Dark Clouds
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There have been some dark clouds recently over Rock Lodge, our friends constantly reminding us that this would pass, and over time things will improve. Well last week the last dark cloud moved away and we now see this wonderful place we live in… basking in wall to wall sunshine again. It’s surprising how a change, just one detail in your life and everything becomes simple once again. We were sat quietly in the roof top lounge H reading and me hammock testing, and five Toucans glided silently on to our ripe banana trees, left hopefully to attract the Toucans we saw last year at this time. Two adult Aricari Toucans and three chicks, the adults not eating but at vantage points looking over their young. A lovely sight to see. The week before we saw a lone Keel Billed Toucan a very rare sight in these parts down on H Cove.
Aracari toucans gorging on ripe bananas just outside our window
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After pouring the roof for our friend Rodi, we went to go back and take down all the framing and bush sticks used to hold the roof up whilst it set. There are no acro props here but simple bush sticks around five inches in diameter that serve as props between the roof and the ceiling. Twenty such props were used on Rodi’s small roof pour. She had the idea of putting a final skim of concrete on the roof so we could place our hand prints in the concrete and sign our names, which we all did. The end goal is to build a simple palapa on top to make a lovely breakfast and daytime reading room connected to her elevated jungle house just like in the Tarzan films … more updates to follow . So here it is as it stands a tree top lounging area, the photo was late afternoon Pimms overlooking the lagoon, she sure knows how to Rock It 🙂
kicking back Belize Style
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Wood Nymph and Man Mountain had been bleating on a about a present they had for us, but they were still building it. Firstly I hate presents, normally always a waste of money and effort, largely because I think that humans are so bad at guessing what people really want. My first thoughts being, I really don’t need anything! So now I’m going to be stuck with something I don’t want. The whole point of moving here was to rid our lives of all the unnecessary crap that we all accumulate over a lifetime.Well that fateful day arrived when they turned up with gifts. Yes it went to plural…. even more unnerving. We stood there, eyes closed and arms out stretched to have lumps of wood thrust into our hands. THE BIG REVEAL and we opened our eyes to find two mahogany carved and routed personalised darts score boards. My jaw dropped, I was speechless they were just what we wanted!! In fact …we didn’t know we needed them until they appeared. This inspired me to smarten up our dart board holder, and now we really do have a swish games area.
Nymph and Mountain with our new score boards, they even put my old nick name on £ for those in the know
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We got invited for two thanksgiving meals an American tradition to commemorate the Indians giving food to the starving Pilgrim Fathers. If only they had killed these English do gooders the world would have been such a different place today! Anyway we had a conundrum, and opted for our neighbours instead of Nymph and Mountain …. a very hard choice to make. We did however send the Pecan Pie we had already ordered for Nymph’s meal. As gesture to say that we would be there in spirit, they saved us a slice. It was really yummy, made by Morgans Spiced Foods in Corozal Town. The meal at the neighbours was great, their grandchildren magically appeared with her daughter and we sat around and shot the breeze until a lovely turkey dinner was served, the highlight being the stuffed mushrooms and the homemade stuffing, finished off with either pumpkin pie or blueberry pie, absolutely delicious.
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Leaving the western world behind, a place of choice and plenty and coming to live a simple life in a relaxed country, free of bureaucratic control has turned out even better than we could ever had imagined. So many expats down here try to build a little enclave of their distant homelands, possibly to give them comfort and quell their fears of this frontier like life style they live. A friend told me of how there are certain groups ,the concrete suv drivers that generally don’t mix with the people who live in wooden houses. We are lucky, in our group of friends it makes no matter how much money or worldly things you possess or don’t. Simply sitting around a beach bonfire having a tipple, laughing and eating hot dogs on a stick, is truly, in our eyes what living life is all about. The photo below was taken at a best friends, wedding in Italy and I thought at the time, life doesn’t really get any better than this. As I type this blog in my hammock, watching the sun rise over the Caribbean .I realise I feel, like I did, that night, every day we spend here.
A parallel universe..somewhere!!!
It’s been pouring
For all the people in the UK and those in other miserable places around the world reading this blog ,you will be happy to know that it has rained most of October. H cove has had not one visit and is looking rather rustic (shit hole) so as soon as the sun makes an appearance ,I’ll be heading down to clean it up. So what do you do when it has rained so much that the old locals say it’s not been like this for 40 years , the answer is obvious POUR a concrete roof. Our friend Rodi aka Peace Belize found a roofless building on her land that the jungle had claimed in less than 7 years ,forgotten to the world until she cleared a portion of land to site her house . it’s about 20 feet from her elevated home and we discussed putting a concrete roof on the existing structure, with a Palapa on top and then building a bridge from her front door to the roof top Palapa. When she got back from Alaska driving Jeremiah the old faithful truck ,we hatched a plan to pour the roof . So 12 gringo’s labourers and 1 skilled Belizian set about the task. We framed it on the Saturday a rare sunny day with a cooling breeze and planned the pour the next day . There’s a saying if you are pouring concrete it’s gonna piss down , guess what IT PISSED DOWN … well i was talking to Giovanni the skilled Belizian and he was dubious that the concrete might spoil if the rain came heavy. Well the rain came heavy , but informed him of some white mans magic , the doppler radar vis rodi’s internet and we saw the rain was going to last 30 mins , he looked unsure as these guys are pretty good at looking at the clouds and predicting the weather . Forty minutes later the rain stopped and we started the pour. We mixed on the ground using shovels and sweat 2 cubic yards of concrete ,which was then shoveled in to buckets carried to the roofless building ,then a Man Mountain lifted the bucket above his head up to the roof . Man Mountain lifted the whole 4 tonnes on his own to that roof, although i did see a bead of sweat running down his forehead he did pretty well 🙂 . I was never really into “The community spirit” back home as with everyone in the western world , i was trapped in the WORK EAT SLEEP whirlpool. Here in Belize there is more time to relax and think about helping others who need a hand , it was a great day and Rodi bought some beers and made a lovely chicken casserole for when the job was done.
I have disguised jman as he is camera shy and it was a little nippy a cool 26degrees Celsius so we had a little tipple to warm us up 🙂
Whilst Rodi was away in Alaska for the wet season down here (smart girl) her yard man planted some squash (pumpkin) and when she returned they had spread all over her yard ,so we took her some bananas and she gave us a couple large squash , i cooked one up roasted it and placed in on skewers with onions and bell peppers as an appetiser for a game of rummikub and it was soon polished off , i’ll warn you i’m no Gordon Ramsey if you ever come to visit 🙂
Rodi and H with Jeremiah and her house in the background on “The Peace”
Whilst at Rodi’s on the day of the pour someone had brought some coconut cakes from a local bakery , i wasn’t expecting much but they were delicious , they reminded me of the bakewell tarts my granny used to make but hers had raspberry jam in the bottom , unlike Josie Pott’s Bakewell Tarts that had no jam in them .So i thought I’d include this photo to show Josie what a proper bakewell tart looks like ..I added my own raspberry jam
Josie Potts eat your heart out 🙂 …. when she reads this she will say *%$&@?& 🙂
We help out for two days at the Corozal Bay Sailing Club regatta , H organised the raffle which had some great prizes donated by local business all in the name of charity and teaching the local kids to sail on the bay and did a splendid job of announcing the winners after the last race had finished. It was a well attend event with around 40 boats taking part in the event which attracted young sailors from all over Belize , the weather was perfect and the wind was good for both days. I was on the safety boat which set the course up and then made sure no one got into difficulty , the day went without a hitch and was a great success.
I didn’t take my camera , but borrowed this photo from a friend
We had an all to often invasion of Army Ants , which really only stay around a couple of hours then leave taking spiders and scorpions with them. When we returned home i walked into the bathroom and jumped straight back out , shouting %$@* ,then re-entered to check the exact colouring of the snake I’d found on the sink counter top RED ON YELLOW DEADLY FELLOW , yep a fully grown Coral Snake , i brought H into the bathroom and we watched it for a while then asked her to keep an eye on it while i sharpened my machete , grab my snake stick and got hold of it’s head and cut it off, the heart was pumping a little , but the more time we spend down here the less frightening these things are, though this snake sure does deserve RESPECT , i found a hole that “The builder” had left on top of the shower wall , it took me 5 mins to fix a piece of tile across this hole to stop any further invasions , that’s what you get from a roofing contractor ..RIGHT !!!!!! anyway alls well that ends well 🙂
deadly fellow note – the head is cut off ,then the photo was taken 🙂
September Celebrations
Literally the whole month of September is taken up with some kind of celebration of sorts , they put out an activity list for each district and next to each activity it says FREE …this in not entirely true , as we all know in life there is a price or penalty to pay , in Belize’s case the price is always a HUGE Hangover as these guys know how to party and it gets started usually aroun11am and goes on until 3 or 4am. I see posting on local forums of what to do and how to stop noisy neighbours wheeling there 7 foot high speakers out on to the porch and blasting music to there sometimes appreciative neighbourhood , in short this is how people party here GET USED TO IT 🙂 ….. We got chance to ride in the Carnival Parade with the Corozal Bay Sailing Club a nifty Jeep wrangler towing a trailer with two sail boats used to teach local kids how to sail on the bay. Our neighbours who invited us supplied huge bags of sweets to throw to the crowds of thousands upon thousands lining the streets. The weather looked ominous the clouds dark and heavy ,this must have scared the local gringo population away as the number of white faces in the crowd was pitiful, but luck was on our side and the rain held off ..it was a GREAT DAY 🙂 .
In Corozal we were greeted with thousands of families with kids with huge smiles on their faces ,unlike in worksop where walking stick weilding benefit frauds would hurl rotten tomatoes.
The following Saturday we went to the Independence Celebrations the whole of the seafront in Corozal Town ( known as Miami Beach ) bustling with families and local food stalls set up selling all kinds of great value lunch time snacks . A marquee tent erected with Punta Rock blasting out a free dance party (locally known as a “Jump Up”) gyrating it’s increasing rhythm way into the small hours.
