With the inside of the house being painted all white it is like a blank canvas. So last weekend we picked up a few gallons of bright colored paints to do some accent walls. There is actually a brand of paint here called Caribbean Color that is nothing but bright colors, and they even have a toucan as their logo on the can, pretty cool. Also found some brightly colored drapes to liven up the windows a little. We are still looking at different galleries and shops for some more paintings and art to add some color and character to the house. At this point, we had seen all the galleries had to offer and we thought we would just have to wait until there was an art show or the artists did some more paintings. Anyway, we were sitting at Remo’s last Sunday having a couple beers when in walks Jorge Landero, the artist that did our toucan painting. It turns out that his house is right across the street from Remo’s and he said that he had just finished a couple of new pieces. So about six of us grab our beers and walk across the street to see his latest paintings. As soon as we walked in there was no question about it, there it was, our new painting for our bedroom.

Jorge had also just finished another painting of a tree frog that we just had to have. We told him that we were also looking for a fun, bright painting of an iguana for the guest casita and he said he could paint us whatever we wanted. We were a little skeptical to ask what he wanted for the two pieces, knowing what we paid for the toucan at a gallery. He thought about it and said that he would give them to us for half of what the gallery would charge. I guess I couldn’t get the money out of my pocket fast enough and I even asked him, are you sure that is enough? Jorge Landero is a very talented artist and a very nice guy and we are glad we got to know him, and yes we will be buying more of his work.

Like I said before, the house has a lot of blank walls and no real decorator items in it yet, so we are always on the lookout for something that would fit in that certain area. Well, we drove by the woodcarver again (he is on the main road and you can’t help to look over) the other day and just stopped to talk to him about something else. Wouldn’t you know he had just finished something that would fit right under this table we had recently bought. So now we have another wonderful carving from Eduardo and this one is house trained so he will get to be an inside bird. If you stay away from the galleries and are lucky enough to go directly to the artists, then the prices for beautiful original art is amazing.

I had mentioned that now that it is quiet around here the birds and other animals are coming back around. There is a colorful bird here called a Mot Mot. They have an iridescent blue color on their head and are very common around here. In the wild, they are sometimes hard to spot, but when you put them on a blue rug with a bright green wall as a background they are very easy to see. Especially when Kelley walks into the bathroom and there is a bird in there to surprise her. Anyway, the casita door was left open and I guess he just wanted to check it all out, but it would have been nice if he didn’t shit everywhere. I guess a bird in the bathroom is still better than a monkey jumping on our bed.

The other morning it was raining a little and the birds were pretty quiet compared to their noisy usual selves. As we looked up in the trees there were two big bright toucans just sitting there, I guess waiting for the rain to stop. I wish it was a bright sunny day so the picture would have turned out better, but I know there will be a lot more opportunities, especially since we now have a perch where we are putting out fruit for them. This is also the same morning that we drove by the wood carver and bought the toucan, were the toucans in the tree a sign of some type?

Another amazing creature here is this moth we saw the other day. It looked like just a plain old brown moth, but when you touched him, his wings opened up to reveal what looked like a face with beautiful eyes looking at you. I guess it is a form of self-defense, needless to say, it was very beautiful. There was another one we saw a while back that was quite bigger and had a head like a hippo and wings opened up to also reveal some eyes. I guess we need to start tapping every moth we see to see if they are looking back at us.

One of the orchids that we found last year has started to bloom, it has bloomed a couple of times since we found it, but we have always missed it. This time as soon as it bloomed, big bumble bees were all over it. We have never seen these bumble bees around here before, maybe they only gather the pollen from orchids which are usually high up in the trees.

There was a coatimundi spotted on our road the other day as well as a jaguarundi at our driveway entrance, plus our neighbor saw a deer on their property. All these animals were seen during the middle of the day, we can only imagine what roams around in the darkness. There have been some mornings where the fog sets in pretty heavy which gives a real eerie feeling in the jungle, especially when you hear something rustling in the bushes and can’t see what it is.

This was the weekend we had a big BBQ for all the workers and their families. It was a great turn out and it gave them a chance to show their families what they had been working on most of last year. A few of their wives wanted to just move into the guest casita and never leave. A lot of their kids were occupying their time by playing with spinning tops that were all homemade. When I was a kid I was pretty good with a top, so I had to give it a try. I guess over time I must have lost all my topping abilities because I couldn’t get it to spin. We usually see kids around here playing marbles, so I asked one of them where the marbles were. I was informed by a 10-year-old boy that today is top day and marbles are for Tuesdays, who knew.

Anyway, the pig turned out great, even though it was 30 lbs more than what was recommended for cooking in the box. After we split the ribs on the pig so he would fit in the rack he was way too wide to fit in the box, so we had to shorten his legs a little, which worked out perfectly because those went into the pot of beans. It is not as simple as cooking a set weight pig and using manufactured charcoal where you add a certain amount every hour and it turns out perfect. With the lump charcoal, you just have to keep an eye constantly on the temp, adding more and then opening the lid a little to cool it down when needed. I’ve got it figured out now and thinking we might have to do this a couple times a year.

This week our first official house guest (Darren) will arrive. We will be checking out a few of the sights we haven’t been to before as well as flying out to the island for a little beach time. We had planned to hit the island to see Jerry Jeff Walker for is annual Camp Belize concerts, but it turns out he will not be doing it this year due to health issues. I guess that just leaves more time for us to put our toes in the water, ass in the sand, not have a worry in the world, a cold beer in our hand and life will be good that day.