(Most of) OUR STUFF ARRIVED....!

What a week!

I ran errands and grocery shopped on Tuesday, and picked up some plastic plant pots for an absolute STEAL at Harmouch's Hardware! 

After yet another defeat in Fantasy Football, I opted to eat my sorrows with a banana split from Western Dairies, $4.50 U.S. and I got to choose 3 flavors of ice cream (strawberry, pineapple, and chocolate for the win.) If you have visited the island, the price for ice cream is outrageous in most locations ($10U.S. per pint), presumably as there is no fresh milk here - except at Western Dairies. I didn't know they had a store until the owner of Fresh Express leaked it to me - cheap(er) dairy and value meals, too! The split really lifted my spirits.

Banana Split from Western Dairies, San Pedro

By Wednesday I still hadn't heard from Belize Freight about our shipment, so I reached out - they replied that they expected to transfer our goods later that day to Caribbean Queen, the barge. HOORAY!!!! My enthusiasm was short-lived, however, when they sent me the proof of loading: it showed 114 boxes. We sent Belize Freight 121. I responded immediately asking about the discrepancy and the local office's response was essentially, "that's what we had....". I e-mailed Jhimel, our sales rep in Houston, and even though it was after hours, he quickly replied, stating that they often miscount at the dock when loading, not to panic. He said to count them on delivery and let him know.

With our new sofa inbound, I posted the existing sofa on Facebook Marketplace for $600BZ. This sofa came with the villa and is of an indetrminate age, but I found it on Amazon for $816U.S. new, which was incredible - we didn't find it particularly comfortable, and it was not quite 80" long, so not a large sofa. I had multiple offers within minutes, upholstery is so difficult to find on the island! Nathan expected to get $100U.S. for it. I told him I was going to underprice it to make sure it was out before our new one showed up.

Thursday morning I drove to Caribbean Queen to see if I could pay in advance and schedule delivery; we need to know when they are coming so we are ready for a large delivery! The office ladies sent me to the warehouse as they did not have a bill yet. The guys in the warehouse said our shipment was on the island, but not to them, yet - but they had a copy of the bill of lading. They said they would call my local number after 1 PM that day to make the delivery! On my way home, I picked up two of the following drinks: Gatorade knockoff, Ginger ale, Coke, and bottled water for the delivery crew. 

The warehouse at Caribbean Queen - where many products arrive for the islanders!

Starting at 1, I was waiting by phone with bated breath; they're going to call at any minute, right...?! 

My sofa buyer showed up at 2 PM; she had to hire guys with a truck to get it! It wasn't going to fit on a golf cart. No call yet from Carribean Queen. And of course, the king tide decided to repopulate.

By 3 PM, I started to sweat it. We had Happy Hour plans with some folks and still hadn't heard about the delivery. We grabbed scrap wood one of our neighbors had discarded to create a "ramp" to our driveway.

Shortly after 4, the call finally came in! The truck was on the way! They told me the cost for transport from Belize City to the Island, and to deliver to our door - $2,000BZ. Not having that kind of cash on hand, I phoned their office to pay by credit card. 

I prepped our drinks on ice in a bucket, gathered Nathan, and went outside to await the truck - which turned out to be, TRUCKS, plural - they sent a box truck AND a pickup! And SIX guys to unload! They apologized it was so late in the day - they said it took a long time to load so many boxes to their trucks. They seized on my drinks, grabbing them in this order: sports drinks, ginger ale, coke, water. I thought for sure water would be the first grab, I was wrong! They nearly fought over the sports drinks. And on the scale of a small miracle, the tide moved out in time for delivery!

Overall our items looked to be in very good condition after 3,900 miles and 2+ months of travel - a few bins were cracked or majorly dented. With six guys plus Nathan helping, they were unloading faster than I could check off boxes - every box had a number. 

The pinball machine was the last item to come down, which worried me - these guys had been moving boxes all day, and ours weren't light...now that they were fatigued, they were going to lower from a truck-bed our heaviest piece. It came down unscathed, and both Nathan and I instantly realized OUR NEW SOFA WAS NOT DELIVERED. You have got to be kidding me....!!! We asked the guys if they saw a sofa in the warehouse, and they insisted they brought all the pieces Belize Freight had sent. We tipped them out as it started to rain; we had to cancel our Happy Hour plans to get our "inside" bins into the villa, and cross-check box numbers to see what else might be missing.

In the end, 117 of 121 boxes were delivered - in addition to a brand-new sofa, we were also missing our hard paddle boards, and 2 pop-up canopies. I e-mailed Jhimel again, letting him know, and asking him to please check the Houston warehouse and ask Miami if by chance, they had it. Again he replied after hours that Miami had our items, he asked them the day before when I first raised a red flag...would have been nice to know, but glad to hear they weren't lost for good! They are expected to arrive to Belize this week. It looks like we'll be in camping chairs for a bit.

Here is a video of the day: Our stuff arrives to Belize from the U.S.

In hindsight, it's probably not terrible that the sofa was delayed - our Living Room was packed full of boxes!

If you are curious what the first thing we opened was, it was the PetFusion Cardboard Cat Scratcher for the cats. They had been clawing up our blue accent chair, missing their scratchers and cat trees. 

Roxy blissed out, Shadow waiting his turn.

I had moved our cart two doors east to make room for the delivery truck; when I went to move it back to our driveway for the night...the tide had returned! The timing was perfect. 

Exhausted and sweaty, we were still like kids on Christmas morning, opening up boxes and finding our treasures. Nathan was convinced it was going to be his tools that were missing, but they all arrived. I'm stoked to have a trash can where the foot pedal works, actual cooking tools, and a variety of clothes and flip-flops! The cats are so much happier with their trees and water fountains here, too. Overall, spirits are lifted in the villa.

As you might expect, we spent the weekend organizing and opening boxes and bins. The bodega was entirely filled as some of my "inside" boxes were placed there by the delivery crew, so we had to dig those out. 

Now that my large pots arrived, I was able to plant my lime tree! As Nathan toiled in the bodega, I was potting my plants. He did a great job organizing it and we can now more easily get through and find things we might need.

We have not yet unwrapped the pinball machine; we're eager (but nervous) to see what shape it is in. 

This week I have a lot of admin items to tackle, including ordering rock for our front yard before the next king tide rolls in. We're hoping to raise it enough so it isn't a flowing lake in October!