Water

Water is a very precious commodity here.  There is no fresh water so the only ways to get it are reverse osmoses or collect rain water.  Reverse osmoses is very expensive in that you must remove the salt from about a hundred gallons of salt water to get a single gallon of fresh water.  So, you collect rain water.

The water from the roof runs through the downspout to the large collection barrels.  In our condo complex the collection devices are underground cisterns.  Each building has its own cistern which is built into the foundation and goes about five feet into the ground.  Not only do these cisterns collect the rain water but they also serve to anchor the buildings during hurricanes.

The water that is collected is treated with chorine pills and then is what comes out of all of the faucets.  At first we were drinking this water but my left eye started to twitch uncontrollably, my left shoulder began to droop, my hand curled and my left foot turned inward. 

Now we have bottled water.

You can have five gallons of water delivered for about $5.00 Belize.  Of course we had to purchase the dispenser for $15.00.  However, the water is very good and all of my symptoms have cleared up.

Relaxing

When Gail and I came to Belize, whether we knew it or not, we had four major objectives.

First, we wanted to escape the winter weather.  We definitely have improved on the climate.   The weather here is excellent with the temperatures in the day time in the low eighties and in the upper sixties at night.  We have yet to need the air conditioner and they don’t even have any heating source.

Secondly, we wanted to make it easier for Gail to retire.  By coming here she has gone into a “vacation” mode rather than a retirement mode.  She certainly is enjoying not having to get up in the morning and fight the Bella Vista traffic.

Also, we wanted to discover and learn about this country and the people.  If you have been following the blog you know that we are discovering something new just about every day.

And finally, we wanted to relax.  Gail has found a love for reading.  She enjoys going to the pool with a good book.

So far she has read sixteen books:

Title	Author
Answered Prayers	Danielle Steel
Bittersweet	Danielle Steel
Hour Game	David Baldacci
The Christmas Train	David Baldacci
A Good Yarn	Debbie Macomber
Cradle and All	James Patterson
Best Kept Secrets	Sandra Brown
The Alibi	Sandra Brown
Back on Blossom Street	Debbie Macomber
Split Second	David Baldacci
The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini
Wish You Well	David Baldacci
Led Astray	Sandra Brown
Wake of the Wind Dancer	Karl Adams
Every Waking Moment	Meryl Sawyer
Lost Light	Michael Connelly

I, on the other hand, stay in the condo, in a small spare bedroom upstairs, and paint. 

So far I have painted seven paintings (not counting the one I did twice).

  Seeing The Light                                   Mayan Art                                        

      Beach Embrace

                                   Canuck Cowgirl                                          Vases



                                               Belizean Beauty

 Beach Scene    

                                                              

By the time we come home I think we will have this relaxing thing down pretty good.

Chuck and Sharon

 On January 8^th Chuck and Sharon Cobbs, our good friends from Atlanta, came to visit.  Their trip here was perfect—they arrived right on time and brought a lot of booze from the duty free store in Belize City.

 Chuck had told me before coming that they wanted to explore the island and check out the food.    With that objective in mind, the week began on Sunday morning with pork Tacos at Neri’s and a trip to Crazy Canucks in the afternoon.

Sharon does not eat seafood but we still were able to find quite a few restaurants that would satisfy all of our appetites.  Some of the places we went were the Sunset Grill, Fidos, Banana Beach, and the Lazy Croc. 

We also spent a day on Caye Caulker snorkeling, and exploring the island.

We chose the coldest day of their visit to take a boart ride and go snorkeling at Ho Chan and Shark/Ray Alley.  The water was warm but the boat ride was really cold.

We explored the beach and found dragons and old anchors.

Sharon likes cemeteries so we had to see the one in town.

We did drink a few beers and rum punches.  In fact Sharon drank hers so fast it was hard to get a picture of her with a drink in her hand.

We explored the island on bicycles and by the time the week was over we were all experts on the two wheeled chariots.

Chuck and Sharon have been our close friends for a long, long time and this week allowed us to rediscover and enjoy our friendship even more.

Miscellaneous Interesting Items

The other night we were down at the Palapa talking with some friends.  The guys were talking about how difficult it is to find your way home from fishing after dark.  One guy was saying it was extremely hard when there is fog.  Fog?  In the two and half months we have been here, we have never seen fog.  The next morning looked like this!

Several days ago we were riding our bicycles down the street and came upon this lady with her parrot.  She found it after a storm and has had it ever since.

There are two airlines that come to the island--Mayan Island Airways and Tropic Air.  If you come to the island on Maya Island Airways, you will have no problem finding your luggage.

