Like with anything or anywhere there is the good and the life’s little struggles. Mostly I’ve been telling  you all about  the good stuff and fun we have been having and not some of the little hurdles we have had to overcome. So here is what we have learned in our short time living in Belize.

Buying the cheapest garden hose for now because you know your good ones will be here soon is not a good idea. We have so much water pressure that it blew a hole in the hose soaking our front porch for hours while we were gone. It also just happen to be right after I had painted the door red. It’s a good thing we only pay $5 a month for water.

All our black soil that is so great for growing everything, gets really muddy and sticky when it rains. Which is why we now have gravel around the house.

Just because you bought lumber one time, do not expect them to have it again next time you need it.

And just because your stairs and your front door are 36″ wide, do not expect a 36″ refrigerator to fit through.

Do not assume the varnish you buy for your house is also for external use. Which is why we are staying up the road for a couple of days so they can redo our porch. The good thing is they have internet.

Good thing is that we have seen no snakes, but we have seen lizards, some big spiders, insects and a black scorpion, which by the way takes three hard smacks with a shoe to get through his thick shell.

Having to buy cheap one time use Chinese tools until your good ones arrive. Example… $2.00 hacksaw hopefully good for at least a couple cuts, no… one stroke and the blade breaks in three. I had to laugh.

Driving the 15 miles to town twice a day for supplies is getting old, but it is still a lot cheaper and faster than having things delivered.

And then there is the no cell or Internet at the house, even though it does work a few hundred yards up the road. So for now we load up in the truck and head up the road to use the cell as a hot spot and then check and download stuff. This is getting us by for now and we have a few good leads on how we can solve this problem, it just takes time and finding the right people.

That’s about all the small little stumbles that we are dealing with at this point. And now here are a few of the small things that make us happy.

The drinking water at the house is excellent and now I have it hooked up to the fridge and we are now making cold water and ice. And yes, there is a pressure regulator installed.

The sounds at night are amazing, with all the frogs, crickets, birds and animals moving around. And only once have we got out of bed and said “What the f#*k was that?” Turns out one of the ropes on the big tarp over the construction site came loose and the tarp fell making a very strange sound.

The different beautiful plants and flowers that we see everyday are amazing along with new creatures we see almost daily.

Sleeping with the windows open and waking up and the outside temp is 68-72. Granted during the day it is in the 80’s and a little humid but once the sun goes down, the nights are great.

We really don’t have many flying bugs, in fact we keep the front door open all day untill we go to sleep at night.

There is an ice cream truck that goes up our road playing music. The little bakery in the village that is open three days a week has great stuff and the small store on the corner has fresh chocolate covered bananas or pineapple on a stick. What else would a sweets lover need?

The truck is getting at least 30 mpg which is wonderful in a country where diesel is $5.00 a gallon.

Construction goes very fast and is very reasonable. I ordered block, cement, rebar and called Tony to see if his backhoe was available today. Everything was delivered and the backhoe was going all in about three hours. Then we asked our crew if they could only work five days a week instead of six so that we could have a little more time to ourselves and that was not a problem. I even went to a steel place to get 110 L brackets with holes in them for the roof. They did not have them, but said they would make them, come back in one hour

The amazing friendly people who are always smiling. The other day we were in a store and I was wearing a shirt from Santa Cruz. This elderly gentleman asked me if that is the one in California and I said, but of course. After a long conversation with him we found out he was born in Belize and then moved to Newport Beach and now he is back. He introduced us to his wife and explained that his father was a logger in Belize back in the day.  We told him that we had just moved here and he welcomed us to the Belizean family. This is why life moves slower here in Belize, everyone is willing to talk and share their experiences.

One more good thing is knowing that the house is looking so good that even the tree frogs want to see inside.

Overall everything is going great and pretty much as we expected. Hopefully this week our container and our new truck will arrive and that will change things a little for the better. If not, no worries.