Change Of Address. Again.

Foiled by Correos De Mexico

It was with mixed emotion that we moved from Punta Gorda, Belize to Cozumel, Mexico eighteen months ago. To be sure, I was excited about moving to a Mexican island surrounded by ocean where I would have the opportunity to learn Spanish and a dollar stretched a long way. However, I absolutely loved Belize and was very reluctant to leave our house in Indianville on the outskirts of PG.  We were only there for a few months, but in that time I began to form relationships with our neighbors and local merchants. I have so many good memories of living on the edge of the Belizean jungle.

Placencia, Belize

We left Belize because we couldn't afford to stay. Our lease had run out and I couldn't find us a new place to live in the Punta Gorda area within our budget. Finding a place in Mexico turned out to be easy on Craigslist and the cost of living in Cozumel and then Playa Del Carmen is quite low. I never did learn Spanish though. I should have made more of an effort. Had I learned the language, my experience might have been different, I don't know. But at the end of this month we are moving back to Belize mostly because of the awful Mexican Postal Service.

I opened my Etsy shop, Paper Prezzies a few months ago - January 2, 2014 to be precise; full of enthusiasm and pride. It took me a little while to fill my shop and get noticed. I learned about Search Engine Optimization and product photography and social media marketing and a host of other things to make my online store a success. My shipping prices were copied from Mexican shops with like-weighted items that shipped internationally. I was ready, I believed, to receive the onslaught of purchases I just knew were coming my way.

The first time I went to the P.O. was a few weeks prior to actually selling anything. It was a trial run to get the lay of the land so to speak, and check out the cost to ship one of my bowls. I was quoted 484 pesos ($37), which was quite a bit more than my estimated shipping fees so I was feeling pretty uneasy. Then I sold two bowls and a pair of earrings within a week and suddenly had to deal with the reality of Correos De Mexico in Playa.

On shipping day I took all three packages down to the Post Office and was quoted prices so outrageous that I was speechless. I don't speak Spanish and she didn't speak much English so I couldn't explain that these prices were almost double the amount I had been previously quoted. Angry and shocked I sent the earrings and a small bowl because I had to and carried the other back home because I didn't have the 793 pesos ($62) on me to send it.

The following morning I went back to the P.O. hoping to see the original clerk and query the price from the day before. Sure enough, the first guy was behind the counter this time and he quoted me 450 pesos ($35) - 250 pesos less than the woman quoted me the day before and 34 pesos less than his quote a couple of weeks prior. He inspected the contents of my parcel but had no tape with which to repackage my bowl so I had to leave to purchase tape. When I returned the line-up was so long that it took me an hour to get in front of him again. This time he charged me 350 pesos ($27) - 100 pesos less than he quoted earlier in the morning. Go figure!

That whole dumbfounding experience stopped me dead in my tracks. How on earth could I conduct business in this manner? FedEx prices, albeit stable, are astronomical and out of the question. It seemed I had no recourse.  I lost money on all three packages that I shipped to the US. How do I post shipping prices in my shop when I can never be sure what they will be? It's ridiculous. Many people told me to take a Mexican friend with me when I ship my items, but I can't expect my friends to drop what they're doing to accommodate my business needs.

I halted production and began thinking of alternatives. Closing my shop was one option. Shipping the entire collection to the US and have a friend sell it from her brick and mortar shop was another. Moving back to Belize where the Postal System isn't corrupt was the other thought and the one that made most sense to me. So, all the paper mache bowls, jewelry and wall hangings are packed and ready to go. I leave Mexico on the ADO bus bound for Belize City on May 30th. We will arrive in Placencia the following day where we have rented a cute apartment just 6 minutes on foot from the Caribbean and a beautiful white sand beach. I have a lovely patio where I will once again start making Paper Prezzies. This time I swear I will learn how to make fried jacks the way Adelma does!