Exploring Belize Continues

One door closes and another opens!

2010-09-23T09:23:00.007-06:00

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened" - Dr. Seuss

Goodbyes are always hard but we have decided that we must bid our loyal readers adieu. Where are we going? What are we doing? Why are we closing our blog?

Exploring Belize Continues was a labour of love. It took Colette up to 5 hours to put together a blog and as our new business, Conch Creative, started to take up more time - we realised that the blog was being seriously neglected. We also realised that much of our time and travels were related to our business.

So, we're not disappearing. We have started a new blog about our business and our work behind the scenes. We are very excited and hope that all of our loyal readers will subscribe. We can promise you interesting stories, cool locations and fabulous pictures. So, please do check out the Conch Creative blog

http://conchcreative.wordpress.com/

Before we depart, we wanted to share a few pictures with you. In September, Maya had her 50th birthday party. It was an amazing party. Earlier in the year, we bought a pig. Our pig lived at Darwin Farm, owned by our adorable (and we should add..startlingly clever) friends Kathleen and Andrzej in Succotz - near the Guatemalen border.

Darwin Farm is a magical place where the animals have names (our pig was named Goldman) and they are loved and cared for with great attention to their needs and quality of life.

Maya created a list of the people she wanted to invite and we sent out the invitation. She was super tough about who made it on the list and who didn't. 'The list' became a running joke amongst our friends and probably a source of consternation amongst those who didn't make it but thought they would.

We were grateful for Goldman's sacrifice and everyone at the party thoroughly enjoyed the traditional pibil that was made by Maya's favourite restaurant - a tiny little place on the Guatemalan border called Benito's or Benny's for short. Our friends then drove the pibil across Belize and flew over to San Pedro. They brought us some of their amazing artisan cheese and made the best home made bread for us. We tried to honour Goldman by creating a little shrine for him at the party. Thanks to one of our many friends who sent us pictures (believe or not we didn't take any!) for this one of the shrine and the party pics to follow.

And on that note, we say farewell to our wonderful friends, family and followers, who inspired us to share our lives in Belize. We hope you will tune in and subscribe to http://conchcreative.wordpress.com/ and join us on the next part of our journey.

Love and Kisses from Maya and Colette

Spring Sprang and the Dog Days of Summer are Upon Us

2010-06-02T12:18:00.022-06:00

Dog Days were popularly considered to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, dogs grew mad and all creatures became languid causing to man burning fevers, hysterics and phrensies". Bradies Clavis Calendarium, 1813

Hello everyone! Have you missed us? Have we been very naughty bloggers? Will excuses suffice? Well, let's give it a try. We are really busy. We never thought that would happen again. When we arrived in Belize, we took to the relaxed, laid back lifestyle and thoroughly enjoyed pretending we were retired. But, as they say, idle hands makes for the devils work - or something along those lines. Even though some of you might say that we are a bit devilish (in the nicest possible way), we certainly can't be accused of being idle. So, things started filling our time. Colette started her Be Kind Belize programme, which has kept her very busy and been a huge success. She graduated nearly 60 children from the programme this year and will be running the scheme at the San Pedro Summer Camp, which she is very excited about. We also joined the AIDS Commission and help them out whenever we can, we joined Friends of the Humane Society (FOTHS) and are constantly involved in their very important fund raising activities. We built a house and had to deal with the mess that we were left with after our contractor walked off the job (and still are dealing with the mess).

Now, we have our new business, Conch Creative, which has been such an incredible experience. Neither of us could have predicted that this would have been the path we would follow but we have had the chance to see the most amazing places and work with some really cool people - not to mention the absolutely stunning beauty queens and models we've had the privilege of photographing. They do say life is a roller coaster and we're certainly enjoying every minute of the ride. Fortunately, our particular roller coaster travels slowly enough that we get the chance to stop and enjoy the view from time to time. We never ever forget how lucky we have been to end up in such a gorgeous and welcoming country as Belize. So much so, that Colette won first place in a writing competition, sponsored by ambergriscaye.com about the first time we ever came to Belize. You can read it here along with a bunch of other wonderful odes to such a beautiful place. Her entry was called 'A Love Letter to Ambergris Caye'.

Now we can update you with what has been happening the last few months. So much has happened, we don't know where to start.

Shopping seems as good a place as any. Colette likes to take off on trips to Belize City for a bit of shopping and culture now and again. This time it turned into a really girlie trip. Many purchases were made, including a large number of shoes. Colette has been sworn to secrecy regarding the purchasers of shoes, but only one of these pairs is hers. We'll leave you to guess!

Shopping builds up a huge appetite, so the girls all hit the wonderful Riverside Tavern, where they had delicious burgers and mucho mucho beer.

After that it was back to the Great House Hotel, which is just a gorgeous place and Colette shared a room with the gorgeous and sassy Christine. There was much giggling, a few gaseous moments and much amusement at the hole in Colette's pajamas but the girls did have to justify their trip with some culture....and they got some great culture indeed.

The girls got all dressed up and hit the town. The Bliss Centre in Belize City is the centre for everything cultural. It was built with money provided by Baron Bliss, who loved Belize very much. On this night, the Indian Embassy was sponsoring an evening of traditional Indian dance. It was splendid, dramatic, colourful, graceful and hugely entertaining. The whole place was packed and everyone had a great time.

Colette and the girls were all happy and refreshed having burned off their island fever and so it was back to San Pedro. But, as we're on an Indian theme, we should fast forward to another amazing night. This time in San Pedro. In Belizean culture, the coming of age is a girl's 15th birthday and that is when they have their quinceanera party. We were honoured to share this celebration with a wonderful family for their beautiful daughter Elizabeth. We had no idea what to expect but WOW is all we can say. What a party. It was Indian themed.

Elizabeth arrived on an almost life size papier mache elephant, powered of course by a golf cart. The party was at the local Tennis Club and they had created Indian tents and decorated quite fabulously.' The last we heard, the elephant is in hiding somewhere on San Pedro.

Elizabeth performed some traditional Indian Dance and was absolutely, without a doubt the Belle of the Ball.

It was just so much fun. Colette and Maya took pictures as a gift to the family. Maya often finds herself perched in precarious positions when taking photographs, so luckily she had her lovely assistant to give her some support when she needed it most. Thankfully our friend Shamir, another great photographer, was there to record the event for us. Thanks for the pic Sham!

So many of our great friends were at the party. Maya couldn't help share some love with her 'brother from another mother', the indomitable Will.

Then it was Maya's turn to deal with her own island fever and she was lucky enough to be invited to visit the American Crocodile Education Sanctuary (ACES) in Punta Gorda. She tagged along with our friends Tamara and Nana and even became known as the 'Crocodile Whisperer' as she amazingly started a conversation with a rescued baby croc, who actually talked back. If you don't believe it, check it out on You Tube here.

Once she came home, we had our own flora and fauna to deal with. It was time to harvest our fruit. Freshly and organically grown bananas and papayas are just so luxurious and delicious. It is so awesome to be able to pick them right in our own garden.

We have our share of birds here too as we just about live in the trees. Some of them stay outside, like our nesting White Wing Doves but some are more troublesome, such as the Hummingbirds who find their way into the house. You should see the palaver required to escort one of these outside.

Maya also is required to hunt and gather for the household, which she did in tremendous style by catching this enormous and delicious grouper, which was about 20lbs.

