Jon and Anne's birding travels
There are two sections on this page, Shipping from Panama, and lower down, Retrieving the vehicle in Cartagena. Everything here is based entirely on our own experience in January 2011. Everyone seems to do this process slightly differently, so to quote the small print at the bottom of American television commercials, your results may vary!
Shipping from Panama
For shipping from the Manzanillo Port in Colon, Panama to Cartagena, Colombia we used The Rozo Group (the local representative for Marfret). Our contact, Guillermo Martinez, speaks good English and was extremely professional and responsive. He can be reached at gmartinez@therozogroup.com.pa or 507 264222. The Rozo office is located in Urbanizacion Nuevo Paitilla behind the Credicorp Bank building on Calle 50 (directions below). The total cost for a 40-foot high cube for a single vehicle was $1228 (including agent fee - see below). I think adding a second vehicle would increase the cost by about $150. Note that there is no extra cost for the high cube, so this is a good option if you want a 40-foot cube and can use the extra height.
We went to the Rozo office on a Friday to confirm our booking and get more info about the customs agent we should use (Rozo requires you use an agent to complete the customs paperwork). Mr Martinez was not available, but his assistant Ms. Noris James was very helpful. Their office was a little difficult to find, so here are some tips. Go to the Credicorp Bank building on Calle 50, a few blocks west of Via Brazil. If you are facing the building, go down the street on the right side (Calle 59). Take the first right turn and their office in on the right side just a little ways down. Retrieving your vehicle in Cartagena The steps are as follows. We know people who have done them in a different order, but we started at 0900 and had our vehicle out at 1900 the same day, which seems to be as fast as it is possible to do. An agent we met helping someone else did the same steps in this order. We did not use an agent, thereby saving ourselves USD100-200, but that could be a good option, especially for those with limited Spanish. Note: all offices are closed for lunch 1200-1400, and you will make no progress between those times. (1) AMI office (Marfret affiliate) located at No. 28-50 on Carrera 29 in Manga. This one-block street is located near the southeast corner of the Manga “island”, just outside the eastern terminal boundary. The office is in an unmarked house on the south side of the street. All you need here is a copy of your passport and to pay the documentation fee of COP 66,000 (USD 35). They will issue you a green bill of lading (and two copies of it needed later). We had a brief problem when we reached AMI, because our agent in Panama had not yet transferred the funds we had paid him to the Marfret office there, so they wouldn’t release our paperwork. To help avoid this problem, if you make payment to the agent we suggest you email Rozo to let them know you have paid (and cc the agent). (2) DIAN (customs) office at the northeast corner of the terminal (about three blocks north from AMI). Enter through gate at the corner of Calle 28 and Cra 25 and go to the larger building behind the smaller front one. Ask at the front desk for temporary vehicle importation (we were helped by Sandra Nichols). You need a photocopy of your passport, passport entry stamp to Colombia, vehicle title, and bill of lading. We were given the name of our inspector and told when we should meet him at the container port (Contecar). It seems that sometimes the inspector will do the inspection without you being at the port. While this saves you a trip down there, it delays the Contecar paperwork and may cost more time in the long-run. (3) Contecar (container terminal on the south side of Cartagena - taxi costs about COP 12,000) (i) Get entry pass at the Control de Aceso window in the small building on the left (ii) Go into larger building left of pedestrian entry gate and to small office on left side after you enter to organize the paperwork. You will need a photocopy of your passport, entry stamp, and bill of lading. We filled in a couple of forms and were given a tracking number for our vehicle. Then lunchtime arrived.... (iii) After lunch we filled out two more forms and paid the port costs at a window in the same building. Costs may depend on the size of the vehicle; ours was COP 142,000 (USD 76) which appears to be typical. Then we waited for the customs inspector to finish and confirm everything was OK (apparently all he needed to do was check the VIN). (4) DIAN in Manga. Next it was back to the DIAN office where the inspector and Sandra produced the temporary import permit, which then had to be signed by us and the chief of department (jefe). Apparently there can be significant delays at this point if the jefe is unavailable, but we were lucky. (5) Socieded Portuaria located at southern end of Manga (several blocks from AMI). Stop at entry gate for a visitor pass, then go up stairs to second floor of main building. Go to the window labeled “Servicios a la Carga” and provide the form you got