Steps in Panama :

1) Secure a shipping agent (possible to act independently, can be cheaper but usually more hassle)

2) Obtain draft copy of 'Bill of Lading' (BOL), this will be supplied from agent after booking has been made, usually supplied via email.

3) Obtain police check of vehicle. (Pan city)

4) Obtain 'permission to ship vehicle' document from 'control de vehiculos' police/aduana office. (Pan city)

5) Within 8 days from this point vehicle needs to be loaded into container.

6) Obtain customs check of vehicle and get temporary vehicle stamp (in passport) cancelled. (Colon)

7) Attend relevant shipping office at port in Colon as advised by your agent, arrange paperwork/checks for loading vehicle into container/flatbed/roro. (Colon)

8) Load vehicle into container.

9) Take the 'express bus' back to Panama city for your forward passage to Colombia. We happened to go by sailship, you may opt for flying.

 

So I'll try to outline some detail for the above steps.

(1), the shipping agent. 2 agents are often mentioned and between them they probably handle over 95% of tourist vehicles leaving Panama by sea. Evelyn Batista of Barwil agencies ( evelyn.batista[at]barwil.com ) and Vanessa Degracia of Seaboard ( vdegracia[at]seaboardmarinepanama.com ) both have their offices in Panama city ( Barwil : N8.97588 W79.52196 ) ( SeaBoard : N9.00655 W79.53826 ), both ladies are very helpful, speak excellent English. Container price may vary by $50 between the 2. In my experience I found Vanessa was far better at replying to emails. Conveniently for us the SeaBoard office was walking distance from the hostel and Vanessa kindly acted as 'receiver' on my behalf for a shipment of vehicle parts I needed via DHL.

Because of the height of our vehicle we needed to opt for a 'High Cube' container, the HC are mostly 40ft which makes it possible to fit 2 vehicles in one container which will be cheaper (and easier) for both vehicle owners. A 40ft HC container does not cost double the price of a std 20ft container, other savings can also be made in sharing costs for taxis and also at the port in Colombia where often charges are made per container regardless of what's in it. So if possible try to find another traveller to share a container.

COST : a 40ft HC container will cost between $1800 and $2000. (we paid $1880 for both vehicles in a single container). This cost should include all loading and 'stuffing' (strapping down of vehicles in container), shipment cost, the unloading cost of container from ship once it arrives at destination. EXTRA COSTS will be a few minor sundry $ to enter the port in Colon etc. We paid a further $14. BUT, the other EXTRA COSTS will be when you get to Colombia. There will be port costs in Colombia for various things depending on which port unload area your ship docks at, these will be for such services as 'unloading' the vehicles (that is driving them out of the box! even if you do it yourself, extra container storage cost (you will be allowed 3 days storage of container at port upon entry, each day thereafter is payable ($11 per day), try to arrange a ship that docks on a Tuesday, it should then avoid container storage charge, we were unlucky as our ship docked on the friday night, nothing can be processed over weekend so 2 of our days used just waiting) general port cost etc etc all in all for us using the SeaBoard dock we ended up paying a further $121 total, so $60.5 per vehicle. (full breakdown of all costs at end of document).

(2) - self explanatory.

(3) - The first police check. You need to attend the 'Policia Tecnica Judicial' office, actually there are 2 PTJ offices you have to go to. The first is to get a visual check that the vehicle you have matches your documentation VIN number etc, the office will 'generate' a vehicle inspection report that is transferred to the 2nd office before your expected arrival later the same day (if you are early enough), we did not actually receive anything from this first office. The check took just a few minutes. the office is in a dodgy area and I know of people who have lost items from their vehicle while it has been parked in this car park !