This blog is a doozy, isn't it? I can hear you all saying - 'What happened next?'. Colette's turn this time. She decided to visit the USA where her Mum and Stepfather live in the deep deep south. This is where Colette went to school as a kid and so one of the best surprises she had was that her schoolfriend,Nancy, from way back when popped down to St. Simon's Island to visit her. They were both animal mad then and not much has changed. Nancy is helping to get a sanctuary for rescued exotic animals off the ground in Georgia called Tiger Stripes. They drank far too much, Colette had the worst Margarita she has ever had in her life (bars - if you have real limes, don't use a crappy mix to make a Margarita - it is just gross) at a local establishment which will remain unnamed to protect its embarrassment. Colette sneaked back home at an ungodly hour feeling like she was a naughty school girl staying out past her curfew. But they did solve all the world's problems that evening so we can all rest easily now.

Now to rewind slightly. Colette had the chance to meet up with our wonderful and much loved friends Bill and Becky while in Savannah. They had lunch on the river and caught up with all the Island gossip. So you can imagine it was a rather long lunch as San Pedro provides so many fun stories. We're very excited that they will be visiting us soon again.

Colette did lots of family visiting and eating. Here is a picture of her Stepfather, Ray, dissecting and performing surgery on the old grandfather clock.

Here is her Uncle Mark, Auntie Ann and Mum looking like a proper family. Aren't they cute?

Here is the amazing low country boil that Mum put together for a group of close friends. Low country boil is a traditional southern meal but Colette (and Mum's friend Rachel - who normally gets the leftovers) was horrified when Mum threw the uneaten food over the deck and into the sea. She claims she is helping more shrimp to grow. We're not sure about her reasoning. But you don't argue with Mum.

That wasn't the only great meal to be had. Rachel, as is the custom, took everyone out for a delicious Japanese Teppanyaki food. The chefs always put on a great show and the food is yummy scrummy delicious.

Colette headed home so grateful to be back in Belize. Her trip was somewhat grueling. All she will say is that she won't be trying to save a bit of money by traveling through Mexico again. She returned to complete her Be Kind Belize classes and of course there aren't many things that beat cute pictures of children. So here they are.

There is just one little project left that we wanted to tell you about. It sort of screws up the timeline of this blog, but hey, we are rebels. Over Easter, there was a kite flying competition. Now, sometime before this, a friend of ours, Paul, who is an amazing glass blower, had sent us some of his stunning marbles and asked us to place one where a child could find it. Paul owns Artemis Glass Studios.

Well we thought the kite flying competition would be ideal, so we headed to the beach and planted our magic marble in the sand. What we hadn't reckoned on was that during a kite flying competition no one looks at the sand. Everyone is bloody looking up at the sky. It took a bit longer than planned and Colette had to be on sentry duty as the occasional adult would stumble across the marble and attempt to pick it up. Colette would rush at them shouting 'that is for the children, keep your mitts off it'. You have to laugh. Eventually though a lovely little boy called Christopher from Holy Cross School found the marble and was so thrilled he couldn't quite believe it was his.

We think this blog has been long enough, so we will bid you all farewell for now as we have so many more adventures awaiting us. We do hope you'll check out our website, Conch Creative . We update the photos and try to make sure that there is something for everyone's taste. But more selfishly than that, the more people log onto our site, the higher it goes in the search engine ratings...and well..that is what it is all about these days. On top of that you could be personally responsible for making a bride like this a very happy woman by helping her to find us.

Family, Fruit and Flowers

2010-01-17T13:48:00.026-07:00

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when all the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring." Oscar Wilde

Firstly Happy New Year to everyone we know and love and even to those people we don't know yet but who we probably would love if we knew you. We should start by warning you that even though we have launched a photography company, this blog is not a showcase for our photos. This is a personal blog about our lives and experiences in Belize and so what you get here are snapshots and photos of our day to day lives in Belize. We may, if we happen to be feeling extremely generous, tease you with a proper photo now and again, but we will be changing the pictures on our website http://www.conchcreative.com/ regularly and hope that you will check in now and then to see what we are up to. We have also created a Facebook site for Conch Creative where we will provide sneak previews of new work before it is put up on our website. If you are a member of Facebook and want to join our page, you can do so here Conch Creative on Facebook.

Now on with our blog. November was a big month for us because we had family come to visit. We were so excited as this is only the second time Colette's family have been to see us in Belize. Colette prepared a huge Thanksgiving feast. There is a saying that 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating', well in this case, the proof of the pudding was in the sleeping because everyone just passed out after the meal, which we think is a good sign.

Oh Rachel. We are almost sorry about posting this picture.

This is Keeva, Colette's brother, after Thanksgiving dinner.

This is Charles, Colette's brother's friend, after Thanksgiving dinner. You getting the gist?

This is Mum and Ray. We were too chicken to publish a picture of them asleep.

This is the whole family post recovery.

The only eating wasn't just done at our house and we all went out for a sushi evening at Hummingbird Sushi Bar. Because Colette's brother is vegan, we had to pick and choose our culinary destinations carefully, but we don't think that her brother Keeva, or his buddy Charles had any problems in the hunger department. In fact, Colette fixed them a vegan meal the night they arrived (oh did we forget to rub it in about Keeva forgetting to renew his passport and turning up days late? That's OK, we've done it now). Our lovely friend Melody joined us and the lucky boys had a wonderful escort after dinner to show them the town. Colette packed them up with leftovers for which they were apparently grateful after rolling in late that night with a huge hunger.

Everyone say 'SUSHI!'

We told you not to use so much hot sauce Keeva.

Mum and Ray both got into the Belizean laid back atmosphere and had a wonderful time. The whole family stayed at Caribbean Villas Resort and loved the rooms and the location as well as the beach bar. The hotel is run by a very hospitable British couple and they made my family feel especially welcome. Shame they couldn't do something about the weather though. It seems like the bad weather started way back then and even now, it is still cold, windy, grey and not very Caribbean like at all. We suppose this is pay off for having a wonderful summer with no hurricanes, but it truly feels like a winter season this year. We've had blankets on the bed and have had to wear socks and coats.

Mum chilling out at Crazy Canucks Beach Bar on Belize time.

What did warm up their trip though was that they arrived in time for San Pedro Township Day, which celebrates San Pedro's declaration as a town. This was a big one - San Pedro Town was officially 25 years old. San Pedro loves parades.

A pick up truck is a perfect ride for San Pedro Princesses.

The little Princesses haven't graduated from a golf cart to a pick up truck yet.

Then, on the 1st of December was World AIDS Day. The San Pedro AIDS Commission organised an education day at the Roman Catholic Primary School on the same day as another parade. We're not exactly sure what this parade was for, but all of the children dressed up and of course were as cute as buttons. Anyway, Colette was there and able to catch some of the activities.

As cute as a bug and as beautiful as a butterfly.

The kids take learning about HIV/AIDS very seriously.

Colette also started her Be Kind Belize humane education lessons in schools again and she kicked off the year with a 'Dog Smart' lesson, teaching the little ones how to be safe around dogs. They had a great time and really enjoyed the colouring books, which had so generously been donated by the Animal Protection League of New Jersey. This is a good time to remind everyone that if you want to help Colette with Be Kind Belize there are a number of ways to do so. If you are in Belize, you can volunteer as a humane educator. If you are not in Belize, you can help by supplying prizes for the children as rewards for demonstrating kind behaviour - or you can order a funky Be Kind Belize T-Shirt, tote bag or even a thong at Be Kind Belize's online shop at Cafe Press. Colette is currently running the full 8 week curriculum in two schools in San Pedro and will hopefully be adding a third later this year. The kids, teachers and schools love it. Colette just wishes she had more volunteers to help teach.

