Christmas again today!!! I got 2 packages from my brother Dave with fishing stuff that I really needed!!! Since I’m in Dangriga this afternoon I won’t get a chance to use any of it today. But tomorrow I’ll put them to good use.
Well one more time to Belmopan (at least) for Tricia in the saga of her search for citizenship. Probably on Friday 6/ 11. It seems that there was an inconsistency between the name on a birth certificate and a marriage license for her “husband” Patrick. Tricia had to get his signature and a notary stamp on another form to get that straightened out. Cross your fingers! One of the good things about going to Belmopan is that I found a coffee shop where I can get a 5 shot espresso (that’s all that fits in their take away cups) and has a book exchange. We also were introduced to a passable pizza restaurant that serves wood fire pizza and actually has more than 5 pieces of pepperoni on it and real mozzarella cheese. So we get double pepperoni and double cheese when we go. Too bad it’s a 55 mile each way trip. Or maybe it’s a good thing because we’d be there every day!
Nichola came to say goodbye this morning. She’s another of the many Canadian guests who visit here. She’s lives in Prince Edward, British Columbia but was born in New Zealand and is still an NZ citizen. Nicky is a college student studying forest ecology. She’s almost 30 so she’s not your typical aged student but you know I’m of the mind that teenagers graduating high school have no idea what they really want to do with their life so should put off school until they mature a little. Anyhow…she’s been here 4 nights longer than the night or 2 she had originally planned on. She, Steve, and Tricia (the designated driver) are headed for Placencia in Steve’s pickup truck. Nicky’s plan is to head to Honduras. Actually Nicky’s plan was to head there several days ago but Kismet got in the way. Peaceful, nice people and good food was her reason for staying longer than planned and she said she may even change her mind and come back with them from Placencia tonight. Yesterday she, Tricia and I took a nice canoe ride into the lagoon so she could experience the “Oh my God” tower and Trish could have a few hours off. Anyway, she’s like me in that…have hammock, will travel. She even put it up in her room a few nights and slept in it. So it will be sad to see her go. I told her she was one of the more funner people that have stayed here. I suggested she come back for Lobster Fest in Placencia or Caye Caulker on 6/25. We’ll see what happens tonight when the truck comes back… Anyway, she’s a very nice kid and I wish her well.
I haven’t mentioned who Steve is. He’s a retired (at 38 years old) software engineer from southern California who bought a 40 acre farm off the hummingbird Hwy not far from Hopkins. He’s stayed with Tricia several times while he was looking for property and for 6-8 weeks this time while he waits for his Mennonite style house to be built and delivered to his farm. He’s pretty funny when he gets drunk and starts spouting Martin Luther King speeches from the upper porch to everyone in listening distance. And he is quite loud so I imagine everyone in Hopkins is getting an education. The people between Hopkins and Dangriga love him because he distributes money and rum to everyone he meets. On one trip he was mixing drinks for the cops. He figures that will grease the skids should he be arrested for anything… He’s a nice guy though and treats Tricia very well.
The Caribbean water has been very hot these past few months. I guess it’s an effect of the El Nino that’s happing this year. So the water is too hot to swim in unless you like bath water. It’s not refreshing for me at all. Tricia jumped out of the canoe and into the lagoon a couple of times yesterday and said she was par-boiling herself. One of the only things that I didn’t like about living in Florida was that the ocean and gulf waters were way too warm. I loved the temperature of the Atlantic when I lived in NJ and Lake Michigan when I was growing up in Oak Lawn (southwest side of Chicago). THAT was refreshing on a hot summer’s day.
I haven’t seen hide nor hair of my bike in my travels around Hopkins and Dangriga. I guess it’s a lost cause and I’ll have to replace it soon…
As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
And life goes on...
This month we celebrate the birthdays of 2 of my kids, Nicole on the 14th (Flag Day) and Matt on the 23rd. I’m not going to get all gushy about it and tell you what great people they are, although they are. It’s also my sister Diana’s (Bunny) and my brother Dave’s (who will visit me here in another 19 days) birthday as well. I always forget the exact dates of whose is when but one is today, 6/7, and the other 6/8. I just want to say Happy Birthday to all of them here and tell them that I love them.
I’m posting this from Belmopan today. It’s the capital of Belize. I drove Tricia here so that, hopefully, she will get her citizenship, finally, after a 5 year battle. I won’t go into specifics but she’s faced some personal obstacles that have helped drag this out for so long. Last week she finally was able to obtain a document which should put this all behind her. One of the issues though is that she hasn’t kept up with the visa process. She hasn’t gotten a stamp in those 5 years but that was because of an ambiguity in the laws governing citizenship for foreign nationals. They wanted her to pay a fine of close to US$5000.00 but she met with one of the officials a few months ago and negotiated it down to BZ$500.00. Until now she hasn’t had that king of disposable cash. Kismet is not a cash machine. It is a low end, backpacker, student, and travelers on a budget kind of place. She charges US$12.50 a night. So, anyway… Since I’ve been here (so she tells me) she has never had so many quests (I’m her lucky charm!) and now has some money in the bank. So we are off to see the wizard, I mean the Immigration authorities to see if she can finally gain her citizenship and get a little peace in her life. This whole process has been pretty hard on her.
Well my bike was stolen sometime during the night of May 26th. I thought I had locked it but found the cable on the table next to where I keep my bike, and no bike. So now I’ll have to resort to borrowing one of Tricia’s bikes to get to town until I can either find mine or get a new one. The thieves here aren’t the smartest so I may see someone riding it on the streets of Hopkins or Dangriga. I’ll give it a couple of weeks before I replace it.
