Not as easy as it seemed...

More truck dramas!

Licence and Co. called us to let us know that AFTER we'd paid our rego fees, they (DTOP) had "made a mistake" and actually want to charge us extra fees now as all pick-up trucks are considered for commercial use. Well, we certainly didnt want to pay the extra $65 to register it under something that wasnt being used commercially!

The guy that was helping us out at Licence and Co. recommended that we go back to the Hacienda (where we paid our import taxes) and ask that they change the type of vehicle it was on the documents (personal rather than commercial), and then he would take it back to DTOP to prove to them that it is a personal vehicle.

A trip to the Hacienda was better than expected, we came during lunch hour (one of the few government offices that operate during lunch hour), and were served right away.. about 6 people later and we were escorted to the top level of the building to talk to the head honcho. Apparently they could do it - but then the import tax would go up and have to be paid - another 15%, which would've been approximately $500!. So, at the end of the day, we figured its cheaper to classify the truck as commercial and pay a once off fee of $65, then to go through a whole bunch of paperwork to change the classification to a personal truck and pay the outstanding percentage of taxes.

We should almost be ready to hit the road with Puerto Rican plates by Monday!

Truck registration

After doing some research into registering the truck - and our month of being allowed Washington plates is slowely drawing to an end, we decided to go through an agency called "Licence and Co." to register the truck. There is a couple of DTOP's (DMV, Vicroads etc) in San Juan but seeing the queues there means literally an entire day spent to register the truck.

Instead, we decided to pay a few extra dollars to get Licence and Co. to do the registration for us. We needed to get an inspection (REALLY easy to pass, all they checked were the emissions), pay your $11 for it, and this can be done at almost any petrol station, no appointment needed. We then went to Licence and Co. - we were lucky to have one just down the road from us, next to Blockbuster, and give them the paperwork and they get the truck registered for us. They're a pretty good little agency, they help you with changing over your licences too.

Just had to include this pic, we were at a traffic light stop earlier and thought that its only in Puerto Rico that they'd get away with putting a street light in front of a traffic light!!!?

"Silver Truck"

After 2 and half weeks of waiting, endless phone calls that werent returned, endless emails that werent returned, rude customer service, constantly being hung up on and not called back, being put on hold for long periods of time, false advertising ('door to door' service all of a sudden became port to port only) among many other things by broker Total Car Shipping - finally brought Geoff's Silver Truck to us at San Juan! Of course with all these mishaps, we expected the worst and the car was not delivered to us in the same condition than we dropped it off - the center console was ripped off, the ashtray was broken, the passenger outside mirror was cracked and there was a rock chip in the windscreen. We've lodged a complaint form and staff at Seastar took photos, we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of it!

Our time spent at the port in Puerto Nuevo was an experience too. We got bumped from one window to the next, got told that we still had to pay the fees (Thanks Total Car Shipping for passing on the information to Seastar that the fees and charges had been paid for in total, in advance), and ended up in a tiny room where staff didnt speak any english.

We began trying to indicate what we wanted when a lady behind us got up to help translate for us. She (and her family) ended up helping us for the following 4 hours - we needed to go to another part of Puerto Nuevo to pay the taxes, which wasnt actually as painful as we thought. It was a small room again, but the lined moved pretty quickly and we were served in spanish without too many misunderstandings. We ended up having lunch with our new found family at Wendy's before getting a lift with them back to the original office where we could show the forms (once again) and finally collect the truck!

Our first trip - which we've been dreaming about for the last 3 weeks, was to Costco. We've been breaking our backs carrying groceries and goods via public transport so it was exciting to finally have a vehicle and just load up. As you can see from our photos, it was a big shop, but we dont need to head out to Costco anytime soon now.

The wrap up to Miami

Well our last few days here in Bellingham certainly havent been quiet!

We worked till 2am on the truck last night..its up and running! All our rush for nothing though, because the shipping company emailed and said they wont be here till Thursday...ggrr....

She's all fired up though and pretty much good to go.. some things still need fine tuning and installing (pump, wiring for lights, new seatbelt) but the main thing is, the truck can run.

Our last day of cold weather was spent in Seattle, Geoff had a pre-op exam for his laser eye surgery and I finally managed to pick up my medical forms. One last dinner at my mother-in-law's and we had an early Christmas - ham and pressies!

Warm weather - here we come!!

Our trip to Portland, Oregon

So...after hunting around the last week for the truck's title and realising that it was nowhere to found, Geoff and I woke up at 3am to leave for the Dept. of Auto Vehicles near Portland, Oregon yesterday. The truck was still in Geoff's Dads name, and needed to be transferred into Geoff's name, and in order for that to happen, they needed the title and needed to apply in person. I slept half of the way down there...and half of the way back up - but it still hurt since I was still recovering from Black Friday's early morning get up!
On the way back, we stopped by Mt St Helens, a dormant volcano. It was a clear day with perfect skies and absolutely gorgeous views. Too bad we were a bit strapped for time and couldnt do any walking, but the view in itself was satisfying enough.

To top off any good road trip, good food was needed.. we strayed off the freeway and ended up in Monroe - to the best BBQ place I've ever been too (Teddy Bear BBQ) - it was a tiny little hole in the wall wooden house, family owned and really cutely decorated inside - and we stuffed ourselves with pulled pork, beef briskit, pork ribs, corn bread and of course LOADS of their specialty bbq sauces...

So did I sleep well after that? I'll let you decide.

Getting the truck ready...

Geoff has been working really hard on getting his Toyota 4WD ready for shipping to Puerto Rico. I do what I can, cleaning here and there. Not very mechanically-minded I am.. but its something different and its great to have a project that we can work on together.