Be Kind Belize makes children smile.

Meanwhile, Conch Creative has been taking off leaving Maya less time to tend our beautiful garden. But the garden continues to grow and supply us with fruit and beautiful flowers. Even in the cool weather we've been having the papayas, bananas, passionfruit and other plants continue to thrive.

This is a banana flower from our garden.

These are bananas growing in our garden. Maya has big bananas.

This is a manzana banana flower in our garden. Manzana means apple in Spanish.

These are manzana bananas. They taste like apples.

These are Maya's papayas.

This is the bud of a passion fruit flower. Can you feel the passion yet?

This is, a passion fruit flower.

This is unsurprisingly a passion fruit.

One of Maya's stunningly huge melons. Watermelon juice - Yum!

These are orchids but we have to wait for the flowers. Hopefully the dog won't eat them this time.

This is an orange hibiscus.

You'll never guess....this is a pink hibiscus.

We did promise a teaser every so often from Conch Creative, so we will finish this blog with a photo from one of our recent shoots. We hope you like it. Even if you don't, we still like you! We send you all our love and kisses and hope that your New Year will bring you everything that you wish for.

Maritza Rivas, Miss Nicaragua and Miss Costa Maya 2009 at the Phoenix for Moondancer

Exciting Announcement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-19T12:47:00.005-07:00

We've Gone Live!

www.conchcreative.com

A Conch is Calling

2009-11-18T13:12:00.019-07:00

Cosmic Monster, by Maya Papovic

A few blogs back, we told you we were working on our business - Conch Creative. If you have been following this blog, you know we've accomplished so much since we've been in Belize. Aside from learning to live in a completely different country, overcome the inevitable culture shock, building a house, acquiring two more dogs and collecting a weird and wonderful bunch of new friends - we've spent a lot of time trying to find a niche.

We've bored our friends with our endless ideas and spent a considerable amount of time and effort on one or two projects that just weren't meant to be. We both wanted to reinvent ourselves and find a way that we could work together. Anyone who lives in Belize or even who visits regularly knows that Belize has a peculiar way of teaching you new things about yourself and the way that you live your life.

We knew we wanted to do something creative and we had to do something we were good at. The most important ingredient of course is that we had to do something that would work in Belize. Neither of us is particularly business minded but we do work hard and when we get passionate about something, we go for it 100%.

This is how Conch Creative came into being. It all started when we did a few logos for people, helped out with designing posters and did some photography. Colette had been doing some work in PR and had gained experience in that field, while Maya had spent much of her youth as a photographer, even having her own dark room, colouring and enhancing film by hand long before anyone had ever heard of digital photography or photoshop. Maya's career took her into videography but she has always been creative, recently demonstrating that she is a fantastic artist as you can see by the opening photo on this blog of one of her paintings.

Of course we need to make a living but as everyone knows, we've always been hugely commited to not for profit work and support the local humane society, SAGA. So, we produced a calendar for Friends of the Humane Society, containing black and white glossy photographs of people in San Pedro and their pets. These weren't traditional portraits. They were sexy and stylish and it is a project we were very proud to be involved in. So far, we have been told it has raised almost $4000 usd. If you want one for Christmas, let us know and we'll find a way to get one to you. They are only $10usd plus shipping and they really are a cool and unique present. We did not charge to produce this calendar, so the only costs were the printing. All profits to to Friends of the Humane Society, which is currently raising money to build a much needed isolation unit. You can read all about the calendar launch at Lime Bar & Grill here, here and here where you'll see write ups and some great pictures of all the fun. It was a huge event and very successful. Almost all of the calendar models attended the launch to sign their pictures along with Mayor Elsa Paz and Miss World Belize, Letty Lara.

Colette - Miss August, Friends of the Humane Society Calendar 2010

David - Mr. September, Friends of the Humane Society Calendar 2010

Friends of the Humane Society Calendar 2010 - Models

After all the enjoyment we had making the calendar we really had to get our nose to the grind stone and think about how we are going to earn a living so that we can continue our love affair with Belize. We have been working on our portfolio and our website is almost ready to go live. Maya does most of the photography, although Colette is learning and has produced some pretty nice pictures herself. We work together on our concepts and planning the shoot and between us we tweak the photographs until we are perfectly happy to label them with our Conch Creative logo.

Baby in Bowl - Conch Creative

Natalia - Conch Creative

Independent Feathers - Conch Creative

In Your Hands-
Conch
Creative

Now that the business is just starting to get off the ground, we are learning about how supportive our community truly is, with everyone helping us out with advice, practical help and referrals. We are very excited about this business and both enjoy the work so much. It is just another confirmation to us that we made the right decision when we moved to Belize and while we miss the wonderful friends we left behind, we don't miss the lifestyle at all.

Of course, in the midst of all this, as if it weren't enough, Colette has been working hard on her humane education programme, Be Kind Belize, which seems to have taken on a life of its own. Recently, she featured on the Belizean national breakfast TV show called Open Your Eyes, where she got the opportunity to talk about the link bewteen cruelty to animals and human violence. She was also invited to speak to a group of students at Belize University on the same subject, which she found extremely inspiring. Several new volunteers have come on board and it is likely that Be Kind Belize will be finding its ways into schools all over the country in the new year.

Colette with William Neal and Marleni Cuellar on Open Your Eyes Chan. 5

While over in Belize to film the TV show, she was invited to participate in a great event being held by Lifeline, a charity established by Kim Simpliss Barrow, the Prime Minister's wife, to provide financial assistance to children's projects across Belize. This particular event, called Magic Brushes, involved a group of women who were cruise ship tourists. Instead of doing the normal tourist activities when they visited Belize, they decided to do something for the community. So a group of them turned up at our hospital, Karl Huesner, to help brighten up the paediatric ward by painting murals on the walls. You can read about it here. Colette, with her friends Denise from San Pedro and Caroline, one of the Directors of Lifeline, spent the day with a bunch of other amazing people brightening up the days of a bunch of sick children and hosting a fabulous group of women who were hugely generous with their time and spirit and had a great experience in Belize.

Caroline, Denise and Colette do Sponge Bob at Karl Huesner Hospital

Poor Patrick - Colette Kase

Most people think that tourists are relatively hedonistic, but Belize must do something to people because we are constantly stunned by the thoughtful of visitors who come to Belize. So many people bring gifts for the schools, humane societies, health clinics and other good causes. Be Kind Belize has several wonderful benefactors from around the world, who bring prizes for the children when they visit and help to support the programme. Philanthropic tourism is definitely a good thing and we would urge everyone who is traveling to countries that are not as wealthy as your own to find out in advance how you can help. A few dollars or pounds and a little effort by you before you arrive at your destination can often make a huge difference to non profit groups in your host country. Things you can do include bringing school supplies, medical and veterinary products, clothing and books.

Watch this space as we are very close to announcing the launch of the Conch Creative website, which is when we'll truly be up and running. We're so thrilled we might just explode.

Kind Kids, Karaoke and Costa Maya (and ponies)

2009-08-25T16:14:00.057-06:00

"Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony"
Lou Reed

We live life to the fullest and sometimes, we must admit, that doesn't include blogging regularly enough. In our defense, we would argue that we have to spend time indulging in life to the fullest to make sure we have blog content worthy of our esteemed readers. So, our advice to you is to get a drink, get comfortable and get ready for the ride - cause this blog is gonna be a doozy. There will be a bit of 'nice' and a bit of 'naughty' as we also believe in a definite life balance. To break you in gently, we'll start with the nice. So, here is a pony. Not just any pony, but a pink pony. You'll be seeing her throughout this blog journey. We think she is very nice. She belongs to Colette. If at any point you feel overwhelmed by the children in this blog, please note that there are party pictures and beautiful women in bikinis towards the end.