I was mistake in my assumption that after 4 months you go to a 6 month visa. That’s only for employment visas. I’ll stay on monthly visas but after 6 months the price raises from US$25 to US$50 a month until I apply for residency. No one said anything about my car and trailer import tax at immigration. I know she saw the stamp because she was counting the number of visa stamps I have and I saw her pause on that one. So, until someone says something I’ll keep my mouth, and checkbook, closed. As I mentioned in an earlier post I can restart the visa process by leaving the country for 2 weeks and go back to the BZ$50 a month stamp. I’m still thinking about it. But one of the immigration officers I talked to said they look at your previous stamps to see if you are doing that to bypass the process. If they find that you are they can deny you entry into the country.
On Sunday 5/30 I woke from my afternoon rainy day nap to the sound of noisy upstairs neighbors. That was strange since, living in a trailer, I don’t have upstairs neighbors. I soon discovered that the repair work on my palapa was beginning. As my palapa was going up the 1st time I told Elvis that it wasn’t tall enough to pull my trailer out without tearing off my A/C unit. I had given him preconstruction orders to build it high enough that I could drive out from under the structure should I need to leave for any reason. Elvis, who some of you know is a very heavy drinker and who’s eyes look like they are constantly bleeding, didn’t listen. He had cut the 6 main beams too short and when the palapa was finished there was only about 2 inches of clearance but that wouldn’t have been enough once I tried to hitch the trailer to my car. I reminded him that I had told him that when I hitch the trailer to the car I needed at least 1 foot of clearance. Since then the roof has sagged some and there was no way I could have pulled out in an emergency without either tearing off my A/C unit or having to chainsaw away the front ½ of the structure. Since then it has been raining and the lagoon was too flooded for them to cut new hard stick. Tricia told Elvis that since he didn’t follow my instructions that he wasn’t getting paid anything additional. I did agree to pay for the hired help which cost me US$100 for the 3 days that it took to redo my palapa. Sunday the 30th was the start of reconstruction. They had to basically start all over from the ground up. But now it’s finished and I can safely pull my trailer out in case of a flood or hurricane. I didn’t remember how hot it got inside my trailer before the palapa went up and I suffered for the 5 days it took to reconstruct. Tricia, Peter, a guest named Nichola from Prince Edward, British Columbia, Canada; and I all worked on adding the thatch. It took 2 half days to do the thatch and boy am I glad it’s done!
Its mango season and I am in my glory! All you have to do is stop and pick them up from under any tree in anyone’s yard. They fall when they are ripe. I didn’t know it but there are about 6 different varieties of mangos. I don’t know all the names bit some are hairy, and purple, and some go by numbers like 11 and 12. They are different sizes and the tastes are slightly different. My favorite is still the one that all of you are familiar with. They will be dropping until the end of September and I’ll be eating them, cooking with them, drinking mango juice, and Tricia is even making mango wine and jelly. Bananas are also plentiful and Tricia has a couple of trees so I always have a few on hand. She also has a blobo tree. That’s a cross between a banana and a plantain and is so good to cook with. I make French fries with them. On the property or close by there are sea grapes (not ripe yet) and coco plums and even some wild sugar cane. I had my 1st cane on 6/6. Peter’s son Felix used a machete to cut some for us and pealed them. They are pretty stringy but you chew them and suck the sugar out. Boy is it good! Probably hard on the teeth though so it won’t be a steady diet but it sure is a nice treat.
On a sad note, Tricia and Ron are no longer an item. They are still friends and he comes around almost every day just like he used to. That’s all I’ll say about that…
And on a final note… I would like to ask you all for your prayers for my daughter Carrie. She has has made a life effecting and life altering decision of which I am extremely proud. She isn’t joining the military and I can’t tell you what it is right now because she asked me not to, just in case, for some reason, it doesn’t work out. A few of you already know, one person because I asked for something specific for Carrie, and whomever else Carrie has told. But this will take some extraordinary hard work and training on her part. She needs your prayers for strength, both physical and mental, that she learns patience and understanding, and for God to make her path easier if her plans are his plans for her. So please, add her to your prayer list and to the lists of your prayer groups because this is very important to our family, but mostly to Carrie. Thank you so much!
As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
I’m posting this from Belmopan today. It’s the capital of Belize. I drove Tricia here so that, hopefully, she will get her citizenship, finally, after a 5 year battle. I won’t go into specifics but she’s faced some personal obstacles that have helped drag this out for so long. Last week she finally was able to obtain a document which should put this all behind her. One of the issues though is that she hasn’t kept up with the visa process. She hasn’t gotten a stamp in those 5 years but that was because of an ambiguity in the laws governing citizenship for foreign nationals. They wanted her to pay a fine of close to US$5000.00 but she met with one of the officials a few months ago and negotiated it down to BZ$500.00. Until now she hasn’t had that king of disposable cash. Kismet is not a cash machine. It is a low end, backpacker, student, and travelers on a budget kind of place. She charges US$12.50 a night. So, anyway… Since I’ve been here (so she tells me) she has never had so many quests (I’m her lucky charm!) and now has some money in the bank. So we are off to see the wizard, I mean the Immigration authorities to see if she can finally gain her citizenship and get a little peace in her life. This whole process has been pretty hard on her.
Well my bike was stolen sometime during the night of May 26th. I thought I had locked it but found the cable on the table next to where I keep my bike, and no bike. So now I’ll have to resort to borrowing one of Tricia’s bikes to get to town until I can either find mine or get a new one. The thieves here aren’t the smartest so I may see someone riding it on the streets of Hopkins or Dangriga. I’ll give it a couple of weeks before I replace it.
I was mistake in my assumption that after 4 months you go to a 6 month visa. That’s only for employment visas. I’ll stay on monthly visas but after 6 months the price raises from US$25 to US$50 a month until I apply for residency. No one said anything about my car and trailer import tax at immigration. I know she saw the stamp because she was counting the number of visa stamps I have and I saw her pause on that one. So, until someone says something I’ll keep my mouth, and checkbook, closed. As I mentioned in an earlier post I can restart the visa process by leaving the country for 2 weeks and go back to the BZ$50 a month stamp. I’m still thinking about it. But one of the immigration officers I talked to said they look at your previous stamps to see if you are doing that to bypass the process. If they find that you are they can deny you entry into the country.
