The mail does not always go through

Since we were going to be in La Paz for a while we thought it would be a good idea to have some of our mail sent to us. We talked to the folks in the office of the marina and they suggest using UPS. So on Nov. 16, we sent an email to our mail service in Seattle asking them to box up our mail and send it to the marina via UPS. That sounded easy enough.

I monitored the tracking of the package as it went from Seattle, Washington to Louisville, Kentucky to Ontario, California, to Tijuana, Mexico, arriving there on Nov. 18. I thought, wow, this is great, we should get the package soon.  The words, “Your package has experienced an exception” on the tracking email did not sound good.

Part of our mail included Rich’s medications. Even though the medications were directly from the insurance company and unopened and with the prescription information, customs in Mexico do not accept the importation of medication. Our box of mail contained a restricted commodity. After numerous calls to UPS, I finally convinced them to send the package back to Seattle.

On Nov. 25, the package was sent from Tijuana, Mexico back Louisville, Kentucky.  Since the package was arriving from Mexico, it had to be processed through US Customs and specifically the Food and Drug Administration and/or department of AG PPQ (I am not sure who or what this is).  More phones calls are made to UPS. So even though the package originated in the United States, and never cleared customs in Mexico, the officials were not sure they should allow this contraband to enter the United States.

On Dec. 5, UPS had obtained documentation and submitted to the Food and Drug Administration and the shipment was released.  The next email indicated that the package was at Seattle but not delivered due to adverse weather conditions but later today I got confirmation that it had been delivered.

It cost over $200 to send the package to Mexico and send it back to Seattle, not including the numerous international long distance phone calls (800 numbers are not toll free when you are calling from outside the United States) and we still do not have our mail.

In Herodotus’ Histories is the following quote, referring to the courier service of the ancient Persian Empire:

It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed. (trans. A.D. Godley 1924)

Apparently the Persians had not encountered Mexican customs officials or the United States Food and Drug Administration.