Stuck in Bogotá: A Day of Delays, Detours, and Double Charges

Days 37 Pines 2 Patagonia log

Still in Bogota, Colombia

Today is the day we get our bikes out of customs and begin the journey across Colombia… or so we thought.

Our hosts at Hotel Mendoza provided shuttle services for P2P and Roberto to the location the bikes were being held. The issue was that is not where we needed to go and none of us were going to argue with a Colombian woman in her late 60s so once she dropped us off, we just took a cab to where we needed to be. Once we made it to the gate we needed to enter to get onto airport property the hard part began setting the stage for what was to come.

Roberto went to the window first and after showing the lady in the booth everything except his birthmark he wasn’t getting in. Red, Matt and Keeb gave it a go and even with very little Spanish somehow ended up getting in before Roberto. Once we were on airport property it was about a 1/4 mile walk to the office we needed to be in. The office was very nice and well decorated for International Women’s Day. There was more hugging and kissing that any HR director in the states would ever allow, but it all seemed consensual so we just sat back and watched.

Our friend and fellow rider Ian emerged from the back room and we each took a turn in the hot seat getting the required documents ready to give to the DIAN officials so we could get our temporary import permit and get moving.

After over 1-1/2 hours in the office we walked another 1/4 mile to the DIAN office to proceed. It was about 10:00 now and experience had shown us that in another 2 hours we would be on our bikes once again. Nope.

After sitting for nearly 4 hours and trying 3 different spots to get comfortable Keeb was the first to doze off. The rest of us watched our handler Sofia went to 5 different decks and had finally completed one of the five imports. Sofia hustled all day without stopping for food or water trying to get us done. Around 3:30 she had completed 2 of the import permits and let Red know she was done for the day 🤯

After a few WhatsApp messages we learned that her replacement was on his way over and would stay with us until the imports were completed.

At 4:35 Red, Ian and Matt finally received our import permits and began the 1/2 mile walk back to where we started at 7:50 this morning.

We picked up our bikes and headed to meet Adam and Roberto back at Mendoza. The day was shot so we booked another night with them and found a place for some dinner.

This would be the first time we really got scammed. We were charged nearly double the prices posted on the menu and the food was a 5/10. The staff was very rude and didn’t even care when we pointed out they had overcharged us.

We all walked back to Mendoza and agreed that we were glad this day was over and that we could finally hit the trail again in the morning.