We get asked all the time about what kind of animals we have seen down here. I’ve already posted pictures of some of the birds, lizards, and colorful insects we have around here, so this time I will tell you about the other animals we have seen on the property. Birds are easy to get a picture of, but the animals on the ground will take off as soon as they see you. So most of these pictures are pulled from the web as we don’t always have a camera ready when we do see something.  Anyway, these are the animals we’ve seen on the property so far, we have seen other animals in our travels around Belize, but these are there ones around the house.

Margay Cat

The Margay is a small cat that rarely gets bigger than about 8 lbs. It’s a nocturnal hunter that spends most of its life in the treetops. A Margay’s ankles can rotate 180 degrees allowing him to climb down a tree headfirst.

Tayra or Bush Dog

The Tayra is a member of the weasel family and can get up to 48″ long including its tail. They do most of their hunting by scent since they have relatively poor eyesight.

Nine-Banded Armadillo

This armadillo is one of the largest species weighing up to 22 lbs. Unlike other armadillos, this one can not roll itself up into a ball. However, it is capable of floating across rivers by inflating its intestines, or by sinking and running across riverbeds. It is possible to sink and run across the bottom due to the fact that it can hold its breath for up to 6 minutes.

Paca, Gibnut, or Royal Rat

The Paca is the sixth-largest rodent in the world, weighing up to 30 lbs and reaching a length of 30″. They are great swimmers and when threatened will dive and can stay submerged for up to 15 minutes. They can also jump up to 3′ in the air and when threatened will freeze for up to 45 minutes. These are very common animals around here.

Tamandua Collared Anteater

The Collared Anteater will get up to about 60″ long and a weight of around 18 lbs. They eat mostly ants and termites, scooping them up with their amazing 18″ tongue.

White-Nosed Coati

Coatis are omnivores and will reach a weight of 18 lbs. Coatis also have ankles that can rotate 180 degrees allowing them to walk down a tree headfirst. Their long snout-like nose can rotate up to 60 degrees in any direction to aid in their search for food. We have seen a lot of Coatis around the property, and as many as 15 at a time.

Jaguarundi

The Jaguarundi is a medium-sized cat, getting up to around 15 lbs. Unlike other cats, the Jaguarundi is mainly active during the day. We have seen brown ones and a black one with 3 kittens walking behind her.

 Gray Fox

We have seen a few of the gray foxes in our driveway from time to time. And unlike other canines, the Gray Fox can climb trees.

Opossum

Opossums are marsupials, meaning they have a pouch like a kangaroo. When threatened or harmed they will “play dead”. When playing dead their lips are drawn back, the teeth are bared, saliva foams around the mouth, the eyes are half-closed and a foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal gland. There are quite a few possums around here, we usually see them at night eating the fruit we put out for the birds.

Agouti

The Agouti is a rodent that is related to the Guinea Pig. Agoutis can grow up to 24″ in length and weigh up to 9 lbs. They are renowned for being very fast runners, able to keep hunting dogs occupied with chasing them for hours.

Yucatan Squirrel

Squirrels are constantly running around the yard and jumping from tree to tree and gathering cohune nuts.

Kinkajou

Kinkajous or Honey Bear is not closely related to any other tree-dwelling mammal group. They are seldom seen by people because of their nocturnal habits. When the fruits are ripe in the trees above our house we have seen four at a time up there feeding.

These are just the animals that we have personally seen on our property, we know there are a lot more out there that we just haven’t seen yet. We have neighbors who have seen Jaguars, Deer, Peccaries, and Monkeys all around this area. Most of these animals are very active at night and that’s when we should be out looking for them. It’s just that neither one of us has got the guts to take a walk in the dark, dense jungle in the middle of the night.

It’s hard to believe that it has already been two years this June that we have been living in the jungles of Belize. I guess time really does fly by when you are very busy and squeezing in a little fun too. Anyway, we were looking back at some pictures of how the Toucan Hideaway has evolved over the past couple of years and we thought we would like to share them with you.

The Driveway

The first thing we had to do was to get a road cut into the property. Once we found a spot where the house could go, a good solid road had to be laid down. Lots of cutting, burning, scraping, and solid material going down, but finally, there was an all-weather road that we could drive on. Eventually, it was finished up with an entry gate and fence.

The Guest House

Next on the list was to build a small house where we could live while they were building our home. We ended up living in the guest house for 6 months until our place was done. Now that we have moved out, it’s a great guest house for family and friends when they come for a visit.

Our Jungle Home

The spot we chose for the house turned out to be perfect. We wanted it set between two big Cohune palm trees, plus be back in the shade a little to help keep the house cool on the inside.

The Garage

Of course, we had to have a garage of some type to store our stuff and to work on projects. The original plan was for it to be a little bigger, but we downsized it a little and it turned out perfect.

The Garden

We needed a big garden but didn’t want to clear too much land. When they cleared along the road to install our power poles they cut a bunch of big trees along it. So we went in and cleared that section up and left a buffer of smaller trees to grow along the roadside. That way we ended up with a nice garden section that is not visible from the road.

The Outdoor Kitchen and Bar

Our original plan was to build the BBQ into the porch so that we could still cook when it rained. Then we thought about how much we loved our big outdoor palapa kitchen in Mexico and decided why not build something like that here. So that’s when we got carried away and decided that it might as well have everything we’ve ever wanted. Once it was done there was a big built-in BBQ grill with rotisserie, a brick pizza oven, a smokehouse, a sink, and a big deck with wood slab tables where everyone could hang out.

Of course, there were many problems and setbacks along the way. Such as, when we were ready to build the main house there was no wood available, or a 3-hour drive for materials sometimes two or three times a day. Anyway, It’s been a very busy two years for us to create our own little piece of paradise in the Belizean Jungle. We say we are done building and doing stuff around here, but with ten acres and crazy ideas, you never know what we’ll do next.

Hope we see you at the Toucan Hideaway soon.

Okay, so here are a few of the more colorful birds that we have seen around here. All the bird pictures were taken within 100′ or so from our front door. With the exception of the Scarlet Macaw that was taken on our recent trip up to a lake and the Roseate Spoonbill that was taken on Ambergris.

Kelley is constantly going out with her camera every time she hears birds or noises in the bush. Which is great because she is getting some wonderful pictures for us to share. Hope you enjoyed them.

Belize is home to around 600 different types of birds, which makes it fairly easy to spot a different bird almost every day. Of course, everyone wants to see a big colorful Toucan, Scarlet Macaw, or Parrot, but there are many other smaller and less colorful birds all around also. This time I will post pictures and hopefully names of other birds that usually get no attention. All these pictures are taken by Kelley using a Nikon camera with a 70-300mm lens. There is also some editing on the computer to help with cropping and light conditions.

That’s just a few of the not so flashy, but beautiful birds we have seen around the house so far.

Well it has now been 51 days without an active case of the covid virus in Belize. They reevaluated our State of Emergency plan on June 1st and relaxed some of the current laws. At this point, businesses are starting to open back up and we are now free to travel around the country. Of course, social distancing and wearing a mask in public are still a requirement, but at least we don’t need to wear our mask in private vehicles anymore. On Friday and Saturday nights they gave us an extra hour of curfew, so we can now be out until 9:00pm. They are really trying to promote local tourism and some of the deals at the resorts are amazing. So, it looks like this year we will be doing some mini vacations in Belize since the borders and airport are still shut down. There is talk about opening up the airport in July, but we’ll have to see how that goes. Once the airport does open, it’s unclear what carriers will be heading back here. I have heard that Southwest will not be flying here until next year, but then again that could also change. As soon as we know anything about the airport opening and who will be flying here we will let you all know.

We’ve got a few squirrels around here and they will come down and get a drink out of the birdbath every so often. The other day as the squirrel was coming down the tree, the cat that adopted us decided to take a shot at him. The squirrel was too fast and for the next 20 minutes he sat up in that tree hollering at that cat.  Speaking of hollering one night that cat must have gone into heat and would not shut up for two nights straight. Somehow it attracted another cat (we have no idea where he might have even come from). So since we do not need a bunch of stray kittens around here, we had to stop feeding the cat and started scaring it away. It’s been over a week now with no sign of it, so hopefully, it wandered over to its baby daddy’s place and is shacking up there.

The road past us through Mountain Pine Ridge that leads to Caracol (the tallest Mayan site in Belize), Rio On Pools, many waterfalls, and caves, is getting widened and paved. These are all major tourist sites and the hour-plus dirt road drive up to them gets very rough at times. So the government decided it would be better for tourism if there were a better road to the sites. Personally, I would prefer it if it stayed a rough dirt road, but I guess you can’t stop progress.

The neighbor who stopped by a few weeks ago and asked if we were interested in some beef, came through with some nice cuts for us. He came by with a bone-in rib roast, that we aged for a couple of weeks before cutting it into some nice steaks. He also had some ribs, a shoulder roast, and a brisket. The brisket and shoulder roast immediately went into a brine for a couple of weeks (using Uncle Jer’s recipe) to make corned beef. Once it came out of the brine, the roast was boiled up with some potatoes and cabbage. It was a little late for our St Patty’s day meal, but it was well worth the wait.

After the brine, the brisket got heavily seasoned, thrown in the smoker, and thin-sliced for some great tasting pastrami. We tried to round up some marbled rye bread from our local bakery, but they were out so we settled on a french roll. Still toasted in the oven with some Swiss cheese, and brown mustard, that was the best sandwich we’ve had since we’ve been here.

The rainy season has started and what a difference some rains make. During the recent rains, every plant has had a huge growth spurt. And the timing couldn’t have been better, because the day before the first rains started we’d spread fertilizer around every plant. The coffee plants have burst out with tons of blossoms on most of them. Out of the 35 or so coffee plants, 3/4 of them currently have blossoms on them and some are just loaded. We should have a decent coffee crop this year, Now we’ll just have to figure out the proper way to roast them.

All of our citrus trees have new blossoms on them as well, with the exception of the kumquat tree. On the other hand, the kumquat tree seems to be growing faster and taller than all the rest. Once all the citrus starts coming in, we are so looking forward to some fresh grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and limes.

Last year we only had one cocoa tree that got blossoms and only three of the pods took. Currently, most of the trees have blossoms on them, and if we can get even half of them to take then we should actually have enough to make some good chocolate for something good and tasty.

We are finally getting a little road time on the Jeep and working out all the bugs. We haven’t gone very far yet, but small steps at this point until I’m more comfortable with it. Overall it has been a lot of work, but I think it will be a good Jeep once it’s completely done.

Since we can now move around the country and we have some great resort deals in Hopkins, we’re ready for some beach time. Of course, we had to postpone this week’s trip for a couple of weeks due to a good tropical storm dumping water everywhere. We were hoping to get there and get in some Tarpon fishing, but the river is just too muddy at this point. Besides, if we wait a few weeks lobster season will open up and there’s a good chance we could bring back an ice chest full of lobsters.

That’s about it for now, hopefully, they will open up the airport soon so we can all get back to traveling around again.

After a couple months of isolation and not being able to do anything, we finally got the opportunity to go on a new adventure. A friend of ours invited us to come along with him up to a secluded lake for the day. It was a  beautiful 2 1/2 hour drive on a dirt road up into the jungle. Of course the farther in we got, the rougher the road got, but nothing our truck couldn’t handle. The Jeep would have been fun, but it hasn’t been road tested enough yet.

As we approached the lake, the road ended and down in the water tied to a tree was a boat. We packed all our gear onto the boat and headed out onto the lake for some fun.

It’s a good size man-made lake that we were told is about 20 miles or so long with lots of side arms that go deep into the jungle. It’s a very interesting lake with one shoreline being all pine trees and the other shore just raw, dense jungle.

Around every corner of the lake there was something new and interesting to see. There were shale cliffs, old mahogany trees sticking up, palm trees growing in the water and even a place where there was calcium formations where water was dripping out that they called ‘whisky water’.

There were so many different types birds on the lake that day and they didn’t really care how close you got to them. That could be because we were in the only boat that’s on that lake.

We have seen many unbelievable animals and creatures in Belize, but there are a few on our bucket list to see out in the wild. One is the national animal of Belize, the Tapir, which we have seen up close at the Belize zoo, but never out in the wild. As we were cruising the shoreline we spotted one on the bank just standing there eating. We got the boat right up close to the shore and he didn’t seem to care too much, probably because he’d never seen a human before. We took pictures and watched him for awhile before he decided to move on. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience, until we came across another one sitting in the water cooling off. It was amazing that we saw two in one day, something we will never forget.

In case you are wondering, the Baird Tapir or Mountain Cow is the national animal of Belize. They are the largest land mammal in Central America and will get up to 600-plus pounds. They are a gentle and solitary creature, that are closely related to the rhino and the horse (I know that sounds weird). Even though they are the national animal, people still illegally hunt them putting them at risk of being endangered.

We have seen a lot of amazingly beautiful birds since we’ve been here, but there was one on our list that is rarely seen because there are only a few hundred of them in Belize. Well, we were lucky enough to actually see and get pictures of a beautiful Scarlet Macaw out in the wild. We have seen them in other countries before and at the zoo here, but never a wild one in Belize.

Another animal on our list of ones to see in the wild is a jaguar. Our friend said that it was just last week, up by the lake that he spotted one. I know it’s just a matter of time before we will see one and hopefully get a few good pictures.

After a great day it was finally time to fire up the grill on the boat for some tacos and a few cold Belikins. We found a nice old tree to tie the boat up to overlooking palm trees in the water and a grassy beach. It was an awesome day on the lake with friends, but it was time for us to start making our way back home. Our two friends decided to stay up there for a couple more days before heading back down. On their way back we invited them to stop by for a cold beer since we knew they would be out of beer and ice by time they got back down the hill. And we were right.

It’s amazing the friendly and interesting people you meet here who are so willing to share with you their stories and their amazing country. We look forward to meeting more people and seeing more of this wonderful place. And yes I will now say it…It was Unbelizeable!

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!

As of May 1st, the government has come up with a new set of guidelines during our Covid lockdown. Our state of emergency is now in effect for another 60 days. A few more non-essential businesses are allowed to open back up. You must wear a mask anytime you leave your home or face a $5,000 fine or 2 years in jail. There is still a curfew in effect along with social distancing laws that both carry big fines. And you are still not allowed to travel outside of your district.

There are a few positive things happening here during our state of emergency. Out of the 18 total cases of the virus in Belize, there are only 3 that are still active and there has not been a new case in 19 days now.  The price of fuel has dropped $3 a gallon, but that really doesn’t matter because we can’t drive anywhere. And it looks like Belikin will not close, so beer will still be available.

In case anyone was still hoping to get down here for Lobsterfest this year, you’ll have to wait till next year. Lobsterfests in San Pedro and Placencia have been canceled for now. So I’m thinking once the season opens and we can move around the country again, we’ll make a run to the coast for an ice chest full of lobsters. Maybe we could start a new tradition… Lobsterfest in the jungle!

This is the time of year when farmers burn their old crops in preparation for the next planting. This year it has been extremely dry and very hot during our dry season and a lot of these fires have gotten out of control. The government said no more burning of any kind or you could face a  $5,000 fine and up to 2 years in jail. Yet on our trip to town the other day, we still saw people burning leaves or trash in their yard and an active fire on the roadside. At this point, there are still some big uncontrolled fires burning around Belize. It’s just so sad to see this beautiful landscape taken away by careless people.

For the past couple of weeks, we have had high temps and the air is just filled with smoke from all the fires. Some days there is ash falling all around us, and that’s had us a little concerned. So over the weekend, I rigged up a pump that can go into our 750-liter water tank. The tank can then go into the back of my truck and be filled, that along with a generator and a few hundred feet of hose will give us a portable water supply. Hopefully, we will never need to use this, but it’s better to be ready just in case.

This past weekend our little Brazilian restaurant changed hands and is now a Mexican restaurant, but I don’t expect that to last long. The good thing was that we were able to get our Margaritas and Chimichangas. The only problem was that they were out of tortillas. So Kelley jumped in and made some great flour tortillas (with lard of course). And since there was no one else at the restaurant, Kelley ended up making the whole meal while I made the margaritas, after all, it was an open bar. After dinner, the music was playing and we just couldn’t resist doing a little salsa dancing till the early morning light. Of course, once again I forgot to get pictures of us dancing, but I’m sure you can imagine it.

The garden is still doing great and it is giving us something just about every day now. Currently, we are getting kale, zucchini, chili peppers, and a few raspberries. The other day we picked our first head of Romaine lettuce, Caesar salad here we come.

The pequin peppers are also doing well. Just because they’re small (3/4″), doesn’t mean they don’t have a kick to them. These tiny peppers are very, very hot, even for me!

The Kale is doing amazing. We have constantly been harvesting kale off the same plants since November and they are showing no signs of slowing down. We finally got the dehydrator out and Kelley made a couple big batches of kale chips. She put a little olive oil, salt, and some pequin pepper dust on them and they turned out great! It’s a perfect salty, spicy snack that goes great with an ice-cold beer.

In the next month, we should start seeing tomatoes, broccoli, bell peppers, okra, peas, and cantaloupe. It seems like we are spending all of our time in the garden, but at this point what else do we have to do.

The people and the farmers in our village are wonderful. They are doing what they can to get their products out to the public.  We now have a regular market of people stopping by our gate. There is the guy with the truckload of fresh veggies, the guy across the way with pork, the kid who delivers coconut water once a week, and now a beef guy. The other night a neighbor stopped by and asked if we were interested in any beef as he will have some ready this weekend. We told him a few cuts we would be interested in and he said if not this week then the next.  This is great that we can help support our neighbors, and it keeps us from going into town. Now if we could just get beer delivered here we would never have to leave, and actually I’m working on that.

The new bird picture around here this week is the Pale-billed Woodpecker. These are really common around here and we have seen and heard quite a few of them. This is just the first time we have gotten a good close up picture one.

Last night we had an unexpected and much needed heavy rainstorm. It lasted for well over an hour and knocked out our power for a few hours. The much-needed rain really helped to put out some of the fires in and around our area. Of course, the power outage started around 5:30 so we had to readjust our dinner plans. Dinner went from a nice steak and fresh salad to whatever we could find in the cupboard. There wasn’t a whole lot in there so we settled on some mac cheese made with box milk and a can of sardines. We finished it up with a couple beers and a game of Yahtzee, all under the glow of a Coleman lantern. The gourmet meals we come up with during a power outage and a lockdown are just amazing.

That’s all my rambling for this week, be safe.

There is a never-ending list of things to do around here, but I think our big “someday” projects are dwindling down. One of the last big things to do was to get our bedroom closet doors on. About a year ago we had two mahogany doors made for our bedroom closet and they have been sitting in the container ever since. Last year I put two similar doors on the laundry room and it was a nightmare. Doors not square, door frames not square, and a lot of cutting, shimming, and frustration. We figured it was time to just suck it up and finally get the closet doors on. After some measuring, cutting, sanding, and finishing it went pretty well. So that’s one more thing off the list.

There are a lot of smaller projects we’d like to do around here, but with only the essential businesses open it makes it impossible to get materials.

Since we missed out on our 36th Anniversary trip to Columbia we thought we would do a little pretending we were somewhere else for dinner. We found this little Churrasco (Brazilian barbecue) restaurant out in the middle of the jungle (it’s in our backyard) that served Pacanha. You know, the steak of Brazil (Not Belize) that is famously served on the swords table-side. Our chef (me) cooked it up perfectly and our waitress (Kelley) brought us over a nice bottle of red wine from Argentina. It was a great relaxing meal and afterward, we even danced the tango. Sorry, there was no evidence of that dance, so you’ll have to take my word on that one.

It wasn’t exactly our Colombian vacation we were hoping for, but Brazilian style steak and a bottle of Argentina wine was about as close as we could actually get to a South American experience. All this and we didn’t even have to leave a tip, but we did end up having to do the dishes. Maybe next week we will pretend to go to Mexico for margaritas and chimichangas.

Plants of the week.

Lobster season is here! Well not the crustacean that you are thinking, that doesn’t happen till June. It’s our lobster claw plants, they are blooming like crazy. There are at least 20 different blooms on them right now with more to come. We saw these beautiful plants years ago and said that if we ever get a place where they would grow, then we would need some. They definitely grow well here and now we have a yard full of them.

Our pineapples are starting to get some good size to them. Out of the 65 or so pineapple plants we have 9 pineapples that will be ready fairly soon… if the animals don’t get to them first. Of course, when we pick them we will cut the tops off, put them back in the ground and start the cycle all over again.

The last bunch of bananas that were ready Kelley made some banana-pineapple jam. That along with the homemade peanut butter on a piece of warm banana bread. Well… that’s just good stuff! And the main ingredients for this came from our garden, so that’s pretty exciting.

