This is the total number of miles driven in Mexico (plus 1000 miles). The picture was taken just as we were about to cross the bridge into Belize.
We successfully did everything we had to do in Mexico, and met the broker, David, at the spray station. David very efficiently told Javier that we no longer needed his help, and then informed us that everyone at the border considers Javier a pain in the butt because he’s always latching onto people entering Belize, extorting “tips” for his help, and getting in the way of the customs and immigration people who are trying to do their jobs. David jumped in the truck, had us stop at the booth to give them the truck and trailer documentation needed to get permits to drive them in Belize, and took us on to the customs building.
Before I say anything else, I have to say that the whole customs and immigration process was way easier, fairer, and simpler than anyone had led us to believe. Everyone was helpful and friendly, and nobody was out to give us any trouble in any way. We pulled up and David and Tom went into the building, where they continued processing the truck and trailer. We then had to wait a little while, and a customs agent came out to assess the truck and trailer to determine the duty we needed to pay. When they saw the truck and trailer, they immediately determined that they were worth only salvage value, not blue book value; this was something they didn’t have to do, since we would have no recourse if they said they were both worth blue book value, and it saved us a lot of money. A BAHA (Belize Agriculture and Health Agency) agent then came over and asked what food we were bringing into Belize. I told him, he asked to look at our produce, I took the produce drawer out of the fridge, and he took a total of one lime. Everything else was fine since we didn’t have any meat and no other citrus.
He then sent me, the dogs, and the dogs’ paperwork across the road to the BAHA building, where I had my passport stamped to enter Belize. I took the dogs and their paperwork to the BAHA inspector, who determined that everything was in order. Because all three dogs were on one import application, we were only charged the fee for one application and the processing of the single application – another place where the officials could have easily charged us for three rather than one, but didn’t.
While I was there, he got a phone call from customs, which had started reviewing our personal belongings. They had seen the horns on the front of the truck, and had questioned the eight foot horn box in the back of the pickup. The BAHA official back at the truck said Tom would definitely have to unload the horns for inspection. Tom started closing the back of the truck and they wanted to know why; so Tom explained that he needed to unhook the truck from the camper, pull ahead 10 feet, open the back, and he needed 3 men to help him pull the box out to open it up. “It should only take about half and hour, then I need 3 guys to help me put it back in.” The BAHA guy thought a minute and then stated that we should have completed an import application for both sets of horns because they’re beef-related. It turned out to be no big deal; BAHA just charged another $10USD to import both sets of horns, and I took care of that while I was paying for the dog permits.
I went back to the customs building to wait for the personal belongings agent to determine the value of our stuff, and Tom went to get his passport stamped and to change our pesos to Belizean dollars. That done, we just had to wait for the rest of the processing. I screwed up a little bit because I took the dogs inside to wait since it was very hot in the truck and trailer, and outside in general. That wasn’t a problem until I let the Jacks jump on my lap, when I was very politely asked not to let the dogs on the bench. Oops. I apologized and took the dogs outside since we were almost ready to pay and go anyway.
The personal belongings agent came back with a very fair valuation on our stuff. Tom wasn’t sure how that was going to go, because he had only done a quick check through the truck and trailer, and hadn’t asked us to take anything out or unpack. Tom’s planning ahead and making a list of what was in each numbered box, then creating a complete packing list with the box numbers, the location of the box in the rig, and the detailed contents of each box, really helped – even more than we had anticipated. Tom said the agent looked at a few boxes, made sure the lists matched, and that was that. When we had that paperwork, Tom went with the broker and paid the broker our entire duty amount, and the broker then paid Belize customs. Tom distributed tips where appropriate, and even with the number of tips that are somewhat expected, our duty came in way below our worst case estimate.
Our positive experience in getting through customs, in our opinion, was greatly determined by:
1 – Our research in what needed to get done and having the appropriate paperwork ready to be reviewed.
2 – Packing our belongings neatly and having a very detailed list of what and where everything is stored, and agreeing that we would open any boxes they would like to inspect.
3 – Having contacted a reputable broker ahead of time and keeping them up to date as to when we were coming over the border.
4 – Being honest about what we were bringing into the country and why we were coming through with so many personal items.
5 – Being very patient with the process and not trying to bully our way through like we were the most important ones at the customs area. David, our broker, told us right up front that the produce trucks are their first priority to get out the gate, for obvious reasons, and we were careful not to interfere with that process.
We were cleared out of customs, and stopped on the way out to get Belizean auto insurance, also no big deal. The entire process, from meeting the broker rep in Mexico to driving away after getting insurance, took a total of five and a half hours – not a lot of time in our minds, considering we just moved our entire life to a new country. Of course we left our home in New York two months and two days ago, but the trip to this point has been an extended vacation, so we can’t count that as administrative time.
We pulled into Corozol, the northernmost town in Belize. We stopped at the first RV park we came to north of town, but it’s for sale and doesn’t appear to be in business any more. We drove into town and asked if there were any others, and were directed to a simple but nice park just south of town, just across the street from the sea breakwall. We dumped the trailer and headed back into town to pick up a few groceries since we had done our best to eat everything we had, not knowing what wasn’t allowed into Belize – and if you know me, you know the hangup I have about wasting food. We got back, cracked our first Belikin (beer), fed the dogs, and took them for a walk down a side road with a few hotels and a few houses being built along a canal that leads to the bay.
We’re now catching up on our self appointed paperwork, and waiting for the chicken to cook so we can have our first dinner in Belize. Tom is going to post a detailed list of what it cost to get what we have into Belize and what it cost to travel through Mexico, just in case anyone is curious. Tomorrow we’re going to head southwest to San Ignacio, which we will use as our base while we figure out where we’re going to live. We have lots of decisions to make in the next week or so – where we want to look for property, what kind of property we want and what we can afford, whether we want to stay in the camper until we find a more permanent place to live, whether we want to store our stuff until we find a place, or whether we just want to get an apartment for us and our stuff until we know where we’re going.
We finished Phase I when we sold off everything we own and left New York State. Now Phase II – moving our stuff to Belize – seems to be closing. This has been a huge learning process and great project for us to undertake. There has been a lot of stress and some sleepless nights wondering how all this would work out (what have we forgotten?) but we have come through this transition still happily married! It looks like Phase III is about to begin: Let’s go find a new place to live and new jobs. We are going to get off the list of those that are homeless and unemployed!
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