It’s always a long day of traveling toting many suitcases full of boat parts and food along with other miscellaneous items we can’t seem to get here as well as making sure we don’t misplace Riley in the chaos. But its always fun to be back in the sun and the pretty blue water!
Our travels went smoothly until we discovered the biggest bag full of boat parts, motor oil and boat data displays, lights (just a small list of what we were able to cram into the bag) did not arrive in Loreto with us. Loreto is a small airport with one flight every few days and it clears out pretty quickly once everyone on the small plane gets through customs. But because we were delayed trying to locate our lost bag we were the last travelers left in the building. Since there were several customs agents with nothing to do they decided they would root through each of our bags asking us what stuff was….really? They laughed at the different types of cheeses I brought. The agricultural officer even took Riley and I into a room and checked him for bugs (glad they didn’t check me) and requested Riley’s U.S. import documentation and U.S. Dept. of Transportation docs. What? I thought we were entering Mexico. Never heard of them asking for U.S. documents. Mexico’s only requirement last I checked is you must provide the microchip number for your pet and a signed document from your vet stating they are current on their rabies vaccine. We were definitely getting the full meal deal!
Next we moved on to another room where we were greeted by the Alaska agent who was helping Kevin report the lost bag. Then a customs agent joined in and wants to know the value of the bag and its contents. Kevin, assuming it was another Alaska agent said $1,000 USD. Uh oh! He’s actually a Mexican customs agent. He immediately informed us we would be paying duty on the parts related to the boat. Oh no! I told them Kevin had overestimated the value. They asked us to pay up. We convinced them that we’d prefer to pay once the bag was located and we could go through the bag with them and determine a value since we didn’t have receipts for any of the contents in the bag (who does, right?)
The following day the bag was located but they would not bring it to the marina (despite Alaska Airlines Lost Bag Policy) so Kevin had to spend $104 USD to take a cab to the airport. Once at the customs desk they had his bag and went through it item by item as Kevin disputed the values. They agreed the value was $600 USD. Kevin paid them and they would only accept USD and he was back in the cab returning to the marina.
It’s close to impossible to get e-batteries into Mexico and I need two batteries for my e-bike. I had the batteries shipped from Florida to a freight importer in San Diego who can magically get stuff like this into Mexico for a fee. He had not seen the batteries but located them a few days later thank goodness. We are at the marina until all the stuff arrives that has been shipped here. Based on the weather, it looks like we are here until next Monday. It’s a great place to be stuck because the marina has a nice restaurant, hot showers, mini market, pickle ball court, free classes, and nice people and the area is beautiful.
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