Warning about buying a bike in Peru
 

Heads up everyone, if you were planning on buying a Peruvian bike in Peru then read this as you may want to change your plans:

I bought a bike off Toby Shannon (/around the block moto adventures) a couple of months back with the intention of going all around South America. When picking up the bike Toby told me and my girlfriend, and various other people, that the only way you could leave Peru was through the Desaguadero (Bolivia) border. This was news to us, as we had been planning to go straight to Chile.

After solving one issue at the Desaguadero border we tried again on 28/12/18, however now Desaguadero won't let foreigners ride a Peruvian bike out of Peru. There is in theory still one way around it, involving signing power of attorney to a Peruvian, having them leave the country, then revoking the PoA. This is what we're going to try next. We don't know much about the details on how this will work, but I do know the nearest open Notaría is 160km away, so can be pretty sure it will be a pain in the arse and probably not so cheap.

I'm with an American on a Peruvian bike in the same situation, and we've heard about a another pair of Indian's who have also been turned away.

If anyone is, or knows someone who is, having the same issue or has successfully dealt with this issue then please get in touch!

So what was the outcome of your border crossing? Others of us wish to know.

Yes, there were some issues at the border(s) of Peru with Chile and Bolivia. The issue was GETTING OUT of Peru with a Peruvian plated moto. Some opted for the PODER in a Peru Residents name and that worked great. Some went back at a different time and there was no issue.

No other issues crossing OUT or INTO any other country with the Peruvian plated moto. As far as I know, everyone (including the author of this email) have eventually made their way out of Peru!

Wow, so they made it out with a PODER? Someone told me they were cracking down on using PODERS?.....

You say the issue was getting out of Peru, like it's a non issue. Seems a pretty big issue to me! Perhaps in the interest of acurrate information on this site it would be good to find out what the law is and whether it's going to be affecting future riders as it does in Chile.

The motorcycles are actually IN THEIR NAMES (of the foriegn riders) and they temporarily give a PODER to a Peruvian citizen just to EXIT Peru.

Gerald, from Germany, just crossed yesterday with a Peruvian registered moto WITHOUT doing the PODER. He just went to a different Bolivia crossing and they never gave him a problem.

But the motorcycles left the country with a different person than the registered owner. On a PODER. So, not in the riders name. You'll have to just admit to the fact that people ride around all of South America with bikes on poders regularly and without issues.

Anyway, we're straying from the topic at hand. Let's try and make this useful to other people who search it. The Bolivian border crossing success really doesn't mean anything. At the Yunguyo crossing they offered me a 12 month TVIP for 100 soles, and offered to buy the bike cash.

So what is the rule that they've suddenly gotten upset about with foreigners taking Peruvian bikes out?

The new law (June 2017) says that a "resident" (or "resident" with a poder) must exit the moto from Peru. As the foreigners had a Peruvian Vehicular Registry document with the moto in their name, with passport number and Peru address on it (when the bought the moto) that has been sufficient for the law up until recently (and still is at many border crossings, like Gerald who just crossed yesterday).

The issue has been that a few agents want to do the 'letter of the law' so as to not get in trouble with superiors and ask that a 'resident' be given a temp poder for the Peru exit.

As soon as they exit, they tear up the poder and the foreigners travels on the moto documents which are in their name with no issues at any other border, even returning to Peru just themselves with the moto.

Sorry for not replying sooner, been bombing it South to Patagonia and this slipped my mind.

We (me and one other) did get out in the end and have written this guide. These were the only problems we encountered inherent to buying a bike in Peru, but past infractions do stay with 2nd hand bikes. Hope previous owners didnt skip on border processing like stamps, because there can be a fines and delays (as we found out the hard way).

After having some issues leaving Peru I've put together a guide on how to get out. Ive since crossed from Bolivia to Chile without any problems, but have yet to re-enter Peru. Hopefully that goes ok...

Step 1: find friendly peruvian (1 per vehicle)

Step 2: write a "carta poder" - this is a document to say your Peruvian friend has power of attorney over the vehicle, although it remains your property. The document we used is attached.

