Of course there were problems along the way, but all of our stuff is now sitting on our property in the middle of the jungle. First off we had to get the container from Arizona to Houston by a Wednesday so it could make the ship by Friday. Of course we had it there on a Tuesday just to be sure but, there was some type of holdup there at customs so it would have to wait until the next Friday’s ship. So then it’s finally on its three week cruise through the Gulf of Mexico and onto the Carribean, stopping at other ports along the way. Once it arrived in Belize it sat at the docks for about a week as it went through Customs, the Ministry of Finance, and a couple other authorities. Our brokers estimate was a little off on the duty cost, so we had to hurry and run back to town to get him more money.  All is good now for the port to release all our stuff, except that while it was at customs they had only recorded one of the quads. The duty on importing a quad is 45% of it’s value, so off to get another check to the broker. It’s a good thing we got a good deal on the quads and had “receipts.” So now after waiting a few more days for the road to dry up a little so the truck wouldn’t get stuck, it was finally delivery day.

The big tilt bed truck with 15,000 lbs of our prized posessions pulls up and is ready to back up onto some 35’ of ground that I had Tony with the backhoe clear and pack for us. The truck is in position and guns it, he makes it about two feet in before burrying it up to the axles. It really didn’t help that when he burried it he broke the main water line making it a lot more muddy than what was really needed.

This spot is not going to work to set the container he tells me. If he drops it where it is it will stick out in our road and not allow other big trucks with material to get in or out. We looked at a couple other spots to set the container, but since they wern’t prepared they wouldn’t work either. The big concern at this point was, is he even going to get his big truck unstuck or is the whole truck going to fall on it’s side. One hour later with a lot of digging, jacking, rocks, boards and the help of ten people we were ready to try to get it to move.

I told the guy if we could at least get it a few more feet back that would work for me. Reluctently he said he could try, with boards behind the wheels and everyone pushing from the front he popped out of the big mud hole and hit solid ground. We had gathered up a bunch logs that Ruben had cut up so that the container would set up off the ground. I mentioned to the guys that if they could get it fairly level that would be great.

After awhile of moving logs and beating them in the ground with sledge hammers they had it level. When Antonio, our contractor, got the level out I said “I’m sure that is good enough”, but he’s a perfectionist, so it had to be just right. The truck driver did a great job of finally getting the container in the original spot I had intended for it to go, thanks to the help of a lot of people.

We unlocked the container to check the condition of everything and to also make sure it was our stuff and not a full of plastic plants from China or something. They had rearranged a bunch of stuff while going through customs so not everything was where I had put it or even strapped down. At this point there were only two things that we were really looking for, an ice chest and a gas can. I’m sure you can guess why we might need an ice chest, and a gas can is needed so that the quads can be moved out of the container. In case you are wondering, all gas had to to be drained from the quads before they could be shipped. With no gas can in sight it was off to town to get a can and some gas so that in the next day or so we could get the quads out and actually be able to walk into the container. The container is set a little higher than I would have liked it but after all that trouble I couldn’t complain. So it looks like we will be setting up some type of ramp for the quads and proably a step to make it a little easier getting in and out.

After the major accomplishment of finally getting all of our stuff delivered to Belize and since we were in town anyway getting gas, we thought some food and a celebratory beer was in order. As we were sitting there enjoying the moment, the phone rings. It was our lumber company and they said that the mill was to start cutting our logs this week and we should have delivery in a couple weeks. So we enjoyed a couple more beers and thought that this was a day of accomplishments!