On Sunday 5/30 I woke from my afternoon rainy day nap to the sound of noisy upstairs neighbors. That was strange since, living in a trailer, I don’t have upstairs neighbors. I soon discovered that the repair work on my palapa was beginning. As my palapa was going up the 1st time I told Elvis that it wasn’t tall enough to pull my trailer out without tearing off my A/C unit. I had given him preconstruction orders to build it high enough that I could drive out from under the structure should I need to leave for any reason. Elvis, who some of you know is a very heavy drinker and who’s eyes look like they are constantly bleeding, didn’t listen. He had cut the 6 main beams too short and when the palapa was finished there was only about 2 inches of clearance but that wouldn’t have been enough once I tried to hitch the trailer to my car. I reminded him that I had told him that when I hitch the trailer to the car I needed at least 1 foot of clearance. Since then the roof has sagged some and there was no way I could have pulled out in an emergency without either tearing off my A/C unit or having to chainsaw away the front ½ of the structure. Since then it has been raining and the lagoon was too flooded for them to cut new hard stick. Tricia told Elvis that since he didn’t follow my instructions that he wasn’t getting paid anything additional. I did agree to pay for the hired help which cost me US$100 for the 3 days that it took to redo my palapa. Sunday the 30th was the start of reconstruction. They had to basically start all over from the ground up. But now it’s finished and I can safely pull my trailer out in case of a flood or hurricane. I didn’t remember how hot it got inside my trailer before the palapa went up and I suffered for the 5 days it took to reconstruct. Tricia, Peter, a guest named Nichola from Prince Edward, British Columbia, Canada; and I all worked on adding the thatch. It took 2 half days to do the thatch and boy am I glad it’s done!
Its mango season and I am in my glory! All you have to do is stop and pick them up from under any tree in anyone’s yard. They fall when they are ripe. I didn’t know it but there are about 6 different varieties of mangos. I don’t know all the names bit some are hairy, and purple, and some go by numbers like 11 and 12. They are different sizes and the tastes are slightly different. My favorite is still the one that all of you are familiar with. They will be dropping until the end of September and I’ll be eating them, cooking with them, drinking mango juice, and Tricia is even making mango wine and jelly. Bananas are also plentiful and Tricia has a couple of trees so I always have a few on hand. She also has a blobo tree. That’s a cross between a banana and a plantain and is so good to cook with. I make French fries with them. On the property or close by there are sea grapes (not ripe yet) and coco plums and even some wild sugar cane. I had my 1st cane on 6/6. Peter’s son Felix used a machete to cut some for us and pealed them. They are pretty stringy but you chew them and suck the sugar out. Boy is it good! Probably hard on the teeth though so it won’t be a steady diet but it sure is a nice treat.
On a sad note, Tricia and Ron are no longer an item. They are still friends and he comes around almost every day just like he used to. That’s all I’ll say about that…
And on a final note… I would like to ask you all for your prayers for my daughter Carrie. She has has made a life effecting and life altering decision of which I am extremely proud. She isn’t joining the military and I can’t tell you what it is right now because she asked me not to, just in case, for some reason, it doesn’t work out. A few of you already know, one person because I asked for something specific for Carrie, and whomever else Carrie has told. But this will take some extraordinary hard work and training on her part. She needs your prayers for strength, both physical and mental, that she learns patience and understanding, and for God to make her path easier if her plans are his plans for her. So please, add her to your prayer list and to the lists of your prayer groups because this is very important to our family, but mostly to Carrie. Thank you so much!
As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Life in general
This week was like Christmas! Packages arrived from my friend Elaine in Alpharetta GA, which I picked it up on Monday the 17thand one from my cousin Jodi on the Friday 5/21. Jodi sent me 4 pair of light long pants and long sleeve shirts for those times when there is no wind and the biting bugs are out in force and Avon Skin So Soft bug repellant from both of them. Elaine sent me a camera for my PC that I was hoping to use for video conferences with family and friends once we get internet service at Kismet. But, sadly, it isn’t compatible with the Windows 7 operating system that is running on my PC. I’ll have to look online to see if there is software to download that will make it work. Jodi threw in a couple surprises too! A new fishing hat, a Jingle Buddy ornament, and a photo editor package! Thanks Jodi and Elaine and I love you both.
On a side note to the above, and something important to me because she is a very good friend, Elaine was laid off from her contracting job at AT&T on Friday 5/14. Please add her to your prayer list asking that she find another job soon! She has a son and daughter-in-law (husband and wife) that are both deployed separately in the Middle East right now too so please pray for their safety as well.
We had a nice long thunderstorm on Tuesday 5/18. It had been raining off and on all day and just after dark the entertainment began. We lost power when a lightning bolt flashed almost directly overhead and that lasted all night. Again, with the palapa over my roof I was denied the soothing sound of the rain on my tin roof. But the advantages of the roof far outweigh the sound of the rain. Wednesday brought more rain and the Caribbean is a muddy brown color, not the normal green and blue it should be. The rainfall total was about 8 inches. That’s a good thing though because it’s been so dry here this past month and some of the water cisterns on the Cayes, and owned by the mainland people without access to city water, have been suffering. In Hopkins we have city water so it’s not a problem. But, since we are only 6 feet above sea level, and all the rain from the western ½ of the country feeds into rivers that flow down from the mountains to the sea, we were afraid that the rivers would overflow their banks and flood many of the towns. Thank God it didn’t happen. The roads to Dangriga and Placencia/Punta Gorda (south of us) were shut for about ½ a day though because of water over parts of the road. Tricia talks of a time a couple of years ago when she had waist deep water on the property. That would be a problem for me since my trailer is only 2-1/2 off the ground. I’d have to make a run for it to higher ground! One of the bad things though is that flood waters tend to rise pretty quickly. It would take me about an hour to get underway and that may be too long. But then I could abandon some of my stored things and hope that they dry out and are usable afterward. I guess it’s just a “wait and see” situation…
Monday 5/24 will be another of those costly days for me. I’ll start my 1st 6 month visa and will have to put down a US$500 or $600 nonrefundable deposit on my car at the customs office. That equates to 10% of the value of my car. The other option is to pay the duty in full, which really isn’t an option. Or I can leave the country for 15 days and start the visa process all over again. A holiday would be nice. Maybe drive up into Mexico along the eastern coast to Cancun and Playa Del Carmen and do some shopping at 1 of the Super WalMarts to fill up my food bins. I do have to go across into Mexico by July 4th anyway to collect the temporary duty for my car and trailer that I couldn’t collect when I crossed the border because the bank was closed for the day. That’s equal to about US$800 and would pay for most of my trip. Hmmm…what to do??? Maybe I can get a condo at the Royal Sands Resort in Cancun for the US$300 a week that we had a year ago. That was a really nice resort.