I don’t know if you have ever tried lemongrass before, but it makes a great tea. We have a few big plants and a couple of times a week Kelley will cut some and make a gallon or so of tea. It has a very lemony taste to it, plus there are a lot of health benefits that go along with it. Besides just making a tasty tea it is also used in Thai cooking and the plant itself helps repel insects. I’m sure if you looked around where you live you could find some at the nurseries and start making your own healthy tea.

Even though we are avoiding going to the big market in town, it doesn’t mean we can’t have fresh fruits and veggies. A local farmer came by the other day with a pickup full of fresh stuff from his farm. We got cantaloupe, tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, and okra for $1 a pound (that’s 50 cents US). We already have this same stuff planted, but ours won’t be ready for a while, so this worked out well.

This week’s wildlife.

The lightning bugs are back! These are very cool insects that have what looks like two green LED’s for eyes. Once you catch one, if their eyes start to go dim all you have to do it touch their back and they are back on at full power. Plus they look really cool flying around out in the jungle at night when there are a bunch of them.  (I know… we really need to get out and socialize).

Here are a couple more pictures of some birds that we’ve spotted around the property. This is the first time we have seen either one of these around here. Then again with over 600 species of birds in Belize, I imagine we should keep seeing different species all the time. The yellow and black one is a Black-cowled Oriole and is building a nest in the bay palm 10 feet off the porch, so I assume we will be seeing some little ones soon. The other one we think is a juvenile Slaty-tailed Trogon.

We also had a nice big lizard in the yard the other day. He was a Jesus Christ lizard about 2 feet long. He just sat there on the log while I got some pictures of him before he got up on his two back legs and ran away.

It has now been 11 days now without a new Covid case reported in Belize. So far there have only been 18 cases reported and five have totally recovered. Hopefully, soon they will open the whole country back up to interior travel, of course, the borders will still be locked down for a while, but at least we’ll be able to move around. As soon as this happens we are going to get in the truck and head over to Hopkins for some fishing and beach time.

Speaking of Hopkins, we just found a deal for a three-night stay at a beachfront resort for $200, usually, this place goes for $200 per night. It is a killer deal, totally refundable, you don’t need to pick your dates yet and it’s good till December. We grabbed 3 of the three-night deals, so we will definitely be going to Hopkins for some R & R.

We love and appreciate everyone’s comments, but there has been some problem with the blog. Some comments are coming across as “anonymous” for the name and we don’t know who you are. If you think your comment is coming across as anonymous then please at least put your initials at the bottom. That way when you say you will see us later in the year, we will know who you are.

Have a great day and be safe.

We have been in self lockdown for about 10 days or so. We haven’t even unlocked the front gate and the only person we have seen is Ruben when he came by one day to do some weed wack’n. Belize has had two cases of the virus so far and they were both contained to Ambergris which has the island on total lock-down. We hear that both cases are doing well and nothing new to report. Then we heard of a third case in Belize City from someone who flew in from New York a week ago but immediately went into self-isolation. Belize is pretty much on lockdown and has a curfew in effect for 30 days. With Belize being such a small country and only 3 cases so far, hopefully, it will all end there until they get this thing figured out.

Like everyone, we can’t go out to restaurants, shopping or any other social gatherings like we used to. So this is the perfect time for everyone to get those projects done around the house that they have been putting off till “Someday”. Guess what, “Someday” is here and if all those projects get done now then there will be no excuses to not start doing all the fun stuff and traveling again once this is all under control.

Since we have had a little more free time around here, we have been getting stuff done like crazy. First of all, I’ve got the Jeep rolling. The Jeep has not been out of the garage since September when we bought it. It still needs some more little things done to it, but for the most part, it is ready. One thing that needs to be fixed is that when you turn on the lights the stereo goes off. Nothing major, but you’ve got to have music.

Since we have not been going to town on the weekends to eat out or socialize, we have had time to give the smoker a test run. For the first smoking, we put in some homemade sausage, a couple of chickens and some pork ribs from the neighbor who recently butchered a pig.

Everything turned out great! There are a couple of little things that need tweaking next time, but for a first run it was a big success and we would not hesitate to serve this to anyone. Of course, it’s all for us this time because we are not supposed to socialize with anyone, sorry people.

For the wood, we used Allspice and Oak for a smoke time of around six hours. Just the right amount of smoke flavor and everything turned out tender and juicy. In the future, I can picture a whole pig hanging in there smok’n away while we sit around with friends enjoying a few cold beers. That is once we can all socialize again.

Other “Someday” projects included finally getting our AC unit in our bedroom. We have had it sitting in the garage for over a year now and thought it was finally time to install it. Since we are up in the hills and our house is under the canopy of trees, it really stays nice and cool. There were about ten days or so last year when we could have used a little extra cooling off at night, but for the most part, the house stays pretty cool.

Other projects included taking out a few more trees that are too close to the house. They are predicting an above-average hurricane season this year, so better to be safe than sorry. I’ve been putting this off for a while now because the trees that needed to be removed were leaning towards the house. The good thing is that the cut trees are being used for borders around the yard and we think they are looking pretty good.

Since we now have more time around here and it’s probably a good idea, we are expanding the veggie garden. We have about 400 more seedlings started in trays right now. They include Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Poblano Peppers, Okra, Yellow Squash, Cantaloupe, Basil, Romaine and Arugula. Between that and the stuff already in the garden, we should be good on fresh veggies for a while.

Kelley spent a lot of time roasting, shelling and skinning our peanuts so that we could make some peanut butter. We figured that if we just ate handfuls of peanuts they would only last a few days. By making peanut butter it would last a lot longer, and besides that, we love peanut butter. Especially peanut butter and mayonnaise on a cracker. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, right Darren?

All I know is that we are kicking ass on all of our “Someday” projects and as soon as it is safe to travel and socialize again we are going places. Hopefully, everyone else can do the same. Be safe!

Kelley and I are determined to be positive and look past this current situation and into the future when everyone is safe and free to travel again. Since everyone is self-isolating we thought we’d send out some pictures we’ve taken in Belize and maybe inspire some of you to come on down for a visit once this whole pandemic is under control. We hope you enjoy these pictures and can someday come and experience them for yourselves.

Welcome to Belize, the land of adventure and natural beauty.

Caye Caulker where their motto is “Go Slow”.

Big Rock Falls is right up the road from us.

Of course there’s lobster in Belize!

A pontoon cruise on a secluded jungle lake.

Lots and lots of wildlife everywhere.

A quiet beachfront cabana in Hopkins.

River tubing through underground caves.

Enjoying a cold one while waiting for the daily catch to come in.

Always the freshest fruits and vegetables.

Waterfalls are everywhere around our place.

Imagine sitting here with a tropical drink with a tiny umbrella in it.

Beautiful purple passionfruit flower.

Jaguar just seeing what I taste like.

Rio Pools is a great spot to cool off.

Lots of Mayan sites to explore, and they are all so different.

A natural heart-shaped vine growing on our property.

Even the fish are happy to be here.

The Toucans will greet you at our front porch.

I don’t know about other airlines, but Southwest is having some great sales for future travel right now. And keep in mind, we do have a guest house.

With everything going on in the world we have had a lot of people asking us how we are doing down here in Belize. When we decided to move here that was already a choice for us to “Social Distance” and live a more productive and better life for ourselves. As of this Monday, Belize just reported its first case of the virus from a Belizean who flew in from California last week. As soon as Belize said there was one reported case of the virus, they decided to shut down all bars, restaurants, night clubs, casinos, and archaeological sites countrywide. Even a few of the bus lines have stopped operating in the country. The borders here have been shut for all travel (except for cargo). There are a few grocery stores still open in town, but inventory is starting to look pretty slim.  Our village is completely shut down of all businesses. Just like everywhere else they are limiting the size of gatherings, requesting that everyone just stay home, stressing the importance of washing your hands and of course social distancing. We are fine up where we are, with plenty of food and other supplies, plus there’s a lot of work around here to keep us busy.  If we choose not to leave the property there’s a good chance we won’t even see another person until we do. Hopefully, they can contain this first case of the virus and stop it before it spreads. We are very grateful to be living out in the jungle away from the mass population and being able to raise some of our own food.

Speaking of food, here are a few more pictures of things that we are currently growing down here.

This was our first time growing peanuts and it won’t be our last. There wasn’t as many as we thought we would get, but who cares, we grew our own peanuts!

This is our first harvest of Turmeric. That should be enough to keep us going for a while.

Our Italian Oregano is doing pretty well and keeps us in fresh oregano when needed.

This is another type of herb that’s called Cuban Oregano or Spanish Thyme. It has the scent and flavor of regular oregano and is commonly used as a herb to flavor meats and stews. It is a great herb when used fresh or even dried.

We still like to take walks through our property in search of Oyster Mushrooms. We don’t always find them, but when we do it is a great treat!

Our first cocoa (chocolate) pods will be ready to pick real soon.

We have even had good luck growing our own toilet paper. Talk about going green!

We have always had a garden no matter where we have lived, just growing all your basic vegetables. The fun and exciting thing about gardening in Belize is that we can grow all kinds of tropical fruits and other stuff that we never even would have considered growing elsewhere. For instance, we currently have caper berry seeds in the fridge for two months to simulate a “fake winter”. When they are ready to come out of their “chill”, we will get them in the ground and see if we can get any to grow. Wouldn’t that be great to be able to make our own capers!

We see all the news feeds and realize how bad this situation really is for everyone. We know times are tough and we will all get through this, it’s just going to take some time. In the meantime, be patient and stay safe, because we would love to see all your smiling faces down here someday.

Since we are all pretty much confined to our own spaces, what’s better than a good road trip movie. And what better way to see sights across the US than a Griswold family road trip to Wally World! So find that copy of Vacation, pull up your favorite chair, grab your favorite beverage and get on that Holiday Road.

Just when we thought we were done building around here, we came up with another idea. We really need to stop doing this!!! The area between the BBQ and the back of the house has a good slant to it. Which meant that when we had friends over and we set up tables and chairs it looked like everyone was about to fall over. So we came up with the idea of building a nice big wooden deck between the BBQ and the house. That way it would give a nice level surface and tie everything together. Besides, we already had some credit at our favorite lumber store from that silent auction we won. So come Monday morning we were off to order all the wood, cement and other materials needed to build this deck. The crew started digging the footers first thing Monday morning and by Thursday afternoon it was completely done. This addition really helped bring the outdoor kitchen altogether.

Since we now had this big wooden deck it was time for me to get to work making some more tables. First on the agenda was to build a bar or serving area out of that big Cabbage Bark plank we recently acquired. A lot of sanding, some resin to fill in the big cracks and a nice clear coat finish and it was looking good. Now it just needed a good base, so it was off to the metals shop to get the materials needed to build a sturdy base for this heavy piece of wood.

The next two tables were easy, just a lot of sanding, a good clear coat, the same type legs as the one I made for the front porch and we were in business. Some people are asking if we are building a restaurant or even a small resort. Hell, we don’t know, we are just building what we like and what makes us comfortable.

The pizza oven was finally cured and ready to get the big fire going to see how well it works. We did have it fired up a few days earlier, but Kelley got a real bad headache and was hallucinating so we decided to postpone it for a few days. It turns out that she was in the garden and touched a mushroom and she either accidentally inhaled some or wiped her mouth or something. So we ended up eating leftover lasagna that night and I just told her it was pizza (just kidding). Anyway, a few days later we decided to give it another go. This time we made a few small pizzas just so I could have a little practice cooking them. They turned out great and only took about three minutes each to cook. We think the pizza oven is a success.

Just another picture from the garden. The two fruits in the picture below seem very similar, it’s just that one is a lot bigger than the other. One is a very sweet Surinam cherry and the other is a very hot habanero pepper.  This Surinam cherry is actually pretty small and that habanero pepper is on the large size. When they get similar in size they are sometimes very hard to tell apart. The last thing you want to do is to bite into a habanero thinking it’s a nice sweet treat. It is a good thing we know which plants they come off of.

It has been a few months already and the peanuts are now ready to harvest. This is the first time we have ever grown peanuts and it was pretty exciting to pull the plant out of the ground and see a bunch of peanuts hanging there. When the locals here harvest their peanuts, they place them on a big tarp out in the sun to dry. After they dry for a few days then they get roasted. This is the route we are going to take, the other option would be to boil them. Years ago while driving through Florida we stopped at a roadside stand for some boiled peanuts and decided that was not our thing. So we will be drying and roasting our peanuts and with 200 plus plants may be making a little (lot) peanut butter.

Kelley has been having a lot of fun with her new camera and with all this beautiful nature around us, who wouldn’t? The other evening there were six of the Aracaris in the trees across from the garage. They were there for a good fifteen minutes or so just hopping from branch to branch and eating stuff off the trees. It’s great to see all these different types of birds around the property. We don’t always have the chance to get a photo of them, but sometimes we get lucky.

There are a lot of big squirrels around here and they love to eat the Cohune nuts that fall off the palm trees. The other day there was this really small baby one (that would fit in the palm of your hand) attempting to carry a nut away. The nut was a little big for him, but I’m sure in no time at all he will be dragging those back to his home.

Living in the jungle there are lots of bugs around and you expect to get the occasional bite. We are very lucky to not really have many mosquitoes or other flying, biting bugs around the house and immediate area. Granted we do end up with a few small bites here and there, but nothing major. In the time we have been here there have been very few days around the house and yard where we have needed to apply insect repellent. And believe me, we brought a lot of it with us. The other morning was the exception when I was unlocking the gate. I pulled open the big hasp on the front gate and not looking I put my hand on top of the gate to open it. That was my mistake, always look before placing your hand somewhere. That’s when it got me, a big black scorpion, right in the palm of my hand. The pain was instant but only lasted about an hour or so before it went away, no mark, soreness or anything. I’ve been stung by bark scorpions in Arizona and Mexico before where the numbness will last for up to a week or more. Even though the big black scorpions look more scary and dangerous, I’d rather be stung by one of them than a small bark scorpion any day. According to the locals a scorpion sting is good for your joints and it’s good to be stung every so often they say. I’m not too sure about that.

On Darren’s property next to ours, there was a small cave opening that was discovered where it looks like water rushes through in the wet season. I don’t think anyone had ever been down there, as the opening is very small. We finally had the time to drop a camera down and see what might be in there. It was too dark for the camera to see anything and the opening was too small for any of us to fit, but a local that was with us said that he could fit. So after tieing a rope to him and giving him a good flashlight, he was off to the underworld. It didn’t take long before he was out of sight. He did say that it was muddy down there, but it was big enough for him to stand up and turn around. He said there was another passage inside the cave that headed towards our property (which is only about 20’ away), but the opening was only about a foot in diameter and way too small for anyone to fit through.  I guess we will never know what’s through that next passage, but maybe that leads to another opening somewhere on our property. There are always new things to discover down here and a lot of them are right in our back yard.

Next week we’re headed back to the beach for a little R&R and exploring. This time we would not be going to any of the beaches in Belize, we were off to Cartagena, Columbia. Obviously, because of the COVID-19 Virus, our trip got canceled. Fortunately, there have been no reported cases of the virus in Belize and with a lot of precautionary measures they are trying to keep it that way.

Everyone be safe and hopefully, this will all be behind us soon and we can all get back to normal.

I know that in most parts of the states and such, spring is just around the corner, and if you are a gardener you are thinking about what to plant for the upcoming season. Down here in Belize it’s always the season for planting and we are very lucky to have it that way. We spend a lot of time in the yard taking care of the plants, putting new ones in and cutting back the jungle. It’s all starting to pay off because everything is looking good and we are regularly getting food from the garden. It’s a lot of work but we both truly enjoy doing it. Plus it’s exciting to see how fast the plants grow here and then produce some delicious food.

We love all the fresh fruits and vegetables that are available in Belize, and the fact that knowing they were more than likely harvested a day or two earlier makes it even better. Anyway being from the states we grew accustomed to certain fruits and vegetables that we would regularly eat. Not everything we commonly ate is available here, but we have tried many new fruits and vegetables that we didn’t even know existed. Sometimes though you have a craving for that certain fruit or vegetable that was once a part of your regular meals. We can usually find Granny Smith apples from Washington (my favorites) and rarely find peaches, but artichokes are almost impossible to find along with kale, raspberries, and asparagus. You can find asparagus, but it is literally a dollar a stalk. Whereas in Mexico where we lived they grew it and it was about a dollar a bundle.

A couple of weeks ago we were very excited to find someone online who was selling asparagus crowns from his garden, he only had eight of them so we told him we’d take them all. The crowns are the bare root asparagus plants that have already been growing for a couple of years. If you plant asparagus from seed it will usually take a few years before it starts producing. With these crowns hopefully within a year or so we will start harvesting our own asparagus. It was an hour and a half drive each direction to get these crowns but we know it will be worth it if we can get an asparagus patch going. Asparagus update… they are all growing like crazy, and are already about 2’ tall. I think we might actually have an asparagus patch going!

Artichokes are impossible to find here and we really love them. Last year we planted some seeds and a few of the plants survived and are doing well, but still, no chokes yet. We do have a few more seeds that have sprouted that we are babying right now, so hopefully, they will take off and we can finally have some fresh artichokes.

The kale we had no problem growing and it seems to like its environment. So that’s going to be a regular crop in the garden as long as we can keep finding the seeds. Our raspberries are starting to take off and of course, our green chilis are doing well. At this point, we are just trying to grow things that are not readily available here, because all the other common vegetables are very good and plentiful at the markets.

Out of the 65 or so pineapple plants we have going at least 7 have pineapples on them right now. Not too bad considering that all the plants were started from the tops of other pineapples. We usually eat a pineapple once a week and then plant the tops, at this rate we should always have a constant supply of pineapples. Plus we just picked our first guava off our tree. I bet a pineapple, guava colada might be pretty good. Try saying that really fast a few times.

The last big bunch of bananas we managed to use all but about 6, which is pretty good considering there were 86 in that bunch. This week our first bunch of plantains was ready to cut. Since plantains are not great for eating raw, Kelley decided to turn some into plantain chips. A little salt and some chili and they made the perfect snack, especially with an ice-cold beer. The thing is, that this tray of chips is only from one plantain, and we’ve got a whole bunch. I guess it’s time to look up some more recipes for plantains.

The pizza oven is done! The guy who made it is making all his own blocks and bricks. For the dome on the oven, he is making interlocking lego type blocks with finely ground up glass that he fires in a heat chamber to create a ceramic type block. After the dome was built it was coated with a layer of clay and then some mesh wire and two layers of fiberglass cloth to help retain the heat. Then it is finished off with more layers of clay. For the tunnel and floor, he used bricks that he makes and then added a chimney and a custom door to finish it off.

We have been having fires in the oven for about a week now and I think it’s about ready for a trial run. The outdoor kitchen is now complete with running water, a BBQ, a smoker, and a pizza oven, so now we are ready to cook up just about anything and everything.

Last year we managed to pick up a few nice rounds of wood for tables etc. I’ve used one already to make a table for the front porch and still have a few left. The other day we saw this nice piece of cabbage bark at a friends place and we managed to work out a trade for a round we had. It worked out perfectly because he was looking for something to make a table out of. We’re not sure what we’re going to do with this nice plank, but we have a few ideas. Since this picture was taken I have sanded it all down and it is a beautiful piece of wood and can’t wait to get a finish on it.

About a month ago we noticed a hummingbird sitting on a nest that had two eggs in it. Well, it has been a while, so we thought we would check and see how she’s doing. As soon as we got close she flew away and up popped two baby hummingbirds. Kelley managed to get a quick picture and then get out of there so mama bird could get back on her nest. It won’t be long before they will be regulars at our feeders.

It is a lot of work around here, but we do manage to still have a lot of fun. Last weekend we went to a benefit concert for the Raptor Center. The Raptor Center is where they educate the public on different birds of prey of Belize and also rescue and rehab injured birds. The benefit was held at “The Bluffs” which made a great outdoor venue for the afternoon.

Great music, lots of sunshine, cold beer and all for a good cause. Plus there were silent auctions where we won a certificate to our favorite lumber store. Maybe there are plans in the works for that big wood slab of Cabbage Bark we acquired.

That’s about it for now, maybe we’ll see you down here sometime.

Recently we did a post about colorful plants around our house, well this time it’s all about the insects. Moths and butterflies seem to be the most colorful insects around here, but there are many others that also are very colorful. I know a lot of people don’t like “bugs”, but there really are some beautifully colored insects around us. Kelley takes pictures of almost every insect that looks interesting. This is just a small collection of some of the colorful insects around us, hope you enjoy.

Some friends of ours from where we used to live in Mexico (Steve & Kathy) were on a two week trip to Belize and stayed with us for a few days. They checked out the ruins, caves and a few other of the tourist sights, but there was something right near us that we hadn’t even seen yet.

About two miles from us on private property there is a cave that is not really open to the public. We’ve gotten to know the kid who owns it and he invited us up to check it out. He told us that about 30 years ago his dad was hunting and saw something run under this rock into a small hole. The hole was covered by a big rock, and once they moved the rock the hole went deep into the ground. Later when they explored the hole they found that it was a big cave about 180 feet long with a 30-foot ceiling and full of stalactites. Not only that, it was full of pottery, spears, grinding stones, and human remains. Eventually, they had some archaeologists come and give them a little more insight into what they had. I guess this was a place where sacrifices were done and you were prepared for the afterlife.

