Back in Belize and safe...without any jail time!

I want to apologize to all of you who were concerned about not hearing that I’d gotten back safely. I’ve even forced 2 of you to write to Tricia to see if I was still alive. To tell you the truth I’ve been lazy since I got back… Sorry!

Since I’ve been home from Orlando for 10 days now I thought it best that I find my way to the internet to assure you all that I was actually home and not put in jail when I entered Belize again. You would have heard of any catastrophic airline event when I traveled home so jail was my next thought. No such luck so the rest of this may be pretty boring…

I flew back to Hopkins on Wednesday Aug 10th and my trip through the Customs and Immigration queues was a non-event. I still wasn’t sure whether or not I would be snagged to pay the US$1000 fine that I had been told I would have to pay but I was quickly stamped through Immigration with a new 1 month visa. I brought 100 pounds of food and fishing equipment in 2 suitcases but passed through the “nothing to declare” lane after answering a few questions about what I was bringing into the country. I did tell a white lie about the number of cigars I brought with me though. You are only allowed to bring in 25 and I brought in 50. But hey, I’m going to be here a while and cigars are very hard to come by. I had a 50 minute wait for my 15 minute flight to Dangriga. That sure beats a 3 hour car ride. Before I checked in for my Maya Island flight I opened my 2 food/fishing suitcases and found that the luggage gorillas had had a lot of fun with my can goods. Almost every can was dented, some badly, but nothing ruptured. Steve, a long time resident of Kismet, met me at the airport and helped me get my ton of luggage into his pick up. I paid for my ride by buying dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. He had shrimp egg foo yung and I had a pretty good curry shrimp dish and fried rice. Steve was pretty well wasted when he picked me up so I did the driving. We reached Kismet about 7pm and Tricia was already sleeping. My trailer welcomed me home with the smell of mildew. I’d forgotten to leave a fan running to keep the air moving when I left. I got everything inside and in 30 minutes, with a bunch of Lysol Antiseptic wipe, my problem was taken care of. I left my suitcases packed and headed for bed because I was wiped out. I’d been up since 5am eastern and the stress of the trip had beaten me up. I mean I wasn’t sure what would happen in Immigration so I was pretty wound up. My kids are taking my being out of the country harder than they let on and I’m finding that hard to deal with. Plus, the worst case scenario I was imagining was having to pay the visa fine and having to spend another night in jail if the Treasury office wasn’t open again so I could pay it. I did bring the thousand with me just in case though. But anyway… It was a bit of a hot night. The temp was still over 90 and I found that I had lost my former non-air conditioned mind set. Rich keeps his apartment at 77 degrees at night and I’d gotten used to it, which made my fan not quite cool enough. I know I’ll be back to “normal” in a few days though. I spent Thursday morning unpacking and stowing my food and piling up my dirty clothes for the laundry. Around 10:30 I heard Tricia talking so I went up and said hello. She was glad to see me back and I was glad to see her too. We caught each other up on the last 2 weeks and then back to unpacking for me. Peter stopped by early (2pm) and said the fishing has been iffy. That’s the one thing that I really missed while being in Orlando. Peter said fishing was better earlier in the day now because of the tide. I wasn’t ready to go though because I hadn’t unpacked my new fishing reels nor put new line on them. So I spent the day watching videos and resting up. My 1st meal back was chicken and Stove Top Stuffing at 4pm followed by coconut cookies for desert. I’m drinking a lot of water to get myself hydrated again because I can feel the effects of not drinking during my traveling. Tomorrow (Friday) I’ll get back to my normal daily “retired” routine after a trip to the local food store and veggie market to refill my fridge.

Friday evening (8/13) was my 1st fishing trip to the lagoon since I returned was hopefully a harbinger of fishing to come! In the hour I spent there I caught a small barracuda, a nice black snapper, and a nice snook plus lost a few fish as well. Peter did pretty well netting snook too so we both went home happy. Net fishing is so-so and rod/reel is the pits the last 2 times out. So I guess the lagoon was just saying hello welcome back. Oh well you can’t catch fish every time out. That’s what makes it interesting.