GPS : N8.96534 W79.54461

 

(4) - The 2nd PTJ office is immediately across the busy highway from the first, you may well have spotted it earlier in the day. Once that first check has been completed (we were there at 8am) the officers will advise you to come back to the 2nd office after lunch (2pm) to collect your 'permit to leave' document. This office known as 'Secetaria General' will have checked there are no outstanding traffic violations on your vehicle, they will have the documentation from the first check already supplied. However, they will need you to supply some copies of; passport, vehicle registration, BOL (remember the BOL copy your agent emailed you) and 'vehicle importation document'.

Worth mentioning at this point . . . . when you enter Panama you should be issued the 'temporary vehicle importation document'. On the journey south you will probably have recieved a number of these each time you enter a country. This one though is VERY important to get right. Make sure before you leave the border you check all the details on this form and make sure that all correct information is duly allocated to it's correct spot on the form, often the officers seeing unusual vehicle registration will copy down for example a VIN number in the engine number box, sounds minor and usually is. BUT when you go to this second PTJ office they will be very particular about this document being absolutely correct. If it is not, then you will be delayed, probably having to go to another office in another part of town to get a replacement entry permit issued. BE CAREFUL.

 

(5) - the permit is valid for 8 days.

(6) - cancelling the 'Entrada Con Vehiculo' stamp in your passport. This can no longer be done in Panama city aparently and so it is done now in Colon. Depending on which port you are shipping from depends which office you attend. We were using SeaBoard and so attended the main SeaBoard office which downstairs contained the officer needed to cancel stamp as well as giving the vehicle a brief customs check.

(7) - just follow the procedures, the seaboard staff were very efficient, various people filled in various forms, as you'd expect numerous photocopies required and eventually ready to enter port itself and start loading the container.

One minor advantage of using SeaBoard is that their office is at the port entry (SeaBoard is a shipping company as opposed to just an agency, you may well find that even if you go via the Barwil agency your vehicle travels via a SeaBoard ship), and this office is adjacent to the bus terminal for catching the bus back to Panama city (saves a taxi fare)

(8) - there is a small fee to pay to enter the port, the seaboard staff tried to imply they would drive vehicle into port and be loading the vehicle into container themselves. We were obviously not happy to accept this and with very mild insistence explained WE would be loading the trucks. You will need a fluorescent jacket and a hard hat and 'reasonable' shoes, for us the seaboard staff 'loaned' us the hat and jacket. 'Cristobal' Port entry point and seaboard office is at : N9.35200 W79.90330

(9) - 'express' bus back to Panama city (Albrook Mall - end of line!) is $2.50, then jump into a taxi to your hostel (we used 'Lunas Castle') which if old part of town should only cost about $3. There is also the option of the 'tourist' train back, this journey though short is highly recommended, the train leaves the seaboard office (also being the terminus for the train line) at 5.15pm (only one per day) for a cost of $22. The station in Panama city is close to the Albrook Mall too.

 

Basically 2 options for getting from Panama, either fly out, cost about $135 or take a sailship which though costing considerably more is a very enjoyable way to make the transit and an opportunity to visit the San Blas islands. A number of boats ply the route most taking about 4 or 5 days. We used and highly recommend the German operated 'Stahlratte', we chose the 8 day tour option with all inclusive costs of $650 per person. Due to the length of this voyage we delayed departure of our container, the container ships only take 18hrs to make the crossing. A delayed departure is a no cost solution.

 

 

steps in Colombia :

1) Attend your shipping agents office (SeaBoard is at "Muelle Del Bosque" port) and obtain the original of your BOL (from old quarter of city (the nice bit!) to seaboard office at port was $6 in the taxi.

GPS : N10.39952 W75.52707

2) Make sure you have a couple of photocopies of all relevant documents including a copy of your passport with your Colombian Entry stamp showing. Take all this and the original BOL to 'DIAN' office, (seaboard port to dian office in taxi costs $3)Await arrival and unloading of your ship.

GPS : N10.40727 W75.53283 (approximate-sorry), the building is a huge 1970s style complex, looking bit like a municiple school college building. You will pass this building in the taxi when going from old city to 'Muelle de Bosque' port, a one way street and building on right behind some railings. 2 buildings here, the 1 you require is the further building, furthest from the road.