Anyway, we met our guide and hiked up to the cave entrance where there was a metal grate locked over this small hole going into the ground. There was a ladder that went 14 feet straight down this hole to the floor of the cave, I was not sure I would fit, but I did.

Once inside the cave, our eyes adjusted and our flashlights came on and it was spectacular. The stalactites were everywhere and were still dripping wet making it very slippery in some spots.

After climbing down some slippery mud in the dark holding onto ropes we came to the spots where they had gone through and gathered and displayed the artifacts in different areas of the cave. There was a lot of broken pottery, spearheads, jewelry, and other items, but to me, the most impressive were the whole pots. Some of these were huge and still intact after more than 2,000 years.

Then there were also some human remains. There were two skulls, a male and a female, and a bunch of bones. One of the skulls had a tall flat forehead. I guess when the babies were very young they would tie a piece of wood to the baby’s head to reshape it. A tall flat forehead was considered to be a thing of beauty in the Mayan culture. You can see how tall and flat the forehead is on the skull on the right.

It was amazing to get to see this cave that very few people have ever seen before. In the future after some more work, there are plans to open this cave up to the general public. In the meantime, he told us that there are still a lot more artifacts to be discovered inside the cave before it can really be open to the public. This kid is very proud of what his dad discovered and the Mayan culture and is willing to share it with you. So if you are here and feeling adventurous I’m sure we could set something up so you can see this cave that very few people have ever seen before. Besides, it’s only a couple of miles from our place.

Belize is a country that is very colorful, in more ways than one. First of all from all the people, (believe me we have met some very colorful people here). Then there are all the different colorful plants and animals up in the jungle all the way down to the beautiful turquoise waters and colorful beach houses along the coast. This time I’m going to focus on some of the colorful plants up and around our property.

In the jungle surrounding us everything is green, and I mean every imaginable shade of green you can think of. From the palm trees, hardwood trees, wild vines and even the local crops, everywhere you look it’s green.

Besides all the greenery, the jungle plants will surprise you with some amazing colors at different times of the year. For example there are vines that will have the most beautiful yellow, red, white, orange or purple flowers on them at different times of the year. The problem is that once the flowers are gone they look like every other plant out there and you won’t know which one it was until it blooms again next time around.

Then there are trees that will just seem to change color over night. One day you will be driving and see nothing but green trees and then next time you go by it is like “WOW” where did that tree come from. They just seem to burst out with color overnight. Sorry at this point we don’t know the names of these trees and flowers, but we are working on that.

Around the house we have planted a lot of colorful plants to help break up some of the green and they are starting to bloom and show their colors. The Heliconia or Lobster Claws that we planted last year are starting to get shoots regularly now, as well as all the bird of paradise.

We have also planted a few of the Belizean Torches around the yard and they seem to be pretty fast growing with a lot of big red flowers that last a long time. This bush here is well over six feet tall and was only about a foot tall when we planted it not too long ago.

There are also some Cordylines we planted near the stairs by the porch which seem to be doing great and growing very fast. One of them is even starting to bloom with a lot of little white flowers. Here the locals say that they are “good luck“ plants, they must be working for us.

We also put in about 30 Crotons along the driveway that will some day form a very colorful hedge. In the meantime, they are about two feet tall and seem to be growing well. We do have other colorful plants and flowers around but, I thought this would be enough for now.

I know this is not a plant, but it does have to do with color and there are plants in the painting. We finally got around to putting some color inside our house. When we had it built we had all the walls painted white with the intention that we would add color where we thought it would work. Well, It’s been a year since we bought the paint, but we finally had some spare time to get it on the walls. We only painted one wall in the bathroom (blue) and one wall in the bedroom (yellow) as accent walls and chose to keep the others white to help keep a bright and open feeling in there.

Belize is home to over 4,000 flowering plants, 250 species of orchids and 700 different types of trees. There is a lot of colorful beauty hidden in all the greenery if you just slow down and look for it.

One thing we love about Belize is that we can be sitting at our home up in the jungle and 3 1/2 hours later be sitting on an island in the Caribbean, and that’s even with a 15 minute plane ride. We have made this trip out to Ambergris many times before with friends, but this time it was just us for five days of music. It’s actually a two week event called Camp Belize put on by Jerry Jeff Walker for the past 20 years or so. It’s an open-mike venue hosting musicians from all over, some who have been coming from day one and others who were first timers. Every day a different bar would host the music, which meant a lot of bar hopping and day drinking. That’s ok though, because this was a little vacation for us.

A lot of the places they played were out on dock bars such as The Palapa Bar which makes for a great venue. Sitting out above the Caribbean, watching the boats, listening to great music and enjoying a cold beer. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

The highlight for us was getting to see Jerry Jeff Walker. Last year he did not make the show because of some throat cancer issues, but he made it this year. His voice was a little raspy, but he still put on a great show with his songs and story telling. He was joined on stage by his son Django Walker who is also a great musician and song writer.

After the show Jerry Jeff was even kind enough to stop for a quick picture with Kelley.

In San Pedro on Ambergris, the main mode of transportation is golf carts. Everybody rents them and it is a great way to explore the island and get around. Since the music didn’t start until the afternoon we decided to take a couple mornings and head as far south as we could and then as far north as we could. We went at least six miles south of town and were amazed at all the construction of new homes and big resorts we saw. In one of the lagoons there were a bunch of birds feeding and one was a Roseate Spoonbill. Its a beautiful big bird with a pink body white neck and a red stripe. We have only seen a couple of these in the wild and this time we actually got a decent picture of one.

Another day we decided to head north. We must have gone 10 miles or so seeing new homes and more big resorts. It wasn’t too many years ago that there wasn’t even a road up there. The road finally started getting a little bad so we decided we had gone far enough and should head back. Ironically we turned around right in front of this totem pole that was full of old flip flops with a sign that read “Lost Soles”. We figured we’d gone far enough and this must be a sign for us to head back.

We did stop in to talk to our realtor on the way back and he told us that there are some good deals on beach front lots 20 plus miles up the coast. There are no roads or utilities there yet, but as fast as the island is growing who knows how long before they will be there.

After we got back up to the jungle it was time to wander around the yard and garden to see how everything was doing. There was a big bunch of bananas that we needed to harvest before the animals started to get to them. They were pretty high up on the plant so I had to get a ladder and a machete ( I know that sounds real safe) to cut them down while Kelley was holding the bottom of the stalk to catch them. We have learned that you have to wear old clothes when you cut or trim banana plants because of the liquid that comes out of them. If it gets on your clothes it will stain and NOTHING will take it out.

This stalk weighed about 35 lbs. and contained 86 bananas, so that means it’s time to dehydrate some, make everything banana and eat 2 or 3 a day for awhile. The bunch is green when we cut them, but it only takes a few days before they will all start turning yellow and be ready to go. And like I’ve said before, if you have never had a fresh banana you don’t what you’re missing. In the few days we were gone another banana plant got it’s blossom, so we have more bananas on the way.

Our coffee plants have been in a little over a year now and a few have been producing a little here and there. We finally had enough to roast and brew some coffee. This is our first time growing and roasting coffee so we are only going by what we have read on how to do it (because we know everything you read on the inner-web is true).

The roasting went okay as far as we know. If and when we start getting a good amount of coffee we will take it somewhere and have it roasted by someone who actually knows what they are doing. In the meantime I’m sitting here eating bananas with a cup of decent coffee that all came from our garden, not a bad breakfast. Kelley absolutely hates coffee even the smell, but I did get her to try a sip and she didn’t gag on it. Although I did see her in the bathroom washing her mouth out with soap. That just leaves more coffee for me.

We’ve got a friend staying here this week, but no one else is scheduled until June. So If you are considering a visit down here, the casita is waiting for you. Hope to see you soon.

We started off the new year by buying more trees. This time we got 5 more coffee plants which now brings us up to around 36 or so. We also got a guava tree which is already bearing fruit, but we found out that as the guavas ripen you need to put a plastic bag over them to keep the insects away. Also we acquired a Star Apple, Malay Apple and a Velvet Apple. Theses are not apples like you would find in most stores in the states, but are still very tasty fruits.

This time we are defiantly out of places to plant any more trees, but then again we do have ten acres. Oh and I guess we do have 9 more mango trees and 2 avocado trees that we found growing in the yard. It seems that when we throw our seeds out in the yard they just grow. At this point we do not have room for these, so not sure yet what we will do with them. Maybe Darren will get some mangoes trees around his property once his house is done.

The other day we learned an interesting gardening technique from Ruben. He recently planted a field of beans, but there are certain birds that will come down and eat all the fresh shoots as they emerge. So what he does, is when he cleans a chicken he saves all the feathers. Then he spreads the feathers on the ground around his crop. This will attract the vultures that think there is something dead there to eat and with the vultures around there are no more pesky birds tearing up his crop. We thought it was pretty ingenious.  We just planted a bunch of spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and chili peppers. I guess if we have a problem with birds we’ll have to find some chicken feathers.

WE HAVE TV! We have gone a year and a half without any live TV, just watching programs we download when we have good internet or DVD’s. We found a guy from Guatemala who set us up with a satellite dish. We have most of the basic channels plus a few movie channels. Some are in Spanish, but most of the ones that we like to watch are in English. We got a really good deal on the unit and our monthly programming fee is only $17 usd a month, you can’t beat that. So now in the evenings or on those rainy days we can actual watch some TV. Even though we will mostly be watching the English channels the commercials are still in Spanish so this should help us with our Spanish. The good thing is we will actually get to watch the Super Bowl this year, but not sure we will understand all the commercials.

Finally we’ve got the pizza oven in the works. Currently our bricks for the oven are being made and once they are cured it should take only about a week to get it built. It will go next to the BBQ in an area we had designated for it. One reason we have taken so long to get it started was that we wanted to see how one of his other ovens were doing. He had built one for a restaurant and we just wanted to see how it worked over time with every day use. The one at the restaurant is working great and it only takes 2 1/2 minutes to fully cook a pizza. Once ours is done I will post some pictures of the oven and some of the pizzas. The picture is the design we came up with. It will be made of bricks, plaster and plenty of insulation in between. The chimney will be stainless steel that will go up through the roof that covers the BBQ area, plus there will be a metal door on the oven with “Toucan Hideaway” plasma cut into it. It should be pretty cool when it is all done.

The smoke house is now up and ready to go. It took a few burns to get it all seasoned and to get the temperature up to where it needed to be, but now it’s good to go. The first couple of burns the temp was not getting hot enough. So after drilling a few more air holes in the belly of the pig and a little more wood, it’s now working just fine and ready to start smoking all kinds of meats.

I’m still working on the Jeep just about every day, it’s coming along quite nicely and should be ready to hit the jungle trails real soon. At this point I still need to replace the clutch master, change all the fluids, replace a u-joints and a few other little things. It could be ready for the trails now, but I want to make sure everything is good or has been checked before we head out into the jungle. The jeep has not been out of the garage since we started this project back in September, so this is the cleanest you will ever see it.

While Ron and Rhonda were here we seemed to have had this dog that adopted us. Since he showed up around Christmas we named him Santa’s Little Helper. With the exception of him being black, he did look like the dog from The Simpson’s. He had a problem with his back leg as if he got hit or something and was really in need of some food and care. He was a sweet dog that seemed very good around people. At this point we didn’t have time for us to keep a dog, so we reached out to CAWS the local animal rescue to see if they could help. We agreed to pay for a vet to look at him as long as they could get him into a good home. Of course we asked all around the village first to see if anyone recognized him. After about a week or so we had an appointment with the vet and they found someone that could foster him until someone would adopt him. This was great news as now we had hope that he will go to a good home. After about a week of us fattening him up, he was moving better and I guess he thought it was time to be on his way, we haven’t seen him since. Hopefully he will find his way back home to where he belongs or to someone that will take care of him.

Over the past week or so we have had a lot of rain, which is great for all the plants. It seems to be a strange storm as it will pour down rain for a good half hour and then clear blue skies for a couple hours and then rain again. Some times it will pour all night long but clear up by morning. With all the rock we have spread around our place it’s not really muddy, but the road getting in and out of our place, there are days you need four wheel drive. It is suppose to clear up in a couple day and with temps in the 70’s – 80’s it doesn’t take long for everything to dry up again.

The last few months we have been very busy around here, so next week Kelley and I are going to the island to take a little beach break for a few days. We realize it’s only January, so stay warm wherever you are.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! For the week leading up to Christmas, there was a cold front that brought a lot of rain over Belize (we’re talking 5-6” of rain and 56°-75° temps) which made it seem a little more like Christmas down here. By Christmas eve and Christmas day everything cleared up nicely with lots of sunshine and temps in the 80’s, which made for a wonderful Christmas day.

As some of you know, Kelley always bakes a lot of cookies around Christmas and we usually have prime rib on Christmas eve and Kelley’s famous eggs benedict on Christmas morning. This year was no exception!

Kelley started making cookies about a week before Christmas, making four different kinds plus peanut brittle. Once the cookies were done we played Santa and delivered plates of cookies and candy to Ruben’s family and to Antonio’s family. We also gave them each a ham and some of our homemade bacon and sausage for them and their families to enjoy.

We usually have our Christmas dinner on the 24th because we never really know what will happen or who will stop by on Christmas day. This year our friends Ron and Rhonda (from Mexico and the states) joined us for the holidays. Of course, Kelley cooked up a wonderful feast consisting of a seven bone prime rib with horseradish and au jus, potato artichoke gratin, homegrown green beans wrapped in homemade bacon and for dessert a key lime pie made with fresh Jamaican lime juice and some homemade Rum Popo to top it off. And yes there was also some wine, what would a meal like this be without a couple bottles of wine.

After letting all that good food settle and a good night’s sleep it was Christmas morning which meant eggs benedict and mimosas. This year we managed to round up all the right ingredients for eggs-b, right down to some Thomas English muffins. This is a once a year treat for us and it is well worth the wait every year.

On Christmas day about a dozen of us got together at our place for food, drinks, and a white elephant gift exchange. Everyone brought desserts and appetizers and I cooked up a big pot of lobster-clam chowder with sourdough bread. I usually make just a clam chowder, but clams are hard to find here sometimes. I didn’t have enough clams to make it clammy enough so I added a couple of lobster tails to make up for it. There was nothing wrong with that.

While I was making the chowder, Kelley was busy making her very cute penguin appetizers. The penguins are black olives stuffed with cream cheese and carrots for their beak and feet. They seemed to be the star of the day as everyone had to have a picture of them. Of course, there was some day-drinking going on, after all, we started with mimosas and it was Christmas day.

It was a great way to spend Christmas day in the jungle with friends, good food and plenty of sunshine.

Ron and Rhonda have been driving all over Belize checking out different beach towns in search of a piece of property that they can someday call their own. We’re not sure how their search is going, but they are definitely getting a good feel for all the different areas of Belize.

One of the days while Ron and Rhonda were here we took a quad ride up to Pacbitun ruins which is just about a mile from our house. Every year archaeologists come out for about three months and excavate a little more and document it. Once they leave they have to bury everything they have uncovered and return it back the way they found it. I was up there about six months ago when they were working on it and there were a lot of sections exposed. This time it just looked like no one had ever been there, but they should be back in May and start all over again.

After checking out Pacbitun, it was on to the Malfunction Junction for a couple of cold beers. It has been almost two years since the Junction had closed, but now there is someone else running it and they say they will always be open and possibly even start serving a little bit of food. This is great for us because it is only a couple of miles from us and we can take the bikes up there and have a couple cold ones.

While we were at the junction, a truck came by selling homemade cheese, so of course, we had to get some. They had two types, regular and pepper, of course, we chose the pepper. It was a crumbly cheese loaded with habaneros and it was so good, especially with a cold beer. Each round of cheese was about a half pound and the price was…….$3.00 BZ that’s $1.50 US. Now that we know that they sell this delicious cheese we will be stopping them on the road every time we see them.

New Year’s eve was the chance for one last hoorah of the decade. Our neighbors decided that we should have a party, that way no one wouldn’t have to drive all the way into town to celebrate. This was great for us because we didn’t have to drive anywhere. Everyone brought food and drinks and we had the grill going with some sausages on a stick. Most roadside grills here serve sausage on a stick and it’s just like it sounds, a sausage on a wooden stick and then grilled.

After a while, we all wandered over towards the garage and broke out the Jungle Jenga game, which kept us entertained until we rang in the new year. It was a fun evening and a great way to bring in a new decade.

Now that the holidays are over and all the desserts, rich foods, and drinking has stopped we have vowed to only eat bananas and other things that come from our garden until we feel good and healthy again. But, like most other New Year’s resolutions, I’m sure that will last about a week or so and then there will be a big ole steak or something back on the grill. What can we say, we will have tried.

We had a great time with Ron and Rhonda here and we hope they will be back again real soon.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and here’s wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2020.

If you are still looking for a New Year’s resolution, resolve to check out Belize this year. We’ll be waiting for you.

Kelley and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from Belize! We hope Santa was good to you, even if some of you were a little bit naughty.

It’s impossible to find any snow or snowmen around here so instead we thought we would send pictures of different Christmas trees we have seen around Belize. It goes to show it doesn’t matter what your tree is made out of as long as you have the Christmas spirit. Hope you enjoy!

Poles, chicken wire, lights and snowmen.

Painted sticks and pine cones.

Beautiful tree with a parrot for a topper.

Tires, a pole and some lights.

Colorful lights around a palm tree.

5 gallon water bottles at the beer distributor.

Driftwood, pine cones and balls of vines.

A resort Christmas Tree.

As simple as garland and lights.

Our first artificial tree ever.

The monkeys are helping decorate.

Merry Christmas on painted coconuts.

Once again, Merry Christmas!

Sorry this was a day late, but for some reason we had no internet yesterday.

We got the bacon and sausage all finished up and put away in the freezer. After all said and done, we ended up with 87 good size links of spicy Italian sausage plus a small bag of non-stuffed sausage for pizzas and such. This sausage recipe we have made quite a few times in the past, adjusting the spices each time just a little. We have finally got it where we think it needs to be, at least for our taste.

We also finished up 13 lbs. of hickory-smoked bacon with heavy black pepper. The other 12 lbs. of bacon we did a little lighter with applewood smoke and just a touch of black pepper. Of course, there was also a lot of brown sugar and a few other things that went into the bacon. It’s really not a whole lot cheaper to make your own sausage and bacon. Although, once you compare the quality and the flavor of the stuff you just made to the store brands, it makes it all worth it.

The new crop of the month is peanuts. I guess the soil, elevation, and climate are perfect here which is why everyone grows peanuts. That’s why our village of San Antonio is called the “Peanut Capital of Belize”. Ruben brought over a bag of peanuts that were ready to be planted, and since the squash was done it was a perfect place to plant them. We planted them around the full moon and then there were a few light rains and within a week the plants had already grown a few inches tall. All the farmers here say to plant around the full moon for the best crop, maybe there is something to this because those peanuts are growing fast.

It should take three months before they are ready to harvest and if all goes well we will be making some homemade peanut butter by springtime. We have made peanut butter from scratch before, some with honey, some with coconut oil and another with a little chocolate and they were all very good. Maybe some of our fruit trees will have something ready by then and we can make some jellies for some awesome PB & J’s (which are one of my favorites).

One vegetable that is hard to find down here is kale and when you do it is fairly expensive. Since we love it, we thought we should try growing it. It’s doing pretty well as long as we keep the caterpillars away from it and when we do, we are getting enough to have it once a week.

Our first bunch of bananas was finally ready to harvest. From what we were told you cut the bunch when they are green and then hang then until they ripen. This way you can eat them as they ripen, which is working out well because there are a couple ripe every day. These are small apple bananas and are very sweet, creamy and delicious. So far, our hanging bunch of bananas has attracted no monkeys to the porch. Ironically though, a few days after we hung them we could hear the Howler Monkeys in the distance.

Darren came down for a visit and to check on the progress of his property (which is right next to ours). Last year he got Ruben started on clearing an area in the middle of his property where a house will go. The clearing is done so it was time to get a road up into his property. There was already an old road there from years ago and it didn’t take a whole lot to get it back in shape. Now that there was a road cut in it was only obvious that there needed to be a gate across it. A couple of weeks ago we got them started on building a gate across the road entrance and they did a great job.

He also had a power meter pole set and is working on getting a connection, plus he got a water hookup to the mainline and is having it run to his house site. Besides all that, he also got them started on a foundation where his house will be going. Darren’s place is really starting to shape up, who knows how long before we might have another neighbor.

While Darren was here we headed down to Hopkins for a couple of days of relaxing beach time. I know it’s December and cold almost everywhere, but it was 85 degrees on the beach in Hopkins. Hopefully, the above picture sends you warm thoughts and has you thinking about warmer days.