The picture is of a 5-3/4 pound snapper that I caught this morning and which Tricia will be cooking for our dinner tonight. I also got a smaller one plus a small snook and decent size catfish last night.

Steve’s “rich American” persona has gotten the best of him again. About a month ago a local named Kenny got mad at him because he didn’t have whatever he, Kenny, came begging for so he broke Steve’s passenger side window with a Guinness bottle. Kenny is jail now awaiting trial. He can’t pay the bail so there he’ll sit until then. The penalty for damaging private property is 5 years in the Ladysville prison so we won’t be seeing him for a while. Anyway, because EVERYONE in Hopkins and Dangriga knows that Steve is rich they prey on him. Friday night while he was drinking in a Dangriga bar someone broke his driver’s side window and stole his laptop. Me, I’ve left my laptop unlocked in my car or Ron’s van many a day in Hopkins and Dangriga and never had a problem. Everyone knows I’m poor and I don’t flash a lot of money or personal effects around where people can see like Steve. The good thing though is that the Dangriga police found his laptop, probably because Steve’s laptop security is his finger print and they couldn’t bypass it (even the “PC techs” here are pretty unskilled). But, needless to say, Steve brings a lot, if not all, his misfortune on himself because of the way people see him. He’s always handing out BZ$50 bills, alcohol, and/or drugs to everyone he meets. I just wish he’d hand some of the money to me! LOL

As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Headed back home to Hopkins

I’m in the Orlando airport right now and on my way back to Belize. My flight leaves here at 9am, with a 2 hour layover in Houston, and I should be in Belize City International by 3pm if both flights are on time. It will feel good to sleep in my own bed tonight. But I did have a bit of a problem at the ticket counter. Because I didn’t have a return ticket to the U.S., or a resident card for Belize, I had to buy a refundable return ticket. Once I get back to Belize I have to get my permanent passport and start the resident process so I can travel back and forth with my starting point being Belize and get the refund for the ticket I had to buy. Or, leave from Mexico with my 6 month visa. One day I’ll get all this figured out!

My visit to Orlando was all I expected it to be and I loved it. Every day I ate something from my “gotta have while I’m here” food list. Pizza, burgers, Cajun, seafood, pastries, you name it I ate it! Hopefully I didn’t gain too much weight back. (While I was in Orlando I went to my doctor for a check-up and to get new prescriptions for the meds I take. At the weigh-in, which I always dreaded, I found that I am 32 pounds lighter than when I left the states. So all that fresh food, and smaller portions, is helping. Another 25 pounds or so and I may be able to stop my blood pressure meds.) Richard and I hit some of the gourmet stores he’s wanted to visit and we bought a lot of good cheeses, veggies, and other goodies to eat. Matt and I pigged out at Texas De Brazil and rolled home. (For those of you who don’t know about Brazilian Steakhouses they slice and serve various meats right at your table and it’s all you can eat. My brother Dave can attest to the amount of food because I introduced him to one in Playa Del Carmen.)

Carrie and I visited Universal Studios Orlando and spent the 1st part of the day in the new Harry Potter/Hogwarts section. Lots to see and do and ride and I loved it. We went to both side sides of the part (Islands of Adventure and the Studio) and did as much as we could in the 1 day I had. We thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I’m roller coastered out for a while…

I did a major food shop the day before I had to leave and filled up my extra suitcases with goodies that I can’t get in Belize or that are very expensive. Since I carried along an extra suitcase and a duffle bag, and can check 2 for free on Continental, I get to bring back 100 pounds of extra baggage and I’m using every bit of it! Besides fishing equipment I bought foods like chili, baked beans (they are REALLY expensive in Dangriga), chocolates, tomato and clam sauce for my pasta. So I’m a happy boy!

As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Visitng Orlando...

I’m back in Orlando now and it feels a bit strange. Not strange in a bad way, just odd that I’m not hearing and smelling the Caribbean and sleeping in my son Richard’s apartment and not my trailer. I’ve gotten very used to my Belizean life and now, what was normal for 59 years seems odd.

