Back to the USA… and the trouble with customs…

Ah yes, the joys of cruising, go where you want, when you want, without a care in the world… yeah right!!

There is this funny little thing about bureaucracy that exists in “emerging” nations like Mexico, and other Latin American Nations, though not so much as Mexico. They LOVE it. So much so that they have decided to turn the process of checking in to their country with your boat into the equivalent of tooth extraction without the anesthesia. How fun is it, you ask?

Well, for one thing, we have been here now more than four days and still are not completely checked into the country. Apparently, you cannot check in yourself. You have to go through what is politely called an “agent”. They collect your papers and process everything with Customs, Immigration, the Port Captain, and so on. Supposedly they are supposed to know the procedure and handle everything expediently and properly. All for the low fee of about $100 (that by the way is only for checking IN).

Now, while the price is a bit steep, it may be worth it if the agent saves you time and headache in doing the paperwork dance. But they do not.

The problem started when we went ahead and checked ourselves in at three of the stops we were supposed to go to, with nary a problem. According to Mike, our crewmember for the trip from Key West, checking in should have been a piece of cake, since he had done it before many times with no difficulty. When we got to the Port Captain office, however, he told us that we could not check in directly with him, but only through an agent (he did not seem to like the idea either). So he directed us to go and talk to the agent that he knew of, but not until Monday (so we would not have to pay overtime fees because of the weekend). Once we got to the agent, we explained that we had already checked in with Immigration and Sanitation, and at this point only needed to deal with Customs and the Port Captain.

They said no problemo, they would take care of the rest in a jif. They collected our papers, made copies of our passports and boat documentation, and told us to come back later that afternoon. We did, they said to come back the next afternoon. We did, then they said that the papers were wrong and that Customs was going to come out to our boat the next day (today). Needless to say by now, what should have been a simple process has now evolved into a major documentary fiasco. The customs guy did come out to the boat this afternoon, along with the agent. Only to reject the paperwork because, get this, my NAME WAS NOT PRINTED NEXT TO MY SIGNATURE!!! When I offered to just write in my name in print next to my signature, he just shook his head and snickered. I am not kidding.

Then there was the situation where the agent, who filled out the paperwork, WRONG, somehow tried to blame me for her writing in the wrong info into the wrong place. It was pretty surreal.

Anyway, now I have to fly back to Florida tomorrow, because my dad just had heart surgery, and I figured I should hop over and help him out for a few days. So I actually have to leave the boat before it has been completely checked in, which only left the customs guy dazed and confused when I tried to explain that to him. According to the agent, by going to her office and signing the NEW, CORRECT paperwork, we should have no problem getting our papers back from customs by tomorrow. Hopefully, Mahi will be able to pick up the papers and fax me our import permit so I can bring some parts and equipment for the boat back without having to pay duties.

Anyway, this whole thing has left us drained and exhausted, we just want it to be over so we can start enjoying ourselves. Oh yeah, one other thing. Apparently every port we go to, we have to hire another agent to have them check us in with the port captain for that port while we are in Mexico! Needless to say, we are going to keep the boat here and do our excursions around via other means, and then once we leave here, it is off to Belize. No more Mexican ports for Andiamo.