Tricia, Ron, and Peter have been doing a lot of work around the place. They’ve poured a concrete floor in the shower attached to the main building and a small porch patch just outside one of the ground floor rooms. Since the fishing has been so poor lately Tricia hired Peter to build a river stone wall in the cabana room to hide the toilet, which was formerly closed off by a curtain. The place is looking pretty spiffy! Another addition to Kismet is 15 baby chicks to be raised for eggs and food. They are a week old and it will be another 2 weeks before anyone knows how many roosters and hens there are. For all we know Tricia could have bought 15 roosters! Hopefully there will only be 1 or 2 though. Any more than that and they will definitely be raised for food because too many roosters cause a fight for dominance. Plus it would be an awfully noisy place come dawn when they all start crowing!
I’m headed back to Kismet now to settle in with a cigar and a good book on the beach (true but also said just to make you all jealous!) As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
On a side note to the above, and something important to me because she is a very good friend, Elaine was laid off from her contracting job at AT&T on Friday 5/14. Please add her to your prayer list asking that she find another job soon! She has a son and daughter-in-law (husband and wife) that are both deployed separately in the Middle East right now too so please pray for their safety as well.
We had a nice long thunderstorm on Tuesday 5/18. It had been raining off and on all day and just after dark the entertainment began. We lost power when a lightning bolt flashed almost directly overhead and that lasted all night. Again, with the palapa over my roof I was denied the soothing sound of the rain on my tin roof. But the advantages of the roof far outweigh the sound of the rain. Wednesday brought more rain and the Caribbean is a muddy brown color, not the normal green and blue it should be. The rainfall total was about 8 inches. That’s a good thing though because it’s been so dry here this past month and some of the water cisterns on the Cayes, and owned by the mainland people without access to city water, have been suffering. In Hopkins we have city water so it’s not a problem. But, since we are only 6 feet above sea level, and all the rain from the western ½ of the country feeds into rivers that flow down from the mountains to the sea, we were afraid that the rivers would overflow their banks and flood many of the towns. Thank God it didn’t happen. The roads to Dangriga and Placencia/Punta Gorda (south of us) were shut for about ½ a day though because of water over parts of the road. Tricia talks of a time a couple of years ago when she had waist deep water on the property. That would be a problem for me since my trailer is only 2-1/2 off the ground. I’d have to make a run for it to higher ground! One of the bad things though is that flood waters tend to rise pretty quickly. It would take me about an hour to get underway and that may be too long. But then I could abandon some of my stored things and hope that they dry out and are usable afterward. I guess it’s just a “wait and see” situation…
Monday 5/24 will be another of those costly days for me. I’ll start my 1st 6 month visa and will have to put down a US$500 or $600 nonrefundable deposit on my car at the customs office. That equates to 10% of the value of my car. The other option is to pay the duty in full, which really isn’t an option. Or I can leave the country for 15 days and start the visa process all over again. A holiday would be nice. Maybe drive up into Mexico along the eastern coast to Cancun and Playa Del Carmen and do some shopping at 1 of the Super WalMarts to fill up my food bins. I do have to go across into Mexico by July 4th anyway to collect the temporary duty for my car and trailer that I couldn’t collect when I crossed the border because the bank was closed for the day. That’s equal to about US$800 and would pay for most of my trip. Hmmm…what to do??? Maybe I can get a condo at the Royal Sands Resort in Cancun for the US$300 a week that we had a year ago. That was a really nice resort.
Tricia, Ron, and Peter have been doing a lot of work around the place. They’ve poured a concrete floor in the shower attached to the main building and a small porch patch just outside one of the ground floor rooms. Since the fishing has been so poor lately Tricia hired Peter to build a river stone wall in the cabana room to hide the toilet, which was formerly closed off by a curtain. The place is looking pretty spiffy! Another addition to Kismet is 15 baby chicks to be raised for eggs and food. They are a week old and it will be another 2 weeks before anyone knows how many roosters and hens there are. For all we know Tricia could have bought 15 roosters! Hopefully there will only be 1 or 2 though. Any more than that and they will definitely be raised for food because too many roosters cause a fight for dominance. Plus it would be an awfully noisy place come dawn when they all start crowing!
I’m headed back to Kismet now to settle in with a cigar and a good book on the beach (true but also said just to make you all jealous!) As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Good news / bad news...
Well Tuesday May 4th was one of those “good day/bad day” days. It was a bad day because it was the 1st anniversary of the death of my brother Bill (I miss you Bill!). It was a good day because Tricia passed her board of health review and got her license back. We drove into Dangriga and picked up the inspector so he could do her review. While taking him back to Dangriga I was trying to avoid some rather large rocks in the middle of Hopkins Road (as bad as any of the Mexican roads coming down to Belize) but got too close to the shoulder and hit a rock and blew both tires in the passenger side. The rock I hit tore huge chunks from both sidewalls. In my former stressed life I would have sounded like Darren McGaven in ‘Christmas Story, a long string of #^&*@+% words. But now…crap happens and there’s no use getting all upset about it because it means nothing in the grander scheme of things. Ron thumbed a ride back to Kismet to get his van so we could finish our mission. I had to leave my car parked on the side of because nothing is open after 5pm and it isn’t like you could call AAA for a tow. Thank God I brought 2 unmounted spare tires with me from the states and my spare tire is brand new. I won’t have to buy tires immediately but will have to start looking for replacement 17 inch tires at some point. It did cost me US$7 to have the 2 tires mounted but he had no balancing equipment. I’ll have to take it to a tire store the next time I’m in Dangriga.
