16 Nov 2013:
Rode in from Boa Vista to Lethem Guyana on a Saturday. Checked out of Brazil, five minutes, and crossed the bridge into Guyana. Everyone speaks english in Guyana and processing in was friendly and easy. First, I needed to complete a health form and present my shot record to prove my yellow fever vaccination. I needed insurance for the moto before they would issue the driving permit however I was allowed to drive into town, mile and half, to the Savannah store and purchase it. 22.50 USD equivalent for a six month policy. The customs office needed a photo copy the policy and the store provided it. The whole process took a couple hours but everyone was friendly and helpful.
Didn't know much about the road fro Lethem to Georgetown so I decided to stay for the day and depart the next morning, Sunday. There's a sign entering Lethem that read Georogetown 580 km (or about) at the turn off. I asked a few locals about the road and surprisingly not many knew other than it goes to Georgetown. Most people I met had never been on the road other than a short distance. I was told a couple times that buses depart early every morning though and it takes about 18 to 24 hours to arrive in Georgetown, (I never saw any buses along the way). I finally met a guy that had done the road six days earlier and was heading back in the morning. He drives it often and told me it takes him 18-20 hours with the condition the road is in now. He said the road is as good as it gets right now and it should take me 12 hours by moto to reach Georgetown. He was leaving at 01:00 in the morning. I decided to depart at 04:30, some daylight would come around 05:30.
17 Nov 2013:
I departed at 04;30 and as soon as I hit dirt outside of town, it was rough. Washboard, loose gravel and pot holes, going was slow. The first 68 plus miles (there is fuel available from cans at 68 miles) is through the savannah region and is mostly flat open country. It's nice but the road is rough with sharp rocks, then you reach the jungle and the clay road. It looks good but it's difficult to see the pot holes, the road is made of potholes and some are deep, very rough on the moto. Once you reach the jungle, it's jungle. There's a check point where you have to sign in because it's a nature area or something at around mile 83 and that is all. Narrow road to the next point which is a police check point at mile 133, I had to present every document I had to two different people. The Kurupukari River is just out of eye sight of the check point, need to take the ferry. Didn't know about the ferry crossing but the sign stated it ran on the hour from 06;00 to 16:00. It was 09:45 when I arrived. 133 miles in five hours 15 minutes. I waited an hour and 10 minutes while the ferry guys were just relaxing under a tree on the other side. A small fuel truck I had passed an hour ago showed up and honked it's horn a few times and we waited. At 11:20 the ferry came across. I asked why they didn't come on the hour and they told me it's because they won't do a crossing for just people or a motorcycles, there needs to be a vehicle. If no vehicle had come to either side I would have been out of luck. The ferry is free.
I was told the road was better on the north side of the crossing from the ferry guys and fuel truck guys. It wasn't and many of the areas were very bad. It was clay potholes, deep mud holes, loose gravel with washboard, soft sand and washed out road.
Food and water are available in a logging camp at around mile 208. Other than the fuel truck, I didn't see any other traffic until I was with in 25 miles of the logging camp. There's a fuel station open 24 hours just a few miles north of the logging camp.
The area around the logging camp and north is a mix of very rough road, soft sand with lots of holes and washed out areas mixed in. The road here is wide and there was other traffic but it's very slow going. At 18:15 I reached pavement in the town of Linden. 13 hours and 45 minutes of torture on me and the moto. I spent the night in Linden at the River View Hotel.
Maybe riding this road solo on a Sunday made it seem rougher, but it's a tough ride.
18 Nov 2013:
The road to Georgetown was fine and I found the Suriname Embassy easily, you need a visa for Suriname or tourist pass if you are from the USA. Arrived at 10:00 and it took about an hour to get the paper work done, including waiting 30 minutes outside to enter. A five year visa for a US citizen is $100 and depending on which country you're from you can get a tourist pass for $25, a one time visit permit. The permit or visa has to be paid for in USD and they don't except $100 bills. You can get USD at the banks, it's used in the country. Returned at 2 pm and retrieved my passport and visa. The women at the embassy informed that I would need proof of Suriname Moto insurance to board the ferry and gave me directions to an office where I purchased a one month, (min) policy for $10.25 (2,035.00 Guyana $)
19 Nov 2013:
Getting into Suriname:
From Georgetown to the ferry crossing into Suriname is 120 miles and the road is good. It took some waiting around and the ferry was not on schedule but everyone was helpful and it was painless. I had to show proof of Suriname insurance to the police office and then twice at customs before I was allowed on the ferry. Two crossings a day, 08:30 and 11:00. I arrived around 10:30 and caught the second crossing, the ferry was late. It's a 30 min crossing and processing into Suriname was easy and timely however it was 3 pm by the time I cleared customs. Rode into Nickerie, 18 miles, and spent the night at the Luxor Hotel. Cheapest place in town, SD100=USD33 and there's a store close by that has the coldest in town.
20 Nov 2013:
I was told a couple times that I would need to prove I had insurance for French Giuana in order to board the ferry in Albina. The next morning I road into Paramaribo and purchased moto insurance from Assuria, a minimum one month policy for Euro 185, ouch. It's the only company in Surinmae that sells it from what I could find out and you have to pay in Euro. Had to change some USD for Euro at a Cambio, there are plenty. Rode to Albina, 235 miles from Nickerie all good road, and spent the night at the Hotel Albina Breeze near the ferry landing, secure parking, AC, . SD100
21 Nov 13:
French Guiana:
Ferry from Albina to Saint Laurent du Maroni FG, Euro 15.50. Caught the first crossing. Was told to be at the landing between 07:15 and 07:30 for the 08:00 departure. Ferry ran a bit late but all was good. Getting into FG was easy, show passport, license and registration that was it. A sign in the customs office window states you have to provide, passport, registration, insurance and license however, they never asked for the insurance document. I didn't have any Euro to pay for the ferry crossing but they let me ride into town to the ATM and return. While riding in town I noticed an Azzuria insurance office.
French Guiana is expensive. It was difficult finding a place to stay in Saint Laurent du Maroni. The Hotel Star had rooms at Euro 60. Spent the day visiting the prison and then road to Kourou the next day. The Hotel Ballahou in Kourou was a great place to stay. The owner is a dual sport rider, has a TransAlo and his daughter speaks English. She set up a boat trip to the islands the next day for me. Large room with kitchenette, discounted to Euro 50. There's a supermarket one kilometer away. Stayed two nights and then road to Saint Georges 151 miles of good road to cross into Oiapoque, Brazil.