My trip home started at 8:30am with Tricia driving me to the Dangriga airport where I took the 9:15 flight to Belize City at 9:50. I had an 3 hours to wait for my Continental connection to Houston, which actually landed an hour late due to thunderstorms in the area. The 2-1/2 hour flight to Houston was easy and clearing customs and immigration was no problem either. But the 3 hours between planes lasted forever! You know how hard any wait is when you are excited about getting somewhere. Well this was no different. I did have a chance to eat some good American food, something I’ve not had since the beginning of February when my journey began. Lots of walk-about, sitting reading, and watching the TVs scattered around the concourse. I didn’t want to put my cousin Pat out by asking him to visit me in at the airport but it would have been nice to see him and his wife Trece while I was there. They did so much for me in the early days of my trip. Housing my trailer while I traveled to see various aunts & uncles and cousins in the Ft Worth and Phoenix areas and a bit of sightseeing along the way; Pat helping me to get my trailer ready for the trip (he has a huge motor coach and is very savvy on things to help make trailer travel easier; and just the warm welcome and feeling of family that they showed me while I was there. And just plain putting up with me for so long! Anyway… The flight to Orlando was 45 minutes late in taking off and 2-1/2 hour flight seemed to last longer than the entire 1st part of my trip because I was excited about seeing my kids. I arrived in Orlando at about 11:10pm and picked up my rental car for the trip to Sanford and Rich’s. Avis “lost” my reservation and was completely sold out and when I contacted several other companies they were all sold out too. I sat near the counters and logged onto the free airport internet and started searching rental companies. I finally hit Hertz and was able to reserve a Toyota compact for a reasonable price. So off to the counter I went. When I got there and produced my rental number the guys said, “Do you want a convertible?” “Sure”, said I. He said you’ll have a Corvette convertible then. Whoa said I !!! I reserved a compact Toyota. We’re sold out of everything. Why did the system allow me to reserve if you are sold out. Got me says he. But I do have a Mustang convertible. How much??? Same rate as you booked the compact for so which car do you want? I’ll take the Mustang because I have a lead foot and I’ll get a ton of tickets. So I got a nice 2011 Mustang convertible to tool around in. I did some shopping at the 24hr Wal-Mart and got to Rich’s without a problem. He left a key for me in his mailbox but was already home from work. He gets off at 1:45am. We got settled in and watched TV and talked for a while. Not to embarrass him but he has been on a diet and looks great! I’m so proud of him for sticking to it. I know that he was really to do it, which is great incentive, but he is doing it by calorie count and set a very low amount for himself that I know made it tough on him. It pretty much prevented him from eating out with the family, although he did make a few holiday and special occasion exceptions.

I know that Carrie has plans to take me to Universal studios and traipse through the new Harry Potter/Hogwarts section of the park. I think we are going on Thursday 8/5. I saw a bit of the towers being built before I left and I’m actually looking forward to that. Of course Carrie and I had to have dinner at Cracker Barrel on Wednesday night because they have her favorite Chicken, broccoli, and cheese casserole. I’ll see the most of Richard as I’m staying with him and we’ll do a few things he likes to do. We hit Whole Foods on Thursday 7/29 and stocked his pantry and fridge with delicacies of all kinds so he’s a happy boy now. Matt and I went to Fishbones for Happy Hour and had curried frog legs and sushi, which we both enjoyed the heck out of. Not sure what the rest of my trip will bring except for a visit with my sister Bunny (Diana) sometime before I leave on 8/10. She lives over near Clearwater Beach.

I hit Wal-Mart yesterday and bought over $200 in fishing tackle to take back with me. I added 2 more reels; a 4 foot throw net; and a ton of hooks, weights, wire leaders, and swivel snaps. I should be set now for quite a while. This $200 is worth well over $1000 in Belize dollars because fishing tackle is so much cheaper here. I’m a happy boy!!! I’ll be restocking my pantry too. I brought 2 extra suitcases with me just for that purpose. I can check 2 bags free on my flight so that’s another 100 pounds of stuff I can bring back with me. It may be a bit hard to wheel through the airports but it will be well worth it when I get home.

More as events unfold!

As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Headed home for a visit...

