My life in Belize

Today, February 9th, is my 1 year anniversary living at Kismet Inn in Hopkins Village. I mentioned in my last update how I’ve been living in Belize for a year now and how my life and way of life have changed. I think I want to expand on that a bit so you get a sense of how both have changed and the differences between what we know as “life” in America and “life” in Belize. In my old life I enjoyed things like a car, TV, 24X7 internet access, air conditioning, hot running water, shopping in well stocked grocery and department stores, movie theaters, all the other modern conveniences that we think we have to have in order to be happy, plus enduring a lot of stress. I’m here to tell you that just ain’t true!

Since moving to Belize I’ve replaced my a/c with an 18” floor fan (my trailer does have a/c, I just choose not to use it). To help reduce the heat inside my home I have a 20X16ft cover about 2 feet over my roof. That lowers the inside temperature by 10-12 degrees fahrenheit and does make a big difference and the fan keeps me comfortable. I spend so much time outdoors that, by the time I do go in for the night, the temperature has dropped at least 10 degrees. I love it when it’s 95 and sunny and the coldest temperature I saw here this winter was 68. As you know I’m usually out before 6am to fish the lagoon every day and around 4:30 or 5 every night. I spend a couple hours a day under the sea grape trees swinging in my hammock reading and napping and enjoying the onshore breeze and, depending on when the guests are on the porch or in the kitchen, I spend time there too. So I’m not really effected by the heat inside my trailer anyway. Rainy days, and some day just for the heck of it, I do spend inside watching a movie/TV show or reading. I’ve stayed indoors 2 or 3 days, usually when no one is here, just enjoying quiet time. Tricia likes to “live like a tourist” when no one is here too and hangs in a hammock reading or lounging about. She books tours for some of the guests and even goes on them for a change of pace. Anyway, it’s nice to know there is someone around when I need to interact. She’s a really nice lady and a great friend.

My TV has been replaced with a laptop and 1-terabit external hard drive with, As of today, 669 movies/DVDs and 37 TV series, some as long as 8 years and 175 episodes. I continue to follow some of the same shows that I did in the states and have picked up on some of the new ones now running like Fringe, Men of a Certain Age, and Boardwalk Empire (HBO). Until recently I had to go to an internet café to get my email and follow all of you on Facebook. Now we have wireless internet at Kismet (and in my trailer) and I continue to download my shows and even have movies that are playing in the cinema right now. I’ve instituted “movie night” in the Kismet kitchen and show a movie of a guest’s choice at least twice a week. I also have a 500+ book collection to keep me busy.

I’ve replaced my car with a bicycle. I use the bus or get a ride when someone with a car is going out of Hopkins (usually to Dangriga). We kind of coordinate trips with each other and kick in for gas, which is now around US$5.30 a gallon. Dangriga is 20 miles away so it’s not a short or inexpensive trip. Where most U.S. homes have at least 1 car here in Belize 75% of most homes don’t have a car and rely on the bus or hitching rides. Not owning a car isn’t all that big a problem. You only have to stand on the side of the road and someone will stop and give you a ride. That even includes farm tractors with trailers, dump trucks, and semi trucks. It is completely acceptable, and really sort of expected that those with a vehicle pick people up, and, safe. The roads are nothing like what you are used to. There are 4 main highways in Belize; Northern, Western, Hummingbird, and Southern. The Northern runs from the Mexican border to Belize City, about 63 miles. The Western Highway runs from Belize City, through Belmopan (the capital), and then to San Ignacio and the Guatemala border to the west and is another 68 miles or so. The Hummingbird Highway runs from Belmopan to Dangriga, about 42 miles. Southern Highway runs from 7 miles west of Dangriga (called the “7 mile junction”) to Punta Gorda (about 15 miles from the southern border at Guatemala) and it’s about 68 miles. There isn’t a road yet to the southern end of Belize and it stops in Punta Gorda but one is being built. All roads are 1 lane paved highways with a few stretches of 2 lane. Any other road is a mixture of poorly maintained blacktop, with numerous and deep potholes, or sand and large rock graded roads. Some of the blacktop road is nothing but a 3-4 foot strip of pavement with sand/rock on either side because of rain washout. The road to Hopkins, called Hopkins Road is 4 miles of just that, as my brother Dave can attest too. After visiting here he said he would never complain about his roads again! The national speed limit is 55mph but on other than paved highway you find it difficult to drive more than 25mph. Driving them is like a drunk driving course because you use all of the road, from ditch to ditch and everywhere in between. Going anywhere takes a good deal of time.