That sets us up nicely for Colette's Be Kind Belize Kind Kids Adventure. Colette, being a true rebel, always finds a way to work with animals and children, so this summer she rustled up sponsorship amongst friends and Belizean businesses to take a group of kids on a two day field trip to mainland Belize. We'll start with that story first.

Colette's biggest worry in the planning of this whole trip was that the kids wouldn't turn up on time. The adventure was starting on a Saturday morning and all of the children needed to be at the dock at 6:45am for the 7:00am express boat. The San Pedro - Belize Express Water Taxi Company
had generously provided free tickets for the whole group of six children, two adults (teachers) and Colette (who probably doesn't really count as a real adult). Everyone Colette had spoken to had laughed when she told them she had told the kids to be there at 6:45am. The normal response, given with a snort was 'You should have told them to be there at 6:00am. No way they'll be there on time'.

At 6:30am Colette arrived at the dock to find three children already there. By 6:45am all of the children had arrived and as far as Colette was concerned, the worst part of the trip was over. We should back pedal a bit here and explain that Colette has been organising this adventure for over six months and everyone who knows her, knows she plans things in detail. So, every child received a backpack filled with goodies upon their arrival. The backpacks were embroidered with the Be Kind Belize logo and had been donated by a lovely woman called Deborah Gagnon from Denny's in Canada. Inside the backpacks were all sorts of goodies donated by a wonderful animal loving couple, Lori and Jim Prediger and huge supporters of Be Kind Belize, Charlene and Ted Jordan. They also contained a Be Kind Belize t-shirt, which had been printed and provided for free by Gecko Graphics in San Pedro.

The kids were kitted out and ready to go. The boat trip over was uneventful with lots of nodding off and yawning going on. No one said much and the children all looked a bit worried to be leaving their island and their parents. As soon as we arrived, Karen Turner Cruz from Belize Jungle Dome was there to greet us and get us started on our journey to the Cayo District. The Jungle Dome people had been wonderful and provided all of the transportation for the Kind Kids Adventure. For those of you who have never seen the Jungle Dome or even heard of the Jungle Dome, here is a picture. It is, in fact, a dome in the jungle (and a lovely bed & breakfast).

We stuffed ourselves into the van with all of our luggage and hit the road for the first stage of our adventure. Everything seemed to be going well. Colette could hear the teachers, Daniel Jones from Holy Cross Anglican School and Tara McGregor from Island Academy, in the back entertaining the kids and she was carefully reviewing her itinerary with Karen. Suddenly, she heard a groan. It was Teacher Tara. Then there was a group 'ewwwww'. Colette turned around to see that one of the children had puked and, being of a particularly sensitive disposition, covered her own mouth to prevent a further eruption and asked Karen to pull over. All of her meticulous planning came crashing down when she discovered that she hadn't packed any napkins, paper towels or toilet paper. While children fell out of the van and everyone stood around trying not to vomit themselves, Colette thought she would make herself useful and trudged across the road to a closed restaurant, which seemed to serve as a mechanics shop during the day. She returned triumphantly 10 minutes later with a roll of toilet paper in her hands. What she had forgotten was that she was traveling with two experienced teachers, who are excellent at resolving these little problems quickly and simply and so by the time she returned, feeling heroic, the mess had been cleaned up and the children were being packed back into the van. It seemed that this would be a good time to get a proper breakfast into the kids and even though Colette wasn't the best at solving pukey problems quickly, she did have money, which had been donated by some quite marvelous people to ensure that food and travel costs were covered. Those generous people were Charlene and Ted Jordan, Bill and Becky McGhee and Marty Casado, who runs Ambergriscaye.com.

They ended up in Amigos restaurant along the highway. You can see the children here anxiously awaiting their beans, eggs and tortillas and wait we did. The group debated whether or not the kitchen staff were growing the beans, catching the chickens or had to start a fire to cook on as the power had just gone out. While waiting, the children enjoyed the bumper stickers and signs all over the wall. As one the children started reading one of the signs to the group, teacher Tara suddenly realised that they were all very 'adult' and extremely rude. Everyone then spent the rest of the time trying to distract the children from the signs until the food arrived. Things were running behind schedule and Colette, having planned this like a military operation, hurried everyone up so that they could get on to their first destination, which was Belize Bird Rescue.

Upon our arrival Alyson Coye, one of the top cowboys in Belize and Champion bull rider, was waiting for the children with two horses. One was a four month old foal, whose mother had died from a snake bite. No one had wanted to care for the little mite and so Nikki and Jerry at Belize Bird Rescue, took him in. Alyson, also a skilled farrier, explained and demonstrated proper foot care and then showed the children a 'gentle' approach to gaining a horses trust by lying them down and stroking them.

The children also got a chance to meet one eyed Jack, who had been abandoned by the side of the road - another unwanted animal being cared for at the bird rescue. They all got a chance to handle the horses and groom them. Colette noticed that just being near the horses, touching them and interacting with them calmed them down and focused their attention.

After this Nikki and Jerry took everyone for a walk down to Roaring Creek, a beautiful clear creek that runs through their property. They have built the most incredible non mechanised water wheel there that provides an incredible amount of fresh water for free. The children were fascinated and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to take off their shoes and dip their toes into the cool, fast flowing water.

They were thrilled when little fish appeared and started nibbling their toes and everyone felt refreshed and happy as they headed back up to visit the Bird Rescue aviaries where the children got to meet some of the resident birds, who were being rehabilitated for return to the wild.

These included Red Lored Parrots, most of whom had been terribly abused, stolen from the rain forest as babies and then kept as pets by people who didn't care for them properly.

A Crested Guan, seized from people who had cut its wings in an awful manner.

A Little Tinamou, which are rather plain but rarely seen as they are such shy birds.

We also got to see a blue - headed (Mealy) Amazon Parrot, who had been released by the rescue and was living free in the surrounding forest, as he popped in for a visit.

After our visit to the aviaries, it was time for lunch, followed by a chance for the kids to show off their creative skills by making toys for the parrots.

One of the highlights of this visit was when the children were able to take the toys and put them in trees for the parrots to play with. The kids were so excited when the parrots immediately climbed down the trees to investigate.

It was onward and forward for the Kind Kids Adventure and though everyone was sad to say goodbye to Alyson, Nikki and Jerry they were looking forward to their next stop with Dr. Orlando Baptist a Belizean veterinary surgeon, who told them all about why he became a vet, what he had to achieve academically and the sort of work he does on a day to day basis. The children asked him all sorts of questions and hopefully will be inspired as Belize really does need more vets.

By this time everyone was a bit weary, but we still had one more experience for the day and Colette knew that this would most definitely wake everyone up. We headed out to see Tony Garel at the Belize Herpatorium and Aquarium Park. Tony has been working on this project for five years now and is one of the leading experts on reptiles in Belize.

Be Kind Belize got a behind the scenes tour. The children were able to see the animals that are bred for feeding reptiles, saw the herpetological collection of Belize's most deadly snakes, learned a bit about crocodiles and then were able to visit Tony's ponds, where he keeps problem crocodiles that have had to be removed from dangerous situations. These he uses for educational purposes to help people understand how important crocodiles are to the Belizean ecosystem and why they are threatened. He also gave the children a very scary demonstration of what happens when crocodiles loose their fear of humans. While feeding the crocs, one of them continually tried to attack Tony and it was only is speed and understanding of crocodile behaviour that kept him safe. If that croc was loose it would be a great danger to people.

