May 9th 2024 – Bogota, Colombia

We didn’t do a lot of sightseeing while in Panama City. It was simply too hot for us to enjoy being outside.
To describe how warm it was: We had the aircon in our bedroom set to 27℃/80℉ – colder than that and it felt like stepping into a fridge.

It  was another scorcher when we left for the airport Monday morning. We had an appointment with a Cargo Rider agent at 8.30. We showed up a little early at the agreed location inside Tocumen Airport’s cargo area.
Our contact showed up at 9.00 and handed us some papers we should take to the custom building to get processed. It was 5 minutes walk away and she pointed us in the right direction.

We hand over the papers at one of the windows in the appointed building. They looked at the papers and declared that we needed to have the bikes fumigated. When we told them that it was done when we entered the country, they maintained that it was the procedure and that the guy doing the fumigation was unavailable at the moment, so we would have to wait half an hour.
We waited by the window soaked in sweat.
45 minutes later they let us know that it would be at least another hour before we could get it done, and we might as well go back to the bikes and wait there.

Back at the bikes we found our contact person. She claimed that fumigation was only done when entering the country and took us in her car back to the customs building.
It turned out that we had approached the wrong window (there were no signs at any of the windows) and that they hadn’t looked at our papers but just assumed that we were coming into the country, not leaving.
10 minutes later the paperwork was done and we could proceed.

There would be another 30 minutes before the freight company was ready to receive the bikes.
Katrine and I bought a cold drink and found a place in the shade. Katrine used the opportunity to browse through the documents and discovered that there were errors both in the papers the cargo company handed us upon arrival and the documents from customs. We got a hold of our contact. She spent the next 30 minutes correcting the papers and taking us for another visit to the customs office.

Getting the papers right is essential to avoid issues later on – at the very least name, passport number, license plate and VIN need to be correct. We have learned the hard way that it is our responsibility to make sure everything is in order.

Finally we were ready to hand over the bikes. The staff at Air Cargo Pack were nice and very helpful. Soon all the bags had been scanned and the bikes ready to ship. We had found a good way to secure all our riding gear, including the helmets, on the bikes.

3 ½ hours after we had arrived at the airport, we were ready to head for the passenger terminal.

We discovered that Uber doesn’t work inside the airport area and managed to hail a cab. He agreed to take us to terminal 2 for $5 if we didn’t need a receipt.

After hours in the heat it was a blessing to enter the air conditioned terminal. Check-in and security was a breeze and we had plenty of time to enjoy lunch before our flight to Bogota departed. We were lucky and got seats on the emergency exit aisle with generous legroom. It was a quick and pleasant flight. We had hoped to catch a glimpse of the reason why we had to get airborne to reach Colombia – The Darién Gap.

For a number of reasons the 106 km/66 miles gap in the Pan-American Highway from Yaviza in Panama to Turbo in Colombia has never been closed. As there are no ferry services covering the gap, the only way to get a vehicle across is to ship by either sea or air. Advice from fellow travelers had made us decide on the latter. It’s not only the easiest and fastest solution, it’s also often the cheapest when you add everything up.

All we could see from the plane was unfortunately a dense blanket of clouds.

Veronica from Cargo Rider had arranged accommodation for us in Bogota and pick-up at the airport. There was no one waiting for us when we arrived. We managed to purchase new SIM cards before our driver showed up. She took us to Hotel Boutique Mendoza not far from the airport and close to Cargo Rider’s office.

After we had settled our bill up front for 3 nights they explained to us that they wouldn’t have room for us the first night. Instead they had organized a room for us at another hotel down the street. It turned out to be a room ⅓ of the size of the one we had paid for. On top of that we later discovered that the room’s showed only offered a tickle of cold water. It had been a long day and my patience was being tested.
A tasty dinner at a local restaurant lightened the mood somewhat.

We got up early the next morning and went for a walk to check out the area and find breakfast. Bogota is situated above 2.500 meters. As a result the temperatures were perfect. It was wonderful to have escaped the heat.

Back at the hotel (the one down the street) we were met by our host from Hotel Boutique Mendoza. He just wanted to let us know that we would have to stay where we were for another night. One of their other guests had bike issues and needed to stay longer than planned.
That was fair enough if it wasn’t because we were being charged for something we didn’t get.
I made it clear that he needed to step up his game. He responded by arranging an upgrade for us at the hotel we were staying at. We relocated to the new room before heading into town to have a look around.

We visited the Palace Historical Museum of the National Police. It gave an interesting picture of the challenges the police have to deal with. The main focus points in recent years being the drug cartels, FARC and illegal mining.

Later we stopped by the Gold Museum. It was very well done but for some reason it couldn’t hold our interest.

During the day I received a message from Veronica that our bikes would arrive later the same day and that we could pick them up the following morning. It made the afternoon even better and we enjoyed strolling around until around 4 pm when the rain arrived and we decided to call it a day.

Our host from  Hotel Boutique Mendoza took us to the airport in the morning and handed us over to Cargo Rider’s fixer Libardo. Over the next 1 ½ hour he took us from office to office and handled all the paperwork for us. He made what would otherwise be a hassle into a walk in the park.

Finally we reached the cargo bay where the bikes were waiting for us. It looked like they had been taken well care of. A forklift with a device designed for the purpose lowered the bikes down to the ground. It looked a bit dodgy but went smoothly.
A couple of handshakes later we were ready to hit the road and explore a new continent.