On our way down to Hopkins, we stopped at St Herman’s Blue Hole and Cave. This is considered the inland Blue Hole, not to be confused with the Great Blue Hole which is just offshore from Belize and is a major dive destination. St Herman’s Blue Hole is part of an underground river system that got exposed from a collapse not too long ago. The hole itself is about 25’ deep and is a great spot to swim and cool off.

St Herman’s Cave is supposed to be quite spectacular with water, stalagmite’s, stalactites, bats and everything else that a cave has to offer. Unfortunately, when we hiked to the entrance and started our way down into the cave our flashlight batteries gave out so we could not continue in very far. We will definitely check this out again in the future and bring a few flashlights with new batteries.

Of course, a trip down the Hummingbird Highway towards the coast would not be complete without a stop at Bertha’s tamales. Like I’ve said before, these are some of the best tamales you will ever eat. They are wrapped in banana leaves and are a creamy masa with chicken inside, very different from the tamales we would get back in Mexico or the states.

A few months back we went fishing on the Sittee River in Hopkins and fished only about a mile upriver from where the Caribbean Sea and the river come together. This time we decided to just take a cruise upriver just to check it out. The Sittee River we were told is navigation able about seven miles upstream. It’s a beautiful river with lots of wildlife along its shore and some pretty cool houses right on the river. We went in the afternoon so we didn’t see a whole lot of animals except birds and a lot of really big orange iguanas. We were on the lookout for crocodiles and manatees but didn’t spot any this time. Our guide told us that not too long ago they saw two big jaguars right on the shoreline and as they got the boat in closer for some pictures the jaguars started hissing and growling. That would have been pretty exciting to see, especially knowing that jaguars are very good swimmers.

Here are just a couple more pictures from our trip down to Hopkins. There were some local kids that came by the pool and were offering to play the drum and sing us a song. So, of course, we said yes, let’s see what you got. They started beating on the drum and singing and it was pretty cool. It was great to see young kids out trying to earn money and not just asking for it.

Of course, there was fun to be had at some of the local happy hour spots. The Dock Bar which is over the water has swings which are not that uncommon for bars. But these swings were also on tracks which allowed you to spin and slide 8’ or more from the bar towards the edge of the railing. It was another great trip down to Hopkins and with it only being a 2 1/2 hour drive from our place it makes for a great quick getaway.

Being December means that it is once again time to watch for the Belikin beer calendar release parties. This is where Belikin models come out to sign calendars and give you a chance to meet them and get some pictures with them. This year we lucked out because there just happened to be a release party on the last night Darren was here. It was a great evening meeting all the models, they were very personable and of course all very beautiful.

We hope everyone is having a great holiday season and looking forward to some time off around Christmas and spending time with friends and family.

We just got back from a trip to Arizona to catch up with family and friends. We had hoped to go a little closer to the holidays, but the airfares were outrageous, even with free miles. We got to spend some good quality time with the kids and grandsons as well as see a few friends plus take a quick trip to Tucson to see Kelley’s sisters. This also gave us a chance to get our grandsons Christmas shopping done, so at this point, we feel as if we are ahead of the game. We also did a little pre-Christmas shopping for ourselves. Kelley got a nice Nikon digital camera with a good size zoom and I got some night vision binoculars with a built-in camera. So now Kelley can get better close up pictures of the animals during the day and I can actually see what roams around in the dark. At least I think I want to see what roams around in the dark. It also gave me a chance to order a bunch of little parts for the Jeep that I couldn’t get here. It was a great visit seeing everyone and hopefully, we will be back up that way come springtime.

The day we got back it was a beautiful sunny 75-degree day. We knew there was suppose to be some cooler weather for the next few days and we welcomed it, after all, how cold could it really get in the tropical jungle. So when we got here we opened up all the windows to get some fresh air into the house that had been closed up for almost two weeks. We were thinking this should be a nice cool sleeping night, well we were wrong. The temp in the middle of the night kept dropping and dropping until it bottomed out at 57° outside, which meant it was 62° inside with all the windows open. It was by far the coldest night we have had down here. Everything is back to normal now, high 60’s in the evenings and 70’s–80’s during the day.

The other day we had a couple of toucans stop by for a visit. Kelley only had her Olympus Tough camera with her at the time and not the new Nikon. This would have been some great photos with the new camera, but we know there will be many more opportunities with all the wildlife around here.

Our third banana plant is starting to produce, and this time they are plantains. Fried plantains are served with most national dishes such as stew chicken with rice and beans. When halved and fried to a golden brown they are so sweet and delicious. Another way to prepare plantains is to thinly slice them and deep fry them into chips with a little salt and spice. We buy these whenever we can as snacks and they are delicious. So now besides our local bananas and apple bananas that we will eat fresh or use in recipes we now have plantains to make some salty crunchy chips with. We originally had seven banana plants, but now with all the new plants that are growing around them we probably have 25 plants or more and some are getting taller than the original ones. Now we just have to keep the monkeys away.

It’s been a while since we have made bacon, so it’s time to make some more. This time we are doing 25 lbs of pork belly, only 20 lbs is for us and the other 5 lbs are for a friend who we’ve done some for before. Over this holiday weekend, we will also be making 15-20 lbs of Italian sausage. I haven’t got the big smoker dialed in quite yet so, for now, we will still be using our small electric one to finish up the bacon. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have time to get the new smoker all dialed in and ready for next time.

We hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend. We were invited to a few big thanksgiving parties, but we decided to stay home and do our own, that way we get leftovers. You know what I’m talking about, turkey sandwiches, turkey noodle soup and all the other good things that come with Thanksgiving leftovers. Thanksgiving seems to be a pretty big thing here, all the restaurants offer traditional turkey dinners with all the trimmings, including pumpkin pie. Of course, there are a bunch of restaurants that put their own spin on it using local favorites. Kelley cooked a 13 lb turkey with all the fixing’s and it was delicious, and yes they do commercially raise turkeys here in Belize. Now that Thanksgiving is behind us you know it is officially the Christmas season and time to put up lights, trees and all that other festive stuff. So come Sunday we will be stringing up Christmas lights on our little jungle home and decorating our little fake Christmas tree, ’tis the season.

Since the Christmas season is upon us, Ruben brought over a couple of poinsettias for us, or as they are known locally as “Nochebuena”. Poinsettias here grow into big trees and you will see them planted around houses as regular landscaping. A couple of months ago Ruben cut a couple branches off his tree and put them in containers and now they are growing like crazy. They are just getting their red leaves and yellow flowers and should be brilliant just in time for Christmas. For now we will keep them in pots until after the first of the year and then we will find a place around the yard to plant them. We never thought we’d be growing poinsettias. We thought we’d be just like everyone else, buy one at Christmas, keep it till it dies, throw it away and repeat next Christmas.

With the holidays here it is time to start thinking about those special drinks you only get once a year such as eggnog. Here in Belize they have their own version of eggnog called Rum Popo, that is only made during the Christmas season. Here is a recipe of one that we have been making for a few years now and it is delicious.

Ingredients:

8 eggs

4 nutmegs

1 oz. cinnamon sticks

4 cans evaporated milk

3 cans condensed milk

1/2 pound raisins

1 pint white rum

Directions:

1. Soak the cinnamon and raisins in rum for 3 days.

2. After the rum is ready, beat eggs well until all lumps are gone.

3. Add evaporated milk and  beat again.

4. Add the condensed milk.

5. Add the grated nutmeg.

6. Remove the cinnamon sticks and the raisins from the rum and add the rum to the egg, milk mixture.

7. Blend well and store in bottles in the refrigerator.

8. Enjoy, I know you will!

One week from now Darren will be back for another visit. The only plans we have is a trip over to Hopkins for a few days. We will definitely get in a little beach time, maybe do a little fishing and for sure try to round up some lobsters to bring back.

That’s about what’s happening around here. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and are now getting ready for the Christmas season.

We had a lot of fun with our friends visiting, but in the mean time there was still a lot of other stuff going on around here.

The okra patch is officially going crazy and needs to be constantly picked. Kelley usually picks 40-50 okra a day, every day. The good thing is that now the plants are getting nice and tall so no more bending over to harvest them.

With all that okra, we are giving some away, Kelley is making fried okra, gumbo and of course pickling it. The other day she made another 10 jars of hot pickled okra with habaneros from the garden that we have been sharing with friends. We don’t know how long the plants will stay alive and keep producing, but Ruben had a plant that he said was about three years old.

Our Hatch green chili plants are loving this environment. The other day we had a harvest of about 100 nice green chilis. I threw them on the grill and got them all roasted to perfection and then Kelley bagged them up to go into the freezer. This is about the first time we have had any real green chilies since we moved here and we can’t wait to make all the good things that come from those chilies. In case you are wondering about the heat level on these jungle grown chilies, well they are hot, very hot! It’s a good thing we both love hot chilies.

Our second banana stalk has popped out and this time there are at least 100 bananas on it. I know that because I was the tally man and I tallied my bananas. Okay,  sorry about that, anyway daylight come and me wanna go home. Okay, now I’m done. Our first bunch of bananas on the other tree should be ready in a couple of weeks, but there is only about 30 on that stalk. We should have a lot of bananas ready very soon, so it looks like we will eat as many as we can and dehydrate the rest for snacks. Of course there will also be banana bread, banana shakes and maybe even banana daiquiris for the holidays.

Other exciting news around here is that we have our first cocoa pods on our trees. There is only five about two inch long pods on one tree at this point, but hopefully the other trees will get jealous and also start producing. When mature, the pods will be about six inches long, football shape and full of cocoa beans. Once the trees get bigger each tree can produce between 100-200 pods per tree, and we have ten trees. Hopefully in the near future we will be making a lot of our own chocolate. The cocoa beans were so important in the ancient Mayan civilization that they were used as currency. So in a way, I guess money really does grow on trees.

We picked our first star fruit the other day and it was delicious! There are a few more on the tree that should be ready in the next few days or so. It is exciting for us to start seeing all the trees starting to produce and in a couple of years we should have more different types of fruits than you can imagine.

Another plant surprise was that our caladiums got flowers, we did not know this. The other day a big white lily type flower came shooting straight up from the stalk. It’s always something new with the plants around here.

Last week we were wandering around the yard and there was this horrific smell. It smelled like something had died and was rotting away. We searched all around the smell and saw nothing that resembled a dead animal. We finally narrowed it down and it turns out that it was a mushroom. The mushroom was about 5” across and looked like it had cast a net out of it. We looked it up and it turns out that it is a type of a stinky mushroom. We quickly disposed of it so that the spores don’t fall off and grow again near our house.

We have seen some pretty big bugs down here and they are all very impressive. The other day there was a big beetle up on the porch. His legs looked like something out of a Si Fi movie with hooks and spurs all over them. When you pet his back though it was smooth like velvet and I think he actually liked it. If you put him in an aquarium and fed him he would have made a great pet for a kid.

The Jeep is coming along quite nicely. We stripped it down in order to replace or repair all the things that it needed. The hood needed to be painted even though the rest of the body was in good shape.

It had cloth seats in it, but since we are leaving the top off we had the seats recovered in leather. Of course,  it needed bigger tires and rims, new shocks and a good front bumper with a winch. We also ditched the factory doors for some half metal tube doors. We still got a lot of work to do before it will be ready to be our jungle explorer, but I’m in no hurry.

In case you are wondering, no there are no places down here to buy any accessories that the Jeep needed. You can find mechanical parts such as breaks, oil pumps, spark plugs and such, but that is about all. The only thing we purchased in Belize were the tires, everything else was ordered on Amazon. The way Amazon works here is that you order your stuff to a shipping company in Houston and then it comes in a container by boat to Belize. By time you are done with duty and the shipping company’s cost it is about 25-30% on top of your Amazon price. Which isn’t bad since you can usually find good deals on Amazon.

That’s about what’s happening around here this time. Between work, plants, maintenance, new projects and the Jeep we are keeping very busy down here which make those weekend happy hours so much better.

Our long-time friends Ed and Kim came down for a tropical Belizean vacation and to see us, we assume, haha. We decided to meet them out on San Pedro with a golf cart and the room ready for them. So we waited for them at Carlo and Ernie’s Runway bar so that we could see their plane when it landed. Just as the plane was about to land we moved over to the side so we could wave to them as they got off their plane. Well, they were not on that flight, it turns out they caught the half-hour earlier flight and were wandering around looking for us. After a text and a short walk, they were sitting at the bar laughing about it and they were having their first taste of Belize.

After dropping off their luggage it was time for a quick tour of the island. A little bit of beach bar hopping, a few photos, a good meal and it was about time to call it a night. After all, they had been traveling since 6:00 am.

The next day we decided it was a beach day, so off to Secret Beach for a day of fun and relaxing in the water. Nothing really beats sitting at a table in the warm Caribbean water and having your favorite cocktails served to you. Okay maybe there is something thing that could make it even better, and that would be having a lobster lunch brought out to your table in the water while the fish are swimming around your feet and you are getting your hair braided at the same time. What a great way to spend a lazy afternoon.

Caye Caulker is another island that is about a half-hour boat ride from San Pedro. Their motto is “Go Slow” so we thought Ed and Kim needed to check this place out. Not wanting to disrespect their motto, we slowly walked along the beach stopping for some juice and morning tropical mimosas. Then it was on to the split for people watching and a quick bite and a few cold drinks.

After a lazy day on Caye Caulker, it was time to head back towards the ferry for our trip back to San Pedro. Of course, we just couldn’t pass by a guy standing on the beach grilling lobsters without stopping. So lobster kebabs and a sausage on a stick made for a great snack before leaving the island.

The next day it was time to head back to the mainland and up to the jungle so Ed and Kim could check out where we lived. There are so many different things to see and do up where we are that there just isn’t enough time to take it all in. If you have never seen a Mayan Ruin before then this is a must-see and do when visiting Belize. Xunantunich Mayan Ruins are very impressive, very close to us, plus you get to put your car on a hand crank ferry to cross the river. After getting a guide and learning all about the history of the Mayans, Kim got to climb to the top of El Castillo, the highest structure there. Ed didn’t want to climb to the top and I had done it before so we stayed at the bottom and took pictures. Kim and her guide made it to the top and was very proud of herself, as she should be.

Another thing on their list of things to do was to take a class in making chocolate. So it was off to AJAW Chocolate for the history of how cocoa played such an important role in the Mayan empire. It is a very fun and educational class where you get to peel the beans, make a hot chocolate drink, taste some dark chocolate and even grind the beans on a natural stone the way the Mayans did.

On their last day, we decided to go for some pizza at one of our favorite spots, Guava Limb Café. Since this was their first time here they asked Kim if she wanted to make our pizzas, and of course, she jumped right in. The one she chose to make was our pear, bacon, and Gorgonzola cheese pizza… and it was delicious.

A couple of days after Ed and Kim left, our friends Bob and Kim arrived. They rented a car so they did most of their exploring on their own. They went cave tubing on the way up to our place, went to Xunantunich Ruins, made chocolate, hit the big outdoor market, the Raptor Center, Cahal Pech Ruins and even did a pontoon boat tour for the whole day.

They wasted no time squeezing in as much fun as they could while they were here. We did have plans to take them up Mountain Pine to show them Rio On Pools, caves and some waterfalls, but after a couple of real big rains we decided that the road was going to be way too muddy and unsafe.

Kelley, Kim and Bob had a great time on the jungle cruise pontoon boat. I had planned on going along but I had some kind of stomach bug and thought it was best I just stayed home. Lots of waterfalls, swimming, and a great BBQ lunch all surrounded by the beautiful jungle. Since it has been raining quite a bit lately the lake has filled up and there were a lot more waterfalls to explore than when we went a few months ago. They also saw monkeys, iguanas and even a few crocodiles around the lake.

On the way there they saw an emerald toucan on the road. This was the first one that Kelley had ever seen. Unfortunately, something else saw it also and mother nature took over. A hawk swooped down and that was the end of the toucan.

 When they got off the boat there was a big tree that had fallen and was blocking the road. No problem, just hook it up to the truck and tow it out of the way. It all added to a great day of fun and adventure.

As always there was a lot of great fun, food and friends and we believe everyone had a great time, I know we did. We hope to see them back down here again for another visit, after all, there are a whole lot more sites and adventures to be had in Belize.

The rains have come so we thought we’d show off some of our plants that we have worked so hard to get to this point. In the past few weeks we have gotten upwards of nine inches of rain. I know you are probably thinking that it must be a muddy mess down here, but it’s not. The rains usually come in the late afternoon or in the middle of the night and the next day is filled with clear blue skies. This is great because we haven’t had to water anything for quite a while now. With all the rains you can really see the difference in how much greener and more growth there is in the hills. Of course, all of our plants are loving it too, and you can literally see how much they have grown each day. So this blog is going to be all about our plants.

First I’ll start with some mushrooms. Last time I had mentioned about some tree ear mushrooms that we fried in oil. They were okay but nothing spectacular. Well, they started popping up all over so we decided to do a little more research on them. I guess they are called wood ear mushrooms and they are sold dried in the states as black fungus. They are used in a lot of Asian dishes, especially hot and sour soup. We decided to give them another try and Kelley made some hot and sour soup and a couple more recipes and they were quite good. So I guess since they are not always available, we need to harvest all we can find and then throw them in the dehydrator so we will have a supply until they come around again. We are glad we dug a little deeper and gave them a second chance because they really are quite good when cooked right.

The zucchini, yellow squash, and green peppers are doing well. The hatch green chile plants are getting waist high and are loaded with peppers. We have been picking a few big ones that will make some great chile rellenos. It’s been a long time since we have had chile rellenos, in fact, we almost called Sally to see if she would deliver. Green chilies like this are almost impossible to find down here, all they seem to have regularly are bells, jalapeños, and habaneros.

The zucchini patch is doing well so we decided to try something we have been wanting to try for some time now. Stuffed squash blossoms. They are supposed to be delicious, we’ll let you know.

The 100 or so okra plants are starting to produce well and they usually need to be picked just about every day. Currently, there is only enough for some deep-fried okra and gumbo, but that is changing rapidly. Once they really kick in, Kelley will be canning her pickled okra with some fresh habaneros. They are delicious!

We can not say how happy we are with all the steady rains. During the dry season, we watered at least every other day and saw very minimal growth, it seemed like we were just keeping the plants alive. Then the rains come and everything just seems to get bigger overnight. The banana plants are getting more bananas and are shooting up more stalks that seem to grow a few inches daily.

Our lime tree with the one lime now has more blossoms and a lot of new growth. Looks like we actually might get some margarita mix’ns in a few months.

The coffee plants are doing well and are getting more and more berries on each plant. Maybe in a few months, we might have enough to make a pot of coffee for the morning after the margaritas.

Pineapple patch #2 is doing well. No new pineapples showing yet, but we know it will happen soon. Patch #1 over by the house is growing a little slower because they are mostly in the shade. With the 50 plus pineapple plants going there will be some tropical rum drinks in our future.

The starfruit tree is now over six feet tall and has three starfruits on it. There are a lot more blossoms, but we seem to think the tree needs to get a little bigger before it gets too many fruits on it.

We also planted some turmeric roots. They seriously had leaves on them within a week of planting the root. Dried turmeric is used in curry powders and is very good for your health, so we are picturing some curry lamb in our healthy future.

The flowers and colorful tropical plants we have been putting around the house are really taking off. The purple knights we put around the porch to form a hedge are starting to bloom. They were green for the longest time, but now they are starting to get their purple flowers and once they do the bush will be completely purple.

A while ago we put in a  few caladium plants and they all looked like they just died. I guess we can’t expect every plant we put in to make it, or can we. Once the rains came they started to come back stronger than ever and are getting new leaves daily. As fast as they are growing we should have a good patch of them very soon.

The heliconias or birds-of-paradise are doing well and are starting to bloom. The orange heliconia (which we dug up on our road) is starting to get a bunch of blooms and the lobster claw also has new blooms coming out.

Lobster claw.

The table used to be a plant and we plan on planting our ass around it so I’m including it in this ‘all about plants’ episode.

A while back I had mentioned that we purchased some big round slabs of wood in hopes of making some outdoor tables. Well, I finally got around to making one. After a lot of sanding and a few coats of varnish, it was looking good. For the legs, I wanted to use wood logs or stumps, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I opted to make some out of 2 inch flat steel and give them a good coat of brown paint. This was going to go out back near the BBQ, but we decided that it might work better on the front porch. That way we could eat or play games out there and get a better view of the wildlife. Okay, so that now leaves me four more round slabs of wood, do we make more tables and open a jungle restaurant, have something carved on them as a sign, cut the middle out and call it a donut, or cut it up and use it in the smoker. The possibilities are endless, maybe after sitting around this one for awhile something will inspire me. If it inspires you to come and sit around it and help us come up with an idea, then please do so.

Since friends and guests are starting to come down for a visit I thought I’d throw together a rough guideline to help with your travel plans. This will not be a very exciting blog, but hopefully, it will give you some information about visiting.