It was time to wind down after such a fun filled first day for the Kind Kids Adventure and head off for the jungle lodge that was hosting us for the night.

Everyone was looking forward to a swim in the pool at Ian Anderson's Caves Branch and were wondering what was in store for us there. Mr. Anderson was hugely supportive of the Kind Kids Adventure and it would be impossible to express how overwhelmed everyone was by his wonderful hospitality. One of the funniest things that evening was that one of the boys had saved $5 so that he could have a virgin pina colada. He ordered and sat at the bar and drank it. It made us all giggle.

Teacher Tara and Teacher Daniel both needed a rest after the fun filled day.

..and we got to rest in style. We got absolutely brilliant rooms at the jungle lodge, called the Tree House Suites. We were given three suites, each of which had a beautiful bed (Teacher Tara's was a two bedroom suite. She was the posh one.) and a set of bunk beds for two kids. We all thought we would be roughing it in the bunk rooms but got a wonderful surprise.

Colette's roomies and their bunks, which were literally in the trees.

We had a delicious dinner and were joined by Mr. Ian Anderson and his lovely wife Ella. They told us about the amazing Belize National Youth Chess Foundation that they have founded and why they had wanted to support the work we were doing with Be Kind Belize. They were great dinner companions and very interesting people. The children really enjoyed meeting them and felt very special.

After dinner the adults felt it was the responsible thing to hold true to tradition and tell the children ghost stories. So after scaring them all half to death we headed off for a much needed and very comfortable nights sleep.

Colette snuck up on the boys in her room and caught them fast asleep during the beginning of a massive rain storm early in the morning. It wasn't long before everyone was up and ready to start the next day.

Before breakfast everyone headed out to the river that flowed below our tree houses and then it was off for our cave tubing adventure. Colette had always thought of cave tubing as a gentle float down a slow moving river as you passed through caves and went 'ooh' and 'ahh' and that is what she expected. So, as they set off, fitting the children up with hiking boots......whoa....hiking boots. Wait a minute. This is supposed to be a gentle float isn't it?

Unfortunately there are no pictures as no one had a camera with waterproof housing, so we'll just have to tell you about it here. We all got in one of those big old USA school buses. Colette and Tara were still wearing swim suits. Tara was actually wearing a bikini with a t- shirt as she had also anticipated a gentle float in cool water. After an absolutely glorious long and very bumpy ride through the Maya Mountains with a group of increasingly excited children, we were relieved to pull over in an orange orchard. Very strange. Never mind. Our guides, Alex and Edgar proceeded to empty the back of the bus of large black inner tubes and we all set off on a hike. Eventually we could hear water running and knew it was close.

We clambered down a steep bank - actually Colette, with her immense grace and good balance, sort of slipped and fell down the bank - and were relieved to see what looked like a gently flowing river. Very shallow, but gentle.

After instruction about the correct way to use our tubes and making sure all of the children were present, accounted for and wearing their life jackets and everyone was comfortable with their head lamps, we got in the water. That is when the penny dropped. This was not going to be a gentle float down stream. No- oh no. We were paddling, with our hands, against the current, upstream.

Of course the guides, being wonderful gentlemen, assisted the weaker children but left the grown ups to fend for themselves. Eventually we arrived at the cave and turned on our lamps. It was cold, damp and quite ominous. We also had to keep paddling. Then we would get out for a while and carry our tubes while the guides would tell everyone about the geology of the caves, which were 24 million years old, made of limestone and 7 km deep (most of that has water up to the roof so is in accessible except to cave divers). It was Footprint cave, so named because explorers had found footprints of the ancient Maya in the cave. The cave had been used for Maya rituals and we were told we would soon be seeing evidence of this.

It was pretty fun, there were a few instances of panic when people fell off their tubes and then much relieved giggling when they discovered they could actually just walk as the water was so shallow. The cave was beautiful and full of crystalised formations.

We reached a point where we left our tubes and did the rest of the cave by foot. We went about 1km into the cave. Eventually we had to climb up onto a platform. There was much hilarity when Colette and Tara both balked at the possibility that in their swimsuits and feeble condition that they could possibly climb up onto the platform but everyone ignored them and they managed just fine.

This platform was the site of a stunning Maya carving of a fertility god or monkey mask. The guides told us about the way the area had been used for rituals and rites in the past, gave everyone the chance to have a really good look at some of the stone pits and carvings and then we had to get down from the platform. It took us all a second to understand what he meant when one of the guides told us to maintain five points of contact as we descended and then we realised that he meant we had to slide down on our bottoms. Certainly not very dainty when wearing a swim suit, especially a bikini. Thankfully it was dark.

We floated back out of the cave into the daylight. We had been in there a couple of hours and had lost all sense of time. One of the guides disappeared and suddenly jumped off a cliff next to the river and scared us all to death as he splashed into the water. It was an amazing trip and highly recommended. It was somewhat physically tiring, but well worth it.

The kids were in for a treat when we arrived back at the jungle lodge for lunch as they were just in time to hear a troupe of howler monkeys. If you have never heard howler monkeys, there is no way to describe the sound. The children loved it.

Karen was there to meet us and we all piled back into the Jungle Dome van to visit Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. It is an environmental education centre based in 1000 acres of forest reserve. The children were intrigued to see the bio gas unit there and learn that human waste (poop) was turned into a gas for cooking - all their cooking gas is made this way at Monkey Bay - and that the rest of the waste is turned into compost. Kids love hearing about poop. They were also told about the Green Iguana conservation programme at Monkey Bay but a bit disappointed that there were no iguanas there at the time.

Of course, children can be terribly lucky at times. Just as we were leaving, a green iguana ran out from in front of them and while Colette couldn't get the iguana in a picture, she did manage to capture the childrens' faces as they watched it run up a tree. Priceless.

We're now onto the last stretch of the journey. Glad that you are still with us. The next stop is the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Centre. What a treat. Hilario, one of the keepers, took the children on a special highlight tour of the Zoo and here you'll get a chance to see what we did.

They got to feed White Tailed Deer, which are becoming rare in Belize because of over hunting.

They got to feed the Tapir, but were told to run away quickly as the Tapir often would turn around and pee on visitors.

They got the chance to meet Junior, a young jaguar who was born at the zoo when his very sick mother was rescued.

Because Junior had to be hand reared, he can never be returned to the wild, so the Belize Zoo use him to educate people about the plight of the jaguar and have trained him to interact with visitors. The children were also lucky enough to see Sharon Matola interacting with the very rare Harpy Eagles that are being bred at the Zoo but unfortunately we were so excited, no one thought to take a picture.

They also got to feed the incredibly rare Scarlet Macaws that are part of the Zoo's breeding programme. The Belize Zoo is a truly unique conservation and education effort and we can't recommend it highly enough. They were great with the kids and the visit was extremely educational as well as exciting and interesting.

We piled everyone back into the van and Karen made sure we got to the water taxi on time to make it back to San Pedro on the very last express. The kids were thrilled that the Captain gave them permission to sit on the top deck and even had his picture taken with them.

