Postal service

We don't get mail. Period. If the phone or cable or electric companies need to send us a bill, they have people they send out to deliver the bills, door to door in the entire city. The cable company even has someone who just collects the 240Q! So how do we get mail?

If someone sends something to us, they might use our street address, but we won't get it there. There's no postal workers making the rounds. In fact, our previous apartment didn't even have a street address.  But if someone did send something, it would be important to let the recipient here know. Then we would wait a few weeks, then we'd start going to the post office every few days to see if it's arrived.

However, speed is not assured! For whatever reason, there are sometimes lengthy delays. I just heard about someone who sent down some probiotics on dry ice... they mailed it from the states on May 14, 2014, and it just was received January 15, 2015!

But sometimes it only takes a few weeks.  And, I've heard that things sent in an envelope or padded envelope seem to arrive faster than things in boxes. The Customs department may be where things are delayed... or, it's just general slowness.

Another thing we try sometimes is to send things from the US to us in care of a local business, such as our realtor, who regularly picks up mail. But sometimes the business staff don't get it to us quickly. The probiotics I mentioned earlier had about a two month delay sitting at the realtor's office!

We did have a need to send an important business paper some time ago, from here in Guatemala to the US. We have DHL (an express mail/shipping service) here. But for just a simple flat envelope with one piece of paper costs $100+! We did send it by regular postal service, and it arrived within 10 days in the US destination, for considerably less cost.

And I must say I don't miss the mound of mail sitting on the kitchen counter that always seemed to need sorting! It's a huge relief and simplification to not deal with such a distraction!