Step 3: Go to notary and get this document stamped. You will need one witness per power of attorney document. Your friend will be asked what relation the witness is to them, so they shouldn't just be a random off the street.

Step 4: Go to the border with your friend. Go into the aduana with them and all of your documents (Carta Poder, boleta informativa, sale document, passport). Your friend will (administratively) leave Peru with the vehicle. The border guard should know what to do, but it might be worth printing the excerpt from the law attached in the next reply.

Step 5: (This step will depend on your border. We went to the Copacabana border with Bolivia as the Peruvian/Bolivian aduana offices are seperate, and we could ride the bikes over ourselves.) We then entered Bolivia with the bikes in our name. If you were to use the Desaguadero border it may complicate thing; because the aduana office is shared you may need to enter Bolivia with the bikes in your friends name. This may cause you problems when leaving, but I don't know. I have no idea how the other borders work.

If you are in Puno I would recommend Casa Samay Wasi - they have a garage to do any maintenance you might want to do, and for s/400 per bike Todo and his son Alex helped us figure out how to do all this and came to Yunguyo for us.

Key to Carta Poder:
1. Your name
2. Your passport number
3. Your nationality
4. Friends name
5. Friends DNI (ID) number
6. Friends address
7. Moto licence plate
8. Moto manufacturer
9. Moto model
10. Moto year of manufacture
11. Moto color
12. Country to enter
13. Your name, passport number (you will sign and fingerprint here at the notary)
14. Friends name, DNI number (they will sign and fingerprint at the notary)

Good luck!

PS if someone is able to type up the carta poder then it is less likely to be lost to time

For reference, the relevant part of the law (DECRETO SUPREMO, Nº 076-2017-EF) is below:

TÍTULO III
SALIDA TEMPORAL DE VEHÍCULOS
Articulo 10.- Documentación
10.1 Para la salida temporal del país de los vehículos
con placa de rodaje peruana, el benefi ciario debe
presentar lo siguiente:
1. Documento nacional de identidad, pasaporte u otro
documento ofi cial que acredite su residencia en el país.
2. Tarjeta de Identifi cación Vehicular del vehículo.
3. Contrato de alquiler o carta poder simple con
carácter de declaración jurada que autorice el uso y
la salida temporal en caso el benefi ciario no sea el
propietario.
10.2 La Administración Aduanera autoriza la salida
temporal expidiendo el certifi cado suscrito por el
benefi ciario con carácter de Declaración Jurada.
Artículo 11.- Permanencia temporal en el exterior
11.1 La Administración Aduanera autoriza la salida
temporal del país del vehículo hasta por un plazo de doce
(12) meses, contados desde la fecha de autorización.
11.2 El plazo puede ser prorrogado en los casos y en
la forma que establezca la Administración Aduanera.
11.3 Se considera automáticamente exportado en
forma defi nitiva el vehículo que no haya retornado al
país dentro del plazo autorizado, sin que ello otorgue el
derecho a gozar de benefi cios tributarios o aduaneros.
Artículo 12.- Conclusión del régimen en la salida
temporal
El régimen en la salida temporal concluye con:
1. El retorno al país del vehículo dentro del plazo
autorizado.
2. La exportación defi nitiva del vehículo.

Thanks for this information!

I own a moto stored in Huánuco right now and will eventually ride my Peru licensed moto south solo, with no friend. I have a goal to eventually reach "fin del mundo" at Ushuaia.

From your narration, it looks like I need someone with me, maybe a Peruvian national. Can they be a foreigner or do they have to be a Peruvian? That friend has to have the poder in their name, and also be present at the border, right?

If the friend needs to be a Peruvian national, maybe I can pay someone at my border crossing to be my friend and have a poder in their name.

I'm a little confused about this the details of steps 4 & 5. If you have time, maybe you can clarify some more. Toby may also have some information on the details of this issue, since it's important to his moto business. From either of you, I'd appreciate more information.