The children here have to wear uniforms to school—the girls wear navy blue jumpers with white blouses and the boys wear white shirts and navy blue pants.  They are happy, friendly, beautiful children.

A good job here is dog walking.  You have to be in control of the dogs and make sure they all get along with each other.  It is easiest if all of the dogs walk at the same pace but sometimes one sneaks in on you.






Hangin With The Tall Dogs

 

Boop-Boop-A-Doop

If you’re going to have a Tiki god in your advertising, you have to make the image fit.

The only church that is located where you can easily find it is the Catholic Church on Front Street.  The others all seem to be in obscure locations.  One way to make sure people know where you are is to advertise immediately as the people arrive on the island.   Let them see you before they even touch the ground.

We have screens on our windows but not on our door.  The water in the clear plastic bag really does keep the flies away.

Not long ago there was a conference here that included several presidents and other high officials from many of the Latin American countries.  They stayed at the Coco Beach resort at the North end of the island.  In order to create a good impression, Belize spent a million dollars fixing the three and a half mile stretch of road from town to the resort.  Here is how the road looked after they fixed it.

Gail and I still look the same.

Mario’s Lobsters Part II

Frustrated but undaunted we continued our quest for the illusive Mario and his lobsters.

The roads we were on were gravel and you got a lot of

” R and R”—ruts and rocks.  In addition to the “R and R” they put speed bumps to make sure you don’t ride your bike or drive your golf cart too fast.  These speed bumps are made of rope that is about five inches around that they place across the road.  All of the dirt roads on the island have these.

We finally turned down this street, none of which have signs or even names, and stopped at another roadside stand. 

THEY KNEW MARIO. 

However, they had difficulty trying to explain exactly which house was Mario’s.  Even though he sold lobster and all kinds of other seafood, he had no sign in front of his house.  Finally, the lady helping us called to her three year old grandson, Zion, and told him to get on my bicycle, go along with us, and show us where Mario lives. 

Down the street we went with our guide safely side sadle on the cross bar of my bike.  After crossing several speed bumps, and passing Jeemar’s Sports Bar,

and the Coke sign

Zion hollered “there” and pointed to this house.

Mario was in the yard and we asked if he had any fresh lobster to sell.  He did.  He led us around the side of his house to a shed where he had five chest freezers. 

He told us that before Christmas all of the freezers were full of lobster and other fish but now he only had fish in one of them.  He has fishermen who sell their catch to him every day and he then sells it to the restaurants and stores.  Business is good!

The lobster here is not like the Maine lobster that have big claws.  Here the lobsters do not have the big claws and you just eat the tails.  Mario sold us lobster tails for $20 Belize per pound.  That means you get from three to five lobster tails per pound, depending on the size, for $10US.

We brought our lobster home and put it in the freezer along with some other we already had.

We bought several pounds and will no doubt go back for a few more.  You can never have too much lobster.  Now all we need to do is find some garlic butter, beer, and an appetite.

Oh, wait a minute, we already have all that!!!

Mario’s Lobsters Part I

February 14^th is the end of the lobster season in Belize.  Beginning February 15^th is the lobster mating season and you are not allowed to fish for them until some time in June.  The restaurants are not allowed to serve lobster during this time and they are not even allowed to have lobster in their freezers. 

Gail and I decided we better begin stocking up so we would not run out of lobster during March and April.  We went to the fish market at the docks to buy some fresh lobster from the fishermen. 

By the time we got there they had already sold all they had caught that day.  But, one of the fishermen told us to go to Mario’s.  "Mario always has lobster".  So we went to see Mario.

Now that sounds easy doesn’t it—“we went to see Mario”. 
You have to keep in mind that we were on the back side of the island, the local side of the island.  The fisherman we spoke to gave us excellent directions, from what he could remember, but it was going to take a miracle for us to find Mario.

First we had to go to Captain Sharks. 

That was easy.  Captain Sharks is a large, very nice, fully equipped store that has everything you could ever image for fishing, diving, snorkeling, and anything else you might do on or in the water.

Next we had to turn right at the bend in the road at the big tree.

Then we had to turn left at the corner with the 28 on the electrical boxes.

We had to pass by the Coyote Ugly bar.

Then turn right at the T just past Brian’s Store.

It seemed like we had gone quite a ways so when we came to this fruit stand we stopped and asked if we were on the right track. 

They did not know Mario so we decided we were not very close yet.  We went a little further and stopped at another roadside stand.

They did not speak English and could not find anyone in the house who did. 

At this point we started to get a little frustrated.  Next time I will tell you how our hunt for Mario ended.