I snapped a photo of these two aging hippies before they roared off into the sunset
Due to the amount of mosquito’s last year in the rainy season ,i went online and searched for something to protect me from the hundred bites or so i would get when cutting the grass .I managed to source a bug shirt http://www.bugshirt.com/ it’s super lightweight has lots of ventilation and does exactly what it claims i can cut the grass and garden no problem ,not a single bite thus hugely eliminating the threat of Malaria and Dengue Fever , if not minding looking a little ridiculous ,but i was spurred on my my neighbours yard man who saw me and said ..I would wear one if i could get one ..i was lucky that my neighbour brought it down for me on his last trip just before the heavy rains fell .
H Say’s this is a great photo of me especially the fact that my face is obscurred 🙂
It was time to take my truck in for it’s annual road worthy test unlike last year ,things had moved on no longer did the guy just say is everything ok with the truck but they actually started checking all the items on the list as i found out when i took Bertlams car to be tested , everything was going fine until he said HORN i pushed it and it didn’t work , i smiled at him and to my shock he said GO GET IT FIXED… in Belize this was a shocker if you saw what vehicles they let on the road ..so we got it fixed and passed. This time i was ready so i checked all my lights etc and found the parking light was out , so i went to the auto parts place and he produced a blue light and said thats all we have .. i laughed but took it any JUST in case and went to another auto parts shop …this time they produced an orange one .. i kinda got the message if i kept on going i’d have rainbow of colours but of course not a white bulb , the truck passed and we got our sticker LEGAL for another year 🙂
I met our friends MT ,Wood Nymph and Man Mountain at Bird island for a spot of fishing , they arrived an hour late , we fished for a while the girls got bored and went home Dave -1 catfish …… Man Mountain 0 i’ll keep you posted as the year goes on. I set the shot up below and said this is going to be a great photo just let me set the timer so i can get in it… Nymph said if it’s really good then may be you should stay out of it …so i did 🙂
Right to left Wood ,Mountain and EMPTY
Our neighbour flipped his Hobie Cat in a vicious storm and it floated off, so the next day we arranged to go looking for it in a another neighbours boat after 2 hours of grunting and shoving we got the boat in the water to find out the a rat had chewed through the ignition wires (ONLY IN BELIZE) so i went around to see JMan who let us use his Zodiac Dingy with a 6 horse power motor to go cruise the bay and surrounding mangroves to look for it … we were all day looking to no avail then the next a phone call from Sarteneja 18 miles away to say it had been found …. The owner of the Sea Breeze Hotel came to the dockas we took the thunder bolt and gave us his phone “Just In Case” and we got to Sarteneja to find the Hobie Cat chained to a tree …. i went to the police station to find it empty but after a few hollers got a reply ..Hello i’m in here …. it turned out to be someone locked in the cells over night trying to convince me there had been a misunderstanding …… YEAH RIGHT ….. we left and waited for the single policeman to return ….luckily i saw a guy i had met properly the week before who was sailing sound south and he had found some rigging off the boat which would have been up SHITE creek without it.. so luck was on our side and we rigged the sails on the Hobie Cat and completed the 18 miles in just under 2 hours .
Special Edit
Our Friend Rodi a.ka. Peace Belize is currently driving from Alaska to Belize in a 1959 ford pick up truck called Jeremiah with a small boat on the roof she is currently in Mexico after her trip was delayed due to heavy rain storms which moved up from Belize …. we expect sometime in the next couple of days and wish her safe travels along the notorious Mexican Highways……
Jeremiah in Galveston Texas waiting for flood waters in Mexico to subside
Twenty and Two
Every thing about our time in Belize…….. click this link and listen whilst you read http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vgxnTX2QiU
We just had our twentieth wedding anniversary and flew over to Caye Caulker for 3 days of fun in the sun. Mid week out of season is just how we like it and many buckets of beer were consumed sat in the blue waters of the lazy lizard bar at the split. The weather was perfect and we lazed around in the day and partied at night . Most notably we had a meal at Habanero’s on our wedding anniversary washed down by a nice bottle of red wine. We ended up in the rankest place on the island but danced the night away ,with our bellies full of grog …. and paid for it the next day 🙂
20 years on ..life is good
We went back to stay at Popeyes Beach Resort and had a lovely sea view on the second floor and I watched the sunrise over the sea in the morning , Christina and Ron looked after us ,our stay could not have been any better.
Chilling at Popeye’s Beach Resort with Christina and Ron
We arrived in Belize 2 years ago last week and the time has flown by ,we are well and truly relaxed doing what we want when we want . I am making some progress with the guitar ..i now have the start to Dueling Banjo’s down to a tee . H is expanding her cooking skills she can now do scrambled eggs and Toast at the same time 🙂 .The weather is a glorious 82 degree’s all year round with a lovely sea breeze perfect for hours in the hammock.
We have had locusts arrive in the area on a migration ,not a biblical plague of such but they can be seen flying sluggishly in the early morning and at dusk. They have mostly orange wings and some purple or pink. They flash there wings in a courtship display whilst emitting and loud cricket like sound .quite spectacular. Sometimes when the conditions are right they migrate across the Atlantic ocean from Africa to the Caribbean . This fellow was cigar sized and posed happily for the photo.
A Locust taking a rest at Rock lodge
H returned from her trip to the Uk with a dart board and our Didgeridoo ,we had a wooden top made for the pool table in H’s roof top lounge which now doubles as large dining table .I had it made so it would split into two and is connected by dowel joints, an idea i robbed from our friends the Sibbo’s in the UK. We use one half of the wooden table top and hang it on the hammock chains and it forms a great place to hang the dartboard from ,which stops stray darts going through the screens . We have been practicing feverishly to crush all comers who dare challenge us 🙂 ….The Bertlams can be seen to be truly thrashed into defeat as i play a victory tune on my Didgeridoo!
I wonder what the local wildlife made of the new noise all the way from down under
Our friend Buffalo Bill was 65 last week so i offered to take him on a fishing adventure through Ranchito Lagoon and into the New River , it was a good 6 mile round trip and we were rewarded with 2 large Jack Crevalle caught on a new shiny gold lure with a treble hook on the back , we had one more take that got off the hook and we paddled back with the wind in our faces back through the lagoon , as we’d been sat down for 6 hours Bill was quite stiff as he stepped off the kayak when we returned back to shore , the boat started to move back and he was unceremoniously baptized in the warm waters of the lagoon , luckily no injuries sustained… he drove back to rock lodge where h rustled up some rice and sauteed vegetables and the jack was filleted and lightly fried and finished off with a lime butter sauce , absolutely delicious about 5 pounds of meat from one fish , the dogs had to finish it off and bill took the fish carcass home for his house sit cats. A couple of days later i returned with Nod my next door neighbour ,this time taking an easier route to “The spot” a mere ten minute paddle on a lazy river ….when we got there i saw the Silver King rise…my nemesis the elusive Tarpon! I cast my waiting golden lure 80 feet right in front of him ,he readily took it and dove deep ..the line went slack and he erupted out of the water doing a cartwheel high in the air and dove again …. he lurched out again spinning and shaking his head and spat my lure out in defiance and was gone …. next time King i’ll have your crown ….. I’d waited 20 years for that fight and was happy to see him on his way ,he was a good 4 foot long and known in these parts to grow over 6 feet.
Intrepid explorers embarking on their adventure
Licenced to Kill……..
The last music link didn’t open in a new window so hopefully it’s fixed this time .. Don’t forget to sing along …….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH_7_XRfTMs
We are well into the rainy season now, this means it doesn’t rain much BUT when it does it’s a downpour…. about 2 weeks ago we had 6 inches in a couple of hours , it really is nice to see the rain ,but 10 days after there is a mosquito explosion which lasts a couple of weeks , the last one has just passed and a tropical storm Dorian didn’t get too close to us and headed to Cuba instead.During the last rains we had 4 frogs shelter in H’s roof top lounge and i could be seen hopping around trying to catch them in a cup and release them outside.
Tree frog enjoying the sun after his release
We have three dogs, Zeus a rottweiler/ shepherd cross , and two doberman bitches Phoenix and Kilya , Phoenix is the runt and is bossed about by the other two, we decided to try and have her sleep in the porch and then have her upstairs in the day time with the other two running free outside on patrol. i tried to coax her up the spiral staircase but she was having none of it ..i eventually put a trail of food snacks on each step and she could be heard stumbling up eating , she finally made it to the top to rapturous applause ,but then the real issue presented itself ….ever heard that cows can walk up stairs but not down? , well it’s kinda the same for dobermans on steep spiral staircases… after a couple of hours of sliding down on her bum one step at a time she finally mastered it and now is officially an inside dog with 2hours free run in the morning and just before dusk . Zeus pulled a ligament in his leg and had been trying to run at full speed with Kilya, so we put him in the pen on his own, so Kilya was out at night on her own …3am i hear a commotion outside and switch the big flood lights on that surround the house , i see her fighting with a porcupine rolling around biting it ,i shout her to stop and she comes to the door covered from head to toe in porcupine quills. i had to wear heavy leather gloves and use pliers to start pulling the quills out two hours later …….over three hundred quills pulled out and i still have her mouth to go . i can only open it a bit but see it’s completely full of quills. I decide to wait and have her tranquilized at the vets… 2cc of Ketamine and i’m pulling more out of her mouth at the vets … she eventually wakes up 2 hours later at home and makes a full recovery WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN!!!!!