As a back up, I'm wondering if one can ride in to Brazil, crossing northeast of Cuzco on Peru 30, then continue in to Bolovia and avoid all these issues. It's a longer route, but I've been up Ruta 30 to short of Marcapata, and I saw quite a few motos on that road.

Why should anything be totally easy? This is adventure travel, right?

Edit: Ah, the key to the puzzle! Got it.

Your friend needs to be a Peruvian citizen (or maybe just resident), and have an ID card. And they do need to come with you to the border, unless Jupiter's 3rd moon is aligned with Uranus, then you might be able to leave without them present.

Yeah ideally the border town has a notary, a friendly hostel owner, and seperate border offices. Yunguyo/Copacabana has hostels, though I'm not sure if there's a notary there (we were told there wasn't, but i think that may have just been closed for summer holidays).

Re taking route 30 (I presume you mean via Puerto Maldonado), I've not been but am likely to come back that way - from what I've read you would have to go Peru>Brazil>Bolivia (there's no crossing from Peru to Bolivia). You might get lucky and the border guard can't be ****ed to enforce the law, but if you take that route I think it would be wise to try and find out where the nearest notary is in case you need to try PoA thing. (Just to clarify, once you've typed up the poder you must go to a notary to get it stamped, so ,if the nearest one is Puerto Maldonado, it could slow you down and dent your wallet a fair bit)

Hack, The Inapari border crossing with Asis Brasil is a pretty informal place (on the Peruvian side) and may not even require anything. Since Chaz encountered this issue (even tho over 100 have exited Peru before him with no issues), four have just gone back to the same border at a later time and crossed with no extra requirements, and two (including Chaz) have done it the way that Chaz wrote (actually it was the solution given by the customs agents).

Sushant (from Illinois) when encountering this situation at the border realized that he had cut his time too short to do PER-Bolivia-Chile-Peru (he only gave himself 3 weeks from central Peru and back again), and decided to just stay in Peru for his ride.

I have been the Brazil route to Bolivia and you DO NOT want to do that December to April because of the rainy season in the Bolivia Beni Watershed! LOTS of red clay for 100s of kms on end!


Chaz, THX for putting this together! This is helpful, and your first hand experience helps others! That's what makes this forum a community!

If one goes to the notary with the friend (yes, it can be a foreigner too if they have a Resident Visa in Peru) and the Notary writes the PODER up for you, THEY will recall all the info that needs to be on it. They will charge a bit more (I paid 120 soles, $36 USD most recently for a similar PODER), but I think it is worth it.


All, Since this came up we have been working with the MINISTERIO DE TURISMO and SUNAT (that customs is under) hoping for a document to bypass any need for this PODER stuff, but things move slow in South America.... I will write again here when we have something concrete.

Just like to say thanks for the information ChazWozzer much appreciated i was getting worried about this border crossing

Crossed the border at Desaguadero border and everything was ok first of all got stamped out of Peru and into Bolivia then went round the corner to the aduana and got stamped out of Peru she gave me a 12 month pass for leaving the country and 30 days in Bolivia this was on a Sunday morning ,

Thank you Howard

Hey guys,

First of all, this is my first post here but I've been spending hours reading this forum and it has been extremely useful, so thanks for that.

I'm in Lima for a month and currently in search of a bike. I was planning to ride out of Peru at the end of November and cross straight to Chile, but it seems complicated.

Has anyone done it recently with a peruvian bike ?
Howardxre, if I understand correctly you didn't require a poder in order to cross at Desaguadero ?

Thanks,

David

I've just done it, Peru to Chile with a Peruvian bike. 2 weeks ago.

At the Peruvian aduana I said I'll be back in 9 months, they asked how long of a visa I had for Perú, I said six months. They gave me a 6 months exit permit. Anyway, the last guy who owned my bike overstayed the permit and payed a $30 fine, no biggy.

Entering Argentina was a b**tch. They still quote an outdated law that anyone entering must be a resident of the same place that the bike is from. Finally after 3 hours a nice (read intelligent) customs guy found the new law and let me in.

I have a copy of the correct law (with an exception for people who aren't from Mercosur countries) to get into Argentina. If you need it I'll message it to you.