Now that I’ve hit bottom the idea of riding back to Asheville through the Argentine desert, choosing between crooked cops or weeks of dirt roads in Peru and crossing Central American borders again just isn’t that appealing. Hard to believe, I know. So, I’ve a new plan, subject to change without notice.

The new plan goes something like this: Ship the bikes to Mexico just south of Brownsville, take Spanish classes while I wait for them to arrive, then ride home to beg for a job. Easy, right? Not so fast there Caballero…

Here’s how its been going…

While shipping the bikes around the Darien gap, the impasse between Panama and Colombia, I met Jorge and Salvador, two Mexican riders also heading to Ushuaia. They helped us deal with a little Napoleon in the customs office and we rode together for few days. They reached Tierra Del Fuego about a month ago and secured a container in a ship bound for the Caribbean coast of Mexico. Mike, Simon and I want to put our bikes in the same box and share the costs, but we had no idea how much trouble this would be.

Really, we’re making it harder that it has to be because we don’t want to work with a customs broker. When flying the bikes from Panama all we did was pull up to the airport and ride them into the warehouse. Things are different here.

When we got to Ushuaia we tried to talk with the customs broker Jorge was using. He was on vacation until February so we talked with Pedro, his assistant. Pedro wanted to charge us $100 more than he was charging Jorge – and for doing less. I held my temper and my tongue and politely left.

Then Mike, Simon and I went to the customs office to get the necessary paperwork and do it ourselves. At the office a guy with fire in his eyes angerly told us that we couldn’t have the papers. He said we needed a broker. After a little more conversation, he directed us to another aduana, or customs office. Maybe they’d give us the papers? So off we paraded. We talked with the lady that handles vehicle paperwork, and she directed us to a different desk where the new guy told us… we needed a customs broker to get the papers and fill them out for us. I didn’t understand why and I was getting really mad about it. I can write, I even have my own pen, why can’t I fill out my own paperwork?

In frustration we decided to go visit the shipper and see if they could help. On arriving we asked for the person Jorge talked with… who was on vacation until February. Maria Belen works in the same office and has been the only brite spot in this whole process. After forwarding her a few emails from the head office in Buenos Aires, she’s taken up our cause and told us what we need to do to get the ball rolling.

Which includes… getting a shipping agent. She helped us find one who would do the work for a reasonable price, but when I told her that there would be two agents for the one container, she said that was impossible. Only one per container. So we’re stuck with Dishonest Pedro.

With Jorges help we got Pedros price down to something reasonable and retained him to do the paperwork that we could do ourselves if someone would give it to us. But the bureaucratic wall is too high and my Spanish is too poor…  so we need him. In Pedros office we find out that we need a Notary Public to give him official permission to fill out the paperwork for us. More pesos change hands. Then we find out we need an official translator to translate the contract that the Notary will notarize to give permission to Pedro to fill out the paperwork that we could fill out ourselves if someone would only let us. So more pesos change hands.

Thats about where we are now, but don’t think for a minute thats the end of the story.

Stay tuned….