Dr Dave and sleeping beauty
I decided to get a Belize driving license as my UK one had just passed it’s 10 year expiry date …YES they expire after 10 years and you have to have a new photo ….. well no point in getting a new one for the UK ,so i went off to the transport office i waited patiently 10 mins for the guy to finish playing solitaire on his computer for him to tell me I’m at the wrong office and need to go to one 3 miles away so off i go…. it’s early about 9.30am the office is empty four people sat there fiddling with their mobile phones , I’m seen straight away and they fill a form out asking about previous driving license and convictions and i think this is going really well…… he hands me the form back and says right you need to copy your passport ,copy your license and get two photo’s and a doctor needs to examine you to say your fit to drive …EASY i had loads of time then he utters the words ONLY on a THURSDAY … it was a Tuesday ..H said have you got it i was laughing ..i repeated his words ONLY on a THURSDAY we both fell about laughing …we went got the photocopies and photo’s went to the doctors who looked at me and said your fine that’s 20bz and stamped the form and we went back to the office on a THURSDAY to see the same 4 people sat in the same desks doing nothing and i walked out with a license for 2 years cost £30.
Phoenix was patrolling outside the house and we heard the “I’ve found something bark” so i rushed out to find her snapping at a snake… it was coiled and i couldn’t see the head properly so i shouted H who got our multipurpose clothes line pole / snake stick which is about 10 feet long with a v notch in the end , so i got the head immobilized and handed it to H whilst i went to chop it’s head off . You can never be too blase about snakes here especially when you can’t identify them properly. I immediately bury the head as it’s quite common for people to be bitten by snakes even after their heads have been cut off. This one was big enough to be BBQ so i still have got to wait to find out what it tastes like ..mark my words ONE DAY there will be a blog called THE SNAKE BBQ 🙂
The one that didn’t get away
OTHER NEWS
My Dad competed in the Notts County crown green bowling competition and won 4 games and drew 1 game it was enough to get him 3rd place not bad to say he’s only recently taken it up . I’ve encouraged him to keep going ,While ever he’s throwing bowls down the green he’s not spending my inheritance 🙂
We await the imminent arrival of the Bertlam’s who have been absent for 9 months whilst he recovers from a complicated knee operation.
We had a movie night at Rock Lodge last night and i had some microwave popcorn for half way through the film , the lights came on the film went on pause ,just like they used to do in the cinema in the UK (if you’re old enough to remember) I started on the pop corn ….easy ….place in a pan heat ..pop pop pop and it’s done …..WRONG!!!! It burnt so our friend Magic Tinkerbell aka ” M.T ” aka “EMPTY ” (head) jumped up… dumped my smoldering batch ….. and put some oil and fresh corn in the pan, shook it and heated and hey presto great popcorn.
Although “Empty’s” looked better my BBQ popcorn turned out to be more tasty
While the cats away ……
I realized there was something missing from the blog and it it was music..so here’s a new thing i’m trying ..to make people feel how we feel here in Belize so click on the link and read the blog whilst you listen to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLexgOxsZu0
H took a trip back to the UK to visit her family and our friends , 2 weeks of indulgence in all things western , while i ate rice and beans 🙂 i did send some quality gifts to the guys i shared an office with WHEN I WORKED 🙂 i racked my brains for something of quality and summed Belize up …in the end the only thing i could find was Belikin beer mats , it’s the thought that counts guys 🙂 ….. .. i traveled up with H by bus to Cancun Airport and waved her off and traveled back down the same day arriving at 8pm in Chetumal the mexican city just across the border , i had sneakily been onto Google earth and checked out safe places to leave my truck all day and found that the police station car park for police vehicles doesn’t have a barrier on it … so i parked in there and the truck was waiting for me on my return… i just had to dive into Mc Donalds on the way back and had a Hersey McFlurry it was amazing just to try a little of western zing for a brief while 🙂 H did a lot of partying whilst away and her parents kept a check on a her drinking habits whilst she was there … little did they know she had a secret stash in her bedroom 🙂
Janine had a birthday BBQ just as H arrived she was one of H’s brides maids on that ill fated day nearly 20years ago 🙂
Two tarts ….. not a cake in sight 🙂
In Belize there is no quality or choice ..if you see something you buy it …then it breaks …an all to common sequence of events … we need a whole list of just simple stuff bringing back , we got good pairs of hiking sandals and were desperate for a dart board , which she bought from Argos ..£26 a bargain … i also had my Didgeridoo at a Phil and Jess’s house and got H to cart that back as well ..she bought a new rucksack 100 litre but it still stuck out the top a good foot and a half , miraculously it made it back in one piece , i can remember seeing it at the airport when i went to pick her up and being relieved it had made it .. i then thought ..oh and H made it back safe too 🙂 ….. Chunky and Slim cooked her a lamb dinner one night and they skyped with me to show me what i’d missed B’stards ( french for great mates …i think !!!!)
The lamb dinner crew ..must have been quite heavy , as they had a lot of wine to wash it down 🙂
She still hasn’t stopped talking about the great time she had whilst back in UK and wants to send a big thank you to everyone who looked after her and a hug to everyone she missed 🙂
Back in Belize our friends Man Mountain and Wood Nymph got us playing this game called Rummikub it’s so addictive we just had to go out and buy it basically there are numbers on counters and you drink huge volumes of rum it’s great …. they brought over a visiting friend who turned out to be Argentinian and was a really good laugh a brief discussion about the Malvinas … ERRRRR ….FALKLANDS and the ice was broken .. she goes by the name of Vero but we soon changed it to ZERO as she didn’t win a single game of Rummikub …. she did however knock a cup of our home brew jungle juice over and proclaimed ..are you drinking piss … we all fell about laughing a great one liner..
Left to right ..Zero , Wood Nymph and Man Mountain
The Lime trees are going crazy outside our house everyday the floor is littered with limes that have dropped off the tree’s so H decided to do her version of Lime Curd she calls it H’slime , it’s very tasty and i can’t get enough of it 😉
H is convinced we are getting a cat … you know how you make a remark and it gets taken out of context ..on her return …..all i said was ..i don’t know how people go without pussy for 2 weeks 🙂
Perfect even if it’s a little Tart .. i wouldn’t have her any other way 🙂
Das Boot
Our friend Rodi from Alaska had some interest in a boat that had been moored for 6 months outside the sea breeze Hotel on Corozal bay intial asking price was in the region of £1500 and after some devious dealing Rodi got the boat with mast, sail and rudder for the amazing price of £400 , she needs a little work ( the boat not Rodi ) but was a steal to say the least . As Rodi can’t sail our friend Canjoe offered to tow the boat to 4 mile lagoon to “The peace” it was a lovely sunny day and very calm so Captain Rodi ,Buffalo Bill and I were crew for the 3 1/2 hour journey whilst canjoe had his own crew making sure the tow line didn’t become fouled in one of his propellers. Buffalo bill and I were constantly being hollered obscenities by Captain Rodi , reminiscent of the Bligh on the Bounty… we were on bilge duty pumping out water by hand we cruised past our house around the Consejo Horn ,skimmed the border of Mexico up into the Rio Hondo River and into 4 mile lagoon , after a crocodile check ( a quick left and right glance) Rodi , Buffalo and I jumped in the water and pushed the boat by hand into a mooring right next to “The peace” H arrived by road in the “Support truck” carrying essential supplies of rum and beer.
Rodi’s boat moor outside her house with scallywag crew
I was working out in the yard and a guy road past on a bicycle ,we live in the middle of nowhere so he was obviously selling something .. he shouts good morning i have carvings ,i shout back not today as i have no money , Zeus greets the guy at the gate hackles up and teeth out … guy shouts back it’s not boats or dolphins, which a much the same and across Belize , i go to just get rid of him and he produces this magnificent hardwood carving of Jaguars head …I want it immediately but shout H out to look at it .. the guy says £30 i say ok and the deal is done , a great deal if Rodi hadn’t bought a boat for £400 🙂
Hardwood carving of a jaguar head … carved from Zericote
I was at yet another BBQ and man mountain had his phone out showing people photo’s of an aura around the sun it happens between 9am and 10am and i’d never seen it ..H and I were sunbathing on the Cove in the morning i looked up and saw it, it looks like a rainbow around the sun and came out pretty good on the camera H has claimed the glory for her photographic skills the 2nd decent photo in the 22 years i’ve known her 🙂
A rainbow around the sun , whilst it was pissing down in the UK
There was a” Super moon ” full moon on the 24th May so we decided to throw a late afternoon BBQ and then have a beach bonfire on H Cove as it rose just after dark a whole gaggle of misfits turned up and the afternoon was a blur of food and drinking culminating in full moon swim down at H Cove … one of the persons pictured went butt naked the photo was taken by Jman who is a little camera shy 🙂
Super moon down on H Cove .. can you spot the skinny dipper?
I have been looking for a 9Volt battery in Belize for about 2 months no joy ..i was told to go to Mexico ..really .. Mexico for a battery ..well we went yesterday and bought one and also had my first Burger king for 2 years as there are no fast food chains in the whole of Belize.. we both had the Mega Angus burger meal … i really hadn’t missed junk food ..not to say i don’t secretly crave midget gems by the pound 🙂 ..Hurricane season has officially started and with it the rainy season right on cue we had 6 inches of rain a couple of days ago and our tanks are over flowing a nice feeling 🙂 …. I came out the house and was confronted by this fallen down Banana tree right across the drive .. an excuse certainly no one could have ever used in the UK for NOT going to work
A valid reason not to go to work in Belize ..do not try this in the UK
Sweet Success
We were lucky enough to join a visit to the Sugar Cane Factory near Orange Walk about 35 miles away. The area where we live is predominantly sugar cane fields and is harvested twice a year . For Belize it’s a big factory and can’t be missed as it belches out a constant black plume of smoke. We joined the tour incognito as members of the local roots and shoots society and were given eye protection and hard hats we had to wear closed toed shoes as it said safety footwear must we worn…. i was really expecting the worst from this visit as far as safety standards go. We walk through the gate and they explain there safety starts here monologue …. we have to take a detour across the grass as the new safety path is having reflectors put in at a crossing point …So far so good … we walk over to where the trucks were being unloaded … i was expecting to see 100 guys with pitch forks throwing the sugarcane stalks down .. and was gob smacked that the they drove the truck on to a hydraulic lift and hoisted the engine side into the air allowing the cane to fall straight out onto a conveyor it was ingenious …
The unloading of the sugar cane
it went from there to a set of crushers with about 100 large hammers on a drum whacking the cane down in to small pieces the guide said come and have a look …we did and got a face full of sugar sticks being thrown at high speed from the machine …Safety goggles were a good idea….. The next thing we saw was a guy pulling the same sugar sticks out of a chain and cog assembly that drove the machine ..may be they get a new guy every week ? who knows it was really dangerous but apart from that and no hearing protection in 100 decibel zone the place was super clean, well maintained and really was a credit to Belizean industry. The plant employs 125 people and works night and day during the sugar cane harvesting.. it processes 1000 tonnes of sugar cane per day and the waste sugar cane roughage is burnt in an onsite furnace plant that produces steam that powers a turbine to create 20 megawatts per day.
