pappysmarket

What everyone fails to take into account is what plagues everything nowadays: fraud. From shoplifting to outright CC fraud we all pay more for things due to dishonesty. Sure, VA healthcare and Medicare would seemingly be much cheaper if we could receive and be reimbursed for care in Mexico. It's difficult enough to investigate and then prosecute fraud in the US with laws that protect privacy and then the reluctance in many areas of the US to not prosecute property crime. Imagine Medicare or the VA trying to investigate and prosecute fraud against Uncle Sam in Mexico. Yeah, sounds like a joke, eh? Remember, Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because that's where the money is. Uncle Sam is the biggest bank. Many moons ago I worked for a major insurance company in San Diego. On occasion they asked me, unofficially, to take a ride to Tijuana and investigate a certain doctor who was claiming to treat cancer with a remedy called Laetrile. Being a good little employee I did as asked and got some good info for them. One Saturday morning I opened my copy of the San Diego Union newspaper to see my name on the front page. The story said I was being investigated for being the "front" for stolen cars being shipped to Tijuana. That ended my sub rosa work over the border. The dishonest people would have a field day with healthcare payments from the US. It's the reason we had to leave Mexico since our world wide health insurance through BP where my wife is retired from gave us a 9 month warning that our premium would increase from $325/mo. for both of us to $1450 if we did not move back to the US. That was a no brainer as we could not afford hat kind of increase. That was in 2018 and so far that $325 has not increased so it was not an idle threat just to mask a general increase that they had planned. An unofficial chat with the company that administers that plan, Aetna, confirmed fraud was the reason for the huge increase. We all pay one way or the other for fraud.

Yes, Mariana is the very nice lady we dealt with. Mexican/American who inherited a home in Mexico and she goes there to work on the rehab from time to time and understands the "ways of Mexico". A primary reason we used her was because we had a mail forwarding service in Houston, US Global Mail, that all of our packages were delivered to. They held anything until we were ready for an Estafeta shipment. They then consolidated and sent to Mariana who sent it on the next free truck to Laredo, which was, at that time, once a week. How they avoid any import duty is one of those "Don't ask" questions. We frequently had merchandise easily in excess of the free allotment, prescriptions and lots of things Amazon would not ship to Mexico included and never paid a dime in import tax. Crossing via land seemed to make a big difference. Edit to say that based on Mostlylost's post that Estafeta has broadened their service to now enable you to ship directly to laredo via an address they will give you. Wonder if they will hold and consolidate or do they just ship each package as received?

No idea, we always dealt with a very nice lady in Houston who we could call and tell her what we wanted to do. She works for Estafeta USA. She would usually advise us to have the stuff sent to her office and she would check/repack, whatever and send it on the once a week free truck to Laredo. From there it crossed via land and transferred to Estafeta Mx. for ultimate delivery. EZPZ

Estafeta USA was our go to service for packages. They ship only by ground and never once in 10 years of living in PV did we pay any taxes or import fees. We had them aggregate orders before sending all in one large box. Super helpful people. Google them.

Make certain that whoever accepts your offer to drop a package has the ability to see exactly what they are transporting before said package is sealed up. There have been big problems in the past.

Does JOYA have any connection to Dr. Joya a gastrointestinal surgeon? If so, I would go there anytime. He performed 2 hernia surgeries on me in PV and a few years ago he had a new hospital in Nuevo Vallarta built. His specialty is the bypass surgery for morbid obesity.

If your meal is anything like the ones we used to prepare for our employees I can assure you of one thing: Leftovers will be minimal, lol. We served about the same numbers you are mentioning. We had 3 turkeys and by the time my wife cleaned up to come out to the festivities she barely got to have any turkey. Mexicans love turkey but rarely buy it for themselves due to cost. Best of luck and take plenty of pics of your happy guests. PS Good luck getting a head count. The word gets passed around to family so be prepared for maybe double what you expect. We made our best efforts to get a number, not to restrict things but to rent the proper number of tables and chairs. We were not successful but a great time was had by all.

The dinosaur is dying.

Those were the days, eh?

Tambien, paid $75 for my first car, a 1950 Ford.

Not exactly the best set of wheels for Mexican roads, IMHO.

Just be aware that all of these services are pirates. No, I don't care if anyone uses them , just be aware that the actual content providers are now actively hunting them and shutting them down. So if you find one that you like don't go signing up for more than a month at a time as they may not be around long. As far as I know, they are not looking to prosecute any users but just be aware you may have to be constantly looking for a new one. I just read an article where they shut down several big ones based in Europe.

Time does not heal but it softens the blow. You did exactly what you promised when you spoke your wedding vows. You are a shining example to us all, thank you both.

Stay strong Fred you are doing exactly what she wants. She may even reach a stage where you think she has no grasp of what is going on...until you are holding that hand that seems lifeless and suddenly she squeezes your hand. She needs what you are doing. God bless you for that.

I just recently signed up for the streaming service Peacock. There's only one reason for that since I don't watch any of the other fare but On Patrol, Live is the reincarnation of Live PD with Dan Abrams and Sticks Larson. Great live PD action every Friday and Saturday nights. If you like this genre give it a try.