I was stopped at a police check once on the way to Kourou and once on the way to Saint Georges, all they wanted to see was my passport.

24 Nov 2013:
Arrived St Georges
25 Nov 2013:
Crossed into Brazil and rode to Macapa

There is a bridge in Saint Georges, but it's not open and from what I could find out it will be another couple years. Some issues between Brazil and France.

There is also a ferry from Saint George to Oiapoque however it doesn't run on a schedule and it can be very expensive depending on how many vehicle are crossing. It mostly runs on holidays or when someone arranges a crossing for a group. This is the best information I could get. The best (really the only) and easiest option is to take one of the small boats. Price was Euro 100, I'm sure it's negotiable however, it seemed to be the going price for a single Gringo. Make sure it includes loading and unloading the moto. There is no border control in Saint Georgges. I just loaded up and crossed, no exit stamp. If you were entering FG from this side there would be no entry stamp into FG and no one to ask for insurance. In Oiapoque the Federal Police headquarters takes care of border control. It opens at 08:000, it was a Monday, and I'm not sure if they are open on the weekends. I got my passport stamped into Brazil. No form to complete or documents for the moto required. I was told to stop at check point about 10 kilometers south along the way and get a document for the moto there. I stopped at the check point and the officer told me I didn't need anything and to have a safe journey. I did show him my passport and entry stamp just to make sure and he affirmed that was all I needed. Off I went.
Going south Oipaque to Macapa, BR-156:
The road is paved and in good shape heading south from Oiapoque for 32 miles or so then it's dirt. The road is mostly clay type soil and is in good condition, I easily road 40 mph. The dirt section is only 72 miles and then it's back to very good pavement all the way to Macapa. The first gas is in Calcoene at mile 198. I lost my notes on this section and don't have the exact distances but I'm close. I arrived in Macapa around 4 pm. It's a very nice ride from Oiapoque through the dirt road section. Oiapoque to Macapa - 363 miles.

