Border Crossings
- Details
Mexico to Guatamala - Mesilla
Mexico to Guatemala, La Mesilla
Do not stop on the Mexico side. As you enter Guatemala, there will be a fumigation stop. 12.50Q to have the vehicle sprayed, Next stop is immigration on the right. Here they confirmed we had an entry stamp for Mexico and then stamped our passport for Guatemala. Just south of immigration is Aduanna (next to the bank). We were asked for our passports and Mexico import permit. After they do the paperwork, go next door to the bank and pay 40Q then back to Aduana. Our time for two motos, about an hour.
Guatemala into El Salvador at La Hachadura
Guatemala into El Salvador at La Hachadura (Hwy 2)
I found this border to be a bit more confusing although the officials spoke a little English. I ended up paying a helper $15 to save me the trouble of wandering around looking for the right office. As you leave Guatemala stop at the immigration office on the left side of the road to have your passport exit stamped. Cross the bridge to where there will be a waiting Salvador official who will check you passports. There are two blue buildings ahead. Trucks go all the way to the right; we went in the middle and parked. First stop is copies at 10 cents each. Located in the middle of the building on the left (east side), follow the signs. Have small bills, as they could not make change for a $20 when I was there and I had to ask a money changer to break my 20. You will need two copies of the following: Passport with Guatemala exit stamp, Guatemala SAT (vehicle import document) and vehicle registration (you can bring this from home if you want). Cross the street to the west building, go around to the other side where the truck dock is. Go to window 4 or 5 with the copies where they will process your Guatemala vehicle exit (Yea, you’re already in El Salvador)). The clerk inspected our bike’s VIN number at the end of this process Next step is to get your bike into El Salvador. Back to the building on the east side. Go through the same entrance as for copies but turn to the right for customs. They will want your passports and paperwork from the last window. They also asked if we had any food and what we were carrying (camera, tools, computer, etc.) for the customs declaration. Another inspection of the VIN numbers. Back to the building on the west, this time to window 1, 2 or 3. Here you will get your official importation document. I was able to process everything for two bikes up to this point; here the rider of each vehicle must sign the import paper. This could mean multiple trips to the window if you do not have someone to watch your gear. That’s it for paperwork. Total cost, 0 (except $1 for copies). We went to immigration station also because I could not believe that they would not want to stamp our passports. Nope, we were done. In addition, even though we said we were transiting through, they gave us a two-month permit. Next stop was the exit gate where they checked our import permit and the municipal tax collector extracted a $5 fee for each bike.
El Salvador to Honduras
El Salvador to Honduras at CA1
The Honduran reputation for bureaucracy is well deserved. Leaving El Salvador you will need a copy of your Salvador import paperwork. First, a trip to the copy store. The officials in El Salvador were very helpful, even walking us from window to window. Copy in hand; it was trip to the inspection station for VIN verification. Once stamped, we were off and across the bridge into Honduras. Ignore any helpers around here. First stop is immigration a blue building situated in the middle of the road, Lots of money changers hanging around here. Passports produced, it was on to the vehicle importation maze. The first Aduano is about 500 feet from immigration. Park on the right where there is another blue building. Down a walkway to the first office where you will need two copies of your passport, drivers license and registration or title. In our case, they would not accept copies of the registration without seeing the original. We made color copies of all original documents before leaving and these were accepted (a little color goes a long way). The clerk will handwrite in the information on a multipart 9A-1 form and stamp your passport Take the completed form all the way across the street to a little window hidden behind a telephone pole. Pay $10 usd per vehicle for the clerk to type the form into the computer. Take the completed paperwork to the bank in the center building (between exit and entry lanes) and pay 532 Lempira ($28.50) per vehicle). Go to the window located south of the bank in the same center building for more processing. Get two copies of everything (stamped passport, international drivers license and bank receipt. Take all of this back to the first clerk for more stamps. At this point you should be finished and can head to the official at the inspection station, about ¼ mile down the road. There you will be asked for your passport and importation paperwork. Once your are past that point, you can go on your way. A note about our crossing, we elected to use a helper. No one in our goup had a good grasp of Spanish and unlike El Salvador; the officials were not very helpful. While waiting at immigration, we met a couple from El Salvador who lived in San Francisco. They were very helpful in negotiation the services we expected for our money. We found it best to negotiate for the total cost ($38.50 plus the helper’s fee). Pay all the fees yourself and then give the helper what is left at the end. We negotiated a rate of $20 per bike. While this might be a little steep, we spent less than 2-1/2 hours to exit El Salvador and enter Honduras. There are plenty of stories of 3 and 4 hour crossings into Honduras Compared to the time we would have spent trying to find our way around and the translation help, it was worth it to us. Our helper also got the clerk to process our paperwork after their lunch period had started. When we got to the final inspection station, we realized one document had not been stamped. The helper ran back and got it stamped while we waited. We may have been lucky; I would be very careful and always keep track of your own documents. You can decide for yourself if you want to use a helper.