Shopping here is like shopping in pre-20th century. I shop multiple grocery stores (nothing like you would be familiar with and not even to a 7-11 standard) and market stands to maybe find 1/3 of the fruits and veggies that I so enjoyed in the states. Except for a few grocery stores in the cities and bigger towns most are the size of a gas station food mart but not as well lit. All the grocery stores and most of the restaurants are owned by the Chinese (from mainland China). In our stores you will find a limited selection of any product, and not anywhere near the variety of a U.S. store and, for instance, have only 5 to 8 brands of cereal, 6 or 7 types of bread (mostly white and wheat). Candy? All chocolate (mostly small, and VERY expensive, Cadbury bars) is kept in the cooler and the other candy consist of bags of individually wrapped fruit flavored drops, and not very good tasting. Cookies are plentiful though. Seeing an American candy or cereal aisle, or just a grocery store in general, would send Belizeans into shock at the quantity and variety of products. For soft drinks Belize has only Coke products (Coke, Sprite, and Fanta) and a local brand called “Old Time Lemonade” that comes in 8 different flavors including my favorite, root beer. There is also bottled coconut water (just what you think it is!) and various juices and juice mixtures. One thing about soda pop here is that it tastes so much better than in the U.S. because they use cane sugar instead of corn syrup. It’s also one of the reasons that this country is diabetic, and where the number 1 cause of death is diabetes related health issues. For you beer drinkers there are only 5 different beers: Belikan, Belikan stout, Lighthouse, Red Stripe, and Guinness and that’s it! Doritos and Lays brand chips are US$5-6 for a 10oz bag but there are some cheaper local brands to be had. Around the store you’ll find 5 gallon buckets on the floor, and not refrigerated, each with a different kind of meat: chicken feet, pig ears, pig snouts, and pig tails. They are a big part of the daily meal here because they are cheap. Hellman’s mayo, my favorite, is US$5 a jar for what you pay US$2.50 and sometimes find 2-for-1 (Publix in FL is good a good place for that) and you’ll always find a jar or 2 in my luggage when I come back from the states. Staples like rice, red and black beans, flour and cornmeal are bought in in 50lb bags and are dispensed by the grocer in 1 to 5 pound plastic bags that they fill. As you would image the staples are pretty inexpensive. And weights are guesstimates. Their scales are not certified by any government organization and you will find what is supposed to be a 1lb package to be anywhere from ¾ to 1-1/4 pounds, and usually under weight, not over. In the states it has to be at least 1lb and never under or we scream that we are being cheated. Ziploc bags are very dear at US$7-8 for the small package. I’m still working on the supply that I brought from the states and I wash mine and use them until they break. There is a limited supply of fresh veggies in Hopkins, with a larger supply in the market place in Dangriga. Celery, onions, and potatoes are usually US$1.25lb and tomatoes between US$1 and $1.50 a pound. Water melon is 75 cents per pound. Pineapples are US$1.25 each, oranges (6-8) and banana (8) for 50 cents because they are locally grown. Cantaloupes and grapes are US$3 a pound. I paid US$2.50 for 3 ears of corn the other day and they are not as sweet as what we are used to in the states. Local veggies are cheaper and just as good. The can veggies are around US$2 or $2.50 each for 12 ounces. So you live with what is seasonally available because there is no such thing as frozen veggies. For the most part the normal Belize diet doesn’t include fresh veggies (mainly because of the high cost), another reason for their health issues. I eat a lot of veggies and buy 1 big piece of fruit a week, plus pick whatever fruit is ripe at the time from local trees so that I am eating healthy. Dish detergent and laundry soap are pretty expensive too unless you buy the local stuff, which leaves something to be desired. US$25 for a gallon of Tide is what I saw in the grocers today. Thank God I’m only supporting myself, so my food costs are reasonable. I reduce my costs by fishing and I eat fish 4-5 times a week. It’s a good thing I love it! Meat and shrimp are reasonably priced but the beef is a bit on the tough side. I miss a good pork or beef hotdog though (so chili cheese and Chicago dogs are always on my “must eat” list when I go back to Orlando) because all they sell are chicken dogs and I miss pork spare ribs because they are very hard to find. But I can make a pretty mean hamburger and my menu, even though filled with a lot of seafood, has a nice variety to it because of the spices and sauces that I use. Dinner tonight was a “shrimp boil” with Old Bay seasoned steamed shrimp, red potatoes, onions, and corn-on-the-cob… Yummy!!!

