Anybody know if there are any reliable mail forwarding services from the U.S. to Colombia? I may want to stay down there for an extended period of time and would still like to receive some of my mail.
When I lived in Mexico there were several services you could use. Since I was in Cabo San Lucas there were, of course, lots of gringos running around so I was able to get advice on the best ones to use. One in particular seemed to work fairly well. Basically you had people write you or send mail to an address in Texas, which place then sent on your mail to your Mexican location, in my case a Mailboxes Etc. I believe they used a regular inter-city bus, probably El Aguila, because it was very reliable scheduled traffic and took about 24 hours from the border to Cabo.
Using the regular U.S. or Mexican postal services wouldn't work as reliably and took several days, or weeks, longer. You could also use this service to send mail out, usually for a bit more than regular mail but, again, more certain that your mail would reach its destination. I'm sure many of you have heard horror stories about Latin American countries and their postal systems, from thefts to mysteriously disappearing letters, so that's one thing I'd like to avoid.
I noticed the recent thread about Avianca Express. Do any of you know if this is an inexpensive enough alternative that mail forwarding of some kind might work with them? If I have my mail sent from a Mailboxes Etc. at home to Avianca in Miami, would it have to have a letter of instruction or how does the process work? Any other tips on mail forwarding much appreciated.
Peace.
