Getting Motrocycle Licence in Santiago

[wyattroscoe]

Hello!

I am on a long trip right now backpacking all over and wont be going back to the states before I head to SA. I have hopes of buying a in Chile and driving to the States. I dont have a motorcycle licence and was wondering if I could get one in Santiago?(if it helps I speak Spanish) Would I make it past any boarder checks with just a normal US Drivers licence? Would a Moto licence from Chile work in all the countries up to the States? Hope it can work out. Thanks for your help.

Wyatt

[zappalives]

Hey man,

I was in Chile about a year and a half ago and I bought a chilean bike, then toured Chile, Argentina, Peru and Bolivia for about 6 months, crossing a border at least a dozen times, and probably 50 highway checkpoints. I was asked for a license maybe 10 times, each time I gave them my Massachusetts drivers license with no motorcycle license whatsoever and they just wrote down my information and away I went.

Heres the short and skinny of it, I have never had a motorcycle license in my life, never had one down there, and it was not a problem. Get insurance. That you will need, and you do not need a license to get the insurance. And make sure all your papers are up to date and accurate with the bike in your name. There are a lot of threads on here about how to buy a bike in Chile and leave with it, etc. If you ever do encounter trouble with the license, just act like you don't speak spanish, this will normally work, then try to bribe them if all else fails.

I'm not saying this is a fullproof plan, without risk of complication, what I am saying is that you shouldn't let the lack of a license stop you from travelling by moto around SA. I almost let it keep me from travellin on a bike, and if I had backed out it would have been the worst decision of my life. Go for it, be safe, have fun.

[wyattroscoe]

Right on! Sounds like a plan. Thanks. What kind of bike were you riding?