NYCgirl, we moved here almost three months ago with 2 dogs 2 cats, and 5 suitcases in one trip. On a previous trip we brought and left with someone, three additional bags filled with other things we wanted to bring. Then when we left Miami, I left whatever books I couldn't bring with me, with my friend, as well as a couple of already packed suitcases. Since then, a friend came to visit and brought me another bag of my books. I understand about your books, and I had to severely restrict the amount of books I brought in, and as I'm a writer and still involved in real estate I needed all of my reference books, as well as baby books for my pregnancy. What I did was to make the priority piles and those books got shuffled between bags, because yes, there is a severe weight limit now with the airlines and even on our prior trips here, they were enforcing it heavily (ever since last october). Some airlines allow you up to 70 pounds and 2 checked bags and others allow only 51 pounds. For instance American allows 51 pounds and then to 70they charge 25.00 overage, but once you go from 70 to 100 it's an additional 100.00 (plus the 25), and they WILL NOT allow you to go over 100. You can pay for additional bags to go with you which will be subject to the same weight and size limits, but what they warn you is if the plane is full they can reject the additional luggage. We flew with Delta because of our pets and it was a nightmare flying from Miami UP to Atlanta, then trudging through the airport with all of our overstuffed carryons and the cats, but the flight from atlanta to BA was only 1/3 full and it was a great flight. In the end it was worth it.One thing you could do is to pack some books separately and have them mailed to you. I was hesitant to do this but other people have. Supposedly customs doesn't charge you for books, but then you have to go through sitting in the customs post office all day to get your packages - not fun. For other things, yes you can rebuy things here and we chose to do that for most of our stuff. The things I brought because they were important to me were my pots and pans (the good ones here are very expensive), my books, our sheets and comforters (great for filling out the suitcase and sheets here are not great quality), and some other things. I think you will find it difficult at best and almost impossible to bring your things in by container if you don't have a visa, plus all of the headaches of dealing with the paperwork. If you want to email me separately about the rest of my experiences and how my husband managed to hit the weight limit and yet get a lot of stuff, feel free at
[email protected], there is this helpful post about feria americanas and how you can do some replenishing of your things http://movingtoargentina.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/04/my_first_remate.html And there are expats who leave who sell their things. I just bought a bunch of english novels for 1.00 each. good luck!Laura