The Good, the Bad and the Aduanas

Mowing the lawn.

Worn our puppies.

Hot and worn out!

The Good:
1. The puppies are adorable. One appears a little smarter than the other, but there is still hope for the boy.
2. We finally were able to fund our checking account. However, there is a cap of transferring US money in the form of a check per month ($3,000.00) and our visa requirements say we need to have $7,500 in the account. If anyone can work around the rules it is us...not knowing the rules all at once seems to be our problem. :)
3. Our health insurance was approved, we are just waiting on our insurance cards.
4. The birds, the monkey and all of the wildlife is still so awesome to listen to all day.
5. We have TV, internet and voip calling working pretty well! 
​6. We get to borrow our neighbors riding lawn mower...yay!

The Bad:
1. The puppies sleep alot, but only in small spurts. Night one of house-training was exhausting and only 50% successful....haha
2. Okay....not alot bad....unless you count the waiting on the aduanas.

The Aduanas:
Aduana is the Spanish word for customs. Not that I have ever associated customs with a fun experience, no matter where I was, but oh my! We have been waiting for our container for over a 10 days now. The container arrived in Panama on the 10th. After hearing many different stories on why the container was not in the city of David ready for inspection for a week, we get word on Wednesday that the container and paperwork is ready. We drive to David to meet with a custom's broker and our shipper, answer a few questions and then are told to go home, there is no way that they will process the container that day. We are told to come back the next morning, Friday, and we will get it inspected, quarantined, released and unpacked at our house. Not knowing what customs is going to charge us for import tax, we arrive with money, passports and everything else we can think of. It was released from quarantine and after they unpacked 15 totes/boxes, went through a file cabinet, etc., we were told they had a number in mind for the taxes, but were sending it to the main office in Panama City for approval. (This part was done around 11:30am) As soon as it was approved, we could put the boxes back in the container, go pay the bill and within an hour or so, it would be released and brought to our house. Everyone went to lunch, while we sat there guarding our stuff. Our shipper brought us lunch later and we waited some more. Eventually, it got so late in the day, the Aduana's office closed. We were allowed to put our stuff back in the container before we left. We still have no idea exactly what number they assessed for the import tax. So.....we go back on Monday and hope that Panama City approved the assessment, pay the bill and then an hour after that it will be released to come to the house.
Anyone wanna place bets on how this goes? :)

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Some of the moving crew waiting for approval to start moving the container to the house.