This week we got the cell booster antenna off of its tree and onto a more permanent mount on the house. Of course we had to cut down a couple of 35’ long palm trees fronds and some other trees that were in the way. There’s something about cutting down something that big with a machete that makes you feel… well you know.  Anyway, our signal at the house is good and the mifi is giving us good internet so we can connect with the rest of the world. Speaking of connecting with the world, we hooked up our Amazon Firestick the other day and we now have TV. Well the TV was short lived, after a few days it seemed to have sucked up all our data. Data here is expensive and you can only purchase a certain amount at a time when using wireless cell service.  So for now it is back to watching dvds in the evenings, but the good news is that we should still have phone and internet that will last quite awhile on our data plan.

The garage is getting close to being done. The roof went on the other day and it is looking like a real enclosed building.  They should take another couple of weeks to finish up with the rest of the plaster, electrical, doors and windows. After that we can come in and start to paint, build work benches and get a lot of the stuff out of the container. I haven’t seen most of my tools in 4 or 5 months, and that’s driving me crazy. The other exciting news is that next week they are starting on the main house and will be going strong on it until it’s done. The rest of the lumber for the house showed up which is good timing because now we have a place to store it out of the sun and rain.

This seems to be the time of year where everywhere you look there is corn growing, so it is only fitting that there is a celebration and party. Last weekend in San Ignacio town they held the Cayo Corn Festival. We got there a little late and didn’t get to experience too much of it, but we did get to see some of what was left of it. There was food booths, demonstrations, bands and of course beer tents all set up in the streets. Toward the end Dave even tried to get some drum lessons from one of the locals, but the guy was just a little to “Smokey” so it wasn’t much of a lesson.

While at the Festival we met these two gals from Arizona, one was from Scottsdale (who just got back from a weekend in Rocky Point) and the other is a firefighter from Phoenix, AZ. It turns out that she knows John Teefy, a friend of ours who is also a firefighter from AZ and has a house in Mexico where we used to live. It seems like such a small world as we have actually met quite a few people down here from Arizona and California where both of us grew up.

Then there was the other day when we were down at the river and we saw our first crocodile. We knew it was just a matter of time before we would come across one, we just didn’t think it would be so close to where people were playing in the water. The local kids were even playing with it and trying to ride on him like it was something they do all the time.

On one of our many trips to Spanish Lookout we decided to take the hand crank ferry across the river instead of going all the way around to the bridge. As we settled in for the short ride across the river a small barefoot, blue eyed, blond kid climbs up on the side rail of the truck, plops his arms on the window frame and just starts talking away. I guess he was hoping that we would have said “Hello” because his answer he said was going to be “Jello” and if we spoke Spanish and said “Hola” his answer was going to be “cola”. He had an answer for English and Spanish, but our bad… we just said “How’s it going?”. Anyway it turns out his name is Bernard, he is 9 years old, off for summer break, starts school in three weeks, but not until he gets to fly on a plane to Mexico to visit some family. He also told us that when he is 16 he can get a job and when he is 14 he can get a phone and that his brother got a phone when he was 11, but all he did was play games so dad took it away. He asked us why we were not buying stuff from a vendor on the ferry and that we should support him because he is working hard. We finally had a chance to ask him why he is on the ferry and where is he going? He said that he just rides the ferry back and forth all day long, we assume at the end of the day he will either walk home or someone will come and pick him up. He sorta reminded me a little of Tom Sawyer, just being on the river all day with nothing else to do. We sure did hear a lot from Benard in the short ten minute ride across the river.

Needing a break from all the construction and stuff we decided to take a road trip for the day over to Pamona to see how Sammi and Rick are coming along on their place. We met Sammi and Rick through our son Randy who use to work with one of their kids or spouses or something like that. Anyway they moved down here about the same time we did and are building along the same lines as we are (build a small place to live in until the big house is done). Pamona is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from us down the Hummingbird Highway towards Hopkins, and of course since we were on the Hummingbird Highway we had to stop at Bertha’s for some of the best tamales in all of Belize.

Since we were only a few miles from the beach we thought we would grab a nice lunch on the beach and then try to find some lobsters to take back with us. It didn’t take long before we had our ice chest full of lobsters and were headed back up to the jungle. So for the next couple of months, our Sunday menu includes lobster.

When we lived in Mexico we would have what we would call “date night” on Wednesday nights. This was usually the best day for some quite time when no one else was around. We would usually cook up a nice surf and turf dinner with a bottle of wine and just spend some quality time with each other. Now that we are in Belize, Sunday is our best day when no one is around and we have time to relax and enjoy a good meal. Good steak and of course lobster are not a problem finding here and you can find some decent wines, but wine glasses are another thing. In the beginning we were using plastic tumblers and just splitting the bottle of wine between the two cups, until we became civilized and found wine glasses. I guess you would actually call them wine coconuts that we got from a local vendor. Now when we have our Sunday bottle of wine, we can sip it with our pinkies held high in the air and pretend we have a little bit jungle class.

Creature feature of the week is the Agouti. A cute little rodent type creature that is related to the Guinea Pig and the Chinchilla. These are very common around the property and sometimes you can spot them during the day when they are out foraging for fruits and nuts. I understand that they are quite adaptable and when they can’t find fruits or nuts they will also eat fungi, plants or insects. They can get up to 2 1/2’ long and run as fast as a rabbit for long distances. This is one of the most common animals that we capture on our trail cameras.