Honduras to Nicaragua -Chouloteca
Honduras to Nicaragua via Chouloteca
We arrived at the border at 9:30 am on a Friday morning. This was an easy crossing as we were almost the only ones there. Leaving Honduras there is a blue building on the left for immigration. Go into the building and around to the side facing the northbound road. There is a window for Honduras where you will get your exit stamp and pay another $3 USD per person. When done there, move one window to the right for Nicaragua immigration. You will need to fill out another CA immigration form, and pay $7 USD per person. Drive across the bridge and look for the Aduana building. It will have a large truck dock and you will drive right into the parking lot. Take your passport, driver’s license and original registration to the window located on the truck dock (after you enter the building, turn right and go up the steps to the dock). We requested transit permits and did not have to pay anything here. You can buy the required insurance policy here or at another stop down the road (see below). We elected to buy it here. That was it, took us less than 45 minutes including the insurance. After you leave the customs area you will be stopped 3 times and have to present all of your paperwork. At the last stop, you will need to pay a $1 USD per person municipal tax. The pavement on the road south is in bad shape. We had no trouble with the motos except for the trucks. They will weave all around trying to avoid the potholes. This requires extra care when passing as they do not look in their mirrors before weaving.
Nicaragua to Costa Rica -- CA1
Nicaragua to Costa Rica on CA1 There is only one crossing into Costa Rica. As you leave Nicaragua you will be stopped first by the municipal tax collector for $1 USD per person. If you have not done so already, make one copy of the Nicaraguan vehicle import permit. You will need this for Costa Rica Aduana. Take the road around the blue building to the left (follow the signs for Autos) and park on the east side of the building. Behind you will be another building where the busses park. Go to the east side of this building to the Nicaragua exit (Salida) window. They will want to see your passport and papers. The official will give you a small slip of paper (we’ll call this the exit slip) which will be stamped at multiple locations. You need to find the customs inspector to have your exit slip stamped. He is located in an inspection room which faces the bus dock. This room had three rows of long tables (but no sign over the door). Now take all of your paperwork to the building you were facing when you parked. Enter on the north side into a room with multiple windows. Start at the first window to the left. Here you will pay an exit fee of $2 USD. You will process through all three stations getting many stamps on your exit slip. Once you have everything stamped you can drive to the exit station. Circle around the bus building and follow the road south. The official at the station will check your documents and keep the exit slip and your vehicle permit. Congratulations, you’re out of Nicaragua. When you get to the Costa Rican immigration building pull to the left and park. Find the immigration office (to the north of the restaurant) and get a SICA form from the guard. Take this form to the end of the line and fill it out while waiting. This line can be long; when we got there, two busses had just unloaded. An hour later, there were only 8 people in line. The immigration officer will stamp your passports. As you leave the immigration office stop at the seguro (insurance) office before you go out the door. You will need copies of your passport, registration, driver’s license, Nicaraguan vehicle permit (you did make a copy didn’t you?) and your Costa Rican insurance. There is a copy machine in the office for this. Pay $7281 colones (about $14 USD) per bike plus $50 colones per copy. Take all of this directly across the street to Aduana. Fill out and sign the import form and your done here. Last stop is for fumigation on your way out of the border station. $2.50 USD per bike.