So now that tourist season is over Tricia and Kismet is back in business. She actually had 6 couples show up this week and 2 stayed 2 nights and the other 4 stayed just overnight. Hopefully the tourist board will come and take the closed signs down soon and give her back her street signs back so she can hang them around the village.
My new palapa has definitely lowered the inside temperature of my home! Thank God because the outside temp had been breaking 100 degrees lately and the inside is now significantly cooler. With the fans on sleeping is a lot nicer too. Plus the roof shields the sunlight that used to come streaming through my bedroom window very early in the morning. I’ve been sleeping easier and later now, which is nice. Of course that makes me lazier because I do get up later and it’s closer to the temperature that sends me to my chair in the shade on the beach with a cold drink and a book instead of doing some of my chores. But with June and the rainy season almost here I’ll be idle anyway. This will be my 1st experience in Belize during the rainy season. We’ve been here for hurricane season a time or two and sat through, and actually enjoyed, a tropical storm once. Being that we always spent our wedding anniversary holiday in Belize planning to do absolutely nothing the rain made that easier. When the sun is out you almost feel like you should be doing something constructive like sightseeing. Almost is the operative word here. We did do absolutely nothing on our 2 week holiday and came back rested but not ready for the stress of everyday life, and work for me, back in our homes in Orlando and Atlanta. Hopefully this dry rainy season, plus the very hot weather which is warming up the water in the Caribbean isn’t a prelude to a busy hurricane season with category 2 & 3 storms because of all the warm water to feed them. I saw on CNN that the Hurricane Center is predicting 15 storms in the Caribbean and Gulf this season. Hopefully I won’t have to move up into inland Mexico to escape any…
I ran the Inn May 10-12 while Tricia and Ron went to visit her friend Jude for her birthday at her yoga resort up near san Ignacio. She offered to split any money I make but I turned it down. She does my laundry so I figure that’s an even trade. Hey, it’s worth it just to live here! Sadly, no one came until she and Ron got home. Two women, Denise and Claudette, from Houston. They will only be here for 2 nights.
Fishing was great May 6th and 8th. Thursday the 6th I caught a 3 and 4lb red snapper, a 4lb tarpon (the 1st I’ve ever landed), a 3lb snook, and a catfish all in one night. Saturday the 8th I caught a 6lb snook and a catfish. I split the snook with Peter because he gave me 3 nice catfish. I fed Tricia, Ron, and myself 2 nights. Mother’s day dinner I had a catfish fry. Shades of Florida and Georgia dinners past. Other than that fishing has been awful. Plus, the lagoon is almost closed to the sea. It happens this time every year and will be closed up for about 2 months or until there is a strong storm.
As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
So now that tourist season is over Tricia and Kismet is back in business. She actually had 6 couples show up this week and 2 stayed 2 nights and the other 4 stayed just overnight. Hopefully the tourist board will come and take the closed signs down soon and give her back her street signs back so she can hang them around the village.
My new palapa has definitely lowered the inside temperature of my home! Thank God because the outside temp had been breaking 100 degrees lately and the inside is now significantly cooler. With the fans on sleeping is a lot nicer too. Plus the roof shields the sunlight that used to come streaming through my bedroom window very early in the morning. I’ve been sleeping easier and later now, which is nice. Of course that makes me lazier because I do get up later and it’s closer to the temperature that sends me to my chair in the shade on the beach with a cold drink and a book instead of doing some of my chores. But with June and the rainy season almost here I’ll be idle anyway. This will be my 1st experience in Belize during the rainy season. We’ve been here for hurricane season a time or two and sat through, and actually enjoyed, a tropical storm once. Being that we always spent our wedding anniversary holiday in Belize planning to do absolutely nothing the rain made that easier. When the sun is out you almost feel like you should be doing something constructive like sightseeing. Almost is the operative word here. We did do absolutely nothing on our 2 week holiday and came back rested but not ready for the stress of everyday life, and work for me, back in our homes in Orlando and Atlanta. Hopefully this dry rainy season, plus the very hot weather which is warming up the water in the Caribbean isn’t a prelude to a busy hurricane season with category 2 & 3 storms because of all the warm water to feed them. I saw on CNN that the Hurricane Center is predicting 15 storms in the Caribbean and Gulf this season. Hopefully I won’t have to move up into inland Mexico to escape any…
I ran the Inn May 10-12 while Tricia and Ron went to visit her friend Jude for her birthday at her yoga resort up near san Ignacio. She offered to split any money I make but I turned it down. She does my laundry so I figure that’s an even trade. Hey, it’s worth it just to live here! Sadly, no one came until she and Ron got home. Two women, Denise and Claudette, from Houston. They will only be here for 2 nights.
Fishing was great May 6th and 8th. Thursday the 6th I caught a 3 and 4lb red snapper, a 4lb tarpon (the 1st I’ve ever landed), a 3lb snook, and a catfish all in one night. Saturday the 8th I caught a 6lb snook and a catfish. I split the snook with Peter because he gave me 3 nice catfish. I fed Tricia, Ron, and myself 2 nights. Mother’s day dinner I had a catfish fry. Shades of Florida and Georgia dinners past. Other than that fishing has been awful. Plus, the lagoon is almost closed to the sea. It happens this time every year and will be closed up for about 2 months or until there is a strong storm.
As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
I now have a palapa roof over my home!