3) Locate the lady responsible for issuing 'Formulario De Importacion Temporal de Vehiculos', hand over the documents she needs, make sure she knows which port your vehicle is at (in our case 'Muelle de Bosque') she will not issue you anything but she will arrange the customs inspector to be available for an inspection. If you are with SeaBoard then almost certainly this inspection will not take place until the next morning. So, once this inspector has been booked there is little else you can do until next day.

For us the above 3 steps only really took about an hour and half, the rest of the day was free to explore city. We had one slight issue with obtaining the BOL as SeaBoard at first stated we had already collected and then they stated there was no proof of payment from Panama (something we should have obtained at the SeaBoard office at the port in Colon). Not sure which of these 'reasons' was valid (if either) but it caused us an hour or so's delay at the SeaBoard office.

4) Next Day. The customs inspector will have been booked for 8am, she eventually arrived at about 9am. By the gate of the "Muelle Del Bosque" port (inside) the payment offices for the port are to the right and the dian office is to the left. We waited at the door to the dian office and eventually the inspector arrived with our paperwork and she very promptly dealt with us and started our process rolling despite the half dozen other people demanding her attention. During this wait period we did start the process for paying the port fees (office on right as you enter area)

5) Inspector, us and port guys proceeded to find our container and opened it. NOTE : you should have used your own lock to seal the container back in Panama, this prevents the port in Colombia opening the container and attempting to bring your vehicles out. vehicles out, inspector inspected, more paperwork filed and then inspector and us drove back to the main dian office to see the girl we previously met the day before.

6) wait. This dian office has a notorious reputation for people waiting many hours for the import certificate to be issued. For us we waited less than an hour (the day before (a monday) our friends had waited for 4 hours! maybe just a busy day?).

7) with the temporary vehicle import certificate you can now obtain the liability vehicle insurance from one of the agents in town, or if not deemed necessary then go direct to port to collect vehicle. We got our insurance from : 'Calle de Arsenal' find PREVISORA insurance (seguro). $60 for 3 months.

8) Back to port, obtain 'salida permisso', (documents office on right, amusing here as you will be required to give 9 finger prints ! yep 9) get another customs check on vehicle (quick cursory glance inside) and then exit port. Have to leave via a weigh bridge so good opportunity to check your weight!

That's it.

We had no issues at port requiring insurance, apparently at other port they can make an issue of this.

We also had no problems over safety clothing, again another issue aparently.

We used SeaBoard, i think overall this was the more efficient company, certainly we had less issues than others with some of the port beauracracy (both sides), little cost difference, though we did have friends who used Barwil and consequently had to pay a fee for returning a 'dirty' container ! this is a pain, firstly, it is another cog in the process, you have to pay a cash container deposit and the after unloading get the container inspected and if clean you then have to go and get your deposit back or, as in the case of our friends a small drop of oil and they lost the deposit.

COSTs :

Container (seaboard) cost $1880 (divided by 2)

Panama port costs $11

Bus ride from Colon $2.50 per pers

Lunas Castle hostel $10 per pers

'Stahlratte' $620 per pers (7nights full board + San Blas + damn good fun an a huge sailship)

Colombia hostel $10 per pers, needed for 4 nights as ship arrived fri night)

Colombia taxi costs $12

Colombia port costs $110

Colombia port extra days storage $11

Total : $1746

Campspots :

we stayed the first night dockside by the marina (Cartagena 'Muelle de Touristico' at entrance to private marina. small car park. Marina security will keep an eye. ), no problems, quiet spot and 2 minutes walk to supermarket with bathroom available.

GPS : N10.40938 W75.53859

approximately 50kms north east from cartegena is the 'mud volcano', great fun place to visit and after 6pm completlely private, we wildcamped here and had great fun in the mud after the sun went down.

GPS : N10.74395 W75.24029

 

end.