The good news down here this week is that there are currently no active cases of the COVID-19 virus in Belize, marking 27 days without a new case. We are still on heavy restrictions as our neighboring countries of Guatemala and Mexico are still reporting new cases. Our State of Emergency is still in effect until June 1st and masks must be worn whenever you leave your home, but this is a sign of hope that maybe we can start to slowly get back to some sort of normality.

The week started out very smokey around here because of the fires still burning. The rain last week did help, but not enough to completely put them out. We haven’t had any more ash falling around us so that’s a good thing, but the smoke is still lingering. Halfway through the week, the rains started to come and they are forecast for a least another week. So hopefully, we’ll get enough rain out of these storms to finally put these fires out and start greening everything back up.

You never realize how much we take things for granted until those options aren’t there anymore. Such as running to the store for a simple bag of ice, going to the market once a week for produce, having selections at the grocery store, or eating out whenever you felt like it. I’m sure like everyone else, we had to adjust and come up with alternative ways of doing things. So we now have a bigger garden that provides a lot of our produce, and we have been making a lot more things at home that in the past we would have just gone to the store and bought. Such as bread, ice cream, tortillas, and many other things.

Another thing we have been making is a topical tea from a plant that is used for insect bites, cuts, fungus, burns, rash, or any other skin problems. The plant is a Polly Red Head or Ixcanan that grows wild around our property. You boil the leaves, stems, and flowers, and then strain it and keep it in the fridge. Just dab a little on an insect bite and it immediately takes the sting and itch away, and since we are in the garden a lot more now, we are getting a few more bites than before. This is just one of many natural remedies that are derived from the plants that are growing all around us.

We are definitely seeing more birds around here lately. I don’t know if it’s because there are a lot less people moving around, there’s fruit in the trees, or because the trees have lost most of their leaves and we can actually see them better. This week we had a lot of Collared Aracari’s in the yard. At one point we counted seven in the tree by the house. The Aracari’s are considered a toucan, they’re just not as big as the Keel-billed toucan that you associate with what a toucan looks like. Speaking of Keel-billed Toucans, they have been here every day now for a while and the other evening there were 10 all at once in the tree above the small casita. Usually, we see only a couple at a time, but 10 at once was a beautiful sight.

Woody Woodpecker, Pale-billed Woodpecker, and the Thrush Muffler Woodpecker. No DNA test needed to prove they’re all related.

Kelley has been busy in the kitchen again making use of some of our harvest from the garden. This week she was busy making more banana bread and some zucchini bread. She hasn’t made zucchini bread in many years and we forgot how good it really is. She even suggested making zucchini cupcakes with some cream cheese frosting, I can’t wait for those.

Since there was still a bunch of bananas left I decided that a banana smoothie sounded good. Put some bananas, milk, and ice in the blender and it was ready to go… well almost. Not too long ago we made some chocolate liqueur that was delicious. So, of course, some of that had to go into it too, a chocolate banana smoothie with a kick, wow that was good! If you like frozen chocolate-covered bananas like I do, then this is a drink for you.

Well, I didn’t think that little Mexican restaurant would last. It’s changed hands again and is now a BBQ joint. We ordered the pork ribs and they were tender and juicy and the char on the corn was just right. The beans although tasted as if they came out of a can. The beers were cold and hot sauce was great plus there was country music playing in the background. After filling up on BBQ we just couldn’t resist getting up and doing a little country square dancing. Of course, once again I didn’t get any pictures of us dancing, but I’m sure you can imagine us swinging our partners doh-si-doh.

I really hope the BBQ joint stays in business and doesn’t turn into a Thai restaurant. We love Thai food, it’s just that we don’t know how to Thai dance.

It’s a really good thing that we can cook around here because we have eaten every meal at home for the past seven weeks now. There are restaurants in town that are offering just pick-up or delivery, but that doesn’t really work for us. It’s at least a 30-40 minute drive each way for us to get to town and by the time we would get back everything would be cold or soggy and it’s just not worth it. I’m sure everyone is becoming much better cooks during these times when going out for a meal is not really an option at this point.

The Toucan Hideaway is now set up for outdoor movies. We put together a 9′ screen for the projector to shine on, along with an amp and extra speakers for better sound. The other night we had dinner outside and enjoyed a movie under the stars. Hopefully, soon we will be able to share this with other people and not just with all the animals in the trees. One movie that will not be showing outside is Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, we don’t want to give them any ideas.

It seems that a cat has now adopted us. He or she has been hanging around for a few weeks now eating scraps that we have been throwing out for other animals. It won’t come near us yet but has been getting closer to Kelley when she feeds it (yes we bought cat food for it). It doesn’t come up on the porch or anything so I guess it’s a good thing to have a yard cat.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since we moved from our home in Cholla Bay, Mexico to start our new adventure in Belize. It was on Cinco de Mayo that we pulled out of that driveway for the last time, ironically 24 years prior to that we bought that house in Mexico on Cinco de Mayo. Yes, we miss friends and family, but we do make it back a couple times a year to see them. Plus a few friends are starting to come down here now and share in some of our experiences. When we decided to move, we were looking for new adventures in our lives and we are definitely fulfilling that here. We have seen, learned, and experienced more things in the past two years that we only could have imagined, and we love it.

If you are like us, I’m sure you are thinking about taking a trip once we are able to start doing that again. If the Toucan Hideaway is on your list of places, please check with us before making your airline reservations. That way we can make sure no one else will be staying here at that time and that we will also be here. Because once travel restrictions are lifted we will also be traveling places.

Take care and hope to see you down here soon!