I just booked a flight to Orlando to straighten out my finances. I was able to use airline miles on Continental so it only cost me about $110 in taxes but saved me about $600. I booked a 2 week stay so I have plenty of time to do everything I need to, mostly see my kids. I’ll be closing out my credit union account. Too much hassle to be dealing with long distance. I’m assuming that the mail to Belize has taken a turn for the worst because my 2nd attempt at having checks mailed hasn’t worked. You’ll remember that I was having problems with the credit union wire transferring my cash so now I’ll just do it in person and at least have that off my plate so I can relax a little. The trip home will also allow me to stock up on the fishing essentials that are so darned expensive here too. So, there are a number of good reasons to make the trip.

As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Hmmm...

I am ashamed that I didn’t remember what day it was when I posted my last blog (Friday July 16th). I tend to forget what day and what date it is but that was a date I should have been aware of. I want to wish a belated Happy Birthday to my youngest daughter Carrie. I hope that she had a great one. I did call on Saturday but could only leave a voice mail. Peter has been appointed by the Hopkins town council as the guardian of the lagoon and local off-shore waters. It pays a small salary and may even provide him with a small boat. He is responsible for making sure that the drift nets being set are the right net diameter (4 inches or more), fish studies, lagoon health, etc. He recommended his friend Tonic as his deputy and the council approved him too. Peter is very excited!

Next, before I get into the news and events of the week, I want to clear something up. Based on emails I’ve received I may have given a lot of you all the wrong impression about my 1 night jail stay. I wasn’t arrested and do not have a criminal record in Belize. I was merely detained. As I’ve mentioned before this is a pretty backward country. When a foreigner does something wrong, even a non-criminal offence, they deal with it differently. They don’t tell you to come back in the morning, or call and make an appointment; they take your passport and put you where they know they can keep an eye on you. And that is in jail. It’s what happened even in a traffic accident until they investigate it and find who is at fault. So, no harm no foul. I don’t have to check the box on any forms that ask if you’ve ever been arrested. It won’t even be an issue if and when I apply for residency here. There is no record of me even being held. I hope that relieves those of you who were worried about me. Thanks for caring though!

Since my car is being held prisoner by Customs in Belize City I boarded the Hopkins bus for my 1st ever bus ride, bound for Dangriga and Belize City, at 7am on Monday morning. It took 2 buses just to get out of Hopkins! I didn’t realize how busy that bus was so early in the morning. Actually I never considered how many people took the bus to work in various parts of the country. One of the nicest things was that almost everyone who got on said; “Good morning!” out loud as they started down the aisle to find a seat. It was very refreshing. Have you ever ridden a bus in the states and heard anyone do that? Normally everyone stays quiet and ignores the other riders. I guess though that part of it is because Hopkins is a small village and if you aren’t related to almost ½ of the population you grew up with the other ½. Still it was refreshing. Anyway, once the bus passed through town from the north end to the south end people were standing in the aisles. Here in Belize it’s against the law and I’ve actually seen bus drivers being ticketed for it. So before leaving the main part of town and out to Hopkins Road the driver made a cell call and another bus appeared. Those of us that were headed west and north to either Belmopan or Belize City were transferred to the new bus. Once that was accomplished we headed out of town. Hopkins Road is, as my brother Dave can tell you, 4 miles of very bad road and stops at the Southern Highway where you either turn north to head to the Hummingbird Highway or south to Placencia and Punta Gorda (the southernmost city in Belize and a major port) where the road ends. After travelling 10 miles you hit the Hummingbird Highway and you either turn right (east) to Dangriga or left (west) to Belmopan and the Northern Highway and Belize City and Corozal and the border to Mexico. Our bus turned right and headed toward the bus depot in Dangriga where buses lead to everywhere. Before we’d gone too far the Belmopan/Belize City bus pulled into our lane and stopped. Before going on let me tell you how you know where a bus is going. You look directly in front of the driver and there is a wooden placard 3 feet by 1 foot with the destination city written on it. Pretty simple. And…all the busses are manufactured in the states by Bluebird, the same company that builds school buses. Belize buses all look like school buses but with different paint schemes. Anyway I got off and boarded the Belmopan/Belize City bus and settled in for the 2 hour ride. It seemed to stop every 100 feet or so to let new passengers on or old ones off, thus the 2 hours to drive 55 miles. There was a 10 minute stop in Belmopan and then it turned into an express bus to Belize City and the 55 miles took only an hour. Total bus fare? US$7.00.