Restaurants here are mainly small buildings, mostly with outside seating, or small street-side stands with no seating. There is not one restaurant here that would pass a U.S. health inspection but I have yet to be sick eating from any of them. Unless you’ve eaten in a 3rd world country you’d probably cringe when you saw them, and wouldn’t even stop at most of them. I’ve never been sick though and you learn which one have bad reps and stay away from them. The favorite meal in the Chinese stores is “fry chicky”. US$3 for a ¼ chicken and fries and it’s pretty darn good. You can get a US$6 portion (1/2 a chicken) too. The rest of the menu is Chinese food but not like the quality and taste you are used to. They have trouble getting Chinese cabbage, pea pods, and baby corn so the substitute it with stir fried cucumber and other local veggies. Depending on what meat, or vegetarian style, you order you can spend anywhere from US$4 to US$8 per plate. The portions are pretty substantial though. Egg rolls are unheard of except in Belize City. The Belizean eateries serve fried stewed, or BBQ food with red beans and rice and sometimes a little cole slaw. Popular meats are beef, chicken, and fish and in some places you will find locally killed animals like the Gibnut (basically a rodent) which is pretty good tasting. Street vendors also sell hotdogs (chicken dogs), tacos, and meat pies and are usually 1 or 2 for US 50 cents. I eat the meat pies and tacos quite a bit when I’m on the run. Buses will stop along all of the highways near a vendor and allow you to get off to buy something, and frequently vendors will board the bus and ride for several stops selling food. In the northern towns you will find more Mexican food available due to proximity.

Hopkins Village is classified as a fishing village. We jokingly call it is a “drinking village with a small fishing problem” because the majority of the day and night you’ll find the local men gathered around bottles of “bitters”, local rum, and beer. The village population about 95% Garifuna black with the other 5% being Mayan, Spanish (other Central American countries but mostly Guatemala) and less than 1% expat American, Canadian and Europeans. We don’t feel out of place though. It’s a very friendly village and you are greeted by the locals every day as you walk or bike. There isn’t much in the way of political correctness here either. You’ll hear the Garifuna calling to the Chinese by yelling “Hey Chinaman!”. The “n” word isn’t used by anyone and you don’t feel like anything other than a villager once you’ve been accepted as something other than a tourist. The tourists that you talk to speak of how friendly and received they feel here and are not afraid to walk the Hopkins streets late at night. That’s not to say that you won’t get robbed but if it happens it’s almost always not a local. Because the evenings here are cooler than the daytime you’ll find the streets crowded, with friends and neighbors walking, standing and sitting all along the streets, talking and enjoying the coolness and the front doors and windows on all of the houses are wide open to catch the breeze. Almost all of the schools are religious based, with only a few being government run. And they are expensive. It costs a family around US$75-100 a year plus books and uniforms. Now that doesn’t sound like much money but the typical Belizean, when they can find a job, earns around US$15 a day. In most families the woman doesn’t work, unless she finds a job as a cook or maid in a resort or cooks/bakes food to sell in the street. Unemployment in the villages is probably around 75% and there is no unemployment compensation. So the men look for day jobs trimming vegetation with a machete on someone’s property or doing construction work. And then there is fishing with a net and/or hand line.