Costa Rica into Panama - Rio Sereno
Costa Rica into Panama via Rio Sereno
This is the ADVRider crossing, YMMV. Expect no one to be in front of you at the border but it is a time consuming detour off CA1. I considered the drive itself to be worth the detour. You will drive directly into Panama without being stopped. It is up to you to find the correct offices and process your paperwork. (there are several roads to Rio Serno from Costa Rica, the process is the same no matter how you get there. Take the turn-off of CA2 at San Luis for San Vita. The two-lane road to San Vito varies from good pavement to potholed to loose gravel and washboard dirt. From San Vito head toward Sabalito. Take the road to Union from Sabalito. At the time of our crossing this road was a rocky, rutted jeep trail with some large potholes. As you approach Union the road will fork to the right and head steeply downhill. If you look to the right you will see an antenna tower. The tower is your destination. Follow this road into a valley and back up the other side. It will come out in the town of Rio Sereno, Panama. Go right through the town until you see a road to the right leading up towards the tower. Turn right and go past the two pest control stations to the building just past the police station. Here you will be stamped out of Costa Rica. Head back towards the pest control station and make a right down the dirt road to the Super Ahorro Market. Buy two tourist stamps for $10 USD ($5 each). Directly across from the market is Aduana for Panama. Just north of Aduana is the Panama immigration office. Present your passports and tourist stamps to the immigration office. Once your passport is stamped, go back to Aduana for your vehicle permit. They will want copies of your passport, registration and drivers license. After you have your permit, your bike needs to be fumigated. The fumigation office is in the same office as immigration. The fumigation fee is $1 per bike. located at the pest control station on the right. Head back through town the way you came and turn right at the intersection where you entered town. This will get you headed out of town on Panama 42, a great twisty mountain road with good pavement. As always, watch out for oncoming drivers who use the entire road. We were second on the scene of a head-on accident on this road. Two totaled cars but no major injuries. A special note about this crossing; we were allowed to keep all of our Costa Rican documents for our return trip. We simply said we did not know if we were going to return at the same crossing.
Nicaragua to Honduras - Choulateca
Nicaragua to Honduras via Choulateca.
This is the same crossing we used to exit Honduras. The procedure is the reverse of above. We crossed late on a Tuesday afternoon. The crossing was un-crowded except for the “helpers”. It took us a little more than an hour to enter Honduras. The Honduran customs agent spoke good English and was very helpful. Honduras to Guatemala via Copan. This may be the best option for entering or leaving Honduras. We crossed on a Saturday morning. There was no traffic, no “helpers” and only a couple of money changers who didn’t bother us. It took us about 45 minutes to exit Honduras and enter Guatemala. Guatemala customs, both immigration offices and the bank are contained in two small buildings located next to each other. Exiting Honduras, stop at Honduras Aduana and get your vehicle out. Then 100 meters down the road is the immigration office. We parked right in front of the office, look for No Parking signs. To the exit immigration window for Honduras, pay $1 per person. Second window over is Guatemala immigration. Then walk next door to Guatemala customs. One copy of registration and passport required (we made these in advance). After the official types the form, take the form and walk back to the bank next to the immigration windows) and pay Q40 per bike. Take form back to Aduana and finish the paperwork. You’re done. You will need to show the paperwork to the official at the gate. Reverse this procedure for entry to Honduras.
Guatamala to Mexico - Talisman bridge
Guatamala to Mexico at Talisman bridge.
Processed the Honduras out paperwork at the Aduana building in the center of the road. Took Jeff's advice and didn't stop on our way back into Mexico. Special note: This border is reported to be open 24 hours. That may be true for immigration but the Aduana office did not open until 8 a.m. We had to wait a half hour due to an early arrival on our part. Plan accordingly.