Aug 4, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen ... The amazing smallest banana in the world

Welcome to our new Exploring Belize blog. We hope you enjoy the pictures and stories .

Stunning Tropical Fan Palm Flower - we pass it every day when walking the dogs
We've moved house. It has been so busy but even moving home in Belize is fun if you have the right attitude. We're going to tell you how it went for us and then you can compare it to how it is where you live.
This is the view we are leaving

How did we get so much stuff?

Midas pretends to be a black bag

Well, we have no furniture to speak of, so getting some was a necessity before we moved. We had two weeks to prepare. Colette had to take a shopping trip and this meant flying over to Belize City. She spent the morning with a lovely guy we know there and hit the furniture shops. There are only three in the city. One of them is Courts, which seems to use it to get rid of all the stuff they can't sell anywhere else in the world. The other one we won't name but let's just say that we will not buy furniture from a shop that smells like a nursing home. That just left the good old Mirab's furniture shop. Impressive place and very professional. As good a range and as well displayed as any good furniture shop. Expensive though because everything is imported. Furniture is weird here. We have some of the best wood and carpenters in the world, but they just haven't grasped sofas. We'll be doing more furniture shopping later so hang on. Anyway, Colette picked the Paradox Cocoa and we've put up a picture here. This is a catalogue shot. Our new pad
Rain on our first day in the new placeHappy Hibiscus the first morning We are so grateful to finally be comfortable. Well almost. You see, the house is hot. Very hot. It got up to 41degrees celcius one afternoon inside the house. This is a problem. Not only does the house get hot, but the floors, the walls and furniture heat up too. This has made everything a little tricky for us, but we love the place and have a really nice landlady who is trying to help us sort it all out. It makes sure we spend a lot of time outside, which is great and we've got a yard here that we and the dogs enjoy.

Maya getting into having a yard
Cultivating aloe vera
Anyway, back to moving and furniture. So, we bought the sofa and asked for it to be delivered on a certain date the following week. Sofa was delivered perfectly on time and in great shape. We also had to get a bed. We figured that since we plan to buy a place and live here permanently, that we might as well invest in a really good bed. It just arrived in the middle of writing this blog and it hasn't been put together yet, but we've taken a quick picture of the headboard just so that we can smugly rub in what a beautiful tropical, custom made, mixed hardwood bed we've had made. We could also rub in how much we paid for it, but we'll just let you drool.
Our new king sized headboard
So, the bed was made beautifully to our specs, the sofa turns up on time and of course we need some men to move us. So Colette calls a number she has been given by a friend. She tells the guy on the end of the phone to bring two more guys to our address on Friday at 10am. He says fine. By Thursday we decided we didn't want to rush too much - which is the effect life in Belize has on you - and called the guy again. Can we change it to Saturday? No problem at all. They turned up on time and had us moved in within 1 1/2 hours. How is that for service? We also had the cable tv and internet all connected on the same day. Everyone came when they said they would and everything worked.

Belize Barbie greets you at our new front door
We are sharing our porch with this baby iguana
It's not been all work. We found a little dog on the street. She was so cute. After a couple of days of asking around we put up posters and ads and found her owner. Her name was Angel and she was adorable. After the poster went out, we got calls from people all over Belize, just wanting to find out if she was OK. Check out the poster and pics.
Devil meets Angel
The poster that got Angel homeThose of you who know Midas will also know that she is no Angel herself. Her new favourite sport is hunting, chasing and killing a really cool lizard called the Jesus Lizard. The reason they are called this is because they actually can run across water. They also are very good at playing dead and this is where Midas gets her thrills. She can kill the same lizard ten times and it just hops back up to life when it thinks she isn't looking. Shame some of Angel's disposition didn't rub off on her.
The Jesus Lizard

We also managed a fun snorkel trip with our wonderful neighbours and their family. We went with one of our favourite snorkel guides, Tulu. We have to pinch our own bottoms every time we get the chance to go out on the water. It really is like it seems on TV. Bliss.
The Caribbean Sea - there is nothing like it
During this trip Maya realised that we didn't have an unfortunate party picture to put up this month, so she has provided the shot.

Maya offers herself up as the unfortunate party picture shot

We have amazing friends here and they have been dropping by to see our new pad. One of them brought us a healthy little mint plant (thank you Cindy) and another has brought us a Basil (sorry Diane, no picture), so it will be Mohitos and pizza all round before long.
Our first herbs from Cindy
We've been spending a lot of time in the garden and it is so nice to be outside (especially when it is hotter indoors than out). We have bananas just about ready to pick. We can't wait. We eat a lot of fruit here, banana, papaya, mango most days. But to grow your own is just dreamy.
Bananas growing in our own back yard
This week we have banana pie, banana burritos, banana salad, banana bread...
We did buy some apple bananas to help us be patient while our own nanas grow. Check out the smallest banana ever. Maya had to eat it after we made sure we could share it with you by taking snaps.

Maya eats the smallest banana in the world
The smallest banana in the world measured up to a Bic
Well as it is so hot, it is time to put this blog to bed. More will be coming soon as August is going to be a jam packed month for us - both of our birthdays and lots of other exciting things. Not only that, we have a fab new blog site to play with. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Colette,

It looks like you two are enjoying yourselves. Congratulations on the move!

Derek

sam said...

I like the look of your new house.. well the roof looks good! got any more pics now you have settled in? I love reading your blog and it is inspirational! much love

Anonymous said...

It looks like you too lovlies have found paradise. Am I envious? Darn right I am.!! see you both in NOV.
Bill& Becky

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the blog. My partner and I are considering a move to San Pedro from California and will visit in February 2008 to check things out. I'm searching for any information from those who have made a similar move. Would love to hear more of your experiences!