Houses, for the most part, at least in Hopkins and other villages I’ve been to, are poorly built and also would not pass any U.S. electric, plumbing, or structural inspections. Three quarters of the homes are build with wood and have a tin roof. Since the wood here shrinks quite a bit there are chinks in most walls and floors which you can see out of/into and sweep sand through when cleaning the floor. No glass windows and fully half have no screens either. Windows are closed with a wooden louvered shutter. Cinder block houses aren’t much better, except those built for foreigners at much greater expense. The cinder blocks are made in the yard they are sold from and use sand and salt water so they crush very easily. Early on I bought a few thinking I could use them under my trailer’s leveling jacks. Mistake number 1 because I crushed them as soon as I put any weight on them. I resorted to the treated wood blocks that I brought with me, which have withstood the weather and termites here so far. Many of the Mayans live in family groups in palmetto wood and thatch roof houses. Actually they have 3 buildings, 1 for sleeping and may be a communal room or partitioned into 2 or 3 depending on how many married couples and children live in the home, a separate kitchen building consisting of just a thatch roof, and maybe a separate semi-walled and thatched building to sit in. Many times the kitchen building serves both purposes. The sleeping quarters almost always has a sand floor and home built beds and/or hammocks are used. My trailer is a palace compared to many of the houses here! I have windows with screens and have taped no-see’um screen (tighter mesh for very small bugs) so I am pretty much bug free. I do get ants though but at least I’m comfortable on the buggy days and nights. As for the foreigners they have houses you see on “House Hunters International” and range anywhere from US$250,000 to over a million and make you drool when you pass them. Me, I’m happy and comfortable in Casa Del Mar 13 and have no thoughts of property ownership.

I do find it very peaceful and stress free here so I really don’t really miss all my former creature comforts. It’s a trade-off that I gratefully make. I’m living in paradise and won’t move from here unless I suffer some severe medical issue. I do keep up with my meds and take a good multi-vitamin every day to help keep me healthy. My meds here are so much cheaper than in the states and I can buy everything over the counter and without a prescription. You can buy antibiotics and things like Xanax, Oxycontin, Klonopin, Valium and other meds like that between 50 and 75 cents US a pill without a script. The first time I bought Valium for Tricia I compared it to a drug deal. The counter person (I have no idea if she was even a pharmacist) put a plastic baggie with 10 valium into my hand and took my money all in one fluid motion, just like what you see on TV. I’m still laughing about it! There is a small hospital in Dangriga and a cancer clinic in an old house. There is a clinic here in Hopkins, that I haven’t had a need to visit, that is pretty cheap, free if you are unemployed. There is no medical insurance here either. Dentists are quite good and many people come here on holiday to have their teeth worked on. You can get a full set of dentures for less than US$1000 and fillings for US$15. I may find out soon because I’m starting to have some trouble with a molar. I do have a medical evacuation insurance policy for anything catastrophic. It’s full boat and includes an in country flight to Belize City International, a fully equipped jet to the nearest stateside hospital, and a return flight home. Hopefully it’s something I’ll never need but to not have the policy is a sure bet that you’ll need one.