I went to Customs to pay my fine and learn the amount of tariff I need to pay. It wasn’t pretty! The tariff on my car is 67.5% of the blue book value which is about US$20,000. That’s roughly US$13,500!!! No way can I pay that. But it never came to that anyway. (The tariff on the trailer, canoe and generator is US$332.) I was told by the valuator that, because I didn’t own the car outright and didn’t have the title I couldn’t legally import it without documentation from the owner (the loan company). That stopped everything. When I got back to the Customs office, after he took a 90 minute lunch break, I asked why I wasn’t told that when all this 1st took place. I had told him then that I didn’t have the title and that I was making payments on the car. All I got was a shrug. By now I’m pissed! What are my options I asked? Pay off the car and get the title or take the vehicle out of the country and sell it and buy one in Belize. What??? I told him if I could pay it off I would have and that the Belize government website didn’t say that you had to have the title to bring a car into the country if you plan to stay. His response? You could have asked at the border and they would tell you. Now I was ready to pull him over the desk and ??? My response was; “Drive the 3500 miles from Florida, through Mexico, and ask at the border? Obviously they don’t know because they told me I had a 6 month visa on my car and that’s how I got into this trouble in the 1st place!” So anyway, if I want to leave Belize, trailer and all, and live in Mexico I have to come back to Belize City and pick up my car, along with a Customs agent, drive back to Hopkins, hook up, and drive to the border, all with the Customs agent in the car. He’d get out on the Belize side of the border. I asked for my passport and where to pay the fine and was told that I needed to go to Immigration to pay. He did give me my 2 passports back though. I looked in my old passport and saw that I was stamped in so I don’t think I’ll have a problem leaving the country because they gave me a new 1 month visa. And, since all of the Immigration offices and border checkpoints aren’t linked in a single computer system that I’ll have a problem. So maybe they gave me a pass on the US$1000 fine. I spent the extra money and flew back to Dangriga because I didn’t want to spend the night in Belize City and I had missed the last bus back anyway. Tricia picked me up and we started talking about options. She said that one of her former husbands (she’s had several) went to Mexico without a title and sold his car without a problem. Personally, even though it sounds, and seems to me at times, that I’ve been put through the ringer, I want to stay here. So that may be the best option. I have no problem paying the US$332 for all my other stuff so I’ll do that and at least keep my place to live. The downside, and one of my chief worries, is that the electronic braking control for the trailer is in my Jeep. Ron said that he could install it in anything I bought without a problem. That eliminates that problem. So I’ll have to think long and hard about my next step…

As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

5 Star accommodations in Corozal plus other stuff…

This is probably going to take a while so you may want to hit the bathroom, get something to eat and drink, and get comfy. I’ll wait…

The trip from Playa Del Carmen to the border was problem free and we enjoyed it. But Tricia, Ron and I all share something in common now. We’ve all spent time in jail…