Sunday May 2nd was my Mother’s birthday. She went on to her new life in 1999 but we, her children, always post, or email, or in some way acknowledge her birthday amongst ourselves every year. Today is no different. Happy birthday Mom! I miss you!
And today, May 4th, is the 1 year anniversary of my brother Bill’s very unexpected passing. He’s one of the reasons for my retiring so quickly while I’m still healthy enough to enjoy it. I miss you Bill!
I was rudely awakened Thursday morning at 5:20am by the chattering of a group of locals and sounds of hammering right over my head. I realize though that, because of the 95+ degree heat, Elvis and his crew needed to start work early and get as much done on my palapa as possible before it became too hot. It was 5:45am and already 88 degrees with 65% humidity so to say it was cool would be a gross exageration. It took them about 6 hours to do most of the thatch and was interesting to watch them employ construction methods used in the old days. Elvis and his crew climbed up into the hard stick frame they’d built a few days before and spread out along the length of it. Two men on the ground handed up palm fronds and the men up topside used thick plastic twine and large wooden needles to tie each frond to each hard stick. Plastic twine is used because it doesn’t deteriorate like regular twine. Row by row they overlaid the fronds, using their bare feet to push them tight against each other, to build a waterproof roof. I could see the shade climbing up my windows as the roof got higher. I can tell the difference in the inside heat now too. When they finally quite for the day only a small strip on each side of the roof remained open. It’s now a full 10 degrees cooler inside today than it was yesterday. What a blessing! One of the downsides of my new roof though is that I won’t hear the rain on my metal roof. For me that was a comforting sound and I loved to lie in bed on nights it rained and listen to it.
I’m finally able to set up my table and small BBQ grill outside now without fear of them deteriorating from the harsh sunlight and torrential downpours that we live with in Belize. Until now I’ve been keeping it inside on the small couch by the kitchen table, next to the fridge. It will be nice to reclaim that bit of space. With storage space being at a premium inside I’m forced to use whatever is necessary to keep things that should be outside clean and dry. I do try to keep the interior from looking too cluttered though through the use of covers of various types. I also plan to finally unpack my hammock and hang it right outside my door. Tricia has 4 hammocks around the property that I have been frequenting but now I’ll have my own right outside my door.
Sunday May 2th was the official end of tourist season. The season runs from the 1st Sunday in October to the last Sunday in April/ May closest to May 1st. That doesn’t mean that tourist won’t come anymore though. That only means that the snow bird vacationers are home to roost for the summer. College ends soon and they will come through with their backpacks and spend long weeks traveling through the countries in Central America. Church groups will come and attend to their adopted sister churches. Families will come with their children once schools close their doors for summer vacation too. How many of the tourists will visit Hopkins Village, or Kismet, remains to be seen. I’m sure many of the families will spend their holiday on the Cayes where there is much more for the kids to do, plus real restaurants, and a bit of nightlife for the parents. We always spent our 2 weeks in February every year, for our anniversary, at one or another condo resort on Ambergris Caye, which is situated off the northern Belize/southern Mexico coast and is the largest of all the Cayes. Due to my wife’s medical issues we needed a more normal environment and in close proximity to a hospital. We didn’t go in for the nightlife or frequent many of the restaurants. We came for the sound of the surf and the ease of snorkeling and fishing right off the beach. And we kept to ourselves. Our big decisions everyday were do we sit on the porch, or in the shade at the water’s edge, or lay in the hammock together? When do we have our 1st Belikan beer? We came for the quiet relaxation and to spend time alone together. Now I’m living almost 180 degrees from what we experienced. Except, my home still has a full kitchen and bathroom and a bedroom, where Kismet is more rustic with shared bathrooms and outside showers aiming for the eco tourists in a budget. Tricia’s rates are BZ$25 a night (US$12.50) with dinner costing BZ$22 (US$11). I do use the outside showers though instead of the one inside my home. More for the extra work of keeping my water tank full and my grey water tank empty than anything else. Plus I love looking up at the stars while standing under the shower head.
Ron returned from his stateside visit on Friday April 29th and it’s nice to have him back. While he says he enjoyed going back to Nebraska he’s happy to be home again. He’s moved in with Tricia now (I think I’ve told you that they became an item a few weeks before he left) and it’s funny seeing him sitting at the kitchen table early in the morning versus his afternoon visits. He’s keeping his house for now and they will use it as storage. He’s been home almost a week and he hasn’t resumed the daily 7pm movies at his house yet. Maybe next week. But he and Tricia are still settling in with each other.
Good news!!! Ron says that he has to have cable here at Kismet to be comfortable and is also thinking about, and, dare I say it for fear of jinxing it (?), an internet connection! I’ll pay toward the internet just to have a bit more normalcy in my life, and a closer, more immediate connection to you all. I really don’t miss TV because of all the movies and TV series that I downloaded before I left the states. I have 515 movies and 35 TV series and specials. Some of the series lasted 7 years and I have every episode (actually 1033 total episodes). Plus I have the DVDs that I owned. That keeps me busy at night when I settle in to relax. Anyway, we’ll see what develops. Keep your fingers crossed.
My bother Dave is coming to visit me the end of June and I’m hoping that I’m not driving him and his wife Deanne crazy with my shopping list. Decaffeinated iced tea bags, insect repellant, fishing line and lures, a replacement chain for my chain saw, etc. It’s all those things that are either hard to find, or very expensive to buy here, and that I’m running out of. International bulk rate shipping is expensive at $55 a box via the U.S. Post Office so, as people come to visit, I’ll be buying things over the web and having them shipped to my next guest’s home so they can bring them with when they come down. I’m impatiently waiting packages from my cousin Jodi in WA and my brother Dave in IL and it will be like Christmas when they finally arrive. Jodi went shopping for me for light weight pants and long sleeve shirts for those nights when there is no breeze and the biting bugs are thick in the air. I can’t find any clothing like that here in my size and I hate using the Deet bug sprays when there are other alternatives. She’s also sending Avon Skin So Soft bug repellant. Dave is sending some of the stuff that I can use right now, like the teabags and Deet insect repellant.