Most flights down here from the west coast use Houston or Dallas as a hub before heading directly down to Belize. There is only one international airport in Belize and it is in Ladyville (Belize City) with the airport code being BZE. There are four major carriers that fly here daily and they are Southwest, United, Delta, and American but, keep in mind that there is usually only one flight a day. A flight from Arizona to Texas will usually take about 2 hours 45 minutes, then after a brief layover, it will be another 2 hours 15 minutes before you step foot in Belize. If you are flying Southwest (where there are no assigned seats) head to the back of the plane when you board in Texas. In Belize, they open the back of the plane and you will exit a lot faster.

From the airport up to our place it is about a 2 ½ to 3 hour drive. Your options would be to rent a car, take a shuttle or catch a hopper plane to San Ignacio. The best option in our opinion would be to rent a car so you can go check out all the sights. A lot of the flights will not get into Belize until later in the afternoon which means you might have to drive in the dark part of the way, especially during the winter months. I do not like driving the roads in Belize when it is dark because of people or animals on the roads, plus there are a lot of speed bumps that will sneak up on you and will literally launch your car if you don’t see them. When we fly in and I know we can’t make it up to our place before dark we will usually stop at Cheers for the night. Cheers is a great place to stop for a good meal and a cold drink plus they have 3 small nice clean cabins that they rent. They are about a half-hour drive from the airport, very inexpensive, plus you can get a good breakfast the next day before you head up to our place.

Once up at our place there are lots of things to do and explore. Check out Toucan Hideaway on Facebook. There I have listed different things to do in the area along with distances from our place. Keep in mind that we are about a half-hour drive from San Ignacio where there are stores and restaurants. Up here in San Antonio, there is a little store and a fruit stand, but no restaurants or gas stations.

The grocery stores in San Ignacio have just about anything you would need. If there is something you have to have let us know and we will let you know if we have seen it. As for the restaurants, you can get anything from stew chicken with rice & beans, pizza, burgers, BBQ, Chinese food, Indian food, steaks, fried chicken, and the list goes on. No need to worry if you are a picky eater there is something here for you. Plus we love to cook and we can make just about anything that sounds good.

After exploring around the jungle awhile I’m sure you will want to head over to the beach, after all, you will be on the Caribbean. There are a few options for getting to the beach, it just depends on what you want to do. The first choice for most first time visitors is San Pedro out on Ambergris. San Pedro is definitely a party town where everyone drives golf carts and there are more beach bars than you can imagine. There are a lot more options here for accommodations, fishing, diving, and other watersports compared to other spots in Belize. To get to San Pedro you will have to head back to Belize City and either catch a 20-minute flight or catch the ferry boat out to the island.

Caye Caulker is another island that is a lot quieter than Ambergris. Their motto is “Go Slow”. It is a small island with a few beach bars and a few accommodations. It makes for a great day trip by water taxi from San Pedro.

Another option for the beach would be Placencia or Hopkins down south.  The great things about these towns are you can drive there, they are laid back compared to San Pedro, plus you get to drive down the Hummingbird Highway. Placencia is a bigger town than Hopkins with a lot of expats and a lot of big projects going on. Not a whole lot of beach bars or public beaches but you can always find one that is cranking out that Caribbean music and serving great cocktails.

Hopkins is about as laid back as you can get and they have great beaches. There is not a whole lot to do in Hopkins except relax. Of course, there is fishing, snorkeling, river cruises, and cultural classes in cooking and drum making. But for the most part, it is just kick back and recharge yourself.

Just like anywhere accommodations range from the very nice with all the amenities to the very simple shack on the beach. We have stayed at quite a few places on the beaches around Belize or have had friends stay there, so if you are thinking about booking a place in a beach town let us know and we will pass on what we know about it.

Just a few things you might need to know.

Your passport must have at least six months valid before it expires.

The exchange rate is 2 BZ dollars for every 1 USD.

US currency is accepted everywhere.

There is no place outside Belize to exchange your Belizean dollars. Spend them at the airport to get rid of them.

Shorts and T-shirts and flip flops and enclosed shoes and maybe a hat is about all you need.

Sunscreen and some bug spray just in case.

Drinking water is safe in Belize.

Gas is very expensive here around $5 USD per gallon.

All prices listed in stores and restaurants are usually in BZ dollars.

Shop the duty-free shops in the airport for alcohol. You are allowed three or four bottles per person at duty-free.

Rum is cheaper in town than at the duty-free.

Most everyone here speaks English.

We recommend Tropic Air for flying to the island or anywhere else in Belize.

A few places we would recommend.

Crystal Car rental at the airport is the best. The all-wheel-drive Chevy Equinox is a very comfortable car with good mileage. The Jeep Patriot is another option just make sure you get the 4 cyl as it is much better on fuel. Crystal will also give you a cell phone and an ice chest to go along with the car. Do not waste your time with the GPS as they don’t work great for these roads.

If you think you want to spend the night on your way up here then definitely stop at Cheers. Very clean rooms for around $65 a night plus the restaurant there has a great chicken fried steak and cold beer.

If you stopover at Cheers then the next morning you will want to go to the Belize Zoo. It is a small zoo and rehab center with nothing but native animals. You can get up close to jaguars, monkeys, toucans, crocodiles. and even tapirs. It’s definitely worth the stop if you have time.

In Hopkins, Jaguar Paw resort is top-notch, with swimming pools, restaurants, and very nice rooms and beaches. Otherwise, there are more rustic places that are right on the beach. There are not a whole lot of restaurants in Hopkins, but finding food is not a problem.

Placencia has the same options for accommodations, from nice places to rustic cabins. There are a lot more restaurants and bars here compared to Hopkins.

Out on Ambergris the accommodations and restaurant and bar choices are endless.

Of course, we recommend the Toucan Hideaway. Hope this helps a little and we see you soon.

With all the recent rains, everything is growing like crazy. We always throw our fruit and veggie scraps out in the yard for the animals and we have a lot of miscellaneous plants popping up. A few months ago when mangoes were in season we threw all the seeds out there, because the Gibnuts like to chew them open and get to the inner seed. Well there were a couple that they didn’t get to and now we have more mango trees growing. For now we will just put them in some pots until we can find a new home for them.

The veggie garden is starting to produce some good peppers, okra, and squash, plus the fruit trees are starting to set fruit. We have our first starfruits on the tree with a lot more blossoms on the way and our first bunch of bananas. Everyone here has banana plants so it’s no big deal to anyone that we have bananas, but this is our first and it is very exciting to us. This plant is right in front of the guest casita, bananas for breakfast anyone? Looks like we are well on our way to having lots of fresh fruits at our finger tips every day.

Speaking of bananas, we now have monkeys. Okay, let me explain, this has been a long time in the works. Inside the house, the ceilings are over 14’ tall, which leaves a lot of empty space above the kitchen cabinets and other stuff hanging on the walls. So we had this idea of monkeys swinging around on some vines to fill up the big blank area near the ceiling. We came up with a couple of sketches of monkeys in different poses and gave them to a local wood carver who had done some other stuff for us. We wanted the monkeys to be life-size, whimsical and with no real detail to them. He had never carved monkeys before, but he did a great job and it was just what we had in mind. Now it was time to go out in the jungle and find some vines for them to swing on. We found some perfectly twisted vines that were worthy of hanging in the house, of course with the help of Ruben. So after a good cleaning and a coat of varnish the vines and the monkeys were ready to hang. They were not the easiest things to get into place, but now we have monkeys swinging in the house and filling up that big blank area.

A few weeks ago Ruben cut some new trails on the far side of the property, up by where all the fruit trees are. This time we had him cut some more trails that went from behind the house to the back of the property, down by the creek and then back towards the house. As we were walking on the new trail we were commenting about how beautiful and peaceful it really is. It makes for a great morning hike when all the birds and animals are active.

On our trek around the property, we are always looking for oyster mushrooms, especially after the rains. Today Kelley found some that she had never seen before and since Ruben was here he was able to give us a good ID on them.  According to our book, they are called tree ear mushrooms, something we had never seen before.

Ruben said that they are very delicious and are usually very hard to find. He told us that we need to fry them in oil and they will puff up and then put salt and pepper on them and they will be very tasty. Okay, so Kelley fried the mushrooms and they did puff up, something we’d never seen a mushroom do. The outside edges were crunchy and the middle was very soft. Overall they were very good, but I still prefer oyster mushrooms.

Okay, so another little food thing that we just had to try was deep-fried banana blossoms. We use to see these all the time in the Asian markets in the states and from what we understand they are a delicacy. After little interweb searching Kelley found out how to cook them and it even said that they taste like artichokes hearts. Kelley had it all cooked and called me over to try, but when I saw her spitting it out there was no way I was going to try it. She said it was one of the worst things she had ever tasted, but at least she tried it. So all the banana blossoms are safe from our kitchen.

Our Mahindra truck is great, but with it being our daily driver and our only vehicle I’m a little leery about taking it deep into the jungle off road. Which is why we have been looking for another vehicle that we can do some more exploring and not worry too much if something happened to it. We have been looking for a Jeep for a while and finally found one that will work. Jeeps like this are hard to come by down here, there’s not that many around and the ones that are, people just don’t want to sell. We finally found one that’s a 1997 with a 4.0 that runs on gas and butane and already has a 4” lift. It seems mechanically sound and just needs some minor stuff done to it. Once we get it transformed into the rig we want we should be ready to hit the jungle trails and explore new places that aren’t on the map. Can you imagine driving around in the jungle and all of a sudden a monkey jumps in and gets you a beer out of your ice chest and says thanks for the ride dude? Okay well maybe not, but it will still be fun driving around and finding new areas.

It seems that the animals around here are showing up at different times of the year, so we have started marking on a calendar when we see them. The last couple of months we saw lots of toucans, now we see only a couple a week. Same with the parrots, swarms every day and now they have thinned out.

We haven’t seen a possum in a while, where we were seeing them all the time. This month we are seeing quite a few Coatimundis and foxes around the property. We’ll be sitting in front of the garage with music on and talking and this little fox comes up about 25’ from us and just starts eating stuff off the ground. He doesn’t seem to care if we’re there or if it’s day or night, he just goes about his business. Of course, the Kinkajou’s are still up in the trees dropping stuff on the tin roof every night. Our Cohune palms are starting to drop their nuts and we know the Gibnuts love those, so we expect to start seeing them around soon. Eventually, we will learn what animals will be around by what the plants are producing.

Belize being such a young country takes their Independence Day very seriously. September 21st is their 38th year of independence from Britain and everyone here is very proud of it. The entire country goes on a three day weekend with parties, parades, and celebrations in every city, town, and village.

We were lucky enough to be coming back from town just as the parade in our little village was starting. This was not a big elaborate parade like some of the bigger cities do, but it was a perfect representation of how loyal and proud everyone is to be Belizean. San Antonio is a small village and I believe every resident was either in the parade or watching from the sidelines.

There were floats, costumes, dancers, music, and even a queen. What more would you want in a parade? The town square even got a fresh paint job and the stage is all ready for the bands. It should be a great party in the evenings that will go on for three days.

After trying for a couple of years and missing out, we finally got some tickets to see Jerry Jeff Walker at Camp Belize. Every year in January, Jerry heads down to his house in San Pedro on Ambergris and does concerts for two weeks around the island with other musicians. This year we manage to buy 4 tickets for week one (January 19-26) just in case someone wanted to join us. January is a great time in Belize, but it is considered the high season and there are a lot of people here. If anyone is interested in the tickets and joining us please let us know soon, as accommodations on the island fill up fast that time of year. Hope to see you here.

Not a whole lot happening around here in the last couple of weeks, but then again something is always happening. So here are the stories of the week.

During the day, birds are in the trees above our house picking seeds and fruits off them and letting most of them fall onto our metal roof. The last few nights things have been dropping on the roof all night long and we know it’s not the birds. Finally our curiosity got the better of us and we had to go see what it was. Turns out it is a kinkajou, nightwalker or honey bear, whatever you know it by. A very cute little critter that comes out at night and climbs around the tree tops. At this point he has been coming around for the past week or so.  Since he is only there at night it is impossible for us to get a good picture of him. So below is a stock photo just so you can see what one looks like. Cute, isn’t he!

We don’t know if it’s all the wild fruits and seeds in the trees that are ripe this time of year or maybe they are just more comfortable with us being here now, but the birds are everywhere.  Every day for the past month or so we have had a lot of toucans and other birds stopping in the trees around the house. And green parrots…every morning and evening, there are more than a hundred or so that stop in the trees and squawk and eat whatever the trees are producing. We have also been seeing more wildlife, but like most animals they are usually spotted at a distance or in the morning and evening when the light is not great, making it difficult for a good picture. Which is why we are looking into getting a better camera, something with a telephoto lens and able to take better pictures in low light. Our current camera (which we have had a few of) is an Olympus Tough that is waterproof, shockproof and takes great pictures, but sometimes you just need something with a bigger lens and more options.

A long time ago we had a nice SLR camera with all the lenses that took great pictures, but this is what you would have to do to get those great pictures. First, you would have to head down to the local store to get a roll of film, remember there was no Amazon back then. Then came the big decision… Do I get Kodak or Fuji film, what speed film am I going to need for this outing, do I want color or black & white, and finally, do I get a roll of 24 or splurge for a roll of 36? Remember we were a lot more selective when we clicked that button to take that photo, which meant that sometimes the film would stay in the camera for months before you took it in to be developed. That’s right you could not see your pictures until you took your roll of film to be developed down at the local Fotomat booth in the middle of a parking lot somewhere. And most places that developed pictures always had a special where for a couple of dollars more you could get double prints to share with your friends and family. Unless you were a very good photographer, only about 25% of your pictures were worth showing people, which meant that you now you had 75% of your pictures that were crap. And to top it off you had to have double prints made just in case they were some good ones. So, in the end, you ended up with 75% crappy pictures that take up a lot of actual space. Then came digital cameras and you could take as many as you wanted on a little memory card and then hit delete on the bad ones. Digital cameras are great, but there was something special about waiting a few days to pick up your pictures. That is your camera history lesson for the day, kids.

We have not had too much rain this year, but when we do that’s when the frogs come out. Even if it is only a short 20-minute rain it brings them out. There are all sizes and types, from little 1/2” long ones to some pretty big ones. They range in color from white, to camouflage to green, and some will just hop along around the yard where others will climb right up the side of the house and hang out on the rafters.

The other day we had Ruben cutting some trails around the property. Just simple hiking trails that loop around inside the property, mostly so we could get a better look at what we actually have and to provide us a place to take a hike in the jungle without leaving our property. There are lots of cool trees and plants along the trail but Kelley spotted one that stuck out in particular. It was a single vine about as big around as my arm that came up out of the ground about 3’ curved around and then went back down. It seemed to form the perfect heart. If we clear a little more around this vine it would be the perfect spot for some great photo-opts.

Because of where we are in the jungle, we usually don’t get many colorful sunsets, but the other night the evening sky did have some color to it. The sunsets here are nothing like the spectacular ones we had when living on the beach in Mexico, but sometimes we get one that’s pretty good. It did make a great backdrop that night when we fired up the grill.

Speaking of the grill area, I have finally finished the smoker. Little piggy is ready to start blowing smoke out his ass and into that smokehouse. Soon there will be all kinds of delicious smoked meats coming out of that thing. We have even considered having smoking parties, where everyone brings a pork belly, shoulder roast, chickens or any other meats and we show them how to prepare it and then throw it in the smoker. Then when it’s all done we can all sample everything and everyone gets to take some home. Could be a fun day of some good smoked meats and of course a few ice-cold beverages.

In case anyone is interested about the smoker, here it is. The smokehouse is made entirely out of non-treated hardwood. The framing is Nargusta (same as our house) and the siding is Santa Maria (same as our kitchen cabinets). Pine would have been a cheaper choice, but all their pine here is chemically treated and that would not be good for the meats. The fire pit is an old water pressure tank that has been turned into a BBQ grill that looks like a pig. As for the wood, we are finding small bags of different smoking chips from the states, such as hickory, mesquite, and apple. Those work great in our electric smoker, but those would not even come close to what I will need for the big smoker. We have rounded up some allspice wood, but that is a little hard to come by and I am saving that for something special. Mostly here they use hardwoods like craboo or oak for cooking and they both should work great in the smoker. At this point, we have someone working on getting us a truckload of craboo and oak so soon we should be ready to get that thing fired up.

We didn’t think we had any more room, but we found some space for a couple more paintings. Jorge Landero is a great artist who has done most of the paintings in the house and the casita and we love his work. Jorge is a good friend that we see around town and he will always let us know when he has some more paintings done. Of course he will, he says we are his best clients.

The other thing is that he lives across the street from Remo’s where we go on Sundays to see friends and have a few beers. So, of course, our curiosity always gets the better of us and we have to go see his latest works. This time we found two beautiful paintings that would fit in the house nicely, but seriously we believe we are now out of wall space. When you come down, if you would like to go see what he has to offer then we can go see him. After all, the canvas will roll up nicely and fit in your suitcase.

That’s about what’s happening around here this time. We’ve got a few friends coming down in the next few months, hopefully, we will see more of you down here soon.

We have been working hard around here and it was time for us to take a break and just relax for the weekend. So Hopkins here we come. Hopkins is only about an 80-90 mile drive from us, so in a couple of hours, you can be sitting on the Caribbean shore enjoying fresh seafood and having cocktails with little umbrellas in them.

This being the slow season, we found a wonderful place, beachfront for about a 1/4 of what you would pay in the high season. The second story condo we got was part of Jaguar Reef Resort and it was huge, I mean bigger than our house, plus it overlooked the beach. I think the resort had 3 pools, at least 3 bars and they had all the happy hours figured out. The swim-up pool bar had happy hour from 2-4, then the hotel bar was from 4-6 and the dock bar was from 6-8. We did not spend all day doing happy hour, but then again we were on a mini-vacation.

While we were at the Dock bar enjoying the views two manatees came swimming by, a mother and what looked like here baby. This was the first time we had ever seen manatees in the wild and it was pretty exciting. Going on a tour to see manatees was high on our list of things we wanted to do in Belize, but this was even better.

 Of course, living up in the jungle seafood is fairly hard to come by, so we had to get our fill in while we could. We had shrimp, fish, and mussels but the one thing that stuck out was the lobster stuffed potatoes skins. Fried potatoes skins with lobster, shrimp, marinara sauce and topped with brie cheese. The only thing wrong with those was that there were only four on the plate.

We had brought with us two big ice chests with hopes of bringing back some lobster and fish for the freezer. After asking all around town with no luck we finally hooked up with Floyd. He was an elderly gentleman who said he has had a boat out for a couple of days and they should be back in a few hours. In that time we prepped the ice chest with ice and some cold beer in hopes that they had a decent catch. After sharing a beer with Floyd, here came the boat. As the boat was getting close Floyd started lining up palm fronds on the beach, it only took us a short time to figure out what he was doing. That’s right they were running the boat right up on the beach at full speed. One of the guys sitting in the boat fell all over when he hit the shore, we all laughed and then shared a couple more beers with them.

Anyway, they had a good catch and we ended up with two big ice chests full of lobsters and fish. We got snapper fillets, whole smaller snappers that we will fry in the disco, a whole Hogfish for the grill (that is supposed to be amazing), some barracuda and of course a lot of lobster. We can finally have some friends over for some decent fish and show them how we used to cook it when we were in Mexico. As for the lobsters… we might share a couple with some friends, but we are still not sure about that.

Before we had found anyone with fish for us to bring back, we had lined up a trip on the river to do a little fishing. We had never been on the Sittee river before and we thought it would be great to see it by boat. We were up at 5 am so that we could be fishing by first light.

What a beautiful river, we fished from the mouth to a couple of miles upstream. The banks are lined with mangroves and lots of other trees and birds. Captain Jack and his wife Fiona were our guides for the day and they were wonderful and very knowledgeable.

Usually, they will take tourists to do a little bait fishing for snapper and grouper along the mangroves and guarantee you will bring some fish home. At this point, our ice chests were already full, and Captain Jack could tell we were not novice fishermen. So we told him that we wanted to target Snook and Tarpon since neither one of us had ever caught one before. We did see a couple of tarpon on the surface and even some more manatees, but no fish. Just the boat ride alone was worth the trip just to see the river.

On the way back to the marina there is a small cut in the mangroves that goes into a big lagoon. Jack was telling us that from January to May the lagoon fills up with the bioluminescence and the whole lagoon glows at night. He said that there is a spot in the middle of the lagoon that is shallow and they will take you there to get into the water.

We did ask him “what about crocks in the lagoon” and he said that they don’t go in there. Not sure we believe him, as he was also telling us about one that comes to the marina every night that they feed. I guess if no one has ever been hurt while in the water with the bioluminescence then it will never happen, right?