The factory produces 4 types of sugar , Demerara which is exported to the UK ..Class A , B & C … the A & B is also exported to the world market and the class C is only for sale in Belize .. when i asked the guide what the C stood for he just smiled 🙂 …. The sugar cane is transported from the factory by barges on the river to ships in the deep water off shore ..they do not use trucks as foreign vehicle movements through Belize are not permitted… they estimate the amount of Sugar cane left to harvest by flying a plane over at high altitude… All in all a very slick operation ..YES in Belize 🙂
barges ready to take the sugar down the river and out the bay past our house
We went to a party at the Bamboo Beach Resort in Copper Bank which is about 7 miles away across the hand crank ferry , Canjo the owner was throwing a big bash and it turned out to be amazing everyone brought a side dish (they call in pot luck here) and Canjo laid on the best meat BBQ extravaganza i’d seen anywhere in my life , two purpose built huge grills had ribs , sausage , chops , t-bone steaks and stuff i didn’t even know what it was but everything delicious …about 150-200 showed up and it was a great atmosphere mostly belizean and not a GRINGOFEST ….. disaster nearly struck on the way back as my friend ” Buffalo Bill” ( cody NO , silence of the lambs YES ) fell down a hole in the ferry in the pitch black luckily i heard him shout and managed to pull him out before he disappeared altogether.
I finally got around to removing the the water tanks that i had thought collapsed due to the ground pressure …. first i had to remove a 6 inch concrete cap on each tank started with a sledge hammer and progressed on to a Jigga Pick very quickly and was helped by the ” Man Mountain” once the concrete was removed i used the truck to haul the tanks out ..only to find the builder had put off cut tiles next to the plastic tank which had cut through the tank….. Asshole is the only word that comes to mind..
The man mountain and me …
who puts sharp tile off cuts next to a plastic tank as fill ..starts in A …. ends in hole
When Slim and Chunky were here we brewed some orange wine .. we got 20 litres of Chateau de Nooti …. it was OK for a first attempt and cost £3 to make we used old 2 litre rum bottles ..which was quite a chore drinking the contents to make sure we had enough bottles for the wine ..of course we saved all the rum bottles from slim and chunky’s visit with the ones from the Realmy’s visit…
20 litres of jungle juice …yep all gone now and another batch brewing 🙂
Slim and Chunky
Slim ( female ) Chunky (male) our great friends visited from the UK recently, we’d missed their wedding so we were really looking forward to a celebration (Piss up) i even caught the bus up to Cancun as they have never been anywhere without a Holiday Rep waiting for them as they cleared customs. They of course were carrying contraband Chunky’s 2011 home made orange wine and the Sibbo’s had sent us (ME) 4 chocolate oranges , 12 wagon wheels (Jammie) and 4 double double deckers …Chocolate is not a problem until it looks like an Apple , there bags were hoicked off the xray machine and checked …. Luckily on this occasion the crisp snap of a rubber glove was not heard in some back room customs office 🙂 … We made it to Playa del Carmen just in the nick of time for the 4 hour express to Chetumal where our taxi driver met us and whisked us to the mexican Belize border… regular readers will be familiar with the border crossing money scam …so i changed tack this time .. i approached the guy ..he said where have you been i said we have been to Chetumal ..he said are you Resident i said yes he just stamped all 3 of us out no exit fee for Slim and Chunky …. another breeze through Belize customs and we were sat in in H’s roof top lounge drinking Rose wine … alas disaster was discovery Chunky’s bottle of Chateau de Orange 2011 had shattered in his suitcase ……. we’d been waiting to drink that for a year .. may be next time they can drink ours 🙂
The Blue nose gang
We took them to Lamanai the troop of howler monkeys could be heard in the Distance and we were lucky to find them at the Jaguar mask temple, we also discovered that Slim did not like heights BUT managed to get her to climb the Castillo ( Castle / High place) she decided to come down step by step on her arse , probably explaining why it had a spread quite a few inches over the years 😉
Coming down from the high place
The Lamanai site is one of the best in Belize and is spread out in the jungle connected by very good ,well maintained paths in the dry season early in the morning before the cruise ship crowds appear is very tranquil again we were the only people there . We spotted some army ants on the move so walked over to investigate , you have to watch your step as they can spread up your legs and give give you a nasty nip pretty quickly… we escaped mishap but here are the blighters pictured running up and over rocks .
on the march Army ants
There is also an old abandoned sugar mill which has been lost to the jungle ..i’d seen the path before disappearing out of sight and decided not to take it ..BUT threw caution to the wind and boldly ventured down it i had a long stick in front of me just in case of well camouflaged Fer de Lance snakes which are abundant at this site …. about 15 minutes into the jungle we came across a clearing ..behold the lost sugar mill with a tree growing out the middle of it … it was steam powered and still in pretty could fettle for 150 years old
The jungle slowly reclaiming the Sugar Mill at lamanai
We talked Slim and Chunky into going to Caye Caulker for the night and stayed in Popeye’s beach resort is right on the beach and reasonably priced and the owners are really good fun Ron and Christina i would recommend any one traveling to Caye Caulker to stay there ..just mention our names and your sure to be thrown right out on your arse 🙂 .. we of course sampled the wares of the lazy lizard bar at the split…. and Ron let us use his small boat to tootle around the island and moor at the lazy lizard, as the day before we left, i stood on an Hibiscus thorn that went a good inch into my foot and hurt like f*%$ing hell. Because the One Barrell blow out was such a success on Caye Caulker before .. we recreated it in the jacuzzi at Popeye’s Beach Resort much to the surprise of Christina who let us just get on with it ..we did offer for her to join us but Chunky’s speedo’s ( budgie smugglers) maybe put her off 🙂
Wankered at Popeye’s
Chunky is a dab hand in the kitchen so we asked him to rustle up a chicken korma back at Rock Lodge , people who know me will be surprised as garlic bread really pushes my culinary boundaries but i had Indian just before i left the UK for the first time with Shab and Naila at a place on the A38 outside of derby called Anoki it’s a great traditional restaurant if your ever in the area. Chunky did a great job (unlike his failed yorkshire puddings) and it reminded us our monthly dinner at theirs ,the Sibbo’s or our house back in the UK . When my Dad came over he brought me the one thing i had been craving over here …proper knives and forks i know it sounds silly but i hate eating with crappy cutlery and he brought our old set from the UK that was too heavy to pack when we originally came out with just a bag each. Dad also complained that i took his belt , jumper ( for cold 20c mornings in January) , tracky bottoms , shorts with zip pockets all QUALITY stuff you can’t get here ..he says he came with 21kg and went back with 3kg 🙂 . Disaster struck whilst Slim and Chunky were here , took them kayaking to a lovely secluded beach just down the bay and the bottom plexiglass window dropped out of my kayak luckily we were only a mile or so away so we loaded it on top of the double kayak and beach combed our way back , just waiting for a friend to bring me the right glue back from the states if they see any . The funniest point of their whole stay was when i took the guitar down to H Cove and was practicing Dueling banjo’s and Chunky said “if there is anyone in those bushes and they hear this music they will pull up their pants so fast up the cracks of their arses .. you won’t see them for dust .. it was quite hilarious …… i was going to take a photo of all the booze bottles we drank during their stay but decided that people may think we had a problem..we don’t and we can handle it 🙂
Old dog …..new tricks
My Dad visited recently and although a little apprehensive about the journey arrived full of beans eager to see what Belize had to offer. He nearly fell at the first hurdle as he just made it over Woodhead pass before it was shut for snow as he was leaving from Manchester airport. I met him at Cancun airport and luckily got a lift from my friend Harla who was going to pick his mother up who was arriving on the same flight . We traveled back down on the bus at night ,which was stopped by mexican police we were all photographed by armed officers ..a n exciting start to the holiday…i we he should have paid that parking fine before we left 🙂 …we got to the Mexican border where the woman took $20 of him and put it straight in her purse (normal for mexico) .. we got to the Belize customs she say’s anything to declare .. Dad replies nothing she see’s a litre of whiskey and another of Brandy and lets us just go through ( Not normal for Belize) … as not to draw attention to himself he had grown his hair and wore a cap to try and fit in ..here was the end result a great disguise YEAH Man
Brian sporting his new hair
Although i learned to swim at a very young age my dad can just do enough to get him out of trouble (in most things 🙂 ) so was a little uneasy going kayaking i gave him some sound advice ..if he falls out of the boat .. “stand up ” it’s about 2 feet deep … in no time he wanted to paddle himself and was very good at it.
A natural on the water at H Cove back safe from Consejo
He arrived with lots of bandages and plasters ..thinking we couldn’t them here ..then proceeded to scrape , knock ,bang and cut himself where ever we went .. i had to remind him we don’t carry liability insurance in case he makes a claim 🙂 … i took him to see the snake man ( Usher) and before you know it he had produced 3 Fer De Lance snakes and held them right up to his face for this photo..wisely we stayed well back as Usher was bitten by one of these snakes and narrowly escaped death .. he then put the head of one of the most poisonous snakes in the world in his mouth ….
