[Cortés]

(03-04-2019 05:34 PM)Shimmy Wrote:  

Great post, was there any danger riding a bike through those areas aside from getting hit by a car? As in being robbed or kidnapped or whatever. And are you able to easily take the bike to Peru and Ecuador with the same plates or did you have to sell it?

In colombia especially the roads are complete shit, so one of the risks are the giant deep potholes. Also towards the south some of the roads are completely unpaved and its super easy to eat shit.

As far as people stealing the bike, every single night I keep my bike locked up somewhere. I look for hotels/airbnbs that have parking listed, but if not, even in the smallest towns there are parqueaderos where you pay like 4 mil pesos to lock it up for the night. During the day youre fine, just dont leave it parked in a really shitty part of town.

My bike was a shitty cheap bike, but some americans come down here with harleys. That to me, is putting a target on your back for someone to rob you. My opinion is that if your gonna be riding through a poorer part of the world, dont drive a bike that costs 5 times their annual salary!!! Never had issues

My bike was bought in colombia and has colombian plates. Crossing into other countries is easy, you visit the Aduana officer at the border and they will give you paperwork to bring it in legally for however long you plan on being there.

Selling the bike would be a pain in the ass, You can only sell it legally in colombia, or pay out the ass in import taxes. HOWEVER, in Chile, there are two cities with tax free trade zones; Iquique (north near peru) and Punta Arenas (South near Tierra del Fuego). Im gonna be in Iquique for a few weeks to sell it. Ive read that the process is super easy, but others have said its straight up impossible, so i guess ill see soon.