Well, as soon as we got here in April, we communicated with a lawyer who connected us with a Tramitador who could help us. Tramites (legal/government transactions) in Guatemala can be complicated and it is often recommended to use a Tramitador (a person who represents you who knows how things need to be done). So, we hired a tramitador. We paid him a small down payment and then waited, and waited, and waited.
After 2 weeks, he called and said we needed to get a NIT (kind of like a SIN-Canada or SSN - US). So off we went to the SAT office to apply for a NIT. All in all, things went pretty well; we only waited 3 hours to make our application and we received a NIT right on the spot for free. Yipee - step one!
We sent this information to the tramitador and then waited again, and waited, and waited.
After another week, he called and said we needed to go to the border where we entered Guatemala with the vehicle and pay the import taxes there. Okay, so he told us he would send our paper work back to us via the lawyer that day and it should arrive in the afternoon the following day. We began making plans to leave for the border on Sunday, so we could be at the Customs Office first thing Monday morning. Well, once again we waited, and waited. The papers didn't arrive until Saturday afternoon and the lawyer only works a half day on Saturday, so we had to wait until Monday morning to pick up the papers.
By the way things were going, we told our language teachers not to expect us for the week!
Monday morning, 8:30am we were at the lawyer's office and received our papers about a half hour later. We were off!
At about 10:30, the traffic on the highway was stopped. The line was super long, so we shut off the car and got out to see what was happening. Guess what? We were in the middle of the bike race across Guatemala! We sat and waited about an hour for all of the bikers to pass before we were let through, but by then there was so much backed up traffic it was crazy! Very slow going.
We drove until it was dark, but only made it to Coatepeque - an hours drive from the border. We found a little hotel on the outskirts of town for $20 a night and decided to wake up early so we would be at the office when it opened at 9am.
As we were driving, we were watching for highway #13 - a challenging thing, as most roads are not marked in anyway. You have to kind of guess if you should turn yet or not. This time, to our amazement there was a sign reading highway #13! It seemed a little too soon based on our earlier calculations, but roads change and it did say #13, right? Surprise...there are two highway #13s! We were, sadly, on the scenic route with more potholes than stretches without and it took us 2 hours to make the 1 hour trip. Oh well. It was beautiful.
When we finally arrived at the border, we were approached by a tramitador (very common), and we negotiated a price for his help. He said he could get it all done within an hour. Okay?
At 4pm we drove away from the border with our import taxes paid. An hour, he said!
We took the right highway #13 this time around and made it as far as Mazatepeque and found a nice little hotel to stay at for the night.
The next morning we drove into Guatemala City, because you can only get plates for your vehicle at 3 different locations in the country! We arrived at the office and things were going pretty well. We only had to wait about a half hour before it was our turn. Things in this SAT office ran much more smoothly than in Coban! Unfortunately, when the lady tried to enter our information into the computer, she said we came too quickly and the system hadn't uploaded the data from yesterday and we would have to come back the next day in the afternoon. I guess you have to leave 48 hours between paying your import taxes and applying for your vehicle plates. Once again, we found a place to stay for the night and waited until the next day.
We went into the office in the morning on the off chance the papers had cleared and they had - Yipee! We filled out all the forms and paid the registration fee, but, guess what? We couldn't pick up the plates for 24 hours! We called the hostal where we had stayed and booked another night.
Today, we returned for the third time to the SAT office and we received our plates! It took 5 full days to get this transaction done!
Blessings on all of you! We continue to ask for your prayers as we walk out this journey the Lord has called us to. Many times it is confusing and we struggle to understand, but we know He is with us and He is faithful. We also know He hears the prayers of His saints, and for that we are ever so thankful.
Love you,
Karren and Rocky
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