On Monday we picked up the car. Not too bad of an experience. First had to drive from Arecibo to San Juan (about 2 hours). Once there, we went to Trailer Bridge (our shipper) and they gave us the paperwork to pay the taxes.

Went over to the tax place (over the worlds worst road…the minivan bottomed out several times) and stood in a couple of lines, paid $1400 in taxes (cash only, please) and got our papers stamped. For our car, it took a total of 45 minutes at the tax place, but Eve’s dad was there for over 5 hours since his older truck (89) was no longer on their tax books.

Back to Trailer Bridge with our stamped paper, paid another $1000 (the shipping cost), got more paper stamped, and then picked up the car. We got a LOT of strange looks while driving from San Juan to Arecibo (due to the Illinois plates).

Today (Tue) we got to stand in more lines to get our PR plates (once you get the car, you need a PR Title and Plates issued within 24 hours). Waited for about 45 minutes, filled out paperwork, paid $200 for the plates/insurance, got more papers stamped, and then got our plate and “city” sticker. Horray!

Next up, to get our PR drivers licenses.

Advice to anyone moving down here: Make sure to carry your Social Security card. They use it all the time. Also, be prepared to add on to your name…mine is now Ronald L. Nelson Williams. They are VERY confused by my name, since the only people with “Nelson” down here use it as a first name. For a while, I was being called Nelson Ronald Williams.