So a couple of days after Christmas, my laptop stopped working. Attempts to revive it were made by Tommy, Paul and our neighbor Barry. Word is that the motherboard is shot. This was NOT good, as I am still trying to maintain my real estate business from down here. We found out that one can send things by airline for a fraction of the cost of mailing through a regular postal service. We used Amerijet and Tommy's mom Carmen was able to get it to us. My mom lives around the corner from Carmen and so she dropped off some of our fave diapers (Seventh Generation, since we can't really use cloth down here) and some little trinkets for Egan; Carmen added those as well. And Saline solution! Not an easy thing to get in most of Belize. The $1 bottle from the States was like $7 in Belize City. Anyhow, the cost was just $83 US to ship all of that. Tommy was surprised, though, when he went to retrieve the package in Belize City that we were charged a $100 US duty on the laptop. Strange, since we'd been told that laptops would not be charged. Tommy said he wasn't going to argue with customs officials (we REALLY wanted that laptop). Good choice!
So that is why we disappeared for awhile. I will try to catch up...
Cheers! Happy New Year!
Wow they didn't tell me that there would be US duty on that considering it's a used one. The shipment was really just $63 which was pretty good since your mom was told it would be a lot of $$$ to use the US post office.
ReplyDeleteMissing you guys!
We figured it was worth it, especially since they told my mom it would be something like $1000 to just send diapers! Oh, and Tommy told me that the saline solution was $10 US in Belize City. We had looked in several towns before finding it.
ReplyDeleteUPDATE: Turns out Tommy should have told Customs that we weren't keeping the laptop in Belize, which was true because we had return tickets to the States Feb. 28. But he didn't know to say that, so that is why we were charged the duty.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I can get Saline and Multi-Purpose Contact Solution right here on the island at Chan's Grocery Store! And for about the same price as I paid in Austin, TX. Yee haw!