Central American Borders Question

[bruceontheloose]

ok so I have read in numerous places that the borders in Central America are more difficult than SouthAmerica...

So any tips to make it smoother??
Had the advice of getting plenty of photocopies already.

Any borders that people recommend or that should be avoided???
How much should I expect to pay???

[bananaman]

You'll only need a helper going into and out of Honduras. The sooner you hire a helper, the sooner the rest of them will leave you alone. Don't pay for his services until after he's done. Don't give him your original documents- when he needs copies, go with him. Sit in a bar or restaurant while he does his work.

Don't change any money with the money changers at the border. Half of them sell counterfeit bills. American dollars work everywhere.

The rest of the countries are easy. Sometimes it takes a while, but they're easy. Not as easy as South America, but still, easy.

If you have time before you leave Panama City, stop by Panama Bikers and sign the adv book.

[MikeS]

I'd also thought Honduras would be a pain but didn't use a helper and it was fine. I think it was around $40 or so to enter which was a bit annoying as we just rode straight through it.

El Salvador took about 3 hours only because we couldn't find my engine number and the one we could find didn't tie up with my V5 reg doc. He eventually left that field blank but I found it later on in Mexico City after thumbing through Gary Dymonds Haynes manual and I went 'ahh so that's where it is!'...

And yes, they'll want photo copies of your documents so it helps to have quite a few at your disposal.

[thecanoeguy]

dont need em ,unless you are used to getting a manicure and cant change your own tyre

[bananaman]

Originally Posted by thecanoeguy

dont need em ,unless you are used to getting a manicure and cant change your own tyre

At our border crossing out of El Salvador into Honduras it was 105 in the shade. We'd already been riding for hours through that kind of heat. I had suffered enough. I can change my own tires, but for $10, we were able to sit in an airconditioned cafe, eat a decent meal, and let someone else run around- someone who needed the money and worked hard for it.

The Honduras border was a regular cluster****. 3 hours to get a kazillion stamps and it took up an entire page of my passport. You start running out of pages pretty quick, you know?

Other borders took time- especially Costa Rica, mainly because the guy in charge of vehicles took a 2 hour break! He just picked up his things and left for a while. No explanation. There was a line of truckers... and he just left everyone. At least it wasn't hot or raining.

[Sjoerd Bakker]

AIYEEE carramba!!No senor Bananaman-
Most definitely DO NOT " sit in a bar or restaurant " while your hired guide does the work. This is an invitation to get ripped off.
You must be the one who hands over all the documents to the customs guys at the various wickets. And you must be the one who pays them the required fees and gets the required receipts in hand.
Your guide should be just that and nothing more- somebody who knows the language and the routine who leads you to the various wickets in the proper sequence. YOU should keep your precious documents in your own hands all the time and only hand them over to authorised personnel of the border and immediately get them back.
If you hand the documents over to a guide believing that he will do it all for you you can get a surprise. Not all guides are crooks but many like to pad the document stack with a few nonsense papers with " fees " marked on there which he claims he paid for you. These fees are fake, he did not pay a cent, the service is nonexistant.Anything you pay him is going straight into his own pocket.
Also do not believe any guide who tells you to hand him the documents so that he can speed up the process across the way at a special wicket or that the aduana guy was absent and he has to follow a special step which cost $xx
If you speak Spanish you should not need a guide, if your Spanish is absent or very poor, a guide may be useful to get the routine down, but on subsequent borders it should get easy enough without a guide.
If you go for a guide, pick any of the kids with officious looking'Guia "tags, they all kno w the routine and have not had enough time to learn the ripoff schemes the older teenage guides know and pull on tourists gullible enough to trust them. Decide on a fee and pay it when you are done, just tell the other pestering guides that this is your guide and the others can buzz off.

[skibum_1260]

[quote=MikeS;198556]

El Salvador took about 3 hours only because we couldn't find my engine number and the one we could find didn't tie up with my V5 reg doc. He eventually left that field blank but I found it later on in Mexico City after thumbing through Gary Dymonds Haynes manual and I went 'ahh so that's where it is!'...

quote]

They check engine numbers? Im planning a trip to panama this late winter on my f650gs, but ive installed a replacement engine in it i bought off ebay as the old one was shot and this way was cheaper am i going to run into trouble with this?

[Sjoerd Bakker]

Yes they check the engine ,chassis numbers , the VIN , and it better match the numbers on your papaer documents. Get this looked after pronto .

[skibum_1260]

well my vin on the frame matches the numbers on all of my paperwork but im sure the engine will be different, but i thought those numbers are usually different anyway? do all countries checkthis? i know ive been through to cananda and not had a problem but of course im sure thats a little different story.