I feel connected to the world again and it’s as simple as getting my New Yorker to our house- with no special arrangements made at all. I just called The New Yorker, gave them my forwarding address in Guatemala and they promised it would be at my doorstep, two days later than most folks in the United States (they reassured this skeptic). I shrugged in disbelief, but figured it was worth the experiment. They also promised they wouldn’t charge me the extra $1.50 international shipping fee since I was in the middle of my subscription cycle. Sure, why not. Let’s try this out and see if mail does get to Guatemala. And here it is on our counter top:
Inspired by this event and now with the knowledge that I had two ways of getting things shipped to our doorstep – DHL delivered an almost 2 pound envelope to our doorstep for $31 three days after being dropped off in Oakland – I knew it was time to find the happy medium and get our own postal box at the appropriately named PostalBox at Interior Enlaces on 6ta. Ave. Norte. No.1, 7832-5546. We pre-paid the 20 pound weight and paid the $15 one-time inscription fee. It was Q500 even and we got our own “apartment” number. Anything that comes to our box gets shipped automatically and the weight gets deducted from our pre-paid amount. Economist, Harpers and Atlantic Monthly come on over!
@Kara, I am glad things worked out with Daniel a PostalBox. However, don’t forget that shipping and handling is prepaid, but import duties and sales taxes are not; you still responsible for those. Good luck!
Kara, what are you paying for import duties and sales taxes for this stuff? And 500Q sounds like a lot for 20 pounds!