Jack was telling us that the river is navigational up to seven miles upstream, even at the marina which is a couple of miles in there are some boats in the 50’ range. He was also telling us that there is a small private island about a half-hour boat ride offshore. Where they will take you for a day of snorkeling, fishing and will do a beach BBQ of what you catch. This is definitely in our future, anyone else interested?

It was a great three-day weekend getaway, especially if you go during the off-season when everything is a lot cheaper and less crowded. We would definitely recommend exploring the Hopkins area, I know we will be back for some more river fishing and a private island BBQ. Hope some of you will join us next time.

We try to carry a camera with us almost everywhere we go, because chances are we will see something worthy of a picture. We do a decent job of getting some interesting photos, but sometimes it’s the ones that we don’t get that are the coolest. For example this morning it sounded like someone was popping popcorn over our tin roof. I went out to see what it was and there were about 50 or so parrots eating the seeds off a tree above the house. Then the other morning I’m sitting on the porch enjoying a cup of coffee and a dozen or so toucans land in the big tree over the casita. One of my favorite sightings was, I’m watching a lizard run across the driveway and a 3-foot harmless vine snake chasing him. Lizards can run fast, but not as fast as a hungry snake. That snake grabbed him spun around and was back in the bush before you could blink an eye. A lot of stuff happens around here, I just wish the animals would have the courtesy to wait until we get a camera.

We did get this picture! I know some of you will freak out about this and then there are others that will think it is really cool. We saw our first Boa Constrictor on the property today (which we were pretty excited about). He was a fairly small one as far as boas go because they will get up to 12’ long or so. He was very docile as he moved over the fresh seedlings tray and didn’t really seem to care that we were that close taking pictures. Of course, we have a handy snake guide to identify any snakes we see just to be safe until we get better at snake IDs. If you are still thinking ohhhh snake, how many of you had a friend growing up or even yourself who might have had a boa for a pet? As far as snakes go, these are the ones we want around here. They are pretty much harmless to humans, control the rodent population and I just read that when they are bigger they will help control the possum population. Where was he last week when that pineapple thieving possum was around? Anyway, people in Belize say that you are very lucky if you are fortunate enough to have boas around your property. Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago we saw one on the road that was hit by a car and he was definitely a big full-grown snake. I mean big enough that he could probably eat your dog. Anyway, we are happy to have these creatures around here, it’s just, at first sight, they will startle you.

Well, the smokehouse is coming along and should be ready fairly soon. The problem I was having was what to use for a firebox. Sure we could have made just a cinder block pit or something simple like that, but you know us, we wanted something a little different. A friend of ours was getting rid of an old water pressure tank that the bladder had gone bad in. Perfect, this could be the fire pit for the smoker. So after I pulled the bladder out, ground off all the brackets and ground off all the powder coating it was ready to take it to a local welder. I came up with a small sketch and explained to him that it needed to have a door that opened like a BBQ, look like a pig, (curly tail and all) and have the smoke pipe coming out his ass. He said, “No problem can you come back in a week?” We were anxious to see what he had come up with, and it was perfect.

So after another quick grinding and some clean up he was ready for his coat of high temp paint. Soon we will be filling up the pig’s belly with wood, the smoke will come out his ass into the smokehouse, curing the meat to perfection, all while putting a great smell into the air. It’s the perfect cycle.

There are a lot of carpentry shops in Belize that make all the beautiful hardwood furniture and stuff. Which means every shop has a big pile of wood shavings that they need to get rid of. They will gladly give you a bucket, a sack or even a truckload for free if you just haul it away.

So we have been going to one of our favorite wood shops and loading up the truck with wood shavings. The shavings work great in the new veggie garden as well as around all the trees and other plants. And besides looking good it really helps to keep the ground cooler, weeds down and hold the moisture until the rains come.

Our oyster mushroom log is starting to give mushrooms almost daily now, we don’t know how long it will last, but we are sure enjoying them while they are here. Kelley sautéed them in butter and olive oil with a little salt and pepper and they were to die for. Hopefully, soon our other section with the common white button mushrooms will start to produce.  If they produce well like they are supposed to, then a lot of people already have their orders in for some, and if that works out then we will be putting in some more mushroom beds.

It seems that all we have been doing this last year is planting fruit trees and other edible plants that will benefit us in the long run. It has been a lot of work, but in a couple of years when everything starts giving back it will be great! A lot of the fruit trees we buy are grafted and should start to produce next year. We keep thinking that we have enough plants, but then we’ll see something that is different from all the others and we have to have it. And besides that, the prices on fruit trees and other plants are very inexpensive compared to anywhere else we have lived. For example, a 3’ coffee tree that is starting to bear fruit runs around $5usd. What we call tropical house plants in the states will set you back 2-3 dollars. Besides all the colorful, tropical plants we are adding around the yard, here is a list of the soon to be edible plants we currently have growing.

8 banana plants (4 different types)

2 peach trees

11 cocoa plants (yes this is where chocolate comes from)

27 coffee plants (that are starting to produce)

50 pineapple plants (if I can keep the critters away)

2 Surinam cherry plants

2 red raspberry plants

1 kumquat tree

1 Lisbon lemon tree

1 pineapple/orange tree (it gets oranges the size of grapefruits)

1 lime tree (it has one lime, but I know it will do better next time)

1 red grapefruit/Valencia orange (it’s grafted so it will produce both)

1 mango tree (grafted to produce two types of mangos year-round)

1 avocado tree (grafted with two types, should also produce year-round)

1 starfruit tree

1 wax apple (sorta the shape of a pear and taste like an apple)

1 Chinese plum tree

1 custard apple tree

1 macadamia nut tree

1 almond tree

1 coconut tree

dragon fruit

Those are the trees that will be producing for a long time and provide fresh fruits all year long. Other things we currently have growing are vanilla, black pepper, mushrooms, okra, zucchini, chili peppers, artichokes, basil, rosemary, oregano, ginger, turmeric, lemongrass and I’m sure there are more. If you know us, then you know that we love plants and gardening, it’s a lot of work, but it sure makes us happy.

Since I started writing this about a week or so ago, the rains have started to come, which makes everyone very happy. So far they only last for about a half-hour or so, but that is enough water for the plants that we don’t have to hand water so much. Once the rains really start, that’s when everything here really takes off and grows like crazy. The rains should have started in June and never came, so everyone here is really looking forward to some good rainy days. To tell you the truth we are also looking for a good rainy day so we don’t have to work in the yard and just have a relaxing movie day on the couch without feeling guilty.

It’s been a while since we posted anything, but in that time we made a trip up to the states to see friends, family and of course the grandkids. Everyone is doing great and we had a great visit, even though it was hot. After all, it’s Arizona in the summertime and our truck temp even registered 124 degrees outside one day. Not sure how accurate that was, but it was hot! We spent a lot of time in the pool with the kids and even got Luke out of school one day for a trip to the zoo.

Of course, while we were in the states we had to fill up on all the foods we haven’t had in a while. There were prime rib caps, artichokes, green chili, snow crab, clam chowder, Chompie’s pastrami sandwich, good pizza, and even Taco Bell. All the good things we can’t get down here in Belize. We both said that we think we gained weight while up there and who wouldn’t with all that good food. Anyway, now we are back in Belize eating good, fresh healthy foods again, but we are still thinking about how good all that other stuff was.

Well, the rains have yet to come this year and they say we are going to be in drought conditions for a while. This is bad for all of the local farmers, as not all of them have access to a watering system and depend on the summer rains to water their crops. There are rain showers every so often, but not enough to let mother nature do all the watering. If we don’t hand water our vegetables every day or so, they just won’t make it. All the other fruit trees are doing fine with only a twice-a-week watering. We did have our very first pineapple that was ready to pick, but we were a day late getting to it. Some critter (we assume it was a possum) chewed that big pineapple off the plant and proceeded to eat the whole thing right there. The good thing is that the pineapple top will get a second chance as I’ve got it in water and it’s already getting roots.

On the other hand, Kelley has been throwing her cantaloupe seeds in the yard (not planting just chucking them out there) and some have been growing and actually producing cantaloupes. People have told us before, that with all the animals and birds around here you need to plant twice as much as you think you will need because the wildlife will eat half of it. That’s fine, but seriously… that was our first pineapple.

Speaking of critters, I usually have two pair of flip flops that I leave on the front porch. One is an old crusty pair and the other is a nice newer pair. We came home the other evening and there were three flip flops on the porch, not four, and of course, the one missing was one of the good ones. Okay, so what would steal one flip flop? Is there a monkey swinging around the trees beating his chest with it? Is there a boa constrictor curled up around it trying to make love to it? We checked our camera footage hoping to find some exotic wild animal carting it off to play with it. Turns out it was just a dog, so now we don’t leave our shoes on the porch.

We are still cutting down a few more trees around the house that look like they could be trouble if we have some big winds. The nice thing is that we are using the cut trees to line the trails, driveway and basic borders around the yard. Like I have mentioned before, when old plants come out new ones go in. So there are a few more black pepper vines, cocoa, and coffee plants going in. We also found a Chinese plum tree that produces an oval fruit that is very sweet, which we can’t wait to try.

Since we are starting to get a few rains, the wild oyster mushrooms are starting to show up. You can usually find them on old logs and trees if you just look around. When we find a log with some, we are bringing those logs closer to the house so hopefully, in the future, we won’t have to go looking for those delicious mushrooms.  We recently planted a bed of the common white button mushrooms. Supposedly once they start growing in about 3 months, they should produce 25 lbs a month and keep growing for 3-6 years. Mushrooms are very expensive at the market here so hopefully, these will take off and we will have plenty of fresh shrooms.

The neighbor up the road just stopped by with a fresh pig that he had butchered. This time we grabbed a front shoulder and some more pork belly for another batch of bacon. The shoulder will be turned into some Italian sausage and some Louisiana style hot links. At this point, we are still using a small electric smoker, but next week I am starting on building the smokehouse, and once that is done we’re going to try our hand at curing whole hams.

Another project that is happening around here is the installation of a culvert on the road heading down to our property. When the big rains come, the water crosses the road making it almost impassable without a 4×4. We have asked other property owners with property beyond this if they wanted to chip in on the cost, and so far most of them are in. Of course, it wasn’t just digging a hole, put a culvert in, bury it and call it done. Everyone knows what backhoes are attracted to, that’s right… water lines. Just part of the fun living in the jungle.

Ruben stopped by the other day with a Mayan artifact that his neighbor had found. I guess he was plowing his field getting ready to plant and something caught his eye. After cleaning all the dirt off of it, it turned out to be a beautiful hand-carved pipe. It was shown to an archaeologist who was working at Pactibun ruin right next to us and he said that it was more than likely carved out of a type of black jade. Pactibun site was inhabited from 900 BC to 900 AD, obviously, this pipe is very old. It is a very detailed 3” smoking pipe of a hand with a bracelet holding a bowl. It’s an amazing artifact that was found within a mile from us, who knows what else could be hiding out there. We have acquired this great artifact and it will be proudly displayed at our home. So come on down and check it out, it’s very impressive.

Breaking News……. A very large flip flop has been found in a peanut field about a half-mile from us. There were no injuries to the flip flop and it has been returned safely to its rightful owner. The owner had this to say, “My sole has been saved!”

That’s about it for this update, have fun and be safe.

Well, we finally got the big bbq grill up and going just in time for the 4th of July weekend.  The 4th of July isn’t really celebrated here since that is the day America got its independence from the British.  However people here still do celebrate it and will wish you a happy 4th of July. For us, it was a chance to take a long four day weekend and just chill out a little.

Since we picked up the grill used before we came down here, it obviously needed a good tune-up. The big solid steel burners were clogged up pretty good and needed a thorough cleaning from the inside out. I took them over to a butane specialty store and they went to work on them and had them working great in no time. So now the question was, what will be our first meal on this kick-ass grill. Since it was a long holiday weekend, we thought cheeseburgers would be great. So we picked up a couple of fresh buns from the little bakery, got out some of our homemade bacon, grilled up some garden fresh green chilies and made the best cheeseburgers we have had in quite awhile.

The next night we used it again for some rib-eye steaks and portabello mushrooms. Our little grill on the porch that we had been using for the past year just wouldn’t get hot enough to cook things properly, but the big one sure does the job nicely. As soon as the steaks went on you could hear the sizzle, and when I flipped them, there were grill marks, we have not seen grill marks on a piece of meat in a long time. Then the next night we cooked a pizza on it that turned out great too, we are still having the pizza oven built, but this will work in the meantime. This new grill is working out great, and it’s so nice to be cooking on a real one once again. Next up is to test out the rotisserie.

Over the long weekend, we decided to invite a few friends over for a cool refreshing dip up at Pinol Sands and then back to our place for some jerked chicken on the bar-b. Pinol Sands was great as always and of course, there was no one there but us.

Kelley had the chicken all cut up and jerked before we left so once we got back from the water it was time for me to fire up the grill and get it going. While the chicken was cooking we were all kept busy with the ring game we’d set up. In case you have never seen it… it is a metal ring on a rope that you swing and try to get it onto a hook that is mounted to the wall. It can be very frustrating or very satisfying, depending on how good you are.

The season seems to have changed here, the days are not as warm as they were and there are now partially cloudy days with some rain mixed in. Which means it’s time to get some seeds into the ground and let mother nature take care of them. So we planted some zucchini, yellow squash, okra, corn, more green peppers, and artichokes. In the next month, we will also be starting some more types of peppers such as pablano, cayenne, and ghost. Ruben has also offered to bring us some peanuts for us to grow.

We are constantly cutting and trimming plants and trees. Last week our cell service was getting a little sketchy and I believe that the trees in front of our antenna were getting too big. So three trees there had to come down. There were also a couple of trees near the house that swayed pretty good in the wind and we thought we should just get them out of there before they fall on the house or the truck. I’ve gotten really good at falling trees exactly where I want them and sometimes they are even in some pretty tight spots.

Of course, when we take plants out we usually replace them with other plants. The other day we hit the nursery and picked up another 30 plants. We grabbed 4 more coffee plants and the rest were all colorful landscape plants that will form a nice hedge along the driveway. Once all the plants get established and start blooming it should look pretty good and colorful around here.

I thought I’d throw in a few fun facts that you might not have known about Belize, so here we go.

1. Belize is still a commonwealth nation of the British and the head of state is her majesty, the queen of Buckingham Palace.

2. More than 80% of the rain forests in Belize are protected by the government and are inaccessible.

3. Belize is among the top 5 least populated countries with only 15 people per sq. km.

4. More than 90% of the population can read and most can speak at least three languages. English, Spanish and Creole.

5. The island of Ambergris was sold to a Mr. James Blake in 1869 for $625. Now that was a deal.

6. Pop singer Madonna’s famous song “La Isla Bonita” was written for the town of San Pedro out on  Ambergris Caye.

7. Belize is the only Central American country without a Pacific coastline.

8. The Cockscomb Wildlife Sanctuary is the only Jaguar preserve in the world.

9. Belizean money is also called a dollar and is pegged to the U.S. dollar. One U.S. dollar always equals two Belizean dollars, making it very easy to convert prices. Plus U.S. currency is accepted everywhere.

10. Belize is the only country that has people represented on their flag.

Belikin, the national beer of Belize, just celebrated their 50th anniversary. To commemorative this, they printed 50th-anniversary labels for their beers and had special yellow caps put on them. They also made a few golden bottles which were very hard to come by. I don’t know if there was a special promotion if you found one or not, but it sort of reminded me of the golden ticket from Willy Wonka. Anyway, we managed to get one and when I told my friend at the distributor about it he said we were very lucky. So now we have a golden bottle of beer sitting on a shelf in the garage with some other ones.

Here’s your chance for a golden ticket. We will be in the Phoenix area next week, and the first ten people to respond to this will receive a one week stay, free of charge at the Iguana Getaway located inside the Toucan Hideaway property in beautiful Belize. Accommodations include your own private house, private bath with hot and cold running water, air conditioning, color TV, a refrigerator to keep all your alcoholic beverages cold and a king size bed for once all that alcohol really kicks in. Also, the first three people to take advantage of this offer will also receive a gourmet dinner for two, well really for four because we will be joining you. This offer does not expire and it is not limited to the first ten people to respond. Airfare, transportation, food, alcohol and pretty much everything else are not included, just the room. So don’t delay, take advantage of this offer before it’s too late, you won’t regret it! Not valid in British Honduras, Yugoslavia, Prussia, The Republic of Texas or any other country that no longer exists.

BEL (Belize Electric Company) is very good about texting all of their customers when there will be an interruption in their service, even if it is just for a short time. We got a notice the other day that power would be out in all of Cayo on Sunday from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm. Okay, so we get all our work done around here on Saturday and then cool off under the fans with a cold beverage. But what do we do on Sunday when there are no fans and you can’t open the fridge for a cold drink. We thought about going to town for a late breakfast or lunch, but all of Cayo will be without power till the afternoon. Well, when the power is out for eight hours on a Sunday there is only one thing to do…LobsterFest!!! Sorry Randy & Darren, but Placencia LobsterFest was calling and besides that, we really didn’t want to sit around the house with no power.

We headed out of here around 6:00 am for the three-hour drive down to Placencia. Of course on the way, we had to stop at Bertha’s Tamales for some of the best in all of Belize. Then it was onto Barefoot Beach Bar for the ultimate lobster grilled cheese sandwich, I know there are a couple of you that will remember this.

By now LobsterFest was starting to get going, everyone had their grills fired up and full of lobster. There were whole lobsters, lobster kabobs, lobster sausage, nachos with lobster and many more different dishes to choose from.

After having our fill of lobster it was time to leave the beach and start heading back up to the hills. We had brought a couple of ice chests with hopes of bringing back a bunch of lobster, but the seas had been rough the past few days and there really weren’t any extras available. Maybe next month or so when there are no LobsterFests going on they will have a better supply and the price will come down. It was a great Sunday road trip and the nice thing about Sunday is that there is hardly anyone on the roads. After all this, BEL postponed the power outage until further notice, so maybe there is another road trip coming up soon.

I know we talk about all the fun and adventures we are having (and we are seriously having the time of our lives) but there is a lot of work we do in between all the fun. Kelley works hard all day dealing with clients while I’m out working on all the projects we have to do around here. Come five o’clock during the week that is when we work on all the gardening and get all the plants watered and trimmed. Once the rains come we will not have to constantly water anything for a few months, but until the steady rains come we still have to water all the time. The rains have started a little, which gives us a small break here and there, but once they really start that means that all the jungle also grows very fast. This means a lot more trimming to keep our little piece of paradise in shape. Come the weekend, that is when we are both together in the yard doing everything you can imagine, from spreading gravel, weed whacking, clearing out dead trees, painting, building new things and of course taking more care of the plants.

All this hard work is starting to pay off though, first of all, what we have accomplished in this past year still just amazes us. The landscaping and the garden are starting to come together and it is looking great. The plants and flowers are getting established and are starting to show their beauty. The vegetables are doing okay, not like we thought they would, but we are learning a lot about the next time we plant. Green chiles are doing good… we got a pretty good first harvest so far. The corn is doing well and should be ready in a couple of weeks, even though we only got about 40 plants of the 100 or so we planted. At this point, we have about 45 pineapple plants that are doing great and there will even be one ripe soon.

It’s mango season right now and everybody has mangoes. A friend of ours gave us three big bags full of the biggest, sweetest mangoes you can imagine. We love fresh mangoes especially with a little Tajin sprinkled on them, but we can only eat so many. So Kelley cleaned a bunch and froze them for later (mango margaritas anyone?) and we also got the dehydrator out to make some awesome dried fruit snacks. Hopefully, in a couple of years when all of our trees start producing, we will be the ones giving fruit away to friends and neighbors.

Overall, it’s a hell of a lot of hard work to get this place where we want it and to keep it running smoothly, but there are also times when fun adventures are calling and you just have to take advantage of those times.

Somehow we have acquired a dog. The guy’s dog up the road seems to think he lives here now. He’s a good dog, named Red, not the brightest, lives under the house, won’t come up the stairs and barks when he hears something. I guess that is what you want in a yard dog. We feed him our table scraps and he loves them, we have dry dog food for him, but he will only eat that as a last resort. So now we have a dog that is not ours, he protects the house and we don’t feel bad when we leave him for a few days. Sound familiar, maybe even looks familiar?

Okay, we got a little more info on the 5 acres that are for sale on our road. Ruben has cleared a road going into it and cleared a big area inside where a house could go. Water and power are available at the entrance to the property and since it is up the hill from us, you can get WiFi and cell service. The property is full of trees, not as big and as dense as ours, but give it time. The asking price is 32K and from what we hear that is a very good price for this area. If the property bordered ours we would probably jump on it, but it is a couple of lots away. If anyone is interested, let us know and we will pass along the info.

Let’s see, where do I start. Okay, we picked up Randy and Darren up at the airport for a ten-day visit. Randy was here seven years ago with us, but that was back before we really knew anything about the area or even had property. And Darren has been here a few times recently. So mostly we just hung around and showed them our place, ran a few errands and of course went to all our favorite little spots around here.

