Today, 2 Januari 2013, my goal was to finally get my motorbike through customs.
At 07:30 I was at the shipping company from where we left for the customs office which opened at 08:45. The customs inspector woman told us that we would meet her at approximately 09:30 at the customs terminal. Carlos, the man from ATG (Andean Trading Group) told the inspector that I was following the Dakar Rally and needed to attend at the Dakar caravan urgently…..  That story seemed to work.

The good lady did want to know everything that was in the crate, and made me open every bag and the top case. She made it a point to actually check the frame no. But fortunately she was sympathetic to the Dakar caravan story and said everything was fine.
At 14:00 (2 PM), we could pick up the papers, after we made another copy of my drivers license. In the mean time we went to the bank fast to deposit the terminal fee.
At 14:00 in the customs office we waited till 14:30 but indeed got the documents and the carnet, that serves as temporary import document. Back to the terminal to deliver the documents and get the release forms…..

No such luck !!!! the terminal employee, didn’t know quite how to deal with temporary import of a foreign motorcycle and demanded another official document that was validated by notary… (This same day 300 Dakar attendees were going through the same procedures at another terminal, so how hard could it be).
At that particular moment I confess that I actually did loose my cool for a few minutes…… Carlos however, didn’t and said we were going to talk the guy’s supervisor.
This lady made a phone call and agreed it should be possible. She sent us back to the guy that was oblivious to temporary import and he took forever to process the documents.
But at 18:00  (6 PM) we could finally have the truck come up to pick up the crate.

How many times I had to put down my signature and passport no. on documents today, I don’t know…. I lost count. The same goes for how many times we had to drive from the customs office to the terminal and vice versa. Or how many copies we had to make of documents.
Bureaucracy in (slow)motion.

Bottom line: the crate was on the truck heading for the hostel. 🙂
3 Men and myself were at the hostel to unload the crate. That proved to be a challenge…. We basically lowered the front end of the crate out of the truck, then 4 men lifted the front of the bike (without wheel) and walked the bike into the garage where I jacked it up and put the front wheel back in. It was 20:30; what a long day !!!!

Time for pizza and beer !!!! The remaining preparations I will do tomorrow and leave on Friday.

I could/should have expected it. The last day of the year, many people take a day of to extend the weekend. Peruvian custom employees are no different. Thus there was a shortage of personnel  today and nobody was available to inspect the crate….    very disappointing but understandable. The fact that the Dakar Rally is starting from Lima soon, also puts a strain on customs, and this in fact makes things slightly worse for me….

All my hope is on wednesday now… a week after arrival in Peru.

Every downside has an upside though: I have a little more time now to figure out the best way to create routes in my Garmin GPS. Realistically planning is quite the challenge. I need to keep in mind that I most likely need an extra day to get used to the altitude around Machu Picchu and Lake Titikaka…… I have been told that chewing Coca leaves really helps against symptoms of altitude sickness… Advice well taken…  😉

Just arrived in Lima. On the way from the airport, I observed traffic. Note to myself: CHANGE YOUR MINDSET ABOUT TRAFFIC !!!! What a huge chaos. I’m sure all will be fine, once I actually start riding the bike, but it’s good to observe beforehand….

After settling in the hostel Casa Ana, I took a taxi to the area called Miraflores at 10 am. This is where the shipping agency resides. Once I told them why I was there, they asked me to come back at 3 pm, so they could draw up some papers I needed to sign for the notary. Miraflores is quite big when you walk around for 5 hours… 😉

Back at 3 pm, I asked them how long they expect it would take to get my bike cleared through customs and delivered to the hostel. Due to holidays and new years, it would take about 2 weeks they said…..
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…. Quite upset I told them that I can’t spend/loose 2 weeks waiting. I specifically chose this agency because they promised to do what was needed to speed up the process…
After a fruitful discussion, we agreed upon trying to get customs to speed up the process, by me attending personally first thing in the morning, at the customs office and explaining how important it is that I would get my bike a.s.a.p. !!

I will go to bed early tonight to have a clear head tomorrow morning…… 😉