We went back to Paita today to make the final payments for storage and movement of the container, and to get our deposit back.

We showed up at the Mediteranean Shipping and Storage Office a little before noon. They were very helpful, but needed on piece of inforamation. Where was the container now? Fortunately, I had the driver's phone number and called to find out; Ransa.

The Ransa office confirmed that the container had been returned but had not yet inspected it for damage. We were told to return at 2:oo in the afternoon when the gentleman that coordinated with Ransa would be in.

So we decided to walk around to find a restaurant where we could sit with the dog and relax over lunch. There was one restaurant at the end of the beach where I check and they were not open. I asked them to recommend another restaurant. Off we went in search of El Grifo which we found a few blocks down along the waterfront. There seating was mostly outdoors and had a great view of the harbor of Paita. The food was excellent!

We went back to the Mediteranean Shipping and Storage Office at two and waited for about half an hour. The secretary was very chatty and talked about how hard it was to learn English. She had taken some classes at a school in Piura (an hour away by car), but found it frustrating because it was not focused on conversational skills. She was very sweet and kept us entertained until the gentleman we had been waiting for returned.

This gentleman handed us a stack of papers, and $300 and told us we were done. The storage and moving fees came out of the $500 deposit. We were finally done with the moving of our stuff to El Nuro! We both felt like celebrating. It was a relief and we felt we had achieved another milestone.

These photos were all taken in Paita from the restaurant.

Piano move

In this picture, the movers and construction workers recruited to help, have pushed it out of the truck and down the ramp. Now they each take a position and lift.













They shuffle up the driveway.

Once up the driveway and around the corner, the piano goes back on edge. Two ropes are placed underneath the piano in two spots. Using theses ropes and one guy to balance it upright, they move it into its spot in the storage room.












Amazingly enough, there does not appear to be any damage to the piano. The case and case parts all look good and no worse for the trip. The tuning and regulation is another thing, but won't get done until the final move into the house.

I told the architect this afternoon, now that I had all my things from my home in Oregon, all I needed was a house to put them in; preferable tomorrow. He said very calmly and without missing a beat; don't worry, the workers will work extra hard today.

Moving Day

The container arrived in El Nuro this morning about 7:45 am. The driver called us so we could meet him and take him up to the property. We had not expected them to arrive until 9:00; a Peruvian...early?

The truck and trailer had a bit of a problem coming through the gate, but after a couple of tries, they were in. They came up the road and then had to figure out how to get turned around and backed up a driveway to get as close as possible to the service area where it was going to be stored. This took much more than a couple of tries, but the driver didn't quit and finally made it up about halfway.

Everything would have to get carried from there. There were two movers from the company in Lima, the driver and a recruit they had picked up along the way. They soon hired Sanchez to help as well.

They opened the container and went to work unloading. They were supposed to unload, and unpack everything but since we were only storing stuff, they didn't do this. After a few loads, I insisted they open packages up so we could inspect it. They still weren't too interested in doing so, so I borrowed a box knife from Sanchez and started opening things myself. Any package or box that had any damage on the outside, we unwrapped completely and checked. When all was said and done, we had one table joint break, some gouges on the corners of the dining room table, a split in one of the legs to the table and another crack in one of the chairs. I also think the heat of the container as it sat in storage yards, was too much for the finish on the table and chairs as there was some bubbling and peeling of the finish.

Everything should be relatively easy to fix structurally. The table and chairs may need refinishing...time will tell.

This eventually will be the maid's quarters. For now, it is storage. All of our household goods went in here except for a couple of mattresses. The room just to the left will be the battery storage room for the solar panels. Right now it houses all the cabinets for the house and guest bungalows.

My mother's kitchen clock which was made in about 1890 was unpacked during the custom inspection. Doug was there for the inspection and felt the workers weren't very gentle in inspecting and repacking it. It came through without problems thanks to the original packers who did a great job. We check it out, all was well so we returned it to its box and stacked it on top. A few minutes later, I heard the chime go off on the clock. It chimed 12 times, and it was quite close to that time.