When I got back to the border it was after 5pm, they recognized me right away, and the treasury was closed so I couldn’t pay my fine. Because of that I got to spend the night in an 8x8 concrete room with 5 other guys in the Corozal police station. The customs guys told me I wasn’t under arrest but that this was the normal procedure when the fine couldn’t be paid. I did have the BZ$500 with me though and asked if they could take it and just write a receipt and I’d come back for it in the morning. No deal. Before I went to the border I left Dave and all of our luggage at one of the casinos in the free zone so he wouldn’t be involved in anything if I had a problem. Lucky thing! Because our cell phones weren’t working I had told him that if I wasn’t back in 45 minutes to find a hotel because I was in trouble. He got a cab back to the Holiday Inn in Chetumal and spent 2 nights there. The description of the cell that I gave when Ron was sent to jail was accurate for this place too. On the way to the cells I watched 3 cops beat the living crap out of a guy in front of me for politely asking why the guy he was fighting with wasn’t arrested too. For some reason they took offence to his question and all 3 started slapping and punching him. Luckily all he got were a few cuts and bruises. In the morning they took him to the hospital and did an x-ray to make sure he didn’t suffer any head injury but he was OK. Anyway…did you ever try sleeping on a concrete floor with 5 other people in a small area? It ain’t easy! At least there was a breeze and the temperature wasn’t too high so it was relatively comfortable, or as comfortable as concrete can get. Morning comes and we were allowed out for 30 minutes to use the bathroom and take a shower one at a time. Then breakfast was served through the slot, 3 slices of bread with a slice of bologna and mayo between the top and middle slices and a sweet salsa between the middle and bottom slice. More sitting around until 11am, when the guard came and got me, and brought me to the office. He said that Customs was coming to get me in a few minutes, which turned out to be 3 hours, to being me to Customs headquarters in Belize City for a hearing. All in all my jail experience wasn’t as bad as I imagined jail would be. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not some place I ever want to go again, but not as scary as I thought it would be. My companions were nice guys and even shared their water with me because I had mone. If I smoked I could have had some of their cigarettes too. Anyway, when I saw the Customs truck pull up outside the station I also saw my car right behind it. It was driven to Belize City as well and I was told that I would have my hearing that day and if I paid the fine I could be on my way. Well it turned out that the car was no longer an issue but that having 2 passports was. Anyway, after a 2-1/2 hour drive I met with the senior Customs agent and between him and a legal officer, and my side of the story, I was now being fined US$1,000 but was told that it should be US$5,000. Dang! I really screwed the pooch on this one! Treasury was closed by now and I was afraid I was going to spend another night in jail, this time in Belize City. But the Customs guy told me that they were on my side (I guess the $1,000 fine helped ease their consciences!). I was told that I was free to go and to return on Tuesday morning when I could get my car back after paying the fine. I was also told that someone from Customs in Dangriga would be out on Monday to assess my trailer, bike, canoe, and gas generator and report back to Belize City and BC would value my car and give me the total tariff then. I asked about the 10% bond and was told that we would discuss it then too. I asked what would happen if I couldn’t pay the assessment would I be allowed to leave the country after paying the fine and without paying the tax. He said he didn’t want to see that happen so that left me somewhat hopeful. But, with my rather limited resources, my immediate thought was that I could move to Mexico where it’s cheaper to live anyway. My trailer is already registered for 10 years and my car visa would be less than US$60 a year if I lived there. Plus food is cheaper and a much better variety. I might find somewhere on the Gulf that I like just as much as Hopkins. But I would rather remain in Hopkins at Kismet with my friends. Meanwhile, I‘d been in contact with Dave since noon and he said he was looking for a bus from Chetumal to BC because there weren’t any flights open that day. By the time he and his wife Deanne, who had been relaying messages to me from Dave (he still couldn’t place any calls) got the info it was too late in the day. So Dave made plans to take the 1st bus (10:45am) and decided I’d meet him at the bus station at 1:45pm. I asked the Customs guy for the name of a good hotel, which he gave me, and got a ride to the hotel district from them, but I hit 3 hotels before I found one with an available room. I checked in, went out to a pizza joint around the corner and ordered a 12” and headed back to the hotel for a shower with soap (there wasn’t any at the jail) and a good night’s sleep on a mattress. I slept in and then headed out to find the fishing tackle store that Peter had told me about so I could buy cheaper hooks and weights. He also asked me to see if they would replace a pair of sunglasses that he had gotten a month before but were turning opaque for some reason. I found it pretty easily and got everything I needed plus a new pair of glasses for Peter (which started having the same problem a day later. It must be a bad lot of glasses. A block from the store a torrential downpour started so I stood under cover until it eased. I was looking for a DVD of “Toy Story 3” for Ron to replace the one he bought in Guatemala that turned out to be in Spanish. No luck. I was also looking for a good bottle of wine for Tricia because she called everyone in the world she thought could help me out. One of her contacts was the Tourist board and it seems it was he that got the fine reduced to the lowest amount. The best I could find, and the wine selection in Belize is dismal and expensive, was a bottle of Turning Leaf Merlot for US$17.50. Then it was time to meet Dave at the bus depot. His bus got in 40 minutes late after leaving over an hour late. Dave said that he watched the driver pour rum into his Coke bottle while he was driving. Anyway, I already had seats on Maya Island Air from the municipal airport to Dangriga on the last flight at 4:30pm. We had a little over an hour’s wait so I had Dave start typing his blog entry about his thoughts on his travels, living in Belize, and our tribulations and bought us each a sandwich and a bottle of water. (When someone comes to visit me I’m going to have them write about their experience and post it on a linked blog called boundforbelize.guestblog so you get more than my side of the story.) Tricia picked us up at the airport at 5pm and we were back home by 6pm. Thank God!!! It’s not an ordeal I want to repeat any time soon, actually…EVER! Dave was jokingly telling everyone that the next time he comes down we were going to meet in Mexico and avoid the hassle! Too funny!!! So Dave finished his blog around 9pm, during which we had another sandwich for dinner (he said my breakfast bologna sandwich sounded good), and got a good night’s sleep. We left for Dangriga airport at about 8:30am for Dave’s trip home. I sure will miss that boy!!! We did have a great time together although I think his wife may be a bit ticked at me for leaving Dave hanging. But I figure better he hang somewhere he can’t get involved by association and not be stuck somewhere he didn’t know anything about. Leaving him in the free zone worked out rather well and he had a quiet 2 days to relax while I did my hard time. I’ve been thinking about the tariff and what to do if it’s too much for my savings account. My thoughts turned to paying on the trailer, generator and canoe and maybe forfeit the Jeep. I can always buy a cheaper car here and still be living here comfortably instead of moving to Mexico. We’ll just have to wait and see…