Every so often friends here will have a get together at someone’s place and just have some fun. We thought it was about our turn and it would be a good way for Randy and Darren to meet some of our friends and neighbors. So we fired up the smoker for a pork shoulder to make some pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce, and as an extra treat, we also smoked some garlic parmesan wings. A friend of ours left for a year to Ireland so he loaned us his giant jungle Jenga game, so of course we had to give that a go. It was a great afternoon and the boys got to meet some great new people.

One of the days we booked a jungle cruise up on a lake near the Guatemalan border with 22 of our friends. They picked us up in vans and shuttled us up to the lake where there were two mostly wood pontoon boats tied together and waiting for us. The last mile drive down to the lake was pretty rough, so we had to come down four at a time in a 4×4, that was an adventure in itself. Once we were all there we headed out onto the jungle lake into the mist and heavy rain on what we called “The African Queen”.

It wasn’t long though before the rains let up and out came the clear blue skies, which lead to the calmest most beautiful lake you have ever seen. The lake is only about three miles long and is privately owned so there was not another soul on the lake. About the only other creatures we saw were a few howler monkeys up in the trees.

There were a couple of big waterfalls where our guide put the front of the boat right up into the falls for a very up close experience.

Next to the falls was a nice sandy beach where he beached the boats and everyone jumped in, cooled off and swam around for a while. While we were all in the water having a good time, they fired up the grill and made us a great lunch of grilled chicken and sausages. After that, we went over to a rope swing that was tied to a tree where a couple of people gave it a go, we thought it was better if we just stayed on the boat and watched.

Then it was a slow cruise down to the dam to check it out. The guide told me that it was over 200’ deep at the dam, so of course I had to ask about fishing. He said there are fish there but he didn’t really know too much about it. So there might be an overnight pontoon fishing trip in our future, that could be quite an adventure. Randy said to the guide that he had heard there were no crocodiles in the lake, and the guide’s response was “Who told you that?”. Anyway, it was a great day for everyone, we all made it back alive and nobody got hurt. We would definitely do this again and we think you should too if you ever get a chance. www.JungleSplashTours.com. Check them out.

About a mile from us as the crow flies there is Pactibun Mayan Site. We have been there before and it looked like someone excavated a small part of it years ago. So we took the boys up there since it is literally in our backyard just to check it out. Well, to our surprise there were about 20 people there excavating it.

We talked to the professor who was in charge, who gave us a full tour of the site where they had five different areas that they were working on. We told him that we had never seen anyone here before and he explained that every year they come for a couple of months and excavate a little more. According to the Belizean government after they dig and document everything they must backfill it all back in before they leave. So next year when they get here they have to dig it out and continue on where they left off. They come every year from May to June, so we will check back next year and see if they have made more discoveries.

By now it was time to head to San Pedro out on Ambergris for Lobsterfest. So a 2½ hour drive to the airport to catch our favorite Tropic Air for a quick 15-minute flight to the island.

There was a little confusion when everything got booked as to when Lobsterfest actually started and I guess the big parties didn’t start till the next weekend after we were gone. Lobster season did open while we were there and we did get a chance to enjoy some lobster tails and some lobster bombs, which were lobster, jalapeno and cheese wrapped in bacon. There was nothing wrong with those.

It wasn’t the big celebration we were expecting and I think we all were a little bummed about it. The good thing is that lobster is now available again until next February and I know Darren will be back before that and who knows, maybe Randy will be too.

We couldn’t let Lobsterfest get us down, so we loaded up our golf cart and cruised around the island at 5 mph, and when you are going that fast you are passing a beach bar every 10 seconds. Yes, there are a lot of places to get a cold drink on the island and we did our best to check them out. One of our favorites is the Truck Stop. It is all built out of shipping container and has different restaurants in each one. On the weekend they have a game night and the night we were there they had Family Feud going on, so of course, we had to get in on that.

We were on stage answering questions (they were all wrong) and actually we almost won the whole thing (not really we lost big time), but we sure did have a lot of fun. After that, we went onto another bar that Darren had been to last time he was on the island. Darren walked up to the bar and the bartender says “Hi Darren”. He was so impressed that he remembered his name, but it turns out he just still had his nametag on from playing Family Feud.

Another favorite place of ours is Secret Beach, where one of the places has permanent tables and umbrellas right out in the water. So we had to take the boys over there to check it out and have some water time. The waiter will bring food and drinks right out to your table in the water, not a bad way to spend the day.

Kelley and I have been here a couple of times and it is one of our favorite places to hang out in the water. It is on the lagoon side of the island so there is no wind, waves or seaweed. It is quite a drive to get there, but well worth it once you are there.

Our rental house this time was a three bedroom, right on the lagoon with plenty of room for all of us. The beach is only a few hundred feet away and it is very close to all the activities.

As we were getting ready to leave, Kelley spotted something in the water. At first, it looked like a log, but it was moving too fast for that. That’s right it was a crocodile, and he was a good 12 feet or so. This was the first one we have actually seen in the wild and it was right off our back porch, very cool!

There are a lot more stories about The Adventures of Randy & Darren, but that should do it for now.

Happy late Fathers Day to all you great dads out there.

Greetings from the jungle. First of all, we can’t believe it was last June when we made the big move to Belize. I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun, or working hard or getting older. Whatever it is, it’s hard to believe it’s been a year. Anyway here’s what has been happening down here the last few weeks.

Our Mahindra truck we have now had for almost a year, and it has proven to be a great truck and we are very happy with it. The tires were getting a lot of wear on them so we thought it would be best to get some new ones before the rainy season sets in. Last year the dealer was talking about putting a lift on the truck and I said I would think about it when we needed new tires. Well, new tire time was here so why not get bigger tires and put the 4” lift on the truck. The dealer installed the lift so there will be no problem with the warranty on the truck. The truck rides great and has a taller stance now and it also looks a lot better. We have talked to other Mahindra owners who have 2-300,000 km on them and they still say they are great trucks. There is even an article here where Australia named the 2019 Mahindra “The truck of the year.” https://www.whichcar.com.au/reviews/4x4oty/4×4-of-the-year-2019-mahindra-pik-up-s10-review.  I think we made the right choice when we decided on this truck.

Last time I mentioned about the neighbor who showed up with the pork bellies. It has been well over a year since we made our last batch of bacon, but now after about 10 days of processing, we now have some jungle bacon. One belly is brown sugar and black pepper and the other is brown sugar and paprika, both smoked over hickory wood. At this point, we have been giving some to friends, but other people are asking to buy it and one restaurant even said that they would buy all we could make. Who knows, maybe after the smokehouse is done we be make’n a lotta bacon.

We ordered some metal cabinets for the shop on Amazon a few weeks ago and they finally got here. Yes, you can order Amazon, it just won’t get here overnight. The order has to go to a shipper in Houston and then into a container and shipped down. It takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks, but you can get Amazon in Belize – all you have to do is pay the duty and freight charges. We recently ordered 12 electronic plug-in bug repellents, the shipping and duty were only $12, very reasonable. There are a lot of things that are not available in Belize, but if you can shop Amazon for the best price and then figure in shipping and duty, it’s really not that much more than you would pay at a retail store in the states with all the taxes. Anyway, the shop is coming along quite nicely, there is now a bunch of cabinets for storage, a rolling work table and of course a fridge dedicated just for beer, what more could we need.

During the dry season, a lot of the trees shed their leaves leaving the hillsides looking very dry. With the wet season approaching and the few rains we have had so far, all the plants and trees are all back to greening up very quickly. And it’s not just the wild plants, our fruit trees all have a lot of new leaves and blossoms coming out everywhere. Even the flowering plants we put around the house are starting to bloom. This should be a good year for all our plants now that they have had some time to establish themselves.

Every morning when we get up we open the front door to let the fresh air in. The morning sun comes in and shines brightly on our red kitchen cabinets and really illuminates them. The problem being is that it also attracts hummingbirds into the house. Most of them will just come in and cruise around checking things out and then leave. Then there are the ones who come in and head straight up to the ceiling and just can’t figure out how to go back out the big door they came in. About the only thing we can do is to wait for them to tire themselves out and land so we can pick them up and put them back outside. It is really cool to have the hummingbirds come in the house and come up to you as if to say good morning and then leave, I just wish they all were that smart. The picture below is not a hummingbird but a beautiful Black-Headed Trogon that just sat in the tree and let us get real close for some pictures.

I don’t know if it is because the dry season is coming to an end or some of the rains have started, but we have seen a few snakes around here lately. In the last year, we have only seen a handful of small snakes around here, but in the last couple of weeks, we have seen eight, all between 2-3 feet long, except for one who was a good six feet long. He was a brown vine snake and cut right in front of me across the driveway as I was walking. He didn’t seem to care too much about me and just went on his way back to climbing vines. The vine snake is not a threat to humans and is beneficial to have around so we just took some pictures and watched him go away. Yes, there are snakes here, after all, we do live in a jungle. You just need to watch where you walk and be aware of your surroundings. The other day I thought I saw a big green vine snake, but it turned out to be just the garden hose.

We have been very busy trying to get more projects done around here before our guests Randy and Darren show up next week. That way when they are here we can take a break from everything and have some fun. They will be up here with us for about six days before we head over to San Pedro for a few days for Lobsterfest. LOBSTERFEST WOO HOO!!!! The first lobsters of the season. I know we will partake in as many different lobster dishes as we can, but I sure hope someone is making a lobster grilled cheese sandwiches. The ones we had last year at Lobsterfest in Placencia were over the top! We can’t wait to have some fun when Randy and Darren get here and of course, eat a bunch of delicious lobsters.

That’s about all for now, all’s good with jungle life. Stay tuned next time for The Adventures of Randy & Darren.

We just received a note from the realtor saying that a lot on our road in our little ‘hood’ has become available. It is a 5-acre parcel with water and electricity to the property line.  The price is 32K. If anyone is interested, let us know and we will send you the realtors info, otherwise, we can answer a lot of questions. Just remember…. we would be your neighbors.

This could be a lot of work but it should be fun at the same time. We now have about 30 vanilla vines. A guy we met is helping people grow vanilla to show them that it could be a profitable crop if taken seriously. I guess his family has always grown vanilla in Belize and now he wants to share his knowledge with others. He had three different types of vanilla, some are used for flavoring and some they use for perfumes. So we purchased three different types of vanilla vines from him and we will see what happens. They grow wild here in Belize and he said that we probably have some growing on the property we just didn’t know what to look for. Vanilla is a vine and a member of the orchid family. The vanilla only blooms once a year, and in the wild, there is only about a 1% chance that the flowers will get pollinated. So most of the pollination on farms and such has to be done by hand in order to produce a vanilla bean. The guy we got the vines from helped us plant a few, showed us everything he thought we should know and even said to call him when they start to bloom and he will come out and show us how to correctly pollinate them. I guess when you are paying $7-$12 per bean in the store then maybe this could turn out to be something. If not at least we will have some nice looking vines on the trees and maybe a few fresh vanilla beans to do some cooking with.

The guy we bought the vanilla from also grows cocoa on his farm and was selling the roasted cocoa nibs (what you make chocolate from). So we bought a bag of them from him because our trees have another year or so before they will start producing. We were not quite sure what we were going to do with them until it hit us, chocolate liqueur. So currently the cocoa nibs are soaking in a 750 ml of vodka for a few weeks until we can finish the process. Then we thought why not make some coconut vodka. So we talked to our man Ruben and the next day we had 5 fresh coconuts delivered and he even cleaned them for us too.

Now we also have coconut soaking in a bottle of vodka for a couple of weeks. Can you say Mounds candy bar shots! Kelley even suggested grinding up some almonds to rim the glass with to make it an almond joy shot. I guess sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t. They will be ready for Darren and Randy when they get here in a few weeks, that is if there is any left. Update…OMG is that chocolate one good. Mix the chocolate vodka with coconut and it tastes like a mounds candy bar or mix the chocolate with cream de mint and it’s an Andes mint. We will definitely have to make another batch.

Since our basil plants are thriving we have been craving some of Kelley’s homemade pesto, but we can not find any pine nuts. Even though there is Mountain Pine Reserve not far from us that is loaded with pine trees. We have asked everyone and no one has never even heard of pine nuts around here. So we have considered making pesto with other locally grown nuts, such as peanuts or cashews.  Then a couple of weeks ago we were at a farmers market and there they were, four bags of real pine nuts. The gal even told us where we could go collect them if we wanted.

So now we had everything needed for Kelley to make here pesto. The food processor is out, the basil is washed, the nuts and all other ingredients are ready except there is one ingredient missing. Parsley, she forgot that she needed parsley. So trying to think of what we could substitute the parsley with and we came up with moringa. Our moringa trees are growing fast, are over ten feet tall and they needed to be topped anyway. So now it is Kelley’s new and improved pesto with moringa and that’s gotta be pretty good for you.  We have also started making tea with the leaves from the moringa and will start using it in our cooking. Everyone here we’ve talked to who are utilizing the moringa tree says they just feel better overall, after all, it is called “The Tree of Life”.

For the last few weeks, the big project around here has been getting the bbq all up and going.  Antonio and Ruben spent only 8 days getting all the cement, block and tile work done.

Now it was our turn to put the finishing touches on it. Kelley got a coat of paint on it while I was busy making the doors. We are still in the process of running water, butane, and electricity, but that should be done this week. We also had 15 yards of gravel brought in to complete the look and tie it all together with the rest of the area. As for the pizza oven, we put that on hold until we can find someone who knows what they are doing. A lot of people are building brick ovens but they usually have only built one or two and we want to find someone with a little more experience so it is done correctly. The base and floor for the smokehouse are also done, now I just have to build the actual smokehouse.

Now that the bbq area is done it’s time to start getting in a few more choice plants around the area. Yesterday we picked up ten more coffee trees to put around the perimeter of the bbq area. I think that brings the total coffee trees up to 25 and the ones we’ve had in the ground for a while are starting to bud out already. So hopefully there is a nice cup of homegrown coffee in my future.

This is the end of the dry season and it has been very hot the last couple of weeks. Everyone says that it gets very hot the first couple of weeks in May and then the rains come in the middle of May and it is nice for the rest of the year. So we are hoping for the rain soon, mostly because all the plants really need it. A week ago we had an inch of rain overnight and some of the plants around us have grown a foot or more in that short of time. In the dry season, a lot of the big trees lose all of their leaves leaving them to look very barren. But in exchange for the green leaves, the trees produce these spectacular flowers in just about any color you can imagine. It is very common this time of year to be driving down the road and see a purple, pink, red or yellow tree that will just make you stop and go WOW!

Since it has been so hot here, last Friday we decided to head up the mountain and go for a dip in the river. It’s only about 5 miles up the dirt road to this nice little swimming hole on the river. It is a great place to cool off and have a couple of ice cold beers. The vegetation along the river bank is everything from pine trees, big leaf philodendrons, ferns, and orchids. On the way back we did pull over and gather a few big philodendrons and an orchid to bring home.

Summer is the rainy season here but that also means that the weather is cooler. There is a chance we could go for a week without any rain then there is also the chance it could rain for a couple of days non stop. Last summer was great, the heavy rains were usually at night and then opened up to blue skies during the day. If anyone is thinking about coming down over the summer, don’t hesitate. The air is crisp and clean and the plants are at their greenest. The guest house is ready and you know that new bbq will be going, so come on down.

I was just ready to send this blog out when there is a honk in the driveway. Our neighbor had just butchered a pig this morning and he knew that I was looking for some pork belly to make bacon. So now we have 15 lbs of pork belly for bacon, a shoulder that will be smoked for pulled pork and some killer looking ribs. Plus he gave us a watermelon from his farm. I love it when neighbors honk in your driveway. Looks like there will be bacon when Darren and Randy get here…maybe.

It was 25 years ago today that we bought our Mexican home on the Sea of Cortez that would soon be called “Bedrock”.  More fun was had and memories made there than anyone can imagine. But sometimes you just feel the need to move on and experience new and different things in your lives, so that’s what we did. One year ago today on Cinco De Mayo we left our Mexican home and started working our way to Belize to start the next chapter in our lives, and boy has it been fun.

As you can guess Cinco De Mayo is not really a big thing down here but for us, it’s still a good excuse to make some carne asada tacos and a few batches of margaritas. Tequila is expensive and fairly hard to come by down here (I know Belize borders Mexico, it makes no sense). Anyway, we have been stocking up when we come through the Duty-Free store at the airport so we are prepared for any tequila emergency. Today we will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a few friends, tacos and of course margaritas. So today we raise a glass of tequila to all our friends. Happy Cinco De Mayo! Salude!

Music is very big in Belize and there is every kind imaginable everywhere you go. From hard rock, Caribbean, rap, pop, country, and more… they love their music and are always moving to it. We like all kinds of music and have seen all types of musical instruments played, but not a solo guy with an electric ukulele. So it was off to the Bluff’s restaurant and bar to check him out and have dinner and a few beers. Bruddah Adrian was his name and he was amazing! He played songs you know as well as some of his original stuff, and let me remind you this is all on an ‘electric ukulele.’ All of his song whether his original or others, all had this wonderful tropical beat that you just couldn’t stop moving to. He usually plays in Southern California and Hawaii and this was his first time in Belize, hopefully not his last. If you want some music that will get you in that tropical beachy attitude then check him out at www.bruddahadrianmusic.com

Ever since our first trip to Belize, we saw these fun tropical paintings that really got our attention. Walter Castillo is the artist and he is a very well known and sought after artist known for his fun tropical Belizean life scenes. We had been looking at his work for years but just couldn’t bring ourselves to purchase one at a gallery because they were a little more than we wanted to pay. But when you can buy direct from the artist without the big commission from the galleries tacked on, it makes a big difference. Well, the other night he had a small showing of his recent paintings at the ukulele show, so we saw this as our chance to finally own an original Walter Castillo painting. In case you are thinking you’ve seen his work before, it’s because he did the cover for Kelly McGuire’s King of the Island CD. By the way, if you don’t know who Kelly McGuire is then you need to check out his music also.  www.redfishisland.com

Since we have been clearing a little area for some more trees we have been on the lookout for other types of fruit trees that we don’t already have. The other day we stopped at one of the many nurseries we go to and we found a few more trees. We found a kumquat tree that is now full of blossoms, two peach trees, two surinam cherry trees, and four more coffee plants. The peach trees we planted along the driveway near the house and the kumquat went next to the other citrus trees. The new coffee we planted in the shade to see what happens (since shade-grown coffee is a thing), if they do well then we will be planting a lot more of them. As for the surinam cherries, they will actually go in the newly cleared area and that will still allow for another 7-8 more fruit trees. In a couple of years when everything gets going we should have a year-round endless supply of tropical fruity rum drinks, oh sorry, I mean fresh fruits.

We have hundreds, maybe even thousands of cohune palm trees on our property that get big clusters of cohune nuts. These are the big palms that get 35-40 foot fronds on them. The cohune nuts are about the size of golf balls and grow in big clusters and are very hard to crack open. The flesh tastes like coconut and when pressed they make coconut oil out of them. Of course, you need a big grinding press of some type to extract the oil and for the average person, it is almost impossible without a machine. Anyway, when the seed pods on the tree burst open they are quite beautiful and big, about five feet long. Once the nuts ripen and fall to the ground that’s when the gibnut, agoutis, squirrels, and other animals just go nuts for them.

Since we got the big wood carved iguanas for the front of the guest casita, we thought the casita should have a name. So a friend of ours came up with the “Iguana Getaway” and we liked it. Since the little casita is now called the Iguana Getaway we thought it should have a painting of an iguana inside. So we commissioned Jorge Landero who has done a few other painting for us, to come up with a painting of an iguana. He came up with just what we were looking for, it’s a little bigger than we were wanting (50 x 32) but it looks great inside the casita. Jorge even delivered it on Easter Sunday and hung around for a few beers, what a great guy.

Other new improvements to the guest casita are a wall safe, an ice cold air conditioner and a mini fridge to keep all your beverages cold. Since we have lived here, we have not needed any AC (just a fan works great) although there were a few evenings last year when we could have used it. We do have a new AC unit sitting in the garage for the main house, it just isn’t installed yet. Since we are up here in the hills, we are generally ten degrees cooler than down near San Ignacio, and you can really feel the temp drop as you drive up here. So if anyone was concerned that it might get too warm down here, don’t worry, now you can chill out at the Iguana Getaway.