How many Peruvians does it take to move a piano? The original four movers spent some time inside the container trying to figure out how they were going to accomplish this feat. The piano had been strapped to the side of the container on its side, which is the usual position for moving a grand piano. The decided they would take to long poles, lay them on the floor of the container and lay the piano on the poles horizontally. They were careful to be sure there was enough cardboard and wrapping to protect it. But when they started piling cardboard and packing material at the bottom of an 8 foot ramp and talked about pushing the piano out the door, I started to get a bit antsy! It was at this point Doug asked some of the construction workers to help. No problem, four of them came at our request. As it turned out, they did push it out the door and down the ramp, but five of them were there to ensure a gentle landing.

21 February 2010

We spent the entire day in Paita, arranging for the release of our container. After 7 hours running between banks and offices, we watched the container leave the yard. It will arrive at our property tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. They will unload and unpack everything. We will then need to repack everything for storage in the service building. Everything has to be inspected at the time of delivery for insurance purposes. Both of us are exhausted after so many days in Paita, and tomorrow will be a long day too.

We spent most of the day in Talara trying to get some banking done. I apparently have lost my card and Doug couldn't remember his PIN for his card. At the bank today, they issued a new card to Doug, but forgot to give it to us. So, at this point, we have no way of accessing our account. We will go back to the bank Monday and see if we can sort things out. Then we will go to Paita to pay the duties on the container. Hopefullly once those duties are paid, they will transport the the container to our property and unload it. That will be such a milestone in this process of moving! Given hindsight, I don't think I would have done the move this way.

This afternoon when we visited the property, they had poured the walls for the second section of the pool. The forms are already up for the near wall, and they will have two more sections to go.

The workers have also poured the floor for the laundry room area. The service building is close to being finished. It is here where we will store our things from the container.

According to the architect, the kitchen/dining room/living room, and the
master suite will be finished by the end of April. We will see......

Day 3; Galapagos

This is the hatch down to our cabin. We had to climb down the hatch ladder and then enter our cabin. It was only a bit awkward when the ship was out of the harbor and we were riding the swells.


This morning we gathered our things from the hotel and went into town to rent snorkle equipment. The complete gear; facemask, breathing tube, flippers cost us $15 for 5 days. We then went down to the dock for transport out to the Sulidae which was to be our vessel for the cruise of three islands.

The Sulidae is a pirate style boat, but probably was never used by pirates. Originally it used to run between Denmark and England trading commercial goods. At some point it came to South America and eventually ended up as a tourist boat in the Galapagos Islands.


Our tour was to take us to three islands; Santa Cruz, Floreana, and Isabela. Most of the traveling happened at night so the days were spent in port at one of the islands. The worst night was from Floreana to Isabela. We traveled all night and the seas were quite rough. Most of the bunks aboard were oriented from bow to stern so these bunks were constantly rolling from side to side. My bunk was the only one oriented from side to side so my head dived, and then my feet dived. It was a rhythmic motion to some degree, but even so, we didn't get much sleep that night.






This is a picture of the dining area of the yacht. You can see the cook working in the left of the picture in the galley. For the most part, the dining area was quite warm with minimal circulation, but the food was excellent. We never lacked for good food and we had brought enough beer and wine on board so we never lacked for spirit.
Floreo, the cook's mate, was so sweet and made sure all of us had enough to eat. He took special care to make sure all of us were happy.











This is a view of our cabin. In the pirate ship configuration, we must have had the captain's quarters. It was considerably larger than the others and we had windows on all three sides. We were quite comfortable compared to the others.

The other cabins were quite small, and most didn't have the ventilation we had. They had a port hole which opened to the outside. No problem until it rained.
These portholes leaked and beds got soaked.

To compound things, the electricity would cut out so at times, there was no circulation in the smaller cabins. The crew of the Sulidae were having problems with their generator, so electricity was iffy. We actually sailed from Floreana Island to Isabela island without electricity; meaning without running lights. Fortunately, our captain was competent and got us there without incident.