One bite and it’s over
We drove to lamanai ( Mayan Temple) in the truck the road was ok and we were rewarded with the front grill falling off as we got there luckily it was repaired with tie wraps when we got back…. The Howler Monkeys came to see us but they didn’t take the bananas we brought them so we eat them for breakfast on top of the big temple .. we got there early again having the place to ourselves no moquito’s… just the eagles circling around our heads.
Breakfast above the canopy
We went to Caye Caulker and drank buckets of beer whilst sat in the water ..relaxing to reggae music at the lazy lizard bar …. we ended up flying there and back 18 minutes is all it takes to the first island .. then a fast boat ride to Caye caulker … on our return we had a quick sail around the bay on my neighbours Hobie …he loved every minute of it … at one point we saw the sugar cane barge but a quick shake of his head reminded me of his 71 years and we headed back for shore unscathed .
If it’s safe why are we wearing life jackets my dad says…just to make sure i replied 🙂
All in all we had a great 2 weeks together H did a a good job putting up with the both us getting up for sunrise everyday .. we got his return ticket early for the over night bus ride back to the airport that went without a hitch… When your old man looks you in the eye and says You’ve done alright … there is no finer feeling ..hope to see him and Jackie sometime in the future
One barrel blow out
Our good friends visited from the UK Jave and Dustine the last time we saw them was at our leaving party a year and a half ago Jave was dressed as a Female gorilla he really hasn’t changed much since… The plan for their visit was to do some drinking ..do some drinking and then finish off with some drinking …… much to their disappointment all we did was drink …. we flew over to San Pedro and then took the water taxi to Caye Caulker we arrived haggled a room from a 2 night minimum to a one night blow out …. we went straight to the Lazy Lizard drank some beer hey fell face first in the water , a bottle of ONE BARREL RUM wobbly legs and a slippery step not a good combination….. I TELL HER TO BE CAREFUL
Everything after this photo was down hill the booze just took over 🙂
The night ended in a drunken blur we had photo’s taken in numerous bars on golf carts in the street ,on a boat on the beach ..but as they say a photo speaks a thousand words ….. and the winner was
hey girls sit on this lovely bench ..you’ll look really cool with the beach behind you
They were both keen to go out sailing for the day so i arrange a jaunt over to Orchid Bay for lunch and then planned to drop in at Jill and Benny’s across the bay for a beer . Jave took the rudder and sail and got us over there in no time on our way back we hit a squall ( sudden sharp storm) and it got quite rough with the waves coming over the side of the boat ..H was hanging on for dear life and we headed straight back home ..she was glad to get back on dry land …. Dustine on the other hand had to be woken up as she was dozing off through all the commotion … i made a short video clip http://youtu.be/estQ9K8o3nw
Calm before the storm
We played lots of games of pool in H’s roof top lounge …the final winner takes all championship was won by Jave resulting in lots of screaming and hollering …i reminded him to be quiet the neighbours might complain 🙂 …. we had a great BBQ in bertlams revamped Internet cafe bar and grill followed by the compulsory beach bonfire ……. They loved lounging on H Cove and we did a spot of Kayaking down the coast with me towing the girls in the double kayak behind ..all in all a great week partying getting pissed and having a great laugh …. their return trip will involve zip lining , cave tubing and to visit the crystal maiden in and underground mayan cave and may be swimming with whale sharks if they pick their time right .
Fire and beer, on the bay with friends PRICELESS
OTHER NEWS
My Dad arrives next week for two weeks so we are gonna make sure he has the time of his life ….in preparation we have been stock piling pasties and steak pies as he is an even fussier eater than me …wonder where i get it from 🙂
We will finish with the really big news we got our Permanent Residency in 11 weeks start to finish which turned out to be a lot easier than we could ever of imagined so folks you can have a big sigh of relief we WON’T be coming back …you know the saying ” you’ll get by with a little help from your friends” well we certainly did 🙂
The end of the World …wasn’t nigh
We got invited to Christmas lunch by Harla and Carry who are from Scotland and own the local pastry shop in town. Turkey and ham are very hard to come by in Belize, but they managed to get the necessary permit at the Mexican border to bring one back across. The booze in the photo is a mirage as the XX beer is contraband in Belize 🙂 The meal was great, prawn cocktail starter with Garlic bread … full turkey and ham dinner with Yorkshire tartlets (puddings but they went flat) and orange cake to finish..what a great day we had ..fingers crossed we get invited back next year ..i have a rather risky cake photo to use as blackmail next year…..
The two people on the right are from my hometown in the UK
H ‘s birthday was on the 28th Dec and we had a meal at the Blues restaurant in town and had 11 friends join us everyone enjoyed their meals ..even me as they forgot to take my order and everyone had finished before mine arrived ….but the chicken pizza was well worth the wait …. Harla had baked a huge coconut sponge cake with custard filling it was YUMMY .. we then swung by the Sea Breeze Hotel for a beer then onto H Cove for a full moon beach bonfire and more NON BELIKIN BEERS 🙂 … there was another surprise for a H our Polish friends had prepared a banana Creme Brulee which when i saw it i burst out laughing cos i was stuffed full and it looked awful …BUT the proof was definitely in the eating and it was gorgeous so i managed to make a little more room….. i’m sure i used to have a sweet tooth 🙂 …..the funniest comment of the day was when the visiting sister of our neighbour asked me at the meal ..you keep saying we ..where is your other half i said she’s the birthday girl at the end of the table ..her reply was ..oh i thought she was with the spritely 70 year old sat next to her ..his wife shouted “IN HIS DREAMS” LOL …. so what did i get H for her birthday …I found a piece of drift wood and made her her very own bench on H Cove.
H and her eager cake eaters – i’m glad she was sitting down when i took this photo the dress was rather short and caused several stirs 🙂
New Years Eve was supposed to be spent at Rodi’s new Lagoon House ..but it was still being finished so the location was switched to Coe and Japrice’s house, Coe prepared a traditional Fijian Lovo Chicken and food from the garden the sweet potato was great and we had another fire ….We don’t jet all over the world now so the occasional wood fire makes a smaller carbon footprint than we used to have before , for all you ECO warriors out there 🙂
Coe uncovering the lovo chicken
The End of the world was truly eventful we went to Jill and Benny’s across the bay , we cadged a ride on our neighbours Hobie Cat across the bay..drank and ate beef burgers ..there was a live band …which sounded like it was in the throws of death … BUT Jill’s home made blackberry wine ( 3 bottles of ) seemed to do the trick …it was a great gathering ..the wind picked up so we decided not to sail back and we cadged another ride with our other neighbours the Browe’s and went back the next day to pick up the Hobie Cat.
Other News…
We were looking for one more piece of art to finish a our wall at home and came a cross a tasteful nude done by a local artist … We await the arrival of our good friends the Realmy’s from the UK who are currently partying in Miami ..hope the culture shock doesn’t kill them when they arrive 🙂 ….. When we were at the end of the wold party at the Mayan temple across the bay i took this photo …people say they can see an object …all i see is is the temple and a cloud ..make up your own minds!!!!!!!
Yeah like aliens were really gonna land on the Mayan Temple
Beach Bonfire Bonanza
Back in blighty H and i used to love having bonfires in a metal bin on our drive with a couple of bottles of wine ( yes like to tramps – hobo’s for the Americans ) a memorable one was burning four and a half thousand photo’s that we couldn’t take with us. Those days have alas gone and now we have to make do with a bonfire on the beach a yard or so from the water , the wine has been replaced by rum and our little shindigs are gathering popularity , now everyone is having fires by the water and we make sure we go to them all ….. as long as they keep stacking the shelves with rum we’ll give going to BBQ’s 🙂 the photo below was a special day it was the BBQ that never should have been ..a group of people pried apart for various reasons ..reunited and thrown into the cooking pot once again …. if you missed it there are sure to be others ..everyone is always welcome ( well nearly everyone 🙂 )
A gathering of great people on H Cove
We heard there was an eatery being relaunched on the other side of the peninsular and they were doing a pig and lamb in the ground … You start by digging a hole light a fire in the bottom throw some big rocks in let it burn fierce extinguish the flames and you have hot rocks ..meanwhile a wooden raft is made out of green wood (so it wont burn) and the meat is wrapped in banana leaves with some veggies and pineapple slices on top to tenderize the meat …the wrapped meat meat is placed on to the wooden raft and is placed onto the hot rocks and ashes in the bottom of the hole then a square of metal covers the top of the raft with the meat on it and it is then covered with soil and left to cook for 3.5 hours .. the result was the most succulent tasty meat you could image which was accompanied by rice and beans the traditional staple food . Truly amazing food and to top all this off the food was free and you only had to buy your beer , there was a good mix of locals and gringo’s and it had a great atmosphere.
Taking the pig out of the ground using wires to lift the raft ( apologies to the the lifters i 
stretched the photo so they appear fatter than they actually are)
We met a woods girl from Alaska her name is Rodi and she has bought some land on the lagoon ..she attended the beach Bonfire and decided that she too wanted a fire and BBQ a house warming …Well there was no house …no furniture ( Bertlam provided the seating even though he wasn’t there 🙂 ) ..there was a big fire hot dogs that were roasted over the fire ,with marsh mallows for after and a gallon of rum …. another great night of dancing to ” Big bellied man” and no snake bites 🙂
A community event
the image is stretched so the hot dog near my tally wacker is way to big ..H says deffo NOT a case of biting off more than you can chew
OTHER NEWS
I saw my first Armadillo here yesterday in the bushes across from Bertlams ,he was a little camera shy but will try and get a snap of him at a later date …Bertlam had a new roof put on his Palapa and i burnt the old one ….. i did a little video of the event http://youtu.be/S1aFsWDIlSQ … I installed 2 new water tanks as my 4 months old tanks collapsed due to incorrect installation ..the lesson is don’t employ a roofing contractor as a building contractor…… enough said…… We got an invite from our neighbour to sail over to Orchid bay 10 miles round trip and H worked the Jib the whole way ,her first hands on sailing experience and she loved it ..blue skies ….light wind …..wonderful..
