Colombia From Behind the Visor

Nov. 14 & 15

And we are off...our rockers mostly. We managed to have the bikes shipped to Bogota Colombia via Air Canada Cargo. It was a relatively painless process in Calgary. We contacted the AC Cargo office in Calgary and they explained the procedure and who had to be contacted. There was a bit of confusion around the cargo plane itself, initially they said that they needed a wide body plane to carry the cargo and it only came to Calgary as required, and would not come to Calgary at all after Sept 30th. By the time we were ready to ship they had moved to a new facility at the airport and the big plane came more often. Part of the process is to have the bikes checked by the TDG (Transportation of Dangerous Goods) department, the fella in Calgary is Erwin, and he is also a bike rider which sparked lively conversations whenever we talked and it was nice to meet in person when we dropped the bikes off at the airport. The main points with him was to have less than ¼ tank of fuel, disconnect the battery, no aerosol s and no fuel containers that have gas fumes or residue in them.

Once the bikes were dropped off it was a matter of tying up any loose ends at home, hosting a party so we could see our friends before we left, then it was off to the airport for us a couple of days later.

We met this nice fella at the airport.

 

 The plan was for us to arrive within 24hrs of the bikes and all was going well, the cargo tracking on the bikes showed they made it to Bogota, and we were scheduled to fly the next morning. Things looked pretty good until our flight from Calgary was late departing causing us to miss the connection in Houston. So now we had to stay overnight in Houston and leave the next afternoon, arriving in Bogotá at 9:30pm, long after the cargo area is closed. All of this delay meant that the bikes got moved to a secure warehouse off of airport property and the process of getting them back was more complicated. We have crossed many borders and the process is always the same. Immigration for us, photocopies of our documents, then Aduana/DIAN for the bikes, more copies, then back to Aduana to drop off the copies , at a border crossing these offices are side by side or at least within close proximity making it easy to go back and forth from one office to the other. At the airport this would have also been similar if the bikes were still there. Now that the bikes were off premises the procedure added the element of taxi rides back and forth.

 

 So to give a quick summary, first go to Cargo City at the Bogota Airport  and hand the nice lady some picture ID in exchange for a visitor pass.

Then walk into the secured area and proceed to the Menzies office.

Show them the bill of lading from Air Canada Cargo, take the hand written note across the street to the Banco Colombia to pay the importation fee ($113,500COP) take the little blue receipt back to the Menzies office they process the paperwork then give back a multipage form that is to be presented to the DIAN office on the 3^rd floor of the Cargo City building.

 

Be sure to get the Motorcycle Importation Form from the DIAN office. It will be blank but you need it for the Inspector at the warehouse. Take all this paperwork to the warehouse and present to the inspector.

 She fills out the balance of the paperwork.

 

Now if you have to pay a storage fee as we did ($228,500COP) then you have to take another paper across the street to the blue door, up to the second floor and pay, they only take cash. Back across the street to the warehouse, show the receipt and the process is almost done. Just a bit more waiting and them the bikes are rolled out of the warehouse for my inspection that all is well. 

 

 

 

 

From there I have to re-connect the battery and take some obligatory photos with our audience and finally after 6hrs, ride off into the kaos that is Bogota traffic.

 

 

 

 

 The only other person to speak English, we were very lucky to have him there.

 

 

 

 

 

 The other little tidbit I did not mention is that there has to be less than ¼ tank of fuel for shipping, so the first stop is a gas station and if all is normal the attendant fills you up, pay with cash and go. Just like full service used to be at home. Gas is sold for $10,260COP or about $5USD per gallon here. Unfortunately this was not a normal gas stop for me, once the bike was filled the attendant became very excited about the fact  that gas was running down the side of the bike. Actually, everyone there was very excited to help me, or rather stop the gas spill, as I was frantically trying to strip the bike of its luggage so I could remove the seat to get at the source of the leak.

 

Once the seat was off it became obvious that the leak was from around the fuel pump retaining ring. You see, when I was preparing or should I say repairing the bikes I had removed the fuel pump from the gas tank and managed to pinch the gasket upon re-installation. As I had not filled the gas tank before leaving the leak became apparent at the gas station in Bogota. The gas station people seemed impressed when I pulled the miniature tire irons out of the luggage and managed to get about a ½ turn on the ring using one as a hammer and the other as a punch. Brenda was having fun taking pictures. . Lucky that we were only a couple of blocks from the hotel so the temporary fix at the gas station held until I could investigate properly. Thus finding the pinched gasket and completing a proper fix. YAY, no more leaks.

 

Now it was time for Brenda and I to find some food. It has been a long day and we have not eaten since breakfast.  A little corner store had fresh fruit, so we bought 4 bananas and a large mango, oh, and a bottle of water ($3100COP) or about  $1.10CAD. The conversion rate  today is $1923COP=$1USD so it takes some getting used to the conversion factor. We walk around the neighbor hood and take some pics, the people here are just like us, out with friends, getting groceries, putting up Christmas decorations. Same Same, but a little different.

 

Tomorrow we plan to tour around Bogota.