The journey home was full of happy smiles even though everyone was tired. The children knew there was one more treat in store for them. Kakaw Artisan Chocolate, hand made in San Pedro, had donated a bag of chocolate for every child on the Kind Kids Adventure. What a journey, what an adventure, what a trip. Teacher Daniel and teacher Tara were wonderful inspirations and role models to the children. The whole event was way beyond anything Colette had planned for and she is eternally grateful to the schools, teachers, children, community members, businesses and other individuals who made the whole thing possible. The lives of these children will be touched by this experience forever.

Oh, there is that pesky pink pony again. That must indicate that we are in for a change of pace in this blog. It can't be all earnest and do gooding all the time. We need to let our hair down and have some fun every so often and that exactly what we have been doing. Oh no, but just before that - one more small piece of earnest do gooding.

As part of her work with Be Kind Belize, Colette presented a paper at the first national Belize Wildlife Conservation Network Conference at Galen University in Belmopan.

She had a great time hanging out with lots of like minded folks and she learned tons.

Don't think she didn't have fun though - she hates to say that having a group of very sweet children perform the Belize National Anthem on recorders first thing in the morning after excessive amounts of wine drinking the night before was somewhat painful.

Now, onto the real fun. We'll keep this fairly pictoral.

Maya enjoying Shaz's birthday at Lime.

Colette and Helda have fun with balloons at Shaz's birthday.

Maya is feeling lucky at the Roadkill karaoke fundraiser for a young boy who had a sudden brain aneurysm one morning while he was getting ready for school and desperately needed help with medical costs. He is doing well now.

Just so you know it isn't all play and no work, here are our favourite shots from the Costa Maya beauty pageant we were lucky enough to be able to photograph.

Miss Nicaragua was the winner and you can see why here. Cutie Patootie.

Here is a colourful group shot of some of the girls dressed for the cultural part of the evening.

Did we mention we also had to spend a day on a catamaran with the girls on a bikini shoot? Maya got a bit over excited in this shot of Miss Panama posing with a local journalist from the San Pedro Sun.

Here are all the girls and we are just posting this as a tease because our next blog will contain some fabulous photographs from the bikini shoot. Watch this space.

Finally, we wanted to post this amazing picture, given to us by our friend Tamara, of her mother's house in our neighbourhood 15 years ago. For those of you who know the area, that is where Banana Beach Hotel is now. Wow.

Our favourite pink pony wishes you a funtastic and fabulous time until we meet again.

Caye Caulker Lobster Fest - Feel the Rock!

2009-07-02T23:53:00.001-06:00

Lobster Season is Officially Open!

Be Kind Belize

2009-06-09T14:18:00.026-06:00

Humane Education Ain't Just for the Birds You Know

This gorgeous shot of a Harpy Eagle was taken by Maya

Where have we been? Why haven't we blogged? How can we be living in tropical paradise and be so busy? Oh the questions.

We like to keep our blog supporters updated but we also want to make sure we have really interesting stuff to share. Of course we could rub it in constantly and report back on our wonderful friends, the sparkling Caribbean Sea where we walk our dogs and swim regularly. We could brag about the great fishing and how amazing it is to eat fish that we have caught ourselves, straight from the salt water onto our grill. We could talk about hanging out at beach bars with our feet in the sand, the breeze in our hair, a cold beer in our hand tapping our feet to stomping good blues music. We could revel in the barefoot beach lifestyle that we have grown to love, treasure and embrace. We could drone on and on about the interesting people we know who are doing all sorts of heart stopping, enthralling and magical things. We could, but we won't.

What we will do is tell you a little bit about why we are so busy. Here are some of the things we've been up to. We've been taking photographs for a fund raising calendar for the local humane society. Sounds easy eh? Well, first we have to coordinate times with everyone, which isn't so easy when there is something called 'Belize time', which seems to mean that appointments don't constitute any sort of commitment. A good example of Belize time is the recent announcement that the Belikin Calendar has been released for 2009. Um hello guys, it is June already. But for those of you who don't know Belize time, there it is for you. For those of you who don't know the Belikin Calendar, have a click and look. You'll realise that most of the guys who buy the calendar aren't making the purchase to check what date it is. (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

Then there is getting the weather to cooperate. These pictures involve people and their pets. As anyone knows, who has worked in this field, trying to get an owner and pet both looking fabulous in the same shot is a miracle in itself if you are attempting anything resembling a posed picture. Then there is the tactful and time consuming task of making everyone look extra beautiful without looking unnatural. Fortunately Maya is a genius. We want to get this calendar out on time - not on Belize time and we want to make the local humane society a lot of money. Watch this space and wish us luck. The good news is that we have gorgeous pets and stunning owners and there will be a fair mix of boys and girls - so everyone should be happy.

In the midst of all of this we realised that we had better start earning some real money and so we set off on the task of writing a business plan and getting ourselves all excited about a new business. Then the economy sort of collapsed and we started to feel it in Belize. Not the right time to start the business we were planning and we have been disappointed to have to shelve the idea temporarily. Those that were involved are disappointed too, but such is life. We are moving forward with our next plan of action and things are going very well. We will be updating you all when we are ready to launch Conch Creative formally, but that is a hint. That is the name of our business.

Of course, you all know that Maya has been gardening and that combined with finishing our house has been a humongous task. Enjoyable and frustrating all at the same time.

Colette has been particularly busy. Everyone who knows her, knows that she is always up to something, she does a bit of writing, a bit of music a bit of this and a bit of that, but her main focus recently has been her humane education programme, Be Kind Belize. (website was designed and provided by the amazing and wonderful people at Belize Bird Rescue) After living here for sometime and trying to work out what she could do to give something back to this wonderful country that has been so welcoming to us, she decided to use her lifetime of
experience in animal welfare to develop Be Kind Belize.

Some of you might be asking, 'what on earth is humane education?'. Well, Colette sums it up by saying that it is the teaching of kindness in all of its forms.

A more complicated but detailed definition is provided by the all knowing Wikipedia.

"Humane education makes the acquisition of relevant knowledge, skills, and commitment to living ethically, sustainably, and peaceably on this planet the very purpose of education. It does this by infusing the curricula at all levels of education with meaningful information, inspiration, and tools for creating a safe and humane world for all.

Humane education examines the challenges facing our planet, from human oppression and animal exploitation to materialism and ecological degradation. It explores how we might live with compassion and respect for everyone: not just our friends and neighbors, but all people; not just our own dogs and cats, but all animals; not just our own homes, but also the earth itself, our ultimate home.

Humane education helps raise a generation that cares, that realizes that what we do matters, not just to ourselves but also to everyone our lives touch; a generation that understands the connections between both our personal and cultural choices and the fate of other people, other species, and the Earth, and takes responsibility for creating a better world. Humane education achieves these goals by inspiring people to identify the values that will guide them through life and by teaching them the process of embodying these values in the face of complex problems and needs.

Humane education promotes empathy and compassion towards all other species.

The birth of humane education as a national effort dates back to 1915. In that year, “Be Kind to Animals Week” was inspired Dr. William O’Stillman, leader of the American Humane Association. AHA’s primary goals were: visiting local schools to promote the development of humane education and publicizing the good works of the nation’s humane societies."

So, overall, it is a pretty good thing. Colette started designing this programme over a year ago and studied hard to ensure that her lessons tied in closely with the Belize National Curriculum. She then approached schools and was delighted to be invited to work with two - Holy Cross Anglican School and Island Academy - very different schools but both full of delightful children, who seem to love Colette's Be Kind Belize lessons and rather unconventional teaching methods.

The children have put on plays click here to see play. And they have written songs click here to hear them sing .