A natural ..i’m sure if i’d have even touched the sail we would have flipped it 🙂
Fawke it
We decided to have a Bonfire on the beach to celebrate Guy Fawkes night , i set about collecting wood and coconut palms ,producing a sizable monster ( H says she doesn’t know what one of those is !!!!) Zeus helped in his own way …pulling at the palms i’d neatly arranged and fetching the odd coconut. It has got a little chilly here at night dropping down to 20 celcius …so you can imagine our delight at the heat that was thrown off from the fire …H was a little disturbed that the roaring fire was melting the ice in her rum punch to quickly …and Bertlam pictured next to her was worried a sudden wind change would set his Palapa roof on fire …although that might have been a god send :)… the lighting of the bonfire was a little fraught as snakes like to hide in piles like that and luckily bertlam was on hand about 20 feet away to offer a ride to the hospital if i was bitten 🙂
No fire brigade or neighbours to complain
H was watching me paint and decided she wanted to try her hand … i went through a long process of telling her how difficult it was to handle the brushes correctly , the watercolour paint dries so quickly in this environment and so on…. she turns to me and says .. “how did you do in art at school” …my proud reply was a “B” at o’level … she started laughing ….and replied .” wow thats really good … BUT i got an “A” ……. in minutes she was sloshing paint around and produced a painting of Bird Island ….not bad for a first attempt..better watch my coat tails 🙂
A young Pickassole in the making ..(not sure of the spelling ) 🙂
OTHER NEWS
We had a powercut the other day it lasted 8 hours ,it threw our world into disarray ,all we could do was play pool , lounge by the beach and drink hefty amounts of rum punch ….. i sure hope it doesn’t happen again soon 🙂 ………………… Zeus has always had a large lump on the top of his head, which we had checked out by Dr Sheila ..who said just keep an eye on it ,which was over a year ago ..we came back from shopping to find blood trickling down his face and this lump had explode leaving a large crater … the night before we had watched the movie aliens …funny how the mind plays tricks on you …….. We witnessed two great feats of ingenuity first two guys transporting a sofa on top of a car ..no roof rack ..no straps .. the driver and passenger had their hand out the window holding it on as they drove at speed down the road …we both remarked that we’d never see anything like that again …. to witness a guy driving a JCB ( Back hoe in America) digger with one hand and holding the free swinging digger arm with his other as he weaved towards us at speed on the main highway ..i was going to give him a wave ..but H said if he waves back it might not be a good idea …….. and finally Bertlam who lives in Canada ..e-mailed me to say he’d contacted a company in the uk and was having a surprised shipped over to Canada then he would bring it to Belize..we had no idea what it was ..but he simply said i’d mentioned it before .. the freight airfare cost him a fortune ..when he unveiled the surprise ..it was a pound of midget gems ..we had told him of the daily pound of midget gems i scoffed with Big Tom in my old work place ..believe it or not i am rationing myself to 3 single ones a day and savor them for about half an hour …NO IT’S TRUE !!!!!!!!
The last photo is of an early morning 5am kayak trip i took to bird island to catch the sunrise ..i was rewarded by an osprey catching fish right in front of me ..alas it was a real fast %&*£?$ so i didn’t catch him in the photo
Dawn kayak
Eyes bigger than your belly
H always comments that it’s like being in a nature program as we sit in the roof top lounge, this week alone we have seen wild boar , a fox , rescued a cootamundi ( like a large racoon with a long nose) from the clutches of Zeus , osprey and today i kayaked over to Jill and Benny’s across the bay and was escorted by 6 dolphins for about a mile , they swam idly at the side of me just looking at this weird thing in a yellow tub . We have a resident Snake who is non poisonous and hangs out around the outside of the house and sometimes sneaks inside ,as we have found snake skin. He is a vine snake or rat snake as they call them down here about 5 feet long . H has come up with a really original name for him JAKE the SNAKE ..wonder how long it took her to think of that one 🙂 Jake has a liking for frogs and there is an unlimited supply outside , i rescued one from him the other day as it looked to big for him to eat , then found him with an even bigger one … it’s nature and Jake has to eat so here is the photo.
Jake and one rather large frog
The stress of living here is resulting in H losing weight to support her and help her i sent her outside into the jungle gym . She has lined the drive way with stones and i have cajoled her into doing sit ups in the morning ..no pain no gain . Sometime ago Bertlam gave u sa few ebooks ( over 2000) and now I’m actually enjoying reading books for the first time in my life. I gave a pictorial talk to the Corozal Womens Forum on the subject of Easter Island , strangely enough only men have spoken at there forum , my Neighbour wanted to attend but HE was flatly turned down ..i suggest he wear a wig and claim he was a transsexual , i think they might have seen through the 70 year old’s plot 🙂
H joined the jungle gym creating the driveway
We had a lovely full moon bonfire on H Cove last week roasting marshmallows over the embers , alas the last hurricane washed most of the sand from under the palm trees that i had wheel barrow into position , I’m liking the natural look as it takes far less looking after 🙂 ..Our friend Wacko Jacko ( Micheal Jackson) put 2 terabytes of films and tv series on to a disk drive for us before we left and we are just working through the celebrity juice series ..i never watched it in the UK but it is absolutely hilarious and look forward to the new series being sent over next year ..we also pick films at random so we don’t use the good ones up first and found one called RANGO an animation ..not usually my cup of tea BUT it was really funny if you haven’t seen it …..it’s a MUST .. Finally our GOOD friends in the UK got married Steve and Michelle AKA Chunky & Slim one of the few things we miss are special moments like weddings ( everyone loves a good piss up ) they are currently in Cuba a mere 450miles away . Our friends in Oz Clive ( aka Evil C ) Bev wanted to see a watercolour i’d done of Bertlams house from H Cove so i posted here , Hopefully the original is hanging on Bertlams office wall or is in the bog next to the toilet paper just in case he ever runs out of bog paper and needs to scrape 🙂
Bertlams house from H Cove ..don’t worry i should improve the more i paint 🙂
A year in the life of a Hammock
We have been here a year and the time has flown ,each week presenting us the challenges of living in another country. The 3rd world is indeed a strange place to live where common sense has no place , and simplest tasks are mountains to climb. Luckily we never thought we could or have ever tried to change how things are done down here , we just sway and bend like the coconut trees 🙂 … Our 6 months old TV died last week ..NO Guarantee’s , no refunds so i took it to a little wooden shack in the back streets where a guy fixes TV’s all of which are the cathode ray tube type with the huge backs..i’d got him to fix a power pack to some speakers that broke before ,so did not hesitate to try him again… i told him the power had just gone off and to trace the short circuit … ( it was that or throw it ) he rang me 6 hours later saying it was fixed ..i got there and the guy wants 150bz dollars ….he had me over a barrel (not literally 🙂 ) so i ask him why so much he says the power pack was not working and a new one costs 150bz i say but i have not gotten a new power pack you traced the fault and repaired .. i say i’ll pay you this time BUT next time don’t rip me off and i’ll send other people here he says ok and fixes Bertlams flash light for free…. Remember to him every gringo is a millionaire …… It has taken a year but we have encountered our first Porcupine …we didn’t see it but witnessed it’s devastation this morning , Zeus was outside the door as usual and i said to him are you not well as he’d been eating grass and it was still sticking out of his mouth …on closer inspection they were porcupine quills in his nose and inside of his mouth , i took the needle nose pliers and set about pulling them out he was really good until the ones inside his mouth so i placed a stick into his mouth so when i pulled the tricky ones out he would bite the stick and not my fingers off ..it went incredibly well assisted by Nurse H 🙂 …… i went to feed Phoenix and Kilya and was greeted by faces full of Quills , they were very good and Doctor Dave retrieved them all without much fuss , they were just pleased to be rid of them …i couldn’t resist snapping a photo of Phoenix before the extraction procedure.