Thanks for the report. Amazing that there is only 72 miles of dirt (in my case, deep and slimy mud) left between Oiapoque and Macapá. Amazing as well that the bridge is still not open. Most amazing of all that you paid 100 euros for the crossing there: the ferry is only 30 or 35. The fare in one of the small boats should be under 10 euros. I think you were misinformed.

I'm not sure what kind of passport you were using, but I definitely needed an entry stamp into French Guiana in my US passport. Change is the only constant...

Glad you went, and glad to have the updated information about all of the above.

Mark

Great report Rigby! Thanks for taking the time to gather such details.
That route has been a bit light on details until now so your effort is appreciated.
I'll be taking the same route late 2014.

Cheers
PN

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Thanks for the updated report, sounds like you're only a week or so in front of us!

We did the Lethem to Linden road last week in what happened to be the worst weather in months: the torrential rain that flooded Georgetown. The road was completely flooded and it took us 3 days. I came off my bike 4 times, doing some serious damage to my panniers and somehow snapping the left side M7 nut that holds the back of the bike together (discovered when we arrived in Georgetown).

Day 1 blog post.
Day 2 blog post.

We'll give it a shot without French Guyana insurance and let everyone know how it goes.

We rolled into French Guiana on the afternoon ferry from Suriname. We didn't buy any insurance, so I was hoping they weren't going to ask us for it.

We parked our bikes, then went up to the little window office. They stamped our passport and waved us through .. so that was pretty easy. Then I stupidly asked whether we needed papers for our bikes. You don't - but then they asked us for the registration and insurance paperwork. Thus our adventure begins:

The two guys were super nice about it, they said we needed to get the ferry back and buy it there, we didn't want to wait around for the next ferry so then they offered to drive us into town. The insurance company we tried in town (in St Laurent) wasn't able to sell us insurance for our bikes because they didn't have Kawasaki as an option for Make/model. We hung out with the border guys for a few hours and tried to buy insurance online, but the only site selling european green cards online that I could find was breaking in the final stage of the checkout process (Mototouring - GreenCard insurance for non european vehicles) which was frustrating.

Around 6pm the border control office closes up, and the only hotel in Saint Laurent is well out of town and 100+ euros, and we have no bikes to get there. We were pretty unhappy about this, but a few calls were made and a bunch of customs guys came down to check out our bikes and hear about our trip. One of the guys offered to put us up for the night which we were thrilled about. The border control guys told us to follow them to the police station where our bikes would be locked up for the night to keep them safe. The police captain was really switched on and appreciated the situation, but this is France after all, and we would need proper insurance. We stayed the night with one of the customs guys in hammocks, had a great meal and drank and looked at photos from one of his trips through Brazil. I can't imagine this happening in any other country ... seriously, just the nicest group of people ever.

The next day we got a small boat over to Suriname to buy insurance with the guy that we stayed with. The company on the border could not insure our bikes (they don't do foreign bikes) and told us to go back to Paramaribo. There was no way we were doing that, so we had them call up the head office to see if it was possible. Turns out it's not even possible in Paramaribo, no one can insure a foreign bike for FG.

