Anyone on here ever work in Belize?? We have a chance at a job down there, but we are hitting some bumps in getting our equipment to the job site. The fees that FedEx and UPS want are astronomical.
Does anyone know of a dealer in Belize that may rent survey equipment. Trimble, etc,?
FYI-
http://travel.gc.ca/destinations/belize
Advisories
BELIZE - Exercise a high degree of caution
There is no nationwide advisory in effect for Belize. However, you should exercise a high degree of caution due to a high rate of violent crime throughout the country.
Derek
The job site is inside the American Embassy compound, so we ought to be ok. Problem is getting the equipment shipped or trying to find a local supplier that rents equipment. Otherwise this very small job will cost a fortune!!
If it's inside the embassy compound, see if the State Dept. can get it shipped via one of their couriers.
Working on that too. Not getting a whole lot out of them so far.
Perhaps one of these companies can help.
http://www.belizefreight.com/index.html
http://belizetransportation.com/
http://manrayexpress.com/belize-ocean-freight-forwarding/
I shipped equipment by fedex on my first overseas trip-bad idea. It was to USVI, and it got held up in customs (US). Finally got it released because we were working on a federal project. I had to spend an extra 5 days or so hanging out waiting. Similarly, in Puerto Rico Fedex made an automatic charge of $2000 in duties that took a long time to get back. Note that both of these places were US!
After that I always took it with me as checked baggage or carry-on. Never had a problem with foreign customs doing it that way. However, if you have any foreign made equipment you should register it with US Customs before leaving to avoid problems coming back. For example, my Trimble GPS gear was made in US, no problem, Trimble S6 was made in Sweden, so I registered it with them, which was free but entailed going to the local customs office at the airport so they could see it and record the serial numbers. Maybe not necessary, but it wasn't hard to do.
I had a similar experience working in P.R on a COE project.
Hydro crew called the office for a piece of equipment to send to the hotel.
When it arrived, the import duty was crazy. They en I had to get involved. I had to get them to redirect the delivery to the COE office where it ws duty free. Explain that the the original address was wrong.
Working on projects in C.A. and the Caribbean, I learned what to send, board planes with etc. It was a learning lesson.
Never include a level rod as extra baggage on a plane, There is a very good chance you will not see it again.
If I was in this poster shoes, I would talk to some assistant at the embassy or person in charge of the project down there and get them to scan the yellow pages for surveyors...or find a Belize surveyor online (it looks like there are not any here on BL). I would call the local surveyor and tell him that I need to rent equipment from him. He would probably be interested in doing so to broaden his base there. If it is a small job,it should be no problem.
The nice thing about Belize is that English is spoken and most of the professionals (engineers) have gone to school in the U.S.
Sorry to hear about the crime problem, I would expect this to be deep inland or maybe in the City. I stayed in Belize for 2 months on fishing village caye in the late 70s. Ate lobster everyday and great snorkeling, diving and fishing. Sat through one little hurricane.
I remember leaving and on the way to the airport the taxi broke it's axle. I felt bad for the driver and gave him as much money as I could that I had.