Sailing To Colombia

[quasijap]

Hello, I'm sailing to Colombia, well I say sailing. I'm tagging along on a friends sailboat that is destined for Colombia from Japan. Does anyone know what the usual procedure is with visas when you enter a country by sea? There may be a good chance that we won't enter in through a major port so I doubt there will be any immigration to stamp passports etc. Does anyone know what happens in these cases, or had similar experiences in other countries?

Cheers, Sean

[MMNETSEA]

Hi Sean,

What is the intended port of entry ? On the Pacific or the Caribbean Side

In some places, an agent is required, in others it will be necessary to travel to an immigration office. Visas can be granted on arrival. What flag is the boat flying - what nationalities on board.

- give us a little more info.

Richard

[JeanneP]

No matter whether you arrive by plane or boat, or train, or bus, you must enter the country in a city/town that is a port of entry and has an immigration and customs office. Nobody on their boat can just sail into any city or town of a country and say "I'm he-e-e-ere!"

Your friends will have to learn the ports of entry. The crew of the boat should contact the Colombian consulate or embassy to determine if any of them are a nationality that must obtain a visa before arriving in Colombia. Years ago French nationals had to obtain a visa beforehand. Friends who sailed into Colombia without a visa were given 4 hours to leave the country!

Your friends are sailing from Japan to Colombia? I assume that they will be stopping at a lot of places before they arrive in Colombia - that's a very, very long distance and a really, really hard sail.

[MMNETSEA]

Had a look for ports of entry on the Pacific coast of Columbia - the only one I could find that resembled a Port - ie: ships , gantries, cranes etc.. was :-

Bun, in the Coastal city of Buenaventura - Valle de Cauca ---- Lat 3.8 N x 77.28333 W.

There must be others - but the coastline doesn't appear to be that welcoming.

Visas:

The Citizens of the following countries do not need a visa to enter Colombia as a tourist:

Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Austria, Autralia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belice, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Granada, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lichtenstein, Lituania, Luxemburg, Malasia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zeland, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philipines, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Santa Lucia, Singapore, Slovac Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad & Tobago, United Kingdom, Uruguay, USA and Venezuela

If your country is not on this list you will need a visa .

[Hud3]

According to the U.S. CIA World Factbook, Colombia has five ports: Barranquilla, Buenaventura, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Turbo. All but Buenaventure are on the Caribbean Sea.

[Lighthouse]

When all else fails see the Cruising Wiki - the Colombia Section has some info.