Have you ever wondered how stereotypes get started and which ones are true? Stereotypes about Mexico abound with most being silly to stupid. However, if I had to point to just one that was 100% totally and absolutely accurate, it would be that everything you have ever heard about The Mexican Mail Service is true!

My God in heaven, never has there been such a hideously inefficient and unreliable mail service than in Mexico. Certainly, nowhere else on earth can have anything approximating the horror you encounter when trying to send and receive mail in Mexico! Can there?

Here is what you are up against when sending mail to the United States from Mexico:

1) Never send a package of any sort containing anything and expect it to reach its destination.

2) Never send a contract, a check, a money order, or anything of value to the U.S. via first class mail. NEVER!

3) Expect that a regular first class mail letter will reach the U.S. in about 2-3 weeks (but only if it is predestined by God to get there).

To be honest, you have a better chance of success in sending a harmless and innocuous letter via first class from Mexico to the U.S. than from the U.S. to Mexico.

Here is what you are up against when sending mail to Mexico from America: hahahahahaha! Mail? What's that?

That is what I was told when I tried to send some books from America to Mexico before we moved here. I was trying to send myself some books I thought I would need and the U.S. Postal guy laughed and told me there was a less than 50% chance of success in sending a package from the U.S. to Mexico.

He was right!

If you have anything of value to receive from the U.S., do not send it via regular mail. The chances of it arriving are low to non-existent! For some reason, surely known only to God, mail coming into Mexico from America rarely" ?if ever" ?gets here.

My experience has been that I am still waiting on four letters from my bank that were mailed more than 4 months ago. See what I mean?

The mail is so horrible that American businesses have sprung up to combat this problem. It used to be that expats got their mail "muled" to them by others coming and going from America. If you had a letter or package to send, then someone going to America would carry it with them and mail it inside the United States. The same was true if you were going to receive something from America. Someone coming back to Mexico would transport it for you" ?terribly slow and inefficient.

Now, there are services that work like this:

"Some people use the services of MailBoxes, Etc. and for approximately $40. US per month, people are given an address in the US to which their mail is delivered and it is then sent by the company to the lakeside area. This usually takes and extra day or two than regular US mail. For those who have magazine subscriptions, foreign delivery is often much more costly, so Mail Boxes, Etc. does work well for this. However, it has been noted that MailBoxes Etc. has a limit on the number of items that can be received without extra charge so that has to be checked if a person is interested in this service."

Another great site is Access USA at myus.com. This one looks first-class and my wife and I are considering using it for our needs.

Don't try to figure this all out. You cannot--your head will explode--and you will never get an answer as to why mail is so bad in Mexico. It is one of those things you just have to accept.

Give up and adapt. Resistance is futile!