On Tuesday, not Monday as I was told, 2 Customs inspectors from Dangriga did the evaluation of my trailer. I was sitting inside reading when I got the urge to pack up my laptop and move my tools, solar panels, chain saw, and TV/DVD/VCR into one of the empty Kismet rooms. I guess my psychic side kicked in because my phone rang just as I was exiting the trailer with the 1st load. It was Customs telling me that they were on their way! The reason for hiding that stuff is that, if it wasn’t bought in Belize, and isn’t something I need to stay alive (like pots & pans, silverware, clothing, etc) it could be taxed. I REALLY don’t want to pay any more than I have to (it’s the same with all of us when it comes to paying income tax). When they came I gave the head guy a copy of the trailer title and the canoe receipt and when asked what didn’t work I told him that my A/C and hot water heater didn’t (well maybe the A/C will work if I turn the breaker back on and the hot water heater if I lit the gas pilot…little white lies to keep the tariff down on the trailer since its 16 years old but in remarkably good shape). He also asked if the roof leaked and I said it did until I used some silicone caulk on it a couple of weeks ago (which was sort of true. The guys popped a couple of holes in the roof while building the palapa when dropping tools but I fixed them the next day). The gas generator didn’t start (maybe I should have primed it first?) so that was a good thing too. Plus they already knew my bike had been stolen because they talked to the town cop when they got into Hopkins. I certainly wasn’t going to argue with them about the bike. Plus he said he it didn’t matter because it was a low cost item. Hey if I can save a few bucks… Now I have an appointment in Belize City for Monday July 19th to pay the fine and find out what the damages will be on all my car. On Wednesday I got a call from Customs in Dangriga and was told the tariff on my trailer, canoe and generator is US$275.

I started fishing again and I caught a nice snook Monday night and gave it to Peter. It wasn’t picture worthy though since it wasn’t bigger than the 8 pounder I already posted. Tuesday and Wednesday fishing was a bust because of the bad currents and many manatees in the lagoon so I’ve stopped fishing until things settle down. It was fun getting back into my normal routine again of fishing, reading, and watching movies. While we were in Mexico I downloaded 15 new movies and updated a couple TV series with new episodes too. Ah the benefits of 24X7 internet!!! I did get kind of hooked on watching TV on our adventure. Since it’s less that US$25 a month for basic cable maybe I can talk to Tricia about splitting it.