from Contecar entitled “Solicitud...”, photocopy of the import permit, and a photocopy of the bill of lading. You will get a receipt. Wait up to 30 minutes to retrieve your Contecar document for withdrawing your vehicle from the port, which should be issued at the window labeled “Devolucion”. You may need to go to the window several times with your receipt to ask if it’s ready. (6) Contecar. Return to the container terminal. Get access pass and return to office for them to arrange for someone to accompany one of you (the driver) inside. The driver should borrow a safety vest and hardhat. You will take care of exit paperwork in the warehouse, retrieve the vehicle, and return to the warehouse for final signatures on the exit paperwork, which will then be provided to you. As you approach the exit, stop at side of the scales (do not get on) and go into the little office to have the paperwork amended to indicate the vehicle is not heavy enough to be weighed. Proceed to the exit, where they may want to inspect the vehicle contents. After exiting, turn right to return to the administration area to return your pass, hardhat, and vest. As you leave the complex, you may be stopped by the policia to check your permit. (7) Insurance (the next day). You will need to purchase the obligatory insurance (SOAT). Several sources indicate Previsora Segura is the only company that can issue this to foreigners, but we were told by Suramericana that they could also do it. We got our insurance at HBL Seguros, which is on the second floor in the Pasaje la Moneda complex, behind the Citibank building on Avenida Venezuela (near the southeastern corner of the walled city). The cost will depend on the vehicle, but will likely range from $50-80 (ours was COP 142,000) for a four-month period, which is the shortest period available. They require a photocopy of your import permit and will need to see the vehicle title.
From there we went to the agent Mario Patino's office, which is on the north side of town on Tumba Muerto (Ave Ricardo Alfaro) in the district of El Dorado. We asked Noris to call ahead and let them know we were coming. Mario wasn't there when we arrived but arrived only an hour later. We reviewed the quote with him (including his fee of $150), then he put the paperwork together for us to take to the police. We tried to bargain with him over his fee, but he wouldn't go for it. If you are sharing a container, try not to pay more than $200 for both parties. I read of some guys who he quoted $250 for both vehicles but they got him down to $200. Although this is an additional cost compared to some other shipping companies, the total cost is still substantially less than the other quotes we got.
On Tuesday (Monday was a holiday) we went to the police station for the inspection in the morning (the station is located on the west side of the city - ask Mario to show you the location on a map). They don't start the inspections until 10AM but when we got there at about 7:30, there were already three other folks waiting. They'll check your import permit against the vehicle, then take one of the copies of the paperwork Mario gives you. I've read of folks getting hung up here because their import permit had the wrong VIN or something else, so make extra sure that's correct on yours ahead of time; if it isn’t you can get it corrected at the nearby aduana office.
Then we had to go to the other police building across the street for the permit part of things in the afternoon. We were told to be there at 2PM. When we entered the office a few minutes before then, three of the other folks were already waiting, but no one started helping anyone until about 3PM. But they got us all sorted pretty quickly, even though there were nine groups of people there for permits!
Wednesday morning we were at Mario's office at 8AM to finish the paperwork and head to the port. He wasn't there, but the other folks got things going, including dealing with the apparent failure of the Rozo office to tell their people in Colon that we were coming that morning (I think they thought we wouldn't be ready to load until Thursday). Mario arrived around 10AM and checked everything over before we left with one of his assistants, arriving at the port around 11:30. Mario's assistant was very helpful and stayed with us through all the steps until all we had to wait for was to actually drive the vehicle in to load it. By the time we were loaded and ready to leave the port, it was 5PM. Overall everything was very straightforward and not really stressful at all, especially if you expect to spend a lot of time waiting.
Retrieving your vehicle in Cartagena
The steps are as follows. We know people who have done them in a different order, but we started at 0900 and had our vehicle out at 1900 the same day, which seems to be as fast as it is possible to do. An agent we met helping someone else did the same steps in this order. We did not use an agent, thereby saving ourselves USD100-200, but that could be a good option, especially for those with limited Spanish. Note: all offices are closed for lunch 1200-1400, and you will make no progress between those times.