One of the most exciting things that Colette has done through her programme is the Kind Kids Adventure. Through the generous help and sponsorship of all sorts of individuals and businesses, she has set up an overnight field trip to the Belize mainland for a group of children from these two schools. Field trips aren't always particularly unusual but this one is different for a number of reasons. Firstly, the children are choosing which of their classmates get to go on this trip - only two from Island Academy and four from Holy Cross will be able to go as this trip is actually a prize for the kindest child. All of the children in each class get to use Kind Kid Coupons to identify and reward kind behaviour by their classmates. Through this system, which the children have to support by drawing a picture of the act of kindness along with a written description, which is then verified by the teacher, children will actually 'vote' for the kindest child in the class.

The children who are lucky enough to come on this trip will get the chance to visit a wild bird rehabiliation centre, Belize Bird Rescue, where they will learn about wild and domestic birds and see conservation in action. They will meet a real Belizean cowboy, who specialises in training horses with kindness and see him work with horses. They will visit a reptile conservation programme, the national Audobon society, get to learn about environmental technology, find out how to become a veterinarian in Belize and, on top of all of this, they will get a half day of cave tubing at Caves Branch . There are so many people to thank and Colette will be doing all of that properly and hugely after the trip, but the kids (don't tell them if you are reading this and you know one of them) will be receiving t-shirts, knapsacks, chocolate and all sorts of other amazing goodies donated by people from all over the world, who have heard about Be Kind Belize and want to help.

Fortunately, Colette has been in animal welfare a long time and knows how to do things on a shoe string. She also doesn't want to get into fundraising and the whole having to be on a committee, be terribly diplomatic (although she's never been known to have been diplomatic in her life really), do fundraising and all that malarkey, so she has kept costs down to a minimum while gratefully accepting practical donations.

But Colette isn't stupid either and printing costs a fortune down here, so she has set up a little Be Kind Belize Cafe Press Shop online, where you can purchase Be Kind Belize products and help out with the costs. You can also be incredibly fashionable, hip and rather sexy (there are even t-shirts for dogs). Or you can be a really a wonderful friend and buy items as presents for others. Either way, check it out as the logo is adorable and once you see it, you'll want one. The logo, was in fact, created by the talented and mysterious Maya.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a stolen shot of the now famous 'Flyin Mayan'. Taken by Ruth Verrals from the gorgeous Caribbean Villas

And another one which could only be titled (for those of you familiar with British Panto) 'She's behind you!' Or Maya's caption which is 'Jazz Hands'. Taken by Ruth Verrals from the gorgeous Caribbean Villas.

One little aside. We don't normally review local restaurants here because we are fussy buggers and we don't want to insult anyone, but in this case we'll make a little teensy exception. True to form, no review, just a comment. 'F'ing brilliant food!' Hummingbird Cafe.

To sum it all up boys and girls - We are busy. We are creating. We are doing. We are going to be launching soon. When we do, we will make sure you guys are definitely going to hear about it. We love you all. Colette & Maya

ps. This blog was supposed to be an interview with the great Drummer Dan and his talented friend Derrek. Unfortunately, the boys are rather slow at answering interview questions. So, if you see Derek, could you please give him a kick up the arse from us.

We will never forget you Mama Faye

2009-04-28T17:03:00.004-06:00

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Mrs. Faye Johnson, affectionately known as Mama Faye.

Mama Faye was Colette's grandmother by marriage. She was beautiful, fiercely intelligent, feisty and an inspiration to all. She will be greatly missed and never forgotten. Her loss is a loss shared my many and we share our sadness with her family, her community and everyone whose heart she touched.

Bats, Birds, Books ....oh and one little Agouti called Ben

2009-04-21T15:25:00.040-06:00

"Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made."

John Berryman (1917 - 1972)

These adorable, but slightly menacing creatures are Pygmy Fruit Eating Bats. They have a condo in a palmetto tree outside our window. They don't live there full time, but hang around (ha ha) every two or three days. Maya has been standing on a pile of crates to get photos when we can. Catching them with their eyes open is difficult. Catching them with their mouth open is even more difficult if they don't happen to be eating at the time. The little grey ones are babies and we've been watching them grow. As mammals, they nurse and we have caught this happening and it is absolutely fascinating. Welcome to our world. We're bats about Belize.

This is Chilli. Chilli is a Red Lored Parrot who found his way from the rain forest near the Macal River, to San Pedro and then back to mainland Belize. He currently resides at Belize Bird Rescue. His wings had been cut back badly but after their expert care he is now free flying and they are hoping he will soon find a mate.

Belize Bird Rescue does more than rescue and rehabilitate birds, their kindness and hospitality attract all sorts of stray people and animals.

This is the rather inappropriately named, Hunter (the dog), with Ben (actually Benjamina) the Agouti. Ben was brought home as a newborn, with umbilical cord still attached, by one of their other gentle but giant dogs. Agouti are eaten as bush meat in Belize. Luckily no one has told Hunter that.

This is Colette helping with early morning feeding. Ben may look very cute and truly is scrumptious, but she is a wild animal. Having spent time at Belize Bird Rescue that might be difficult to believe, since Benjamina has full run of the house, which can be somewhat disconcerting as she has a habit of rearranging things, but she is free to come and go as she pleases and will hopefully mature and attract a mate herself.

Ben is becoming less dependent on her milk feeds and seems to enjoy solids, such as this juicy piece of mango. It is so nice to live in a place where you can pick mangoes off the tree. Have we mentioned that Belize truly is paradise on earth?

We need to get back to the bird bit though. Somehow the cuteness of Benjamina overwhelmed us and she got in on this blog much too early. Belize Bird Rescue has hundreds of birds, many of them chickens. This chicken and her little baby seem to understand that a chicken's place is in the hen house.

But many of the chickens don't understand that fact. This very handsome and rather large cock (sorry we couldn't help ourselves) practiced his crowing outside Colette's window every night. She claims it was reassuring but got back to San Pedro with big bags under her eyes. As she denies that she consumed far too much wine and stayed up far too late with her wonderful hostess Nikki, putting the world to rights, it must have been this very large cock that ruined her beauty sleep. (oh we really must stop with the childish innuendo)

Sometimes the situation became somewhat Hitchcockesque, as the chickens and the odd turkey settled for the evening. Trust us when we say that you didn’t want to be the first one walking down these stairs in the morning.

And the turkeys were definitely odd. This is the author Joan Fry (who incidentally should not really be mentioned in this part of the blog but she’s nearly as cute as Benjamina, so we’ll let her off) with her friend Lee and an odd, un named turkey.

Truly though, after this picture you might start to understand that there really are chickens everywhere at Belize Bird Rescue. And thank goodness for that.

Without them we would have no eggs as we are very fussy about eggs and there really are none better than those grown on a healthy diet, free range and organic. Big kudos to Jerry and Nikki for ensuring that we do not have an eggless existence.

Oh deer. Oh deer indeed. Somehow they’ve ended up with a pair of deer as well. Bambi you would think, but these are trained attack deer and Colette saw exactly what they were capable of, when she bravely threw Nikki under the pounding hooves of one very pissed off young buck. Fortunately there was a hose nearby and Colette can certainly hose a deer down in self defence....is there a song coming on here? Hose a deer, a female deer...Actually it was the male deer who attacked and he is scary and strong.

For those of you who prefer views to animals, this is the view you wake up to at Belize Bird Rescue.

And if you are really lucky, this fantastic cowboy (and he is truly fantastic), Alyson, will take you out for a ride in the rain forest. Colette and Joan Fry joined him. Difference is, Joan is a horse expert and gets to ride regularly.

