It’s hard to believe that we are at post 100 of our little Belizean adventure. Over the past three years since we started this blog a lot has happened in our lives. First we buy some property in Belize with a dream of someday living there. Then we start clearing a spot in the jungle where someday we could build a small house. With no plans on when this might happen we decide that we might as well go ahead and get some power and water run so someday we will be ready to build. Since we now had a road, water and power there was only one thing left to do, and that was to put our house in Mexico up for sale. We really didn’t think it would sell as fast as it did, but it did. Now we had to pack up 24 years worth of memories and move it up to the kids house in Arizona where we stayed while we got a container ready to ship everything to Belize. At this point we were committed and there was no turning back. So now here we are in the Belizean jungle, living in a small casita with a big garage watching them build our main house. This is all just the beginning of our latest adventure and we would like to thank everyone who has been following along with us and commenting on this wild ride we are on. We hope you have enjoyed it so far, I know we have. 

There’s not much really happening around here this week (it’s nice and quite actually) as the workers have taken a week off to relax and probably get some things done around their own houses. So this time I will just post some before and after pictures of how this whole thing is evolving.

This is our initial cut in to the jungle, when we had no idea of what we were doing. I’m still not sure we know what we are doing, but at least we are doing it.

After all the plants are down and burned it was time to level it up and put down a solid foundation for a road.

Everything has grown back nicely and is creating a nice entrance into our place. There are still lots more plans for the entrance, but we will have to wait till all the construction is done.

This is the clearing where the first casita was to be built and where our guest will eventually stay.

The first casita is done and very cozy and comfortable. This is where we are currently living while the house is being built.

Tony on the backhoe clearing out all the trees and stumps and leveling out the ground where the garage will go.

Always nine to eleven guys working hard to get this garage done.

And the finished garage which only took about eight weeks from start to finish. Finally we have a place for tools and to store stuff. It is 25’ x 35’ with 11’ walls which is more than big enough for us.

The clearing under the palms where we thought would make a great place for our new home.

Now the palms trees are trimmed up, a few more plants have been removed and a house is growing up between it all. We can’t wait to be sitting on the wrap around porch enjoying a cold beer with friends and keeping an eye out for whatever animal might wander by.

That is our progress so far in a nut shell, but come next week everything will kick into full gear and the building should not take a break until the house is done.

Independence Day

September 21st is Independence Day for Belize. The whole country celebrates with parades, music and fireworks in every little town and village, and after only 37 years of independence they party hard. Our little village of San Antonio celebrated with lots of music and fireworks, but we opted to go to San Ignacio for a bigger celebration experience. Along the three or so mile parade route there was hardly a place to stand, with everybody waving flags, blowing horns and showing pride for their country. Of course the parade started a hour and a half late, but that didn’t stop anyone from having a good time.

The parade ended at a big park where there were beer tents, food booths and live music. We decided to skip that and get back up the hill to our place before it got dark, after all everyone was drinking and celebrating pretty heavily and we thought it would be best if we just had a few beers back at home.

There was even a beer truck in the parade handing out free beer.

More Bits and Pieces

Last weekend we were having a beer at one of our favorite watering holes when we started talking to a guy about fishing. It turns out that he is the lumber management person for the Chiquibul National Forest. We started talking about how we had some trouble getting the Nargusta hardwood to build our current house. He said that they manage a lot of Nargusta trees and he doesn’t know why more people don’t use it because it is a plentiful and beautiful wood. We told him about and showed him pictures of our small casita built entirely out of Nargusta and he was in very impressed. He wanted to know if he could come by sometime and take some pictures and maybe even do a brochure with our house in it. He also remembered the big order we placed for all the lumber for the main house and said that he could actually take us to the exact trees stumps where our wood came from, because all the stumps are tagged and recorded. We thought that was pretty cool! Oh and back to the fishing stories, he showed us a picture of his son with a 5-6 foot Tarpon that he caught not far from here where the ferry crosses the river over to Spanish Lookout. I think we need to go fishing with this guy.

Okay, so the other night around 6:30 we had just finished doing a little painting in the garage and we had just sat down in a couple chairs in the garage to have a beer. Now we have yet to have one of those “WHAT THE F#%K WAS THAT?” moments and this didn’t actually count as one of those because we actually knew what we had just heard. Somewhere between us in the garage and the house off in the dark was a very loud “Hissing Growl” from some kind of cat, and it wasn’t your typical house cat. We both looked at each other and at that point there it was again and it sounded like it was really pissed off. I’m still sitting in a chair with a cold beer not thinking too much about it, but as for Kelley, she has already jumped up from her chair, grabbed a machete and is now standing close behind me. We don’t know what kind of cat it was but, we do know that it was very loud and very close to us. It could have been a Jagarundi, Margay or one of a few other cats that roam the Belizean jungle. Oh and did I forget mention that we had to walk back to the house without a flashlight. Life in the jungle is always exciting.

Some people have been asking us what it cost to fly to Belize and how long is the flight. We fly Southwest Airlines and it goes from Phoenix to Houston and is about a 2 1/2 hour flight. Once in Houston it is another 2 hour flight down to Belize City. Southwest fly’s in only once a day to Belize and will get you there at 3:45 pm. I believe other airlines will also use Houston or Dallas as their main hub down to Belize. As for cost, if you are flexible and use the Southwest low fare calendar you can usually find a round trip flight from Phoenix for around $450. I know the prices do go up around holidays and during their busy season (November to May). American, Delta, United and Southwest all fly into Belize, we have just always had great luck with Southwest and you can’t beat their prices, plus two bags fly free. If anyone is considering coming down please let us know and we will help out in any way we can.

Creature Feature of the week is the Ctenosaur, Black Spiney Iguana or more commonly know as a Wish Willy. Not to be confused with the green iguana, these lizards will only grow to a few feet long where as the green iguana will reach almost seven feet in length and is one of the largest lizards in the world. The Wish Willy is omnivorous feasting on green leaves, insects, eggs and even small animals. He is also the fastest lizard in the world with a recorded speed of 21 mph, and will live up to 25 years. These are very common in Belize and especially out near the coast and on the islands where you will sometimes see bunches of them all together.

This will end our 100th post, hope everyone has been enjoying them and we hope there will be many, many more to come.