I’ve been searching for airfares in August to travel to Edmonton CN to visit Brent and Janet, who you’ve read about in past blogs. They were here in February and invited me up for some fishing at their lake cabin. It would be wonderful to spend some time with them again and a really nice change of scenery too. I’ve looked into flights leaving Belize City, Cancun, and Chetumal MX but I can’t find anything lower than US$800 right now and that’s way out of my budget I’ve used every airfare search site I can think of. . Hopefully something will turn up…
As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Just life...
Tricia is having a palapa (thatched palm leaf roof with no walls) built to store her new, used, 14 foot Chris Craft boat under and also a place for guests to sit under, out of the sun. It measures 15 feet wide by 30 feet long and is on the right side of the beach as you face the water. Watching it go up I thought how much cooler the inside of my trailer would be if I had one built over it. It should lower the interior heat by about 10 degrees. At midnight the other night it was still 87 degrees inside my trailer. (Thank God for fans!) So first I asked Tricia if it would be ok to have one built. Of course that was no problem because it’s another improvement to her property since, if I go somewhere else, it will stay. Second I asked Elvis, who is building the boat palapa for a price. I asked that it extend over the door side of the trailer by about 5 feet so I have some covered space to sit. It’s going to be 25 feet long and 15 feet wide at the front and 10 feet wide at the rear because of the vegetation back there. He quoted BZ$400 for the materials. So I can get shade for my trailer and upper deck storage too for about $200 U.S. Plus it will help keep the sunlight damage down to a minimum and make my home last longer. Construction on Tricia’s is halted because they need 4 dozen more palm leaves for her roof and will cut those, plus all that mine will need, in 1 trip. It’s going up as I write this and both should be done in a few days. As a side note its 12noon and 98 degrees in the trailer. Three more hours until the heat of the day and it’s only the end of April. I can’t imagine what the inside temperature would be like in July and August without my palapa! I did have plans to use large silver tarps to make a cover over the trailer about a foot above the roof. But the palapa will do a better job and stand the winds of summer storms better than the tarps would.
The tourist board was here on Friday with the health inspector. He had some outrageous suggestions for sprucing the place up. He told her to paint the kitchen white. This is the tropics, where mold grows everywhere. The stain that she uses on her walls retards mold and mildew growth but it’s a dark wood color. So that suggestion was thrown out. He didn’t like that she has a veggie waste bucket built under the cutting table to scrape the stuff into. She tried to explain the use to him but he’s dead set against it. These people have no idea about cook preparation and using the remains for the garden mulch. There is absolutely no recycling in Belize. Everything ends up in the garbage dump in 1 huge pile that they burn every couple of days. Anyway, she’ll close up the trap door and remove the bucket when he comes back in 2 weeks to inspect. After that the bucket will be returned to its rightful place. Most of the stuff he dinged her on was sand everywhere. KISMET IS ON THE BEACH! How do you keep sand out? She’s constantly sweeping but with everyone coming off the beach and into the kitchen, and sand being blown by the wind, there is absolutely no way to keep the sand out. Both of the showers here are outdoors and surrounded by fencing that is plant and vine covered for privacy. The one attached to the side of the main building has walls that start about a foot off the ground and extend up 5 feet, with the rest open to the ceiling. It’s very private and to see into it from outside requires walking up and standing on tiptoes to see over the wall. He wants that one entirely closed in because he says it’s not private enough. Closing it in will only promote mold and mildew growth because of the lack of airflow. The other, attached to the back of the separate cabana building, has no roof and is open to the sky. Oddly he has no privacy problem with that one. The other recommendations, actually orders, are more meant to keep Kismet closed I think. They are so off the wall as to be impossible to meet. But that doesn’t really matter because Tricia is busier now then when she was open. People shows up almost every day and stay for a night or 2 or more. And while she doesn’t have a license she doesn’t have to pay the 10% guest tax to the tourist board. More money in her pocket…
Still no news on the trip up river into Guatemala so I renewed my visa in Dangriga on Monday (today). My visa expired on Sunday but since the office was closed I held off a day.
Stay well, keep happy and practice peace!
The tourist board was here on Friday with the health inspector. He had some outrageous suggestions for sprucing the place up. He told her to paint the kitchen white. This is the tropics, where mold grows everywhere. The stain that she uses on her walls retards mold and mildew growth but it’s a dark wood color. So that suggestion was thrown out. He didn’t like that she has a veggie waste bucket built under the cutting table to scrape the stuff into. She tried to explain the use to him but he’s dead set against it. These people have no idea about cook preparation and using the remains for the garden mulch. There is absolutely no recycling in Belize. Everything ends up in the garbage dump in 1 huge pile that they burn every couple of days. Anyway, she’ll close up the trap door and remove the bucket when he comes back in 2 weeks to inspect. After that the bucket will be returned to its rightful place. Most of the stuff he dinged her on was sand everywhere. KISMET IS ON THE BEACH! How do you keep sand out? She’s constantly sweeping but with everyone coming off the beach and into the kitchen, and sand being blown by the wind, there is absolutely no way to keep the sand out. Both of the showers here are outdoors and surrounded by fencing that is plant and vine covered for privacy. The one attached to the side of the main building has walls that start about a foot off the ground and extend up 5 feet, with the rest open to the ceiling. It’s very private and to see into it from outside requires walking up and standing on tiptoes to see over the wall. He wants that one entirely closed in because he says it’s not private enough. Closing it in will only promote mold and mildew growth because of the lack of airflow. The other, attached to the back of the separate cabana building, has no roof and is open to the sky. Oddly he has no privacy problem with that one. The other recommendations, actually orders, are more meant to keep Kismet closed I think. They are so off the wall as to be impossible to meet. But that doesn’t really matter because Tricia is busier now then when she was open. People shows up almost every day and stay for a night or 2 or more. And while she doesn’t have a license she doesn’t have to pay the 10% guest tax to the tourist board. More money in her pocket…
Still no news on the trip up river into Guatemala so I renewed my visa in Dangriga on Monday (today). My visa expired on Sunday but since the office was closed I held off a day.
