Hi, I just got back from 2 and a helf months in Chile and Argentina. I flew out to Chile and bought a Honda Africa Twin. Right, sounds easy...1st you,ve got to get a lcoal ID number from the local gov offices to do any transaction. then you've got to find a bike ( only 2 big bikes for sale in Santiago when I was looking!) Once you've found one you need to make sure that all the papers are there...it's not uncommon for bikes to be sold without any dox! once you've managed that you've just got to wait a week for the temporary papers then a further month for the permanent reg dox. Assuming you speak very good Spanish all of this can be done reasonably easily. oh and one other thing...The Africa Twin I bought was a grand more expencive there than here in the UK (don't believe the prices you see online-most of those bikes are being sold without papers!) That's Chile. How about Argentina? well the same thing as Chile with regards to the dox/reg (many bikes without number plates!) oh, and also as a foriegner you can't take the bike outside Argentina for the first year of ownership. One other thing, police trying to get a few quid off you can always (and do) say that there is something you've mis-understood about the papers because the bike is local and you aren't. If you're on a uk bike with uk papers there's nothing they can say and in fact they are less likely to stop you in the first place. So it all sounds doom and gloom...not so. It's all do-able as long as
a) you can speak Spanish
and
b) you're not in any hurry.
P.S. we ended up spending alot more than shipping our bike from the uk as we couldn't sell the A/T in Argentina (and we now love it like a son) and so are shipping it home to the uk!!
Cheers...Zade