10
July, 2002
July 9 - The Container The container finally arrived. It has
now been 29 days days since we've shipped most of our belongings
into a 20ft container. We were told that if we shipped it just
before we left Miami, it would be ready and waiting for us just
a few days later in Costa Rica. Well, that did not end up being
true. With issues in customs regarding accounting errors made
by Seaboard in Miami, the time got extended to nearly 1 month.
Anyhow, we finally got our container, but not that easily!!!
The morning of July 9th - Tuesday, we got a call from our shipping
broker that the container had passed customs (taxes ended up being
less than we thought!), and that it was going to be loaded onto
a truck to be brought down here. The truck was scheduled to arrived
in Puerto Viejo around 2 pm. The ride from Limon to PV is only
45min to 1 hour. Well by 2 PM the truck was not around. As it
turns out, customs was unable to repack our container (it was
VERY full!!) and had to leave the kayaks and bicycles on the outside.
Apparently, the truck finally left customs around 5:30pm and was
set to arrive at 6:30 PM So we waited on the side of the road,
and waited and waited. No truck! Now it was getting dark and began
to rain, so we began to drive up north towards Limon to see if
perhaps it ran into problems while in the road. We did finally
meet the truck - 20 minutes north, who was driving somewhat slowly
- I guess that's good - BUT found a driver who had made a not
so quick stop to have a few drinks along the way (hence the delay!).
The truck ended up being this HUGE 18 wheeler flat bed and I began
worrying about how he was going to bring the container down from
the truck to the ground. He told me that a crane was on its way
down to take care of that!!!
So now we escort the truck into Puerto Viejo, where by now it
is pouring, and decide to drop Emmanuelle and Maya off at home
because it was REALLY pouring. From Puerto Viejo, we drive down
another 8 kilometers down a dirt road to the site where we were
going to drop off the container. Four hundred meters from the
site, the truck stopped, turned off the engines and his lights.
He got out of the truck and comes over to me. He tells me that
he wants to turn around and go back home. The dirt road and the
rain were not in his contract and that we should begin 'negotiating'
to resolve our differences. The rain was - I am serious - perhaps
the strongest, accompanied by one of the most intense thunderstorms
that I -as a resident of Florida for 20+ years - have EVER seen!
We were 8 inches away from each other and could barely hear each
other scream at each other!! We finally agreed on a new price
and he decided to sleep out the storm in his truck cabin. I headed
back home. It was now 10:30 PM
On
the way home, I ran into Nacho, our neighbor and good friend who
has been beyond nice to us. He was having a glass of wine at a
local restaurant and invited me in. So I joined him and told him
of my little adventures chasing and negotiating to get our container
back. Thirty minutes later, after half a bottle of wine, the crane
drives by!! We quickly paid the tab and jumped on his quad motorcycle
to chase down the crane. It had rained so hard that some of the
streets became rapids and it was dangerous to drive through them
- fearing to be washed away with the water. To make another long
story short, we found the crane, had to feed both drivers, had
to get something to drink for the first one, and decided once
again that we could not lower the container in this weather...so
decided to wait until daybreak at 6 am to do the task!!
July 10 - Barely slept all night - awaiting the 6am wakeup
(we have no clocks or alarms - they are in the container). The
events of the next 5 hours cannot properly be described as they
happened. I simply wish that I had had a video camera to place
on a tree and had left it to record for 5 hours. I swear I could
sell it and make a good comedy movie out of it!
The
crane intended to lift the container off the tracker trailer was
nothing more than a truck crane to retrieve broken down trucks
and buses. It was NOT designed to lift heavy containers off trucks.
Nonetheless, our intelligent and hungover truck drivers tried.
The container did not budge, a few chains broke and I almost got
killed as a piece of metal barely missed my head as it snapped
off a chain. Two hours had passed by and we decided that the only
way to lower the container was to empty it!!! I went into town
and rounded up half a dozen workers to help us unload. Fortunately,
a neighbor allowed us to use his large wrap around porch to place
the items as we unloaded them. We were hugely embarrassed towards
the local Ticos who themselves live with a bare minimum of items.
They all had their jaws open in disbelief how anyone could possibly
need so much stuff to live! An hour later, we completely emptied
the container and tried once again to lower it off the truck.
So the driver moves his truck to get the container placed better
relative to the crane and in the process forgot to tie down the
container. So as a result, the container FELL OFF THE TRUCK -
by itself - and rolled into a neighbor's fence and trees and smashed
everything. GREAT!!!!! Another hour went by until the crane was
able to pull the container upright and drag it out of the neighbor's
yard. We ended up having to reload many items back into the container
until we could hire another truck to bring our stuff to our house.
The
rest of the day was relatively uneventful. We loaded what was
necessary for now into a 'regular' truck and trucked it down to
our house. The 'move' was not completed until 10 PM that night.
Needless to say, we were beat, but happy to have our belongings.
For
those who are curious as to the condition of our items - there's
a little bit of good news and bad news.
Good news: nothing broke
Bad news: LOTS of mold!!!
