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South America |
| Shipping a Vehicle References Shipping a vehicle on the Amazon Insurance |
While we only ventured as far as
Panama, we have our sights set on South America. Listed below are two useful references for those planning a trip south of Central America. We will add more information here as we find it. More information may be found on the web site for the Silk Route Club, a European club which organizes informal caravans to the far corners of the globe. They have toured China and Russia by RV. They are touring South America in 2006. There is also a blog for a group touring South America in 2005. Check this site for a British couple's diary. The Adventure Learning Foundation, a non-profit educational group, is sponsoring a South American expedition in 2005 - 2006 and their website contains an interesting and useful journal. |
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Driving
through Latin America is written for the independent
traveler. It has useful information for driving through each
country in Central and South America, tips on shipping your vehicle
(you can't drive from Central America to South America) and roadlog
maps to follow. Campsites and unsafe roads are noted.
Published in 1997 so maybe a little out of date, but when you order
through International Publications aka Adventure Tours they
include an Update Sheet for 2003 - 2004. Maps of Central and
South America are also available on this site. The author, Chris
Yelland , and Adventure Tours also offer an escorted caravan through
Latin America. |
| Richard and Amanda Bejarano-Ligato dropped out for a few years and traveled Central America, South America and Africa in their VW Minibus. They published a book, Wide-Eyed Wanderers, about their adventures. Their book and web site offer much useful information such as camping tips, health care and how to ship your vehicle. |
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There is no ferry service between Panama and South America! For update, June '08, see www.99daystopanama.com/updates.html#66 The best source of current shipping information I am aware of is the XSMemories RV park, 60 miles west of Panama City. This place is run by an American couple, Dennis and Shiela Parsick. Their web site and email are down as of this writing (Sept. 2005) (http://www.xsmemories.com/), but you can reach them by phone: +507-993-3096. I talked to Dennis and Sheila and found the following. They are happy to help anyone with shipping info. Also, see Updates for info current as of July, 2006. a) The situation is constantly changing, but they are
keeping up with people doing the trip.
b) There has been a booming business this year. They
just sent 10 rigs from Panama to Ecuador. (Actually,
XSMemories don't do shipping, but people who stay there get local
contact info and access to a phone to make the arrangements.)
c) It is safest to ship by container, but the height
restriction is 8 ft (OK for a van).
b) Container shipping between Panama and South America is
around $1600.
d) Bigger vehicles must go roll-on / roll-off
(RO/RO). (this is not a ferry and you don't travel with your
vehicle). Current cost for RO/RO from Panama to South America is
$5000.
Dennis suggests contacting the following who can arrange
shipping anywhere in the world. He vouches for them. When it
comes to shipping, you are at the mercy of the shipping schedule.
Shipping
contacts
Rainier Shipping, Dave Dack, +1-425-277-6000
Suddath (http://www.suddath.com/), Ms. Ambar
Brust, +1-904-858-1200
Gateways Intl., Rick Curry, +1-206-728-5990
You can ship directly from Houston or Miami
to Colombia or Venezuela, or from the west coast of the U.S. to
Ecuador. Check with these contacts for schedule
and costs.
A cheaper alternative in the past has been to ship between Costa Rica (Puerto Caldera) and Ecuador (Guayaquil). An agent for this trip in Costa Rica was Milton Madriz, nautica@racsa.co.cr. For more background see vwvagabonds. In July, 2007, we received word via our Yahoo! Group that this service was no longer available! Instead, the following contact was recommended if you want to ship your vehicle from Panama to Colombia, Ecuador or Venezuela: Dorothea Kalmbach Import - Export Operation Supervisor Pty EGL Eagle Global Logistics Panama Centro Comercial Paitilla Mall, 2nd Floor Punta Paitilla, Ciudad de Panama Ph: 507-... Cel: 507-6678 1262 Fax: 507-215-1102 Email: dorothea.kalmbach@eaglegl.com www.eaglegl.com Shipping from Europe Here is a Silk Route Club blog which includes some insite into shipping from the UK. http://southamerica05.blog.co.uk/index.php/southamerica05/2005/07/28/intro_to_blog Carnet du Passage Until 2005 Ecuador and Peru required a Carnet du Passage and Venezuela requires either a carnet or a libretta. The carnet is a document that is similar to a passport for the vehicle that guarantees to the customs officials of the country that you will not sell the vehicle in that country. For all North American registered vehicles the Carnet can be obtained from the Canadian Automobile Association. As of January 2005 Ecuador no longer requires the Carnet, see http://users.rio.com/tynda/Page517.html. Shipping Down the Amazon You can ship your vehicle down the Amazon from Manaus to Belem (or the other way). The Adventure Learning Foundation did this journey in a FUSO. From their journal... "The company that runs the barges, Chibatao - Navegacao E Comercio Ltda, has a monopoly on the barge traffic on this part of the Amazon River. FYI, for other travelers who may wish to ship this way, their email address is jfoliveira@uol.com.br, be sure to write in Portuguese." |
| INSURANCE
(see also Insurance on our Planning Page) |
| Insurance in Colombia (courtesy
Richard and Kathy Howe, June, 2008) There has been a bit of discussion about the necessity of insurance in Colombia. Many go bare and have had no trouble. Also, we got information from a German couple who didn't have it: when they were stopped and asked, they showed them their general policy, which covered all of South America except Colombia, but removed the cover sheet which listed the countries that were covered; that did the trick. And the vehicle traveling with them and following them wasn't asked at all. We figured we never get away with ANYTHING and should at least try to get coverage. The hotel in Cartagena where we were staying put us onto Colseguros, a large insurance agency. They were most gracious and explained that we did need basic liability coverage, but couldn't write us a policy. But they sent us down the street to Victor Bedford Previsora (the name of the company) Calle de Arsenal #10-25 Cartagena His office is across the street from the parking lot near the convention center (we had stayed overnight in this lot the night before). He wrote us a policy for $41.00US. It is for 2 months; it is a liability-only policy, and doesn't even cover what we would expect from a liability policy in the States. It is called a SOAT; it covers injury to a person, or to property (not including vehicles). In other words, probably useless. However, twice within the first 30 miles of leaving Cartagena we were required to present this policy when we were stopped along the road. It satisfied the police, and we were happy to have it. Further into Colombia, we have seen SOAT advertised by several fueling stations. We have not investigated as to whether it is the same policy we bought, nor the price they were asking. |