Probably not much border crossing going on at the moment, but I thought I would post this anyway, for anyone crossing into Argentina by vehicle at remote border crossings, then shipping their bike home from Argentina.

In February this year, I crossed from Chile to Argentina at Paso Rodolfo Roballas, a remote border crossing on the edge of the Parque Nacional Patagonia. At the border, there is no internet, so all the paperwork is done by hand. Luckily, I sent a copy of the paperwork to Dakar Motos, who were shipping my bike back to the UK a few weeks later. They told me that, because of the new computerised customs system, this hand-written paperwork would not be accepted for exporting the bike. Under the new system, there was no record of me entering Argentina with the bike. This is only a problem if shipping the bike from Argentina; you can cross another land border out of Argentina with no issues.

A few days later, I went to the customs office in San Carlos de Bariloche, where, initially, they told me I would have to cross a border again to get the correct, computer generated paperwork. San Carlos de Bariloche is the only customs office on the western side of the country that is not at a border. I could have ridden to the border at Paso Cardenal Antionio Samore, which is not far from Barlicoche, but, bearing in mind it took 3 hours to cross this border a few weeks before, and I would then have to cross back into Argentina, I didn't really fancy this option. Luckily for me, however, a senior guy working at the customs office in Bariloche took an interest, and, after a lot of emails and phone calls, managed to sort it out for me, but it took a whole day. He eventually presented me with a record of all his emails, attached to the original paperwork, along with a letter from a senior official explaining why my motorcycle was not showing in the computerised customs system. This all worked, and I shipped the bike home with no further issues.

So basically, if crossing into Argentina for the last time before shipping your bike home, use one of the busier borders, or be prepared for lots of hassle in obtaining the correct paperwork.