im now in panama trying to arrange flight for bike and myself to bogata on thursday have been told to bring bike to them on wed for packing .i have no spanish although luckily have met a fellow traveler who is helping translate for me. any info about airports places to stay close to airports copa is the airline we are using to freight the bike if anyone has any experiance of how they opperate eg do they take care of customs or help with veichle permit cant get any answers from them by phone here any advice or experiences would be very much appricated

The cargo terminal is a couple of kilometers down the road from the passenger terminal. Go early to the terminal 8-9 o'clock. Before you enter the cargo terminal you have to talk with customs that are in a small house just as you enter. Then go to the Copa office/storage. They might let you drive the bike on to an airline pallet and strap it down right away and its best if you are there for the process, so they don't drop the bike or something happens if they do it on their own.
They might ask for you to empty tank and oil and even air out of tires. Just say you have an empty tank, oil is not flammable and the air there's no reason to let out it will destroy the tires and they have to pay if the tires are damaged. Then they will usually leave it all like it is. Its not a rule from Copa that you need a seperate crate or pallet, so it quite easy to just strap it down on the airline pallet.
Then you need the airway bill with correct information, chassis no. and so on and then you go back to customs to cancel your panamanien temp. import. Then you go back to Copa and sort the rest of the paper out and you're good to go. Hitchhike back to the passenger terminal or try to find a taxi (quite hard). The area between the two terminals are not safe. So don't walk. You can thet get a plane same day with for example copa. Then you'll arrive early in Bogota so you have time to sort out where to go and so on. I don't nomuch about the procedure in Bogota, but I thinks it all fairly easy with Copa and customs.
If you change your mind you can fly with Copa to Cali all Wednesdays evenings and I can help you with all the customs here. The boss of Copa Cargo in Colombia has his office one block from my hostel here, so I have helped out several bikers and done it myself!
Cheers
Mike

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Keep On Ridin' In The Free World

- Mike

thanks kaiserkyhl for the really usefull info do you know if copa help you with customs clerance pasport stamps also veichle permit in colombia or will i have some or all of it to do myself also is it likely i can get my bike out on friday from your experience also is your hostal in cali hard to find

Holly,
I live in Panama City. Give me a call if you have a problem at 6678-9394.

The process in Bogota is simple (and the people were friendly... they even served me coffee). It took me about 2 hours total. The customs office is very close to the Copa warehouse where you'll pick up your bike. Just walk over with the paperwork.

Do be careful leaving the airport on the bike. While it's officially not required for foreigners, we were surrounded by eight cops with drawn guns for not having the required red vests with license numbers on them! Others haven't had this problem, but be warned. If you can explain that you just came from the airport there should be no problem.

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Steve Barnett
Panama City, Panama

yeah customs should not be a big problem. They´ll give you a temporary importation permit matching the visa in your passport.

Though its not required to get the orange west for tourists, I have now heard of several bikers having smaller troubles for not wearing it. Its only cost from 3 dollars and up depending on quality. And you should also buy 3rd party insurance SOAT which is obligatory. Price is about 30-40 dollars for 3 month which is the minimum you can buy. Its only possible for tourists to buy 3 month, so you might have to ask a few different insurance places before you find someone that will do 3 month, as the law just changed and Colombians has to buy buy mininum 1 year.

My hostel is quite easy to find coming from the north. Just follow La Sexta coming into town and we´re one block of on Sexta Bis (6b) and the corner of Calle 27.

__________________
Keep On Ridin' In The Free World

- Mike

See the Shipping databasee - link on the left, "Getting There - Shipping the bike"

Everything you need to know.

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

holly,
I'll be in Panama City next month, what is the current cost for flying a motorcycle into Bogota? Thanks.

Gary