As for living on the Kismet Inn property it affords me contact with friends like the owner, Tricia, and a constant supply of guests from all over the world that keep as much of my time occupied as I want. Kismet is a rustic, some might even say it’s just a traveler-on-the-cheap/back packer inn with beach camping. The price per night is only US$12.50 (BZ$25) plus $1.25 tax for a bed and US$5 for RVs to park on her lot and for campers to pitch a tent under the trees on the beach and that’s quite a popular thing to do. Kismet is very popular with everyone from their young 20’s to retirees and hosts and international clientele. Many are traveling their way through Mexico and Central America and some even journeying around the world. Breakfast and lunch are US$5.50 with dinner at US$11, unless you choose lobster which runs about US$16. She is famous for her twice daily fresh baked breads (something with fruit in the morning and garlic or other types of breads for dinner) and I do enjoy a slice when I sit with the guests at breakfast and after my dinner. She serves around 7pm every night but for me that’s too late because of my acid reflux which causes me to eat around 4, just before my evening fishing (actually I’ve always liked eating dinner in the late afternoon anyway). Tricia is a very good cook and you don’t leave her table hungry. I eat with her and the guest a couple times a month and whenever we go on a reef fishing trip and especially when she makes eggplant parmesan. As for the rooms she has 1 private cabana (called the “culture house” as it is built with old style Belize materials and a thatched roof. It’s the most popular even though it doesn’t have a view of the beach) with a small kitchen and half bath that has a full bed and loft with another; a small private room, under the building and to the left as you are facing from the sea, with full size bed with half bath; 2 connected rooms on the right side that share a half bath (one has a full bed the other a full and single). Upstairs on the main floor she has a room on the left that, as you walk in, has 2 single beds and a sitting area, 2 private rooms with full beds, and a half bath. None of the rooms have windows but do have screens. But then none of the rooms are sealed very well so all beds have a mosquito net. A trick here is to put a floor fan at the end of your bed at night and the moving air keeps the mosquitoes and other bugs away. (I do that too but only to give me a breeze since I don’t usually have bugs.) She has 2 shared showers, one under the building to the right that uses a conch shell as a shower head and is cool water only. The other is open to the stars and is behind the culture house. A few months ago Tricia installed an in-line butane heater and offers hot showers for US$2.50 (to offset the cost of the butane) and which has become quite popular in the cooler months. Me, I prefer the outdoor shower but don’t turn on the heat because, after showering with cool water for so long, find the water too hot for my delicate skin. Every once in a while though…

About Tricia, she’s lived all around the U.S. and Caribbean before moving to Belize 12 years ago or so. She’s owned restaurants and clubs in Connecticut, New York City, and Harlem. She’s been married several times, including to a Belizean, and has kids in the northeast. And, she’s a great cook…

I’m in email, blog, and website contact with quite a few new friends and some return time and time again. One of the 1st guest friends I made when I 1st moved here is Bruce from Maine. He arrived last night and will be here for 3 weeks. So, I’m never lonely, never bored, and always invigorated by interaction with everyone who shows up here. I’ve turned quite a few people on to fishing, both in the lagoon and reef trips, even causing some of them to go out and buy fishing equipment of their own. It’s fun to see someone open up and enjoy something that I’ve enjoyed my entire life. My brother Dave has been my only visitor so far but cousin Jodi from Everett, WA and cousin Bobbie Jean and her husband Charlie in Phoenix, AZ are talking about visiting me this year. All of you are more than welcome to come down for a visit to enjoy what Belize has to offer. There is something for everyone from eco tours to rainforest and mountain hikes to the waterfalls climbs; cave tubing; Mayan ruin tours in at least 10 sites; sailing, boating, scuba diving, snorkeling and fishing on the 2nd biggest coral reef in the world, and just plain laying in the sun. And, maybe like my friend Conan, you’ll cancel your trip home and look for a place to live here! (He’s looking for a boat, scuba air compressor, and a home in that order.) You just never know!

Anyway…that’s my life in paradise. I know many of you couldn’t live a simplistically as I do, or as far away from family and friends. It’s definitely not for everyone but it is for me.

And so, life in paradise goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… And, as always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!