(1) AMI office (Marfret affiliate) located at No. 28-50 on Carrera 29 in Manga. This one-block street is located near the southeast corner of the Manga “island”, just outside the eastern terminal boundary. The office is in an unmarked house on the south side of the street. All you need here is a copy of your passport and to pay the documentation fee of COP 66,000 (USD 35). They will issue you a green bill of lading (and two copies of it needed later).
We had a brief problem when we reached AMI, because our agent in Panama had not yet transferred the funds we had paid him to the Marfret office there, so they wouldn’t release our paperwork. To help avoid this problem, if you make payment to the agent we suggest you email Rozo to let them know you have paid (and cc the agent).
(2) DIAN (customs) office at the northeast corner of the terminal (about three blocks north from AMI). Enter through gate at the corner of Calle 28 and Cra 25 and go to the larger building behind the smaller front one. Ask at the front desk for temporary vehicle importation (we were helped by Sandra Nichols). You need a photocopy of your passport, passport entry stamp to Colombia, vehicle title, and bill of lading. We were given the name of our inspector and told when we should meet him at the container port (Contecar). It seems that sometimes the inspector will do the inspection without you being at the port. While this saves you a trip down there, it delays the Contecar paperwork and may cost more time in the long-run.
(3) Contecar (container terminal on the south side of Cartagena - taxi costs about COP 12,000)
(i) Get entry pass at the Control de Aceso window in the small building on the left
(ii) Go into larger building left of pedestrian entry gate and to small office on left side after you enter to organize the paperwork. You will need a photocopy of your passport, entry stamp, and bill of lading. We filled in a couple of forms and were given a tracking number for our vehicle. Then lunchtime arrived....
(iii) After lunch we filled out two more forms and paid the port costs at a window in the same building. Costs may depend on the size of the vehicle; ours was COP 142,000 (USD 76) which appears to be typical. Then we waited for the customs inspector to finish and confirm everything was OK (apparently all he needed to do was check the VIN).
(4) DIAN in Manga. Next it was back to the DIAN office where the inspector and Sandra produced the temporary import permit, which then had to be signed by us and the chief of department (jefe). Apparently there can be significant delays at this point if the jefe is unavailable, but we were lucky.
(5) Socieded Portuaria located at southern end of Manga (several blocks from AMI). Stop at entry gate for a visitor pass, then go up stairs to second floor of main building. Go to the window labeled “Servicios a la Carga” and provide the form you got from Contecar entitled “Solicitud...”, photocopy of the import permit, and a photocopy of the bill of lading. You will get a receipt. Wait up to 30 minutes to retrieve your Contecar document for withdrawing your vehicle from the port, which should be issued at the window labeled “Devolucion”. You may need to go to the window several times with your receipt to ask if it’s ready.
(6) Contecar. Return to the container terminal. Get access pass and return to office for them to arrange for someone to accompany one of you (the driver) inside. The driver should borrow a safety vest and hardhat. You will take care of exit paperwork in the warehouse, retrieve the vehicle, and return to the warehouse for final signatures on the exit paperwork, which will then be provided to you.
As you approach the exit, stop at side of the scales (do not get on) and go into the little office to have the paperwork amended to indicate the vehicle is not heavy enough to be weighed. Proceed to the exit, where they may want to inspect the vehicle contents. After exiting, turn right to return to the administration area to return your pass, hardhat, and vest. As you leave the complex, you may be stopped by the policia to check your permit.
(7) Insurance (the next day). You will need to purchase the obligatory insurance (SOAT). Several sources indicate Previsora Segura is the only company that can issue this to foreigners, but we were told by Suramericana that they could also do it. We got our insurance at HBL Seguros, which is on the second floor in the Pasaje la Moneda complex, behind the Citibank building on Avenida Venezuela (near the southeastern corner of the walled city). The cost will depend on the vehicle, but will likely range from $50-80 (ours was COP 142,000) for a four-month period, which is the shortest period available. They require a photocopy of your import permit and will need to see the vehicle title.
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Jon and Anne's birding travels