Stay well, keep happy and practice peace!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Fishing!
If you remember last posting we were going on a snorkeling/fishing trip out to the reef. Well we had a great time. The weather was perfect and the sea calm. Franklin and his lovely bride Jackie (from Tucson AZ), Georgia (from here in Belize) and her friend Pamela (from CA), Tricia, and I chartered Earl and Peter to take us out. One of the stops Tricia normally makes is to visit King on Bread & Butter Caye. You can snorkel right off the beach there as well as fish. It’s a nice place to drop in. Well…Earl and Peter couldn’t find it. Peter, who used to live and fish daily in the Cayes, was most disconcerted but he blamed his not knowing where it was on his always coming at it from the sea side and not the mainland. Hmmm… We stopped for directions at Shark Tooth Caye (because it’s shaped like a sharks tooth obviously) and ended up spending 2 hours there snorkeling and I did some fishing. I had a few hits but couldn’t snag anything. I did get in the water though! I waded in up to just above my waist. That’s as wet as I got all day though. We had lunch and something to drink and then headed out fishing. We settled on a spot where the reef ended and a drop off to about 125 feet. Almost all the fishing here is done with hand lines but I always bring a rod. My take is that, if the guide has rods they may not be in the best shape. I did that even when I lived in the states. Anyway… Earl and I fished the drop off with everyone else fishing the reef. The 1st fish was caught by Franklin and it was a 6 inch porgy that Peter immediately put on his hook for bait. I was next with 4 fish within 20 minutes, the largest being a yellow tail jack (the one in the picture), 2 snappers, and 1 croaker. Earl pulled in a grouper a bit bigger than my jack. After that Jackie caught 2 small croakers and a porgy. That ended the fishing in that spot. We headed off to another spot and I trolled as we motored off. About 5 minutes into trolling I had a HUGE strike and Earl stopped the boat. I fought hard for about 2 minutes and the largest tarpon I ever saw, about 5 feet, came flying completely out of the water, doing the tail dance they are so famous for, and threw the hook. While everyone was ohhing, aahing, and cheering, I was upset. I jokingly said it was a good thing it got off because it probably would have pulled me over board. So, on we went. The other 3 holes we fished didn’t produce anything, including a stop at the Settee river mouth. At one of our stops several of the women jumped in to cool themselves off, Franklin, in full snorkel gear and treading water, caught a small fish on a hand line. He surmised that if he had caught a big fish he would have been in trouble. Too funny! Actually though, had it been big enough for dinner we probably would have rescued him. We were back to Kismet by 6pm sunburned and tired but we all had enjoyed the day immensely. Peter, our intrepid fisherman, was skunked and was not a happy boy.
When we got back we were all looking forward to a nice shower but when we got there Tricia found that her 400 gallon water tank was empty. It feeds the shower on the left side of the building and all of the toilets. She found that someone had turned on one of the garden hoses that had emptied the tank. Elvis and Pedro, who were building a palapa to house her new boat, claimed that they didn’t use any water. Tricia turned on the hose from the city water to fill up the tank and we all settled for sponge baths, beers, rum, and waited for dinner. Dinner is part of the fishing trip. We eat whatever is caught plus rice and some sort of veggies. Tonight it was red beans. She also made a chocolate rum cake for Jackie’s 30th birthday, which was that day. Dinner and the conversation was great. We finished around 9:30. Then we all headed outside for more drinks, smoking and general chitchat. I headed to get my “old man sleep” around 11 while the guests and Tricia headed off to one of the bars to drink somewhere else. By drinking in different places the drink clock starts all over again at your 1st drink. That way you can deny drinking as much as you did.
Franklin was heady from our fishing trip on Saturday so asked me if I wanted to walk down to the lagoon with him and fish. I asked if he’d rather we take my canoe and he jumped at the chance. I even lent him one of my fishing rods/reels so he didn’t have to use a hand line. So off we went. The water was a bit rough and we took on a couple of gallons as we cleared the beach. Once we got to the lagoon it was smooth canoing. I tried vainly to snag some bait with my throw net. I gotta practice that!!! So, since I couldn’t catch any bait we decided to use lures. I had the ones that Zeppi sent me when he got back to New Jersey. Proven snook killers! We paddled around the lagoon but watched a fast moving thunderstorm come at us. We pulled next to a semi-finished dock at the Hopkins Bay Resort and used one of their outbuildings to keep from being drenched in the torrential down pour. There was even an bit of hail which was quite unusual. It stopped after about 30 minutes and we headed back deeper in to the lagoon. Both of us had a few hits. I actually had 2 fish at the side of the canoe but they threw the hook. We were having a good time and neither minded not catching anything. After a couple of hours of hits and misses we headed back toward the mouth of the lagoon. Just at the junction of the 1st caye, where the main channel and the 2 from each side converged, bait fish were going crazy and we saw a couple of very big splashes. So in went out lures and I got a very hard strike. Twenty minutes of desperate fighting, and 3 huge full out of the water jumps later, Franklin pulled my snook over the side. I had a scale so we immediately weighed it. Eight pounds exactly! (Zeppi eat your heart out!!! But thanks again for the white jig lures!) Boy was I relieved! I thought for sure it was going to break my 20 pound test line. It did destroy my wire leader though, so I had to replace that. No more fish after that so back to Kismet. I donated the snook for Sunday night dinner. Franklin is upset that he and Jackie are leaving for home tomorrow or we’d be back at the lagoon to try again. The 1st picture is the 4lb snook I caught a few weeks ago and the last 2 are the 8lb one I caught Sunday. And Sunday's fish tasted great!
More news as events happen! Practice peace!