There’s a lovely, powerful saying by which I live. It goes: "The more you complain, the longer God lets you live."* Poetic, isn’t it? And productive. My complaints about not being able to get my books cheaply to Costa Rica produced many helpful hints from the old-timers here. Er, long-timers.
By far, the best all-around method is to bring your books. As many as you can. We arrived with the maximum bags and boxes (four apiece, including carry-ons), along with a couple extra bags for which we were charged. I can’t remember exactly how much, but relatively little for the luxury of having our essentials with us.
There are still three 6′ tall bookshelves and several boxes of books waiting for us in Key West. For the books left behind in storage, you have a couple of options. Flying back to get them is, of course, out. Unless you have a friend with a private plane and plenty of time. This would be an exceptionally good friend.
If you have a boatload of books, you gotta consider shipping. We are. We don’t have a boatload of books, or even a container load. But we have other stuff to fill in around the books: furniture, pictures, artwork, guns. Yes, you can ship guns. They need to be registered once they get here in your name if you are a resident or in your corporation’s name. I don’t know what we’ll do with them once we get them here… I don’t think they have shooting ranges. But boys and guns. They just WANT one. Or two.
The shipper sends a container to your house, you pack it, they bring it to your door in Costa Rica where you unpack it. They can provide packers, if you want.
Our first quote for a 20′ container which will hold everything from a small 3-bedroom house and get it here in 30 days is $5,000. Plus 30% duty on the value of the items. You want a shipper who knows how to value your stuff realistically (as low as possible without having customs laugh in your face). I want my books. The question is: how much do I want my old stuff?
For those everday Amazon purchases, the best method for cheap delivery is the M-Bag. Everybody wants everything fast, cheap and perfect. We were in the printing business for 10 years where a typo can reck your life. Your standard firm reply to a fast, cheap and perfect request is "Pick any two."
Getting your stuff to Costa Rica requires similar compromise. I pick cheap and perfect. When ordering from Amazon, I ship the books to my mom in KY. She accumulates them. Once she has the most she can pack into an M-Bag and lift into the car, she drives to the post office and mails it off. Mom’s are great. It was an excellent idea for everyone to have at least one.
So far, the only M-Bag to have arrived here is the one I shipped from Key West August 3rd. They arrived October 2nd. The USPS must have walked them down. But it was cheap: 18 pounds for $18. And they arrived in perfect condition. You can’t beat that!!! You learn the true meaning of patience and tolerance living in Costa Rica. Not at all a bad thing.
*I just saw a bumper sticker that says: "The more you complain, the longer God MAKES you live." That is just so wrong.
One more thing: I try to link to the horse’s mouth when linking. But for the M-Bag link, the USPS doesn’t have a clear FAQs page. Why would this surprise me?
We shipped 90, forty gallon tubs and a few big U-haul boxes thru Taca Airlines. It was trucked from LA to Florida then flown in Costa Rica. It all arrived in 10 days unharmed. If you send 39 tubs you can pick them up yourself at customs and not have to hire a customs broker. At least 5 of those tubs were books I couldn’t part with. The only thing they wouldn’t let us ship was Callista’s chopper motorcycle. They wanted us to disassemble it but the tools were packed. We left it with Big Bro and will pick it up next summer. No where to ride it here anyway.
Love reading your adventures… so does all this talk of shipping stuff mean you are staying?? 🙂
Never heard of the M-bags, what a wonderful way to get more books! You should post something about it on CRL. It may be great to have a book club in CR and members could share an M-bag…
I hadn’t heard of M-bags either. I’ll have to find out about that. Shipping is so expensive.
“The more you complain, the longer God lets you live.”
I should be around a good long time.
I’m not sure if this was an intentional joke or an actual typo, but it cracked me up:
“…We were in the printing business for 10 years where a typo can reck your life….”
I love the idea of a book club here. I miss my books! Fortunately, I happened to wander into Kay’s American Postres in Atenas (which I live near) on the exact day I’d been *praying* to find some books for cheap or free, and they kindly have some bookshelves with not just books, but videos, tapes and magazines for borrowing.
I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t found them that day, as my computer was out of commission and it was quite an ordeal getting a new charger for my MacBook Pro sent to me here, and another kind retrieving it once it arrived.
Thanks for writing about the M-Bag. This is the best news I’ve had in months!
I’m not sure if this was an intentional joke or an actual typo, but it cracked me up:
“…We were in the printing business for 10 years where a typo can reck your life….”
I love the idea of a book club here. I miss my books! Fortunately, I happened to wander into Kay’s American Postres in Atenas (which I live near) on the exact day I’d been *praying* to find some books for cheap or free, and they kindly have some bookshelves with not just books, but videos, tapes and magazines for borrowing.
I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t found them that day, as my computer was out of commission and it was quite an ordeal getting a new charger for my MacBook Pro sent to me here, and another kind retrieving it once it arrived.
Thanks for writing about the M-Bag. This is the best news I’ve had in months!