While Dave and I were in Mexico on our adventure Almond, one of the 4 Kismet dogs, had an adventure of her own. She had 7 puppies, 2 males and 5 females. She is actually owned by a friend of Tricia named Steve but will soon be her dog because he is tired of Belize and going back home to California. He is one of those “rich Americans” who is always handing out BZ$50 bills to everyone he meets. If he’s not giving them cash he is buying them beer or rum. That only perpetuates the local’s belief that all Americans are rich, which is a bad thing for those of us who aren’t. Because of his not having any money handy on Saturday July 10th one of the local bad boys put a Guinness beer bottle through the passenger side window of his pickup truck here at Kismet. Not to say he deserves it but he brings bad fortune on himself. So he is abandoning a 40 acre farm that he owns and has a group of Mayan boys clearing. Too bad it’s not near the coast or I might be tempted to buy it from him. It’s about 15 miles inland. Enough said about Steve…

Tricia and Peter left this morning (Friday 7/16) for a trip to Corozal to pick up a dory that she bought. She will lend it to Elvis to keep her freezer stocked with fish and lobster and rent it as well. They plan on spending the night and heading into the Free Zone. This will be Tricia’s 1st trip out of the country in 5 years and I know she is really looking forward to paying her BZ$37.50 to pass through the border check point and shop in stores that have more than the bare necessities. It will be interesting to see what she comes back with. I know she will stock up on chocolate because, like me, she is a chocoholic and that is very expensive here.

As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!

Still in Mexico...

We’re in Playa Del Carmen where I booked a really nice boutique hotel for a very reasonable price. A very large room with 2 queen beds, a 32” flat screen TV and a balcony overlooking the pool. We ate dinner at a Brazilian Steak House which was a 1st for Dave. I’ve been to them in Atlanta and Orlando and really enjoy them. They have a salad bar and dinner is all kinds of differently spiced meats (beef of course, pork, chicken, and lamb) brought to your table on skewers and sliced before you. Each table has a set of tongs to hold the meat as its cut. There were several kinds of sauces for dipping and an herb butter and liver pate for the bread sticks. Needless to say we were in heaven and stuffed to the gills when we left. Next was a walk along 5ht Ave which is a pedestrian shopping street of all types of boutique shops and restaurants. I was looking for reading glasses because I left mine back on my table in the trailer so I was working with a pair that had no ear arms and were hard to use. I asked someone outside a store where I could buy a pair and he said, “Turn left and go 2 blocks to…WalMart.” So off we went! It turned out to be a super center but not nearly as large as the ones in the states. Dave bought some calamine lotion for a rash he has and I got 2 pair of glasses. They didn’t have any fishing equipment though, which is high on my shopping list. We went back to the hotel for the night and more movie downloading. One of the bad features of this hotel is that you place the room key card in a slot and it powers up the electrical outlets in the room so I couldn’t leave my laptop plugged in and downloading while we were gone. After a good night’s sleep we are spending the day chilling. I walked around the corner to Starbucks for a couple of bagels for breakfast. And we sat on the balcony with coffee (me with amoretto in mine), cigars, and books and watched the people coming and going in the hotel and the pool. I did solve my electrical problem by unplugging the small fridge behind the TV and plugged my laptop into that so we can leave if we want to. The other failure in the hotel is that the wireless network drops connection every minute so it’s taking a long time to download movies and we can’t access email or Facebook while downloading. But worse things could be happening and we’re dealing with it. We’ll walk the streets tonight and decide what dinner will be. It ended up being BBQ chicken, fires, and corn on the cob in honor of the 4th. Monday was Mexican food and more relaxing after a walk, twice, the length of 5th Ave and some shopping.

We went to the U.S. Consulate today and I applied for my new passport. The lady working there was really nice, and REALLY cute. She’s the only one working this office. She advised me that I will have to go to The U.S. Embassy in Belize City within 3 months because I’ll only be issued a temporary passport good for that amount of time. My temporary pass will be here tomorrow or Thursday. Then it’s off to Chetumal for another night and then on to Belize City for shopping and then to Hopkins. Dave leaves on Sunday so most of his trip will have been spent in Mexico. Oh well, it’s be a nice vacation for me too. Now I just have to worry about the guys recognizing me at the border. I guess I’ll tell them that it was my twin brother that was having the problem and I’m coming to help out. Whether they believe me or not is another question. I may still end up having my car impounded and paying the thousands in fees and fines…

As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!