cocktail stick holder / kerplunk / porcupine hunter
We had a weekend in Caye Caulker a belated Birthday present for H , a quiet picturesque Caribbean island just 18 minutes away from us by light aircraft ..of course we are on a budget so we took the Thunderbolt water taxi to save money so we could eat well and drink our socks off. It was everything we remembered from a previous trip staying at Mara’s Place near the split, it was glorious weather as usual down here and we ate lovely Cuban sandwiches and tucked into roast pig at night. Mara’s place has a private dock looking out towards the reef with the turquoise waters so we took advantage lounged around ..sensibly we bought factor 30 banana boat water resistant suncream , unfortunately the chemist do not stock suncream down here , so the only place we could buy it was at the No Guarantee’s No refunds store , we applied thoroughly and sat out in the sun ..it was either fake or an accelerant for sunburn , after only one hour i was tingling a bit so we sat in the shade , only realising we’d been burnt to a cinder joining the “Lobster Squad” . left Caye Caulker and headed to San Pedro an over commercialised Sh*t hole of an island , eventually after walking the wall to wall of clubs bars and cafe’s we found a lovely place in a horrible dock area away from the main drag. we were the only ones there and the bar tender asked if we wanted to see his babies he walked along a little dock with us and then i saw the monsters lurking below HUGE tarpon , these fish were easily 150lbs + and right at the bottom was “The DADDY” ..a while after some people turned up for a bite to eat and went to feed the tarpon by hand which we have done before in the Florida Keys ..you simply wiggle the fish above the water the tarpon jump up and grab the fish , they have no teeth. So a girl from the party said she have a go , they had obviously dressed up for dinner and i thought how brave she was wearing such a nice dress that was going to get splashed with water ..she bent down wiggled the fish nothing happened and she dropped it in the water , the bartender says have another and hold it further out from the dock .. the BIG DADDY tarpon jumped up swallowed her whole arm and pulled her off her feet into the water in a split second , as she was going under she put her other arm out and the bartender managed to grab it, he Pulled her and the tarpon still attached to her arm half way out of the water before it let go , it was the funniest most shocking thing I’d ever seen and her arm was bleeding from grazes on her arm from the fishes vice like grip..If only i would have videoed it
Relaxing on Caye Caulker before the “Lobsters” appeared
The weather has been calm over the past week and i took full advantage kayaking over to Jill & Benny’s who like 3 1/2 miles across the bay , this was the first round trip and i was rewarded with a decent size Jack , that we cooked up with lemon and butter sauce. The next day i Kayaked to the Rio Hondo River which is the border between Belize and Mexico and the bay was like glass flat calm , as soon as i started back the wind picked up and i battled the 5 miles back into breaking waves i stopped in at bird island and caught a 2 1/2 foot barracuda which we ate that night and hooked a big cat fish that nearly capsized the kayak as i brought it close to unhook it… two great days ………… Cody and Vickman brought me some water colour supplies down so i did Bertlam a couple of pictures of his palapa and house ..it’s good to be painting again and looking forward to improving my techniques with the brushes
Ernesto & Depression7
We have just had some Hurricane Activity the first Ernesto was headed right for us and veered north at the last minute thankfully missing us by about 40 miles , i installed the hurricane shutters in 2 hours start to finish , it went like a dream but in all the fuss we forgot about our wedding anniversary so celebrated with a bottle of rum and a meal at BLUES in town a couple of days later . Hurricane Florence then threatened the same path but dissipated in the Caribbean sea much to our relief and tropical depression 7 wafted over us ……..it’ll be nothing i remarked ….a foot of rain fell overnight and all the roads are flooded with 3 – 4 feet of water we should be able to get to town in another 4 days or so but we are well prepared with food and EXTRA RUM 🙂
Candlelit spam sandwiches
We have been enjoying the good life and this and last month has been especially good for me as i got to watch the whole of the Tour de France the last time this happened was in 1989 and have had to put up with the hour highlights show after work ( Work ..what is that again remind me ) and to top it off an English winner 🙂 ..then there was the Olympics coverage which was through Canadian satellite ..we were not supposed to leave the UK until after the Olympics but H was that bothered and said we probably wouldn’t get tickets ….how right was she what a fiasco !!!!! … as Ernesto approached Bertlam asked if we would take down his satellite dishes ..its easy he said undo a few nuts ..job done ..the nuts were all seized and it took me longer to take down his dishes then to do the whole of my house but hey ..what are friends for 🙂
I call this photo “The Dish” ..H says more like…… the dogs dinner 🙂
I went kayaking and fishing down the river with Eco lady’s husband we caught a fish for bait and proceeded to fish but only caught blue crabs ..her husband said it was the first time he’d caught crabs …I’m not to sure 🙂 …Funny thing is when i got back H said the Pups had caught and eaten a blue crab. Now as we were laughing about them jumping around trying to catch the crab .. i saw a huge one walking across the garden it was easy 2 feet across with it’s claws open and then i had a thought ..Phoenix had been limping and we took her to the vet but could find anything wrong ..i wonder if she had been nipped ?
May be the Nemesis of Phoenix ?
Although it rained heavy we didn’t get any flooding on our acre it stopped conveniently on Bertlams border and was named the Coconut grove lake that separates our houses ..Bertlam has a new yardman who rode through the 4 feet of water on his push bike ..luckily for him i cut the grass where the lake forms just before the hurricane came ..although the rain did provide a great photo opportunity below
Rock Lodge Lake / Coconut Grove Lake
Time flies
It was a year ago on the 22/07/2011 that we both left work in preparation for our emigration to Belize. All those warnings of you’ll be bored and go out of your mind have just faded away. I hauled an X Box over here and have played it once for about an hour. The average temperature of 82 degrees with mostly sunny skies is lovely…. just to sit in the roof top lounge and swing in the hammock sipping fruit smoothies watching the world go by. We don’t get out much so jumped at the chance to help out at the Yacht Club (not tweed jackets and boat shoes) who teach local youngsters how to sail, a non-profit organization. I was supposed to help out on our neighbours Hobie Cat but a freak windstorm smashed the mast the night before , so when we got there we were seconded into the beer tent and asked to help out . Before we knew it we were up to our ankles in Belikin Beer bottle tops having a great time, whilst jigging about to the “Gilharry 7” a local reggae band. The day was a great success and it was nice to see the majority of people were Belizean.
Helping out in the Belikin Beer tent – Nominated driver on the right
In preparation for the inevitable hurricane season onslaught we had some sturdy galvanized 16 gauge window and door protectors made , to simply bolt onto the window bars when needed. As the guys were doing them i was going around making sure they fitted, the guys said “HEY MAAN, we know what we are doing” i went to get some lunch came out and they had done another 2 windows ,they said “No need to check they fit ” i said “GREAT” but lets check them anyway ..BINGO the first one doesn’t fit one of the holes is in the wrong position …i look at the guys they say ” it’s not easy MAAN” i think ..what getting someone to do a good professional job in Belize! ….. no kidding 🙂 … i had to provide the washers and nuts to hold the window protectors in place so went to the ” No Gaurantee No Returns place ..AKA Cinty’s ….. everything over here is sold in each’s (single washers and nuts) you can not buy a box ..i ask for a 3/8inch nuts they give me one -10 cents each (3p) … luckily i had a piece of the bolt in my pocket and guess what ..the 3/8 nut doesn’t fit the 3/8 bolt …next i enquire about washers they show me one and it is again 10 cents so i say i’ll just check at Lano’s the Chinese hardware store …i get there and the same washers are 25 cents each BUT their 3/8 nuts fit. So bolts from Lano’s, washers from Cinty’s ..i go to pay at Lano’s and the owner says “Why you not buy washers” i told him they were a lot cheaper at Cintys ..he tries to convince me Cinty’s are smaller thinner and inferior until i take the washer out of my pocket and they are the same ..ONLY in Belize 🙂
You only need them …WHEN YOU NEED THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!
Bertlam bought us a pool cue bridge attachment down so H could get those pool shots that were just out of reach ….I was in a quandary as whether to fix it up for H as i quite liked her stretching over the pool table with her ass in the air …WHAT A MISTAKE A TO MAKE A The introduction of the pool bridge has now leveled the playing field and frequently get my ass whooped ..she constantly reminds me she used to work in a snooker hall when she was a lass …YAWN 🙂
We are now searching for Yardman number 6 for Bertlam ..number 5 asked for a 50% pay rise because he thought he was a hard worker ..Bertlam told him no so he said OK i’ll do it for 50bz …Bertlam goes back to Canada ..i fix the ride on mower ..to make it easier for the yardman to cut the grass as he was using a handpush one ….he cuts the grass in one day and comes up to me for his pay ..i give him 50bz and he says i cut twice as much grass i want double pay and tomorrow off ..i try to explain that the ride on mower is twice as fast and you sit down all day instead of pushing …. he just didn’t get it ….. and now needs a new job.
I finally did the Kayak across the bay to Jill & Benny’s twisting Mrs Bertlams arm i talked her into it kayaking across with me which she managed quite comfortably ..Bertlam and H went in the new SUV and met us a couple of hours later…unfortunately the wind picked up so we didn’t get to kayak the 3 1/2 miles back ,so we strapped the kayak to the top of the SUV and drove the way home after a fantastic day.
Never paddle in the back 🙂
Coady and Vickers
We had our friends over to stay from Canada , the last time we saw them was a year ago on Canada day in London England . Coady is an avid reader of the blog and was excited to be down here to leave the civilised world behind. I picked them up in the truck from the airport and we stopped in at Altun Ha to see the ruins and the Snake man . This guy is about a mile from the the ruins and lives in a shack that would look great in a horror movie. Every time I’ve been to the ruins he’s been there trying to flag us down ..he looks a bit like the bald guy from the Hills Have Eyes. I asked my friend who lives at Altun Ha if he was ok .. he just looked at me and said ..well he’s harmless but he ripped us off for a bit of cash ..( LIKE EVERYONE ELSE HAS BEEN WHO LIVES IN BELIZE AT SOME POINT) So we decided to take a chance . The guy was not what I expect ..he was very knowledgeable about snakes and spoke with an American twang ..he’s famous for getting bitten by a Fer De Lance, spent 5 days in a coma and survived. He said he’d got another in the house but I kept telling him we didn’t want to see it. He produced a magnificent boa about 10 feet long which weighed about 50 pounds.
Coady with the snake man outside his house
The week revolved around drinking large amounts of alcohol … we went to the local fruit market and purchased a whole array of tropical fruits .. Vickers in his famous radio voice pronounced today was “Rumpocolypse Day ” . Numerous concoctions were mixed laced with copious amounts of rum…. the best being a mango and pineapple mixture blended to perfection. The day subsided and night time arrived and Vickers had his first taste of toasted spam sandwiches .. we played pool and drank some more… 3 litres of rum later ..cuban cigars, dancing and plenty of tall stories!
Pool Hustlers
The gravel around the house is completed and the mosquito’s have gone , my lasting imagine of Coady is when the locks broke to the door at Bertlams they were trying to get in and the mosquito’s were vicious …Coady was wearing little shorts ….and her ass looked like someone had fired a shot gun at it… Bertlams car has been a constant bind.. ..it has now been replaced as even the mechanic called it the red devil :).. the mosquito’s have now subsided so tonight we will be on H Cove sipping rum punch around a beach fire ….paradise!!
