Shipping bike from Costa Rica to Colombia across Gap?
I'm in planning mode for an upcoming South America trip from Chicago and am trying to see what all my options are regarding which countries to visit and how to get across from Central America to South America.
I know the usual thing to do is air-freight the bikes from Panama City to either Bogota or Quito, but me being an Indian citizen (working here in the US), I need a tourist visa for most every country I visit  and a usual visa costs around $30 - $40. Costa Rica is free for me, but a visa for Panama costs $85! And can you believe a tourist visa to Ecuador costs $230! Sounds like an awesome country to ride through and visit, but that's too high a price.
I'm trying to see if there's a way to get the bikes from Costa Rica to Colombia somewhere. Is flying an option or are there some cargo boats that go that way. I wouldn't mind spending a few days on a boat, if it's much cheaper.
Seeing that it costs around $600 to air-freight from Panama to Colombia, if the Costa Rica to Colombia option isn't much cheaper, I'll probably just do Panama then.
Any insights would be much appreciated.
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