It’s kind of scary how easily and quickly I felt comfortable and at home here. I didn’t think it would happen until sometime after I found my spot and permanently set my home roots. This is exactly why I wanted to retire here. The people are so friendly and everyone speaks English so there is absolutely no language barrier. That’s not to say that I won’t be learning Central American Spanish, or Cajun, or even Garfulo. All 3 are spoken here with Garfulo being the most common. That is a language that used to be spoken in West Africa but can only be found there now in very small pockets. There are Mayan Indians living here too and you can tell the women by their very beautifully colored skirts and the men by their distinctive hats. It’s such a culturally diverse population.
I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I was going to spend the day at Kismet in Hopkins watching the sun throughout the day so I could find the shadiest spot to park my home. I’ll head out there for a little while today but the sun isn’t cooperating. We had a cold front pass through during the night that brought a thunderstorm and some rain and this morning it’s mostly cloudy. It was 80 degrees when I woke up at 6:30 this morning.
For those of you in cold climates I’m sorry for poking you. Those of you who hate the heat…move to where it’s colder! (LOL) The high yesterday was 95. The norm all year is high 80s to high 90s, and it never goes below 60 even on the coldest of days. I’m one of those who loves the hottest of Florida summer days so this is perfect. Suffering through the 20-30 degree days and the light snow fall in Orlando (it melted as soon as it hit the ground) at Christmas/New Years and the week after made me more determined than ever to get far south and never have to deal with it again. Most of you know (as many of you reading this are my relatives) I grew up in a south Chicago suburb and lived for 12 years in New Jersey. What some of you may not know is that I was a member of the United States Antarctic Research Program in 1971-72, working for NOAA (National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration) while I was in the Navy and spent 8 months on the continent monitoring weather and launching/tracking weather balloons. So I’ve experienced cold weather at it's worst and I don’t want to deal with it anymore!!!
I spent the greater part of today at my new home site, Kismet, sans trailer, and had a splendid time. Tricia is a wonderful lady and a terrific chef. I spent the day with an Italian couple and an Aussie lady and her Italian male friend, who are all traveling Central and South America for 4 months, a Canadian couple who are staying at the resort next door but absolutely love the folks they met at Kismet so they spend their afternoons here, a couple form West Virginia who are on their last day of holiday in Belize, and a self proclaimed aging hippy named Craig, from Nebraska, who has been here for several months and may never go home says he. What a great bunch of people! Plenty of lively conversation about every subject you can imagine. We had a Belizean style dinner of lobster, chilled veggie salad, brown rice, and squash from Tricia’s small rooftop garden. Absolutely delicious! I won’t be eating like that every night after I move my trailer here but it sure was good. By the way, the winning name for my trailer is Casa Belize 13. Casa Belize was submitted by 2 people and since my lucky number is 13 and the address plate that I bought for it in Sedona AZ is 13 bordered by an Indian and a lizard, I added the 13. I got the scoop on where the best place to fish is from the guy who supplies Tricia with her fish. There is a very large lagoon to the left of the place as you face the Caribbean. He’s going to take me out next week and show me the hot spots. It has almost every non-lethal (no sharks) salt water fish you can think of in it. Tricia suggested I could make some money renting out my canoe on the lagoon too. She charges BZ$50 (US$25) a day for her kayak. Another suggestion, when I feel that I know the lagoon well enough is as a fishing guide. They charge BZ$150 (US$75) for 4 hours. One additional thing I can do is be the local Kismet taxi service into Dangriga for tourist banking and shopping. Thats BZ$50 trip for 2 for the 50 mile round trip drive and more for more than 2. I can take up to 4 passengers. So, while it won’t be an everyday thing, I may have a small source of income. Now I am not planning on working but few extra bucks goes a long way here. If I can earn at least US$75 a month, in any shape or form, that will cover my rent. Once my garden is producing I can basically live here for free. And from what I've experienced so far I know that I will be comfortable and engaged with people from all over the world there.
My only worry now is the tariff that Belize will charge on my car and trailer after 30 days. That may run into the thousands of dollars but I’ll worry about that when the time comes…
Now it’s time to head over to the Pelican Beach Resort, order my daily Belikan beer, and use their internet to collect my mail and post this to my blog. Then it’s back here to watch the next couple of installment of Two And A Half Men (I started watching the series from the pilot episode last week and have all of the episodes that have played up through 2 weeks ago, or 6 years worth of 24 episode years and 14 episodes of year 7) and then head for bed. I lead such a busy life now that I’m retired don’t I???
When I got here to the Pelican all the lobby lights were off. I asked one of the night guards what was happening and he said they close at 10pm. I had no idea how late it was. The nice thing was that he turned one one of the lobby lights so that I could use the internet. How cool is that!?!
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