btw.

Nuevo Rocafuerte - Coca
Nuevo Rocafuerte is a nice village as well and we enjoyed our night here. You'll find an immigration office here to get a stamp in your passport but there is no
customs office. (Important notice: You'll get your stamp in your passport but as there is no computer here, you'll still need to put yourself in the system in Quito)
There is a daily fast boat to Coca that leaves at 5.30 in the morning and takes eight hours. We paid USD 70 for the two of us and the bike, try to negotiate.
When reaching Coca, you'll be back on the road in no time. The guys from the boat helped us with loading and unloading which was included in the price.

Quito
Here you'll need to arrange for your TIP. Don't go straight to the customs office as you'll need a certificate of immigration first.
The immigration office is located in the centre of Quito (coordinates: -0.18832 ; -78.48789). Here they can't give you your immigration paper as you are not in their system yet. You'll need to wait a day for this, the next day you can come back and you'll be in the system after which it only takes a few minutes to get your immigration paper for USD 5. With this paper, go to the customs office near the airport (coordinates: 0.15123 ; -78.35010) where they will provide you with your TIP.

Total cost for the boats, the porters and our hammocks was about 400 USD.

so the plan was to send my DR650 from Calgary Alberta Canada to Tulum Mexico...hmmm how to? after a bunch of research and some luck here is what happened...

-found a fellow rider named Tim who was on his way to Baja with a truck and trailer and offered to bring my bike to Las Vegas for free..I tried to pay him but he refused as he is just one of those rare nice guys...

-i found storage in Las Vegas and the bike would stay there for 6 months until i could figure the next steps. I used Cubesmart self storage (no major issues) about $30 a month...

-while the bike was in storage my friend Nick was willing to drive the bike to Miami for me as my 2 options to ship the bike to Mexico were either via Hyde Shipping in Fort Lauderdale or Linea Peninsular in Panama City (Florida). I paid Nick $600USD as we agreed that amount would cover the basic costs whether he rides or myself. Nick was happy to go and booked his flight to Vegas. He ended covering 4500kms taking mostly back roads Vegas to Miami. The battery was dead when he arrived so he installed a fresh one. The back tire was gone a day's ride out of Miami so a new one was installed in Pensacola FL. *not cheap :( but no choice...

-i arranged a new storage spot a Life Storage in Ft Ldl. (service is so-so but it was difficult to find moto storage). Anyways "iron butt" Nick finally makes it. On the stock seat!!

-by now i have made all pre-arrangments with Hyde Shipping. Joe Rodriguez and Orlando Lopez were amazing to work with with...Very easy process...i ended up paying $363 USD...the bike needs to be tied down to any type of pallet or metal skid...does not have to be fully crated...

-so when i arrived a month later than Nick in Miami and finally Ft Ldl to pick up the bike the battery was dead again...i had pre-arranged a skid and delivery to the shipping yard with Broward Motorsports...i called them about the dead bike and they picked me and the bike up to go back to the dealership. Lenny the driver was a super guy and we chatted about my travels to 24 countries on a bike (i had shipped in the past from Miami to Venezuela with Lan Airlines)...at the shop i met Dylan the service adviser...all great guys who helped out a stranger...the total costs was $50 for the crate and $50 for delivery to the dock yard + $50 to pick me up

-so i picked up some spare parts for the trip and Lenny dropped me off at the Hyde Shipping depot. We tied tied down the bike together and i thanked him with some beer money :)...by now i could really use one myself

-the guys at the Hyde depot were very helpful-the whole process of waiting took a few hours to finish the manifest and get customs papers in order...i dropped off the bike on a monday...they shippped out on thursday and the bike arrived the following Tuesday as promised.

-now onto to Mexico...The day the bike arrived i had to locate the Hyde office in Cancun. Very easy with a gps..i was in and out in 5 minutes...then of to Puerto Morelos to retrieve the bike...the process took about 2 hours and went very smooth...lots of paperwork and photocopies and then it's finally over..I brought my bike over on a tourist permit but i planned to leave the bike in the state (Quintana Roo) forever as Qroo is a free zone...a few days later i drove the bike down to the Mexico/Belize border.

Found the Banjercito office on the Mexico side and cancel my tourist permit...the bike is now legal in the state of QRoo only with no further paperwork...

oh yeah almost forgot $40USD port charge out of mexico.

ENGLISH:

I’ve shipped my motorbike with the agency Enlace Caribe from Cartagena.

It was a pain: mistakes in many documents, late e-mail replies, lack of knowledge about port procedures and unfriendly service. I had to double check all the papers they printed (due to several errors in them) and I was told not to clean the bike before the shipment but at the port I was charged extra money because the bike was dirty.

Only when the motorbike was finally shipped I was asked to pay cash because credit card was not allowed: I was never told to pay cash in any previous e-mail and when I noticed that to the manager he then started treating me really unfriendly. I was then forced to stay two more days in Cartagena to collect the money by ATM and when I finally collected them (to shorten the wait I payed with some Euro and USD I already had, plus COP - Colombian Pesos) I was extra charged due to unconvenient exchange rate they offered me. I was two days late to leave Cartagena (my original travel plan was ruined) so I eventually accepted this exchange rate but at the end I had to pay 86 $ more than the original price.

I don’t recommend the services of Enlace Caribe unless you want: inaccuracy, late e-mail replies, bad customer care and to pay a higher price than the original quote.

ESPAÑOL:

He enviado mi moto con la agencia Enlace Caribe desde Cartagena.

Fue un experiencia muy mala: errores en muchos documentos, respuestas de correo electrónico tardías, falta de conocimiento sobre los procedimientos portuarios y servicio muy malo. Tuve que revisar todos los papeles que imprimieron (debido a varios errores) y me dijeron que no era necesario limpiar la motocicleta antes del envío, pero en el puerto mismo me cobraron porque la moto estaba sucia.

Sólo cuando la moto fue finalmente enviada me pidieron que pagar en efectivo, porque no era posible con tarjeta de crédito: averigué que nunca me dijeron que pagar en efectivo en cualquier correo electrónico anterior y cuando lo dije al director dela empresa él empezó a tratarme realmente hostil. Entonces fue obligado a quedarme dos días más en Cartagena para recoger el dinero desde el cajero automático y cuando finalmente lo coleccioné (para acortar la espera pagué con un poco de Euro y USD que ya tenía, además compensé con COP - Pesos Colombianos) me ofrecieron un tipo de cambio muy malo. Yá estaba dos días atrasado para salir de Cartagena (mi plan original de viaje fue arruinado) así que acepté este tipo de cambio pero al final tuve que pagar 86 $ más que la cotización.

No recomiendo los servicios de Enlace Caribe a menos que usted desea: inexactitud, respuestas tardías por correo electrónico, mala atención al cliente y pagar un precio más alto que la cotización original.