Advice sorely needed, ending my trip in Brazil / French Guiana
 

Hello fellow riders!

I am on the tail end of a trip from Montevideo, Uruguay to the North of Brazil, having driven the bike initially down from Canada in 2014/15 and storing it in Uruguay while I worked in 2015/16. I’m currently in Salvador in the North-East of Brazil and I’m deciding what to do now, as I have chosen to sell my bike and ideally I’d love to get Euros instead of Reis and would probably end up getting a better price in Guiana as it’s a part of France.

Getting there won’t be a problem but I’m concerned about French bureaucracy and them impounding my bike at the border since I never renewed my Canadian plates which expired in December 2014. This has never been close to a problem in Latin America, but being the French have their rules I’m concerned about getting stranded at the border and losing my baby.

Basically I’m wondering if anyone has any first hand advice on how strict this border crossing is on the French side and whether its worth it for me to make it there to sell my bike or if I should stay on the Brazilian side and try get rid of my bike here. I’d rather have Euros, but if I risk losing my bike over this I’d rather sell it here in Brazil.

On that note, does anyone have any advice / contacts for selling a bike in Brazil? I’m aware you’re “not allowed” but I was talking to a police officer who told me that it is still widely done to sell a bike “without papers” to a mechanic or farmer.

Thanks! Drive safe everyone

Julien

The good news, posts to Wikipedia state that the Oyapock River Bridge was opened to non-commercial traffic in March 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyapock_River_Bridge

The possibly bad news, getting the required liability insurance in French Guiana was a challenge. It was impossible to find a short term policy. None of the insurance carriers would write a policy for less than 6 months at a cost of hundreds of Euros. If you have European insurance that covers France, then this might not be an issue.

I was allowed entrance into French Guiana with the promise that I would find insurance; I tried and failed. And I left French Guiana without being asked to produce insurance... While in French Guiana I was never stopped and asked to produce insurance. Along to the coast road there is one military check point where I had to produce my passport, nothing more.

When you produce paperwork at a border, the officials are primarily focused on linking you to the equipment (VIN numbers, license plate, etc) and not checking to see if the paperwork is expired. Why should they care if your registration is expired? A border official is more likely to give you a hard time in Central America for paperwork that is expired.

I would take a good offer when it comes your way. If it's in Brazil, take it. You can always take a bus for the balance of the trip. If it's nothing materializes in Brazil and something happen in French Guiana, then take it there... Personally, I rode my bike home and now own a 250cc bike that lives in Peru, so I don't have to deal with selling or shipping.

Problem will be getting a fair price in Brazil as import of used vehicles is forbidden here and ' legalizing it the braIlian way'... is almost impossible nowadays. My bet is you better focus on selling it to another traveller.