We have been working on clearing a spot behind the house for the outdoor kitchen. We’ve cut down about 7 decent size trees and got it all cleared and leveled out and are now starting to build. There will be a cement slab with a wood and metal roof over it to protect it from the rain and any creatures from dropping in. The whole area will also be surrounded by white gravel just like what is around the rest of the house. Underneath the cover, there will a place for a 54” Viking grill with two side burners and a rotisserie, a sink, and a brick pizza oven. We have been grilling on a little 18” two burner BBQ for the last year and it is driving me crazy. We can’t wait to get a real grill up and going again and really start cooking. A little ways away from the slab we will build a permanent smokehouse. We have a small electric smoker now, but since we can get whole pigs just up the road the possibilities are endless. The smokehouse has us dreaming about all the bacon, hams, ribs, sausage, and other good stuff all smoked with wood from the allspice tree which grows wild here. And as for the pizza oven, there is a local guy in the village who makes clay ovens for all the bakers around here so we will see what he can do. All in all, it should be done in a few weeks and I can throw that little F*%#ing piece of S#%T grill away and we can commence to some real grilling.

Speaking about food, a new little restaurant just opened up in town with an unusual food combination. Pizza and donuts, isn’t that a great concept, who doesn’t like pizza or donuts? I wonder how long before the big pizza chains get a hold of this idea. Imagine sitting at home late night and ordering up a pepperoni pizza and a dozen jelly glazed, that would for sure cure your munchies.

Monday was Earth Day and that was the day Belize banned all single-use plastic and styrofoam products. It joined 30 other countries around the world to ban single-use plastic and styrofoam items and is the only country in Central America to do so. For the past few months, we have seen more paper bags and more restaurants using biodegradable paper straws (like the kind we use to use when we were young). There are even bins set up around town where you can drop off your glass jars and bottles and they will grind them up and recycle them. We do our part to always use our canvas bags at the markets and stay away from as many plastic containers as possible. Everything helps and this ban is a major step in helping to keep Belize clean and beautiful.

That’s about what’s going on this week. Don’t be shy, come on down and check it out, we’d love to have you.

Friday we traveled over to Benque Viejo on the Guatemalan border to see their annual Easter sawdust carpets. Colored sawdust is used to create decorative images in the streets that will greet the religious procession on Good Friday as they make their way to the church.

The sawdust carpets are a very big part of the Benque Viejo community on Easter weekend. Each year faithful parishioners gather on the streets adjacent to their own town church with colored sawdust and stencils ready to create their works of art.

One man we talked to said that months before Easter the community donates funds so that they can gather up and dye all the sawdust the different colors that will be needed. Other materials are also used on these carpets such as rice, ashes, shells and flowers to help make them as beautiful as possible.

It’s hard to believe those are all made out of colored sawdust, they are a true masterpiece and a religious tradition. Besides the carpets, the most impressive part is that it brings the whole community together as one. From organizing, sourcing out sawdust, cutting stencils, dying all the colors, designing and the actually assembly of the carpets. From the very young to the very old, the whole community comes together to achieve one goal, and it is a truly amazing site to see.

Happy Easter! Hope you enjoyed this wonderful tradition that is celebrated in our little corner of the world.

Okay, so in the last blog I joked about moving back to the beach and not knowing where Aruba was. Well, I did know where it was, it’s in the south Caribbean about 17 miles off the coast of Venezuela, South America. I know we live in Belize and there are so many things to do and see here, so why would we need to go anywhere else. Well, this is our 35th wedding anniversary and we thought we should go somewhere special. Since we had never been to Aruba, it sounded like the place to go and besides didn’t the beach boys have a song about it. Aruba, Jamaica, oh I want to take you… I know you are singing it in your head now. Anyway, Southwest Airlines has a flight direct from Belize to Florida and then nonstop to Aruba and since we still have miles and a companion pass on Southwest, it seemed like a great getaway for our anniversary. Our anniversary isn’t really until this Easter Sunday, but you know how the beaches are on Easter weekend.

Aruba is an island that is only 20 miles long by about 6 miles wide, so in our rented jeep it really didn’t take long to explore the whole island. Everything that really happens is on the west side of the island where there are beautiful turquoise waters and soft silky sandy beaches. This is the side where there are also a lot of high rise hotels, restaurants, tours and beach activities. By that, I mean very touristy.

Since tours and big crowds are not really our thing, we jumped in the Jeep and decided to explore the other side of the island. The east side of the island is a very rugged and windy coastline with basically no water or beach access. Here the waves crash against the shore sometimes breaking as high as 50 feet or more. We were told that it is always very windy here, which explains why it’s an island with mostly cactus and not much vegetation at all.

This is also the side where there is a wind farm with big wind generators, which make sense. The day we were cruising around there was a herd of goats just hanging out at one of the wind generators, don’t know why, as far as we know they live inside the generator and just came out for some sun.

On the east side of the island, there is a national park with a few natural attractions. After paying our entrance fee we explored a couple of wind-blown caves that have been there about 1,000 years or so. These caves did have some great formations in them and even a few old cave paintings from past inhabitants. After checking out the caves and driving around in the windy desert we stopped at this little outdoor bar in the middle of nowhere for a couple of cold beers. It was so windy there that their drink coozies were actually carved out of stone so your drink would not blow away. The kid serving the beer in the stone coozie even said: “Welcome to the Flintstones”.

We had heard about this small town where they had painted murals on a lot of the buildings in town, so it was off to find them. After all, how hard could it be to find them on a small island? No problem, we found them and wow were they amazing. In 2016 the first art fair was held there to highlight the growing art scene and every year since there are more murals and art added to the buildings.

Since we were in Aruba, we thought we might as well go fishing one day. So we reserved a 38’ boat just for the two of us for a day of deep sea fishing. They had been catching Mahi Mahi, Tuna and Wahoo, and since neither of us had ever caught a Wahoo before we asked them to try and target them. First of all, I never would have ever considered going out on a windy day like it was, but then the deck hand told us that it is like this 365 days a year and they go out every day. So what the hell, it’s only a 20-25 mph wind, let’s go fishing.

So off we go, we start trolling about 10 minutes out of the marina and head towards the north end of the island where they have been catching Wahoo. Like I said, this is very rough water and it got even worse as we approached the end of the island where the current came around. The boat was really rocking and sometimes dropping onto the next wave, but when the wave came over the side of the boat that’s when I said we need to turn this boat around and start heading back. Kelley did have one hookup that we were hoping was a Wahoo, but it turned out to be just a Baracuda. We are just glad we are not big fishermen and live in Aruba where it’s always this rough and windy.

Aruba is full of very high-end restaurants as well as every fast food joint you can imagine. We ate a lot of good food there, everything from pizza, seafood, pasta, Asian, escargot, and steaks. One place we really enjoyed was this steak house where they come by your table with skewers of different kinds of meat and just serve you till you say stop. We laughed at all the fast food places and said that we did not come to Aruba to eat fast food, but there was one day when we needed a quick snack. Okay so we stopped at a Wendy’s for a quick burger, after all they don’t have them back home in Belize, so it was sorta a treat.

After five days in Aruba here is our take on it…the beaches are beautiful and very clean and the people are very friendly, after all it is called “One Happy Island”. There are a few beaches where there are not that many people and they were great.

It is a tourist destination with lots of cruise ships and flights arriving daily which makes for a lot of people everywhere. There are high-end retail shops and jewelry stores everywhere you look. From Prada, Gucci, Bulova and so many more that I don’t recognize, but they are in a prime location so they must be expensive. There are food chains everywhere, Taco Bell, Mc D’s, KFC, Dominos, Hooters, Hard Rock, etc. which sorta takes away from the island feel.

I know it is an island and everything has to be brought in, but it is very expensive. They recently imposed a sin tax on alcohol, tobacco, sugar and such. A local beer at a restaurant or bar will run you $5-$7 usd, and they are only 7 oz bottles. That’s about a $1 an ounce for local beer, plus tip. That gets real expensive spending a day at a beach bar having some beers. Being a desert island with a strong year-long wind and really no tropical plants or feel to it, it just wasn’t for us. This is just our take on it, we are glad to have experienced Aruba, but there are many other places in this world to explore.

It’s good to be back home in Belize to our tropical surroundings and our own bed. While we were gone the garden and other plants have grown quite a bit, a big tree has fallen near the house that needs to be cut out and there were three toucans near the entrance to welcome us home. It’s great to be back. Now it’s back to work, projects and getting everything ready for our next little build. Lots of things to do here at home and it sure feels good to be doing them.

We have lived here for almost a year now and it’s unbelievable what we have accomplished in that short amount of time. From starting with raw jungle to creating a beautiful place to live where there was nothing before. There are so many beautiful sights and things to do around here that it’s mind-boggling. Our property requires a lot of work and maintenance to keep everything trimmed and running smoothly and that doesn’t leave too much time for us to just relax and enjoy the reason we moved to Belize. So after a lot of thought and soul searching, we have decided at this time that it’s too much work for us and we would rather spend more time just relaxing and enjoying life. So we have decided to put the property on the market and see what happens, we have already had a couple of people show some interest in it. I guess it turns out that we really do miss the beach, so when and if this sells we will be looking at a smaller beach property that doesn’t require as much maintenance. We will be looking in southern Belize, Panama or maybe even Aruba, where ever the hell that is. Hopefully, some of you will be able to come down and enjoy our jungle paradise before it sells. Oh and by the way…April Fools…are you kidding we love it here and have no intention of moving anytime soon!!! April Fools, haha, got ya!

Okay, sorry about that I just had to get that out of my system. So now back to what’s really happening around here.

After living in the jungle for a while we decided it was time for us to buy an island. Okay, so it’s not the kind surrounded by water, but rather the one surrounded by the kitchen. We waited this long to make sure there was enough room in the kitchen to support an island and we decided one would definitely work. We got our plans to the cabinet maker, ordered up the granite and four weeks later we now have a great new island. For the granite, we decided to go with a white and black as opposed to the black and white we did on the countertops. We thought this would help to keep a more open feeling in the house. This will act as our dining table and more importantly more work and storage space in the kitchen. We also had four bar stools made out of a hardwood called poisonwood that are very heavy and beautiful. Still lots of projects around the house, but slowly it’s all coming together.

Our fruit trees and other plants are coming along nicely. Some of our banana plants are about 15’ tall now, they are not producing yet but I assume later this year we should have our first bananas. Our coffee and cocoa plants are bushing out nicely and we should have some coffee berries later this year. I don’t expect very many this first year, but maybe just enough to roast up and make a few cups of coffee, that will be exciting.

Our starfruit, cinnamon, citrus, mango, avocado, and macadamia nut trees are all showing great growth. Our pineapple/orange tree is starting to bear some fruit, so we will see how that goes. We also have our first pineapple on one of our plants, which is pretty exciting since all our pineapple plants are from tops we rooted. At this point, we have around 25 pineapple plants and are planting a few more every couple of weeks.

All the artichokes and hatch green chili plants are in the ground and are doing good, as well as some squash. We’ve also picked up a couple of red raspberry plants and they are doing great. Last week during the full moon we planted a few rows of sweet corn, about 75 plants. All the farmers around here really believe that for the best crops you need to plant during the full moon. I assume there is something to it because the corn crops around here grow very fast and take about 2 1/2 months till harvest. An extra boost we got was that it rained the night after we planted all the corn, so the Mayan gods must have been happy with us.

On our walk around the property the other day we came across some flowers that we had not seen here before. It seems that every few months different trees, vines, and other plants will bloom and produce beautiful colored flowers that are only around for a couple of months. We have no idea of what type of plants these are, but it’s always a surprise when we find a new one. I think we might try to relocate some of the long purple vines towards our entrance gate and see if we can get them to grow on the fence. We can only imagine what some of the plants around here would cost at a nursery back in the states.

Since I seem to have gotten on the subject of plants I might as well include pictures of our Moringa trees. We planted 8 of them from seed about 6 months ago and they are already about six feet tall and have flowers on them. We ended up keeping two of them and gave the others to some friends. Once they get a little bigger we will start using the leaves and such for tea and other stuff. I know I’ve said before about the Moringa tree, but if you don’t know about it you should google it and see all its benefits and why it is called the Miracle Tree.

One thing that we really love is fresh coco water. Between our place and the village, a young man has set up a small little stand selling fresh coco water on ice. There is nothing more refreshing than ice-cold fresh coco water. We usually stop every time he is out there and grab a few to take home. Once you taste it ice cold and fresh you will never buy that canned crap in the store again.

Okay, June is just two months away and that means it’s time for Lobster-Fest again down here in Belize. Lobster season closes here in February and doesn’t open again till mid June and by then everyone is craving lobster. Different beach towns here try to celebrate their Lobster-Fest on different weekends from each other just in case you wanted to hit them all. Actually, just one Lobster-Fest is more than enough for us. We are not sure which one we will be going to yet, either San Pedro or Placencia. San Pedro’s Lobster-Fest is from June 15th-23rd and Placencia is June 21st-23rd.  Last year we did the one in Placencia which was nice because we could drive there. The one in San Pedro we would have to drive to the airport and catch a flight to the island and then rent a golf cart. Last year in Placencia we had a hard time finding a decent place to stay at a reasonable price because we waited too long to start looking. San Pedro has a lot more options of where to stay, but then you have the flight and cart rental. At this point, we are still looking at all the options, but we know we need to reserve something very soon. If anyone is planning on coming down for Lobster-Fest, please let us know when and where and we will try to accommodate you.

Well, it was that time of year again for the annual La Ruta Maya River Race and of course, we had to be there again for the start of it. The best place to see the start of the race is at Gary and Julie’s Wish Willy Cabañas over-looking the river. They do a wonderful job every year of throwing a breakfast party at their place so you can munch out and cheer on all the racers as they go by. Thanks guys!

I’ve got to say it was a lot easier last year before we had our place when we stayed at Wish Willy’s. All we had to do was walk out our door and see the race, now we have to set the alarm, drive into town and hopefully make it there before the race starts at 7:00 am. Of course, there was no traffic coming down from our place so we made it in plenty of time to catch the start.

In case you don’t know what the La Ruta Maya is, it’s the biggest sporting event in Belize. It is a challenging four-day canoe race down the Macal and  Belize River to the Caribbean Sea, covering 174 miles. The hype starts the day before with bands and parties and goes on through to the end of the race. Every checkpoint along the way is another big party, and it helps that the race is always held on a national holiday weekend to give everyone a chance to cheer on their favorite team and partake in all the fun. The race was started in 1995 when canoe teams competed to raise money to help clean up the river. The race has since bloomed into a full-fledged competition with international and Belizean teams sometimes in the hundreds competing for that number one spot and bragging rights. This years winner was team NICH (National Institute Cultural History) they had a total time of 18 hours and 34 minutes to complete the 174-mile course. They were the first ones to get to the checkpoints each day averaging just under 10 mph, and that is kicking ass in a canoe. Congratulations Team NICH!

I know that most of you reading this will know who Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers are and that we have been fans since the beginning. So when we heard that Peacemakers lead guitarist and frontman for the Railbenders, Jim Dalton, Peacemakers bass player Nick Scropos, and Jeremy Lawton from Big Head Todd and the Monsters were coming to Belize we jumped on the opportunity to go see them. They were playing in San Pedro, out on Ambergris, not a problem it was a great excuse for us to get a little more island time in. A quick 2½ hour drive to the city and then a 20-minute flight and we were sitting on the island ready to catch their shows on Friday and Saturday afternoon. Well, sometimes things don’t always work out the way you want them to. Last week there was a massive storm in Denver grounding all flights, which meant Jim and Jeremy were stuck there instead of heading to the beaches of Belize. Nick made it because I’m pretty sure he flew out of Phoenix and there is usually never a problem there.

I know Jim was really bummed out about the whole thing, but what can you do, there’s always next time. I know in Mexico Jim has probably at some point seen his name on a grain of rice, but has he ever seen his name on a surfboard in Belize? Hopefully, this will not be the only time we’ll ever see this.

It would have been easy for us to cancel our trip to the island and stay home and work around the house all weekend, but that just made no sense to us. Besides we already had our flights and a room booked and who would rather stay home and work than go to the island for some fun? This time we found a great place on the lagoon side of the island that was right across the beach from the Dive bar where they were supposed to be playing. This is definitely a condo we will be renting again, third story overlooking the water and very quiet.

Since our plans were changed we decided to make the best of it and rent a golf cart and go bar hopping for the weekend. One of the places we wanted to check out was the Truck Stop. Last year they were closed so we didn’t get a chance to, but this day they were open. It is a bunch of 20’ containers that are all different themed restaurants and a bar. They have live music, movie nights, game night and even a pool you can use, it seems to be the place to be in the evenings.

After reading all the menus and choices we decided on a white pizza topped with conch, garlic and basil on a brick oven cooked thin crust, and it did not disappoint. Next time we will have to try some of the other restaurants that all looked so delicious.

The next day we headed over to secret beach which really isn’t a secret it’s just a few miles from the big crowds on the other side of the island. It’s been about a year since we were over there and it has grown quite a bit, but it is still a lot quieter than the other side of the island. Being on the west side of the island means there is no seaweed or waves, just calm beautiful turquoise water.

After seeing the tables and umbrellas in the water we knew where we were going to be spending our afternoon. So we grabbed a couple of cold beers and waded out to our table to get some sun and just relax. It wasn’t long before the waiter came out to the table and asked if we need anything else. Well since we had planned on spending the afternoon there and we had only had one beer at that point, then you know what the answer was.

To help make it easier for the waiter I inquired about getting a bucket of beer so he wouldn’t have to make so many trips out to our table. Well to our surprise, a few minutes later here he comes with a floating ice chest full of ice cold beer. This is just like we used to do in the summers in Mexico where we lived, standing around in the water with a floating ice chest full of beer. All we needed now was all of our friends that we used to do this with, same thing just a different country. No need to wait for the water to warm up here, it’s always nice, so come on down anytime and we’ll float some beers.

It was a great couple of days on the island, but now it was time to get back up to our jungle home. There is still a lot of work and projects around our place that need to be done.

Still not a lot of exciting stuff happening around here, just working and getting all the never-ending projects done. The big project of the week was to build a trash receptacle for our cans to keep all the critters out. Hopefully, this will do the trick because it seems like all of a sudden it is possum season here.

Besides seeing a lot of dead possums on the road they are all around the house, in fact, we see them almost every night. We are also seeing a jaguarundi and some agouties around here, but I don’t think they are the ones bothering the trash.

I don’t know if it is the red color of the cabinets or what, but we seem to be getting hummingbirds inside the house. Just a while ago there was a big blue and white one buzzing around inside the house and the other day Kelley rescued a very small one from inside the bathroom window. They also frequent the garage, but when I’m in the back working and they come right up to my face, it sort of freaks me out when you are not expecting it.

We met Craig and Monica a few months ago and they were looking for a piece of land to build a small house on. We invited them out to our place, just to see what we had done and to see what our builder could do if they ever needed him. Well, long story short, there was someone on our road who was looking to sell and now Craig and Monica are building just up the road from us, using Ruben, Antonio and some of the others who built our place. It will be great having them here even if is just a couple times a year.

Dan and Brandy are also just up the road, and they are usually here for a few months at a time. It’s shaping up to become a great little group of people here in the hood. What do you think Darren, maybe a small building on your property soon?

As they are digging the septic and footers at Monica and Craig’s they are finding lots of broken Mayan pottery and a grinding stone so far. We know that we are right in the middle of the Mayan empire and there are artifacts all around us, but we have never looked or dug around our place to see what we might discover.

So the other day Kelley goes out to the big pile of dirt they dug out for our septic and started looking around. Believe it or not, she found a big tooth from what we thought was from a very big cat. It was about 4” long, it felt petrified and was fully intact. It wasn’t the artifact she was looking for, but it really was a tooth from a cat, a CAT backhoe. I guess Tony must have lost a tooth on his bucket when he was digging out the septic. Can you imagine someone 1,000 years from now finding this and trying to figure out what it was from?

We finally had the chance to break out the disco and fry up some fish. The only kind of fish we could find locally was some flash frozen tilapia fillets. Now I can’t remember the last time we ate freshwater fish, it was good and everyone seemed to enjoy it, but it just wasn’t that good saltwater fish we are so used to. I think a fishing trip to the coast is in order soon so we can get some real fish.

At the fish fry, David and Anita had brought his drone out for a little fun flying. Here are a couple of stills that I pulled from his video. The first one is looking down on the houses and the second one is looking east from our place.

A couple of weeks ago Ruben had cut another 100’ where we have the fruit trees now, that way we could plant some more variety of trees and get a garden going. Everything dried quickly so it was now time to get it burned. It always scares us when he burns, but he knows what he is doing and all went according to plan. Next week he will cut the bigger pieces that didn’t burn all the way, pile them up, do one more burn and then we should be ready for more trees in about a month. So now the search is on for trees. Hopefully, we can find some good ones like Cashew nut, Kiwi, Peach, Plum or even some other exotic fruits.

We finally decided on the kitchen island so it is being made by the same guy who did our kitchen cabinets and front door. The granite is also picked out and being cut and everything should be done in a few weeks. Which will make Kelley very happy to have more cabinets and a bigger work area in the kitchen.

Just FYI, it looks like you can fly round trip from Phoenix to Belize for around $500 on SW until June then it looks like it jumps to around $800 and doesn’t go back down until late August. The weather is great and airfares are good, what are you waiting for?