Every year in the middle of June, lobster season opens up in Belize and different communities celebrate with big Lobsterfest parties. Since things are a little different this year, all of the Lobsterfests in Belize were canceled. So we thought, why don’t we have our own Lobsterfest right here in the jungle to celebrate this delicious crustacean. Besides we had just brought back all those lobster from Hopkins a couple of weeks ago, and who doesn’t like an excuse to get together and eat lobster. So “Lobsterfest in the Jungle” was born.

We grilled up a bunch of lobsters loaded with butter and seasonings and also put together some lobster jalapeño poppers. Everyone invited brought a lobster dish to share. There was lobster bisque, lobster ceviche, lobster bruschetta, mac cheese, dips, and more. It reminded me of the movie Forest Gump when Bubba was describing all the different types of shrimp.

The first Lobsterfest in the Jungle was a success and there was talk of doing it again once a year. I suggested that we could do it twice a year, once in the summer and then again in the winter and no one seemed to have a problem with that. Besides, I’d painted a Lobsterfest in the Jungle sign that has to get used more than once. It was a great time with friends, good food, cold drinks, great weather and it didn’t seem to matter that we weren’t at the beach. So now we are looking forward to the next Lobsterfest in the Jungle to see what other lobster recipes everyone will come up with. Who knows, maybe you will be lucky enough to be here for the next one.

We just picked our first pods of cacao (chocolate) and they were all loaded with seeds (beans). We have already let them ferment and they are now in the drying stage. After that, they will get roasted and ground into cocoa powder or keep grinding them and turn it into chocolate.  There were about 130 seeds inside the three pods, not a lot but enough for us to get a taste of what we have to look forward to in the future.

A few of the beans had started to sprout, so we put those in some soil, and hopefully, that will give us ten more cocao trees. The trees we planted about a year and a half ago are loaded with blossoms and quite a few pods that are already an inch or so long. If even 10 percent of all the blossoms take, we would still end up with a few buckets full of cocao pods next season and that should make a good amount of chocolate. We never dreamt that we would be growing chocolate, and seriously, who really thinks about that? Anyway, it’s pretty exciting for us to have our first taste of chocolate that we have grown ourselves.

Today we are drying a few things from the garden on the front porch. The first tray is our cocao beans that we will be roasting very soon. The second tray is moringa leaves that will make a very good and healthy iced tea. In the last tray, we are just trying to ripen some of our tomatoes. We need to pick the tomatoes when they just start to turn color otherwise the animals will get to them first.

All of our decorative plants around the outside of the house are doing quite well and are now requiring constant trimming. The lobster claw plants are full of flowers and the elephant ear leaves are getting quite huge.

The bird of paradise are also in full bloom with their orange flowers and are getting very tall. These are some of the bird of paradise we found back on the property and transplanted up near the house. It’s amazing how well they grow with a little bit of care.

The plants in the yard are now blooming enough where we can cut a nice vase of flowers for the house just about anytime we want.

We have quite a good selection of different types of lizards around the house, but we have yet to see any iguanas. Well, that changed the other day when we saw two bright green baby iguanas in the yard. Which meant that there have always been some big ones around here we’ve just never seen them. Hopefully, they will get used to us and hang around and add to all the other wildlife around here. Besides, we think it would be pretty cool to look out and see a 4-5 foot bright green iguana walking across the driveway or sitting on the porch railing.

Well, it’s been a little over two years that we have been dealing with really crappy internet, and that has finally changed. Another antenna was installed down the way from us and that was supposed to give us good service, at first it didn’t quite work out that way. After extending their antenna a couple more times, extending ours, changing frequencies, and cutting a few trees we finally have good internet service. Currently, we have a lot better internet than we’ve ever had, but come Monday after a few more modifications, we should have some very fast internet that will reach all around the property. Besides all the advantages of good internet, this also means that our Vonage phone will work, so phone calls on the same number we’ve had for over 30 years will go through at no cost.

It’s taken some time and a lot of hard work, but we are finally getting civilized out here in the jungle.