Frustrated, we had back to Saint Laurent and try all of the insurance companies. There are 4 different options in town, however none of them were able to process our bike. The final insurance company we tried was CA2P. We searched their entire database of vehicles but because of the way you need to search (horse power first) we couldn't find a single motorbike. We spent literally hours filling in this stupid website form trying to find anything. I hate that form. We gave up trying to find a motorbike, and just tried to find anything. Although they have 50 different manufactures listed on the form, we're almost positive there's only 10 or so actual vehicles in the database that they can insure. It took us about an hour to find a car, a Great Wall "Wingle Wingle". It was 118 euros for 5 days, which we grudgingly paid. The police released our bikes, we said our goodbyes and thanked our dear friend from customs who had spent the entire day helping us, and headed off.

We weren't checked for insurance at any point, so the whole thing is really bureaucracy gone mad -- if we were in an accident there's no way the insurer would have paid up given our motorbikes were in their system as 4x4 trucks, making the whole exercise fairly pointless and putting a nasty dent in our budget. But the customs guys were the best, we had a great time with them, so overall a positive experience.

The bridge was stilled closed heading south into Brazil, so we put our bikes on a little boat which was terrifying (but fun):
Trott.in -- the first travel diary your friends will read.

Summary:
- You don't need papers for your bike in FG. Get your passport stamped and get out of there before they ask you any questions about your bike.
- If you want to buy insurance, it does not need to be valid for "GF" (Guyana Francais), it only needs the "F" on it for France. Buy it before you go, ideally so that you have the original green card and contract as they said they wouldn't accept a copy.
- If you want to "manufacture" your insurance paperwork, make sure you print it in colour and print out the contract too, simply the green card itself won't do.
- Don't think you'll be able to get through by offering a little money, they are French after all, that's not how they roll.

A couple things to add to the above (I'm traveling on my KLR 650 with aidanlis):

- In French Guiana, most everyone puts a square piece of paper with their green card insurance information (just start/end dates and plate #) in their windshield. You should be able to get past everyone in French Guiana with just a simple homemade sticker (print and tape to the inside of the windscreen). Even if you get stopped at the border or on the highway, if you can point to the sticker, it's much less sketchy and quick than any other kind of home doctoring.

- In a totally unrelated note, if anyone wants to see what the Green card looks like, see attached (windshield sticker in the top-right corner).

- The bridge between French Guiana and Brazil was scheduled to be 'officially' opened a few days after we left (so mid-December) according to several different police and customs officials. Whoever crosses first, please confirm!

- On the Guyana border with Brazil, you can buy monthly insurance (not just yearly) for 1000 Guyanese dollars (about 5 USD) at the Savannah Inn.

The Guyana-French Guiana route was possibly the most rewarding section of our ride from the US down to Brazil. Highly recommended.

Hi,
Dec 2013 i drove from Brazil to guiana and then Surinam. If you need more info, mail me on djinsital at gmail dot com.

Djin

Hi Paul,
If you are in Suriname, drop by. I also want to make this ride to Brazil.
Maybe together. I live in Suriname and the Netherlands.
Email me djinsital at gmail dot com

Thanks
Djin

Hi,
I mostly live in Suriname. If any questions, please let me know.

Djin

Djinsital@gmail.com

Wow! so glad I found this post, We will be driving all 13 countries in SA starting next month and it was really hard finding any info on French Giana - cheers so much for this!

I hope the Brazil/ French bridge is open by the time we get there

I will be riding from Brazil to Georgetown, Guyana...February,March 2015. Anyone else doing this ride?

Not me. But are you riding up the coast of coming from inland?

That would be a fabulous trip!

Simon

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Great bits of info there, cheers guys!

Ive just finished rebuilding a Honda CT90 that I picked up earlier this year... will be shipping across the pond in the spring, for a long ride around, starting north, finishing south.. dont need too much more planning than that, except the useful info on insurance!

NE countries in S America have always been a lure for me, so this will be very helpful.
Cheers
Ben

But the best according to what I have heard is the coast.