Krazy Kayakers
Guest Accommodation
After finishing the house, we asked the builder to do a little something for the dogs so they wouldn’t feel left out. I started it but the first row of rock was enough for the lads building the house to take pity on me and they did the floor and walls. We had a quandary over what to do for the roof . Hcame up with a great idea spurred on by a comment that our friend Don in Massachusetts made on the cover for the truck . He said those truck covers were for keeping cotton buds and croissants dry… after having the truck for 9 months I now realize what he meant and we have ditched it… NEVER to return on top of the truck. The truck may be getting some car seats put in the back ….watch this space. So the dogs seem happy with their new roof, they are doing just fine and will now ATTACK on command, as the builder found out the other day when he tried to get out of his truck! H said I’m glad you’ve done that roof … wouldn’t want you getting wet when we have guest’s over….I wonder what she means? 🙂
Dog house / Guest accommodation
We had some friends over last week from Nashville, Meredith & Jenne they had rented a private island French Louie Caye in the south of Belize then came up and stayed with us for 3 days chillaxing and playing pool in the roof top lounge. We took them to a darts get together at Copper Bank and we all had a good laugh after battling through a thunderstorm to get there and negotiating the hand crank ferry. They had never had fresh coconut so I impressed myself opening 5 in 5 minutes and still having all my fingers intact 🙂 We went through a big storm the night before they left and the new drain in front of the front door worked a treat. On the way back after dropping them at the airport I went to Altun Ha Mayan ruins to pick up some Cohune Palm seedlings from my friend there and planted them just before the heavy rain came ..he has an endless supply so eventually we will have the mighty Palms ….well in 20 years or so 🙂 Alas we didn’t get any photo’s of Meredith and Jenne … too busy knocking back Belikin Beer, so I had a photo of them on file so just added it into the photo of Altun Ha see if you can spot them?
Spot the happy couple!!! Meredith & Jenne
I was supposed to pick up Meredith and Jenne in the red devil (Bertlams SUV ) it broke down AGAIN after I took him to the airport last time he was here. Well I told the mechanic to take it to an auto electrician to re-wire a faulty connection. So I go to pick it up ALL FIXED and it doesn’t start….. ONLY in BELIZE 🙂 … H has finally made it into the kitchen and tried making some cheesy beef nacho’s …. as previously supplied by our loveable Italian friend…. the same lovely lady also did me a cheese cake as a belated birthday treat, which I wolfed down in seconds… it brought back distant memories of the afternoon feasts from the company shop at work ..ALAS no pound bags of midget gems to wash it down 🙂 …. we have passed the 4444 visitors to our blog WHOOP WHOOP!!.. and finally we have been having a taste of blighty … Steak and Ale pies made at Morgans ..a Scottish/Belizean couple ..they are to die for.
Morgans steak and Ale pies with garlic and onion mashed potatoes and bisto gravy
Closer to 50 than 40
Well the dreaded day rolled around when I became closer to 50 than 40! If you know me well, birthdays are not my thing and I apologise to all my friends for ignoring their special days for so many years… NOT 🙂 Life in Belize can get very hectic and I was in a quandary what to do on my birthday …. Go paintballing, maybe the cinema, a nice meal at a fancy restaurant…… ..HANG ON! we are in Belize …so i had an hour on H Cove, went to a little bar (a shack with a pool table) and had their fried chicken . Of all the places I’ve traveled around the world this little place does the best CONSISTENT chicken I’ve ever had, half a chicken and a beer with fries and salad for a whopping £4. We ordered 3 meals and pigged out then swung by to the aptly named Chinese store “RONGS” for a bottle of rum …. cruised to the cake shop for a upside down pineapple cake and headed back to the rock lodge roof top lounge and played pool illuminated by the now famous “Meteorite ” pool table light. The Jungle listened to 80’s classics all night. As I went to bed I looked in to the mirror and didn’t see an old man looking back and I was happy with my lot 🙂 What do you get a bloke who has everything? H knew exactly what i wanted …. 2 new back tire’s for the truck 🙂
If you are out there reading this thinking lucky sod …. I say …… make plans …… dare to be different …..follow your dreams!
45 chillaxing on H Cove
We are just working through the finishing list with the builder, he calls it his “Punch list” I think that’s what he does when he gets to the end …..Hope H is stood next to him 🙂 We have been in the house 2 months and couldn’t be any happier, I was skyping with my brother the other day he loves the house but said he thought it might be bigger. Well after 2 marriages maybe size has always been an issue in his life!! 🙂 The builder came up with a good idea for lighting the spiral staircase so I bought some rope lighting and we attached it to the handrail and it looks great at night, I wonder what the creatures of the jungle think?
Stairway to heaven
Now I know everyone thinks I just lounge around with H on the beach all day, but alas it is not true ….everything grows so fast here the grounds need constant attention and I have just started landscaping around the house. There was a big pile of rock left over from the house build so we decided to gravel around the house and edge it with rock . It sounds so simple but try shoveling gravel in 90 degrees with humidity ….whilst your swinging in a hammock with your shirt off it’s wonderful ..as soon as you even think about work you break out in beads of sweat. We have had the first proper rain in 4 months… the days had been idyllic but with the first rain comes the lovely mosquito’s hungry for some sweet Blighty blood. So shorts, sandals and no shirt is out the window. You have to cover up and wear layers or they will ravage you till your last drop! the good thing is that they come and go in cycles and yesterday the dragon flies arrived to take care of them. I have a good 4 months of work on our acre plot but H keeps telling me it will be all worth it in the end (whilst swinging in MY hammock)….. 🙂
Today it was a hard life 🙂
Meteorite
We held a thank you BBQ for the 5 guys and 1 Gringo who built our house. As the people who worked with me will know, sometimes I’m not the easiest person to get on with and there were a couple of times the guys had worked hard all morning for me to come along and say ..i don’t really like that ..lets do something else. I must be the only person in Belize who never fell out with his builder and actually talk to them after the completion of the house . Well to say thank you we bought 2 crates of the finest local beer (there is ONLY Belikin ) 5 whole chickens and H produced one of her famous upside down pineapple cakes …Famous because she always says she will bake one and then trots off to the cake store and buys one 🙂 We shot pool all afternoon and when the fridge was empty the guys left ..It was a fantastic day and one of the guys said he never played pool ..well we all got HUSTLED!! good job we did not play for money 🙂
Progresso Crew - Carlos ,Gee, Jian , Romey, Ray & Ed (The Crazy Gringo)
Sometime ago I was out kayaking and found a piece of driftwood that had been battered by the sea for at least a couple hundred years and wanted to do something with it. It was quite a large piece …too heavy for me to carry, so Romy and Jian said they’d help me. We went round to Eco lady’s house and borrowed her chainsaw and kayaked round, cut the log and floated it back to the truck. Even though we cut it, it took all 3 of us to lift it into the truck , weighing +400lb it was a beast! The Crazy gringo saw the smaller piece we’d cut off and said he might be able to turn it into a pool table light for us . On the day of the BBQ they arrived early and we were banished into the house whilst they carried something upstairs hidden under a tarp. After an hour of drilling banging and hollering , they shouted us upstairs and BEHOLD the most magnificent pool table light imaginable …..i call it “The Meteorite” it weighs about 90lb and is hung from two thick steel chains . The guys presented it as our moving in gift, it took them 4 days of hard graft to make it and is truly spectacular.
Pool table light "The Meteorite"
Instead of going to church at Easter i took an early morning invite from my neighbour 1/2 mile away to go sailing to Sarteneja. The same fishing village that Keith & Kelly had mistaken for Corozal (got off the water taxi too early….doh!) it’s either 40 miles by car or 20 miles by sea ONE WAY, so we set off in the Hobie Cat and had to sail into the wind tacking as we went. It was a glorious day, light variable winds and 4 1/2 hours later we arrived , it sounds a long time but it was a lovely to sail in the pristine waters of Belize ..I packed my leatherman knife with fire striker JUST IN CASE 🙂 . The winds were very tricky as we approached Sarteneja and we headed for the loud thump of drums supplied by 6 foot high speakers that we heard over 5 miles away..Good old Bob Marley ..YEAH MAN! ..well we saw there was a race under way and thought they were racing around two points so we cut cut behind the lead boat expecting him to go away from us ..Nope he stayed parallel with us and turns out we were in the middle of the race!! but far enough away as not to “Steal” anyones wind and Belize being the polite country it is , we never got the bawl of ” WANKERS” we most certainly would have gotten back in Blighty 🙂 . We ate rice and beans sank a Belikin and watched the next race . The boats are fishing vessels , BUT with extra long pimped masts and large sails. We watched the race and made our departure with a favourable wind completing the 20miles back in an hour and 30 mins ….. 1/4 of a mile from home a risky “JIBE” and over she went ..not another rescue at sea i thought! Well alls well that ends well, we managed to flip her back and sailed safely home . All praise to the captain who was a very sprightly 70 years old and managed to get on top of the up turned boat before me.
Sarteneja regatta
New pad 1
The front of the house faces due east to catch the sunrise
The house floor is 3 feet above the ground which is a further 3 feet above the high tide mark , the apex of the roof is 31 feet above sea level. The house is a squashed hexagon , with a concrete roof.
The down stairs living room
We used 24 x 24 inch porcelain tiles , the ceiling is 1 inch hardwood boards and is a work of art in it’s own right. The windows are louvered to allow maximum air flow , with noseeum screen to keep critters out.
The kitchen
Open plan living to provide the cooling breeze , two high level windows provide an escape root for any hot air.
Bed room
The bed is 9 feet wide and 6 feet long and is made of stone , the wall has a TV that swivels from the bed to the living room.
The New Pad 2
Roof top lounge , a dream come true
So i had a dream about playing pool looking out on to the Caribbean ,nestled among palm trees , life does not get any better 🙂
H's Lounge area
We eat breakfast here ,listening to the parrots squawking in the trees , looking out over the sea.
Stairway to heaven
Our builder came up with the idea of a spiral staircase ,getting it built was gonna be a problem in Belize …… unbelievably a piece of cake 🙂
corozalchronicles 