Colette loves horses but doesn’t get to ride very often and embarrassingly actually managed to find herself hanging from her bra from her saddle. Her horse was very patient with her.

Now before we get to the book section, we have a few more gratuitous photos to add.

Gratuitous and indulgent still life and a saddle similar to the one Colette dangled from by her bra.

Gratuitous yet amusing picture of chicken in parrot cage.

Gratuitous but somewhat heartwarming picture of Buddica and Maya.

Completely gratuitous shot of three stunningly gorgeous people. Kathleen, Colette and Andre. Now onto bookish things.

Joan's book signing in Belmopan sign with Joan and Jerry being propped up by a sign.

Joan dressed in her riding gear for a horse adventure. We're not sure we've ever seen anyone in Belize get dressed up so fancy to ride a horse.

Joan is interviewed on the Morning Show by Senator Aiden Salazar. Colette's behind the scenes version of the 'monkey dance' stopped them both from falling asleep. Early mornings are not Joan's forte'.

San Pedro welcomes Joan with a banner. (with very tiny writing)

Miss Tammy turns over her Hummingbird restaurant to cook some of the wonderful recipes from Joan's book, How to Cook a Tapir - A Memoir of Belize. Of course, the amazing Tapir is now an endangered species and we would never cook one, but the rest of the meal rocked.

San Pedro's Mayor, Elsa Paz, meets Joan and receives her own signed copy of the book at Page's Bookshop.

We'd like to thank everyone who made Joan feel so welcome back in Belize and all of our wonderful friends who continue to supply us with chocolate and bring us the little things that make life a little bit easier. Much love.

How Does Our Garden Grow?

2009-03-02T10:15:00.026-07:00

"Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh How Beautiful', and sitting in the shade"
Rudyard Kipling

Gardening keeps you busy. Especially if you are Maya. If you've been keeping up with our blog, you'll remember the pictures of our garden when we first moved in last year. The garden was barren, with huge crab holes everywhere. We picked up at least a quizillion nails and had to work out how to evict crabs, fill holes and level everything out. We had some really nice big Gumbo Limbo trees, Palmettos and some Tropical Almond trees but otherwise, the garden was a virtual desert. Things have come along since then and it is time to start sharing.

These elephant ears were tiny little babies when they were planted. They now dwarf the dogs and make the garden look quite jungley.

Buddica, the brindle on the left was the newest addition to our family, when we found her on the beach last summer. As you can see, she has grown into a somewhat lopsided but very characterful part of our family.

Midas, the little black one, known for her love of whine, loves her new playmate - if only Buddica wasn't scared to jump off the docks. We're workin' on it. Watch this space.

This picture of Colette is going in first, only because it suggests that she has some responsibility for the garden. The truth is, that while she doesn't mind weilding a power tool now and then, it has been Maya's blood, sweat and tears that has made our garden grow.

Oh, and what a beautiful garden it is becoming. Maya has discovered her amazing green fingers and has learned how to propogate Hibiscus.

We now have 30 Hibiscus plants in a range of 5 different colours. Maya has grown these all from cuttings and they are absolutely beautiful. They are all managing to mature, despite a repeated onslaught by Ocky, who tramples them in his effort to protect us from the rubbish truck.

Ah, there is Ocky, otherwise known as Octavius. He quite likes Buddica too, though he hates to admit it. Before Buddica came along, he didn't really know how to play with other dogs. His idea of meeting another dog involved lots of shouting, swearing and teeth.

Fortunately, Buddica is persistent, has a high tolerance for abuse and is always in a playful mood. She has slowly taught him that playing is more fun than fighting and he's been a much more relaxed and mellow dog ever since.

We love tomatoes. Maya, grew up in an Eastern European family and Colette grew up with a French mother. Both of us have a love for fresh tomatoes and we decided that they were going to be an essential part of our garden.

The first tomatoes were given to us as a gift by a lovely lady who cycles by our house. We've known her since we've lived here and she always stops for a chat. She gives massages on the beach and does hair braiding for tourists.

When Colette mentioned to her that we wanted to start a garden, she stopped by one day with threelittle plants in black bags.

We now have lovely and delicious tomatoes. We have about 10 plants going right now and believe it or not, we get what we call rogue tomatoes. They just sort of pop up all over the garden. We've got about 4 of them doing very well too.

We're not quite sure why this happens, but can only think that it is birds who are dropping the seeds. We dont' complain, we just water them and enjoy. We're also grateful for the seed care packages from our lovely friends Bill & Becky.

Of course it isn't just tomatoes we are growing as you can see from the photo, we've been getting some lovely melons too.

We had a good crop of watermelons last year, but this year the melons are popping up. This came from a tiny little baby plant given to us by Cindy. Cindy is another transplanted Brit, who made her way to Belize.

This is probably a good time to say that this sense of community is exactly what we were looking for when we came to Belize.

Maya has been very adventurous since she discovered her green thumb. The tree you see her with here is known as a Flamboyant Tree. For some reason, Colette insists on calling it a Fabulous Tree, but it is indeed Flamboyant and not Fabulous.

What is fabulous is that Maya has grown this tree from seed and it is already taller than she is.

What has been strange is that we had a real winter. We realise that is laugable to many of you, but for us, a huge drop in temperature is as cold as it is for you, even though our starting point is much higher.

Colette spent several days wearing jeans and a jacket, not dissimilar to the way she dressed in London. The weather was gloomy and depressing. We actually had weeks with only a glimmer of sunshine and when the sun came out, so did the mosquitoes. We even considered expanding our garden to become a free-range, organic mosquito farm, but we didn't see it catching on.

Colette doesn't honestly do too much in the garden except play with the dogs, weed a bit, pick up dog poops and complain about the ants, but she does make her own contribution by making Maya feel useful. Oh - and she deals with the serious creepy crawlies like snakes and scorpions. The most recent tarantula visitor escorted himself off the property before Colette had to intervene.

How does one do that, you may be asking. Cooking. Colette cooks and cooks and has to keep cooking.

Maya burns off an extraordinary amount of calories working in the garden in the hot sun and she shrinks really rapidly if she isn't fed enough. Maya's previous job entailed her sitting in a studio for 8-12 hours a day and having a chef bring her food on demand. She still never got fat. But now, she is suddenly spending several hours a day in the garden with a machete and a hose and as fast as she grows it, Colette cooks it.

You can just about see one of her home made olive oil and sunflower seed loaves in the background.

People are often curious as to what sort of plants we can grow on a piece of sand in the middle of the salty Caribbean. Well here is our trough, built by Maya and Bill. In this trough we have potatoes, cucumbers and radishes. We've just transplanted some lettuce into the trough and have some coriander (called cilantro here) growing at the other end that you can't see.

Of course, there are the plants you would expect, such as these bananas. We won't get any fruit off them til next year probably.

These were grown from tiny little baby chutes and are really big now. The fence is six feet high, so you can get an idea of just how quickly everything grows with sun, water and tender loving care.

Some of our friends have complained that their gardens haven't been so successful. The secret to our garden is attention. Every day, Maya goes out into the garden, checks every single plant. She waters them twice a day and we are planning to start a compost pile soon.

This is a Papaya tree. This will take about 5 years to fruit, but we love Papaya. Did you know that the traditional way to tenderise meat in Belize is to wrap the meat in Papaya skin. It really works and it is super effective.

This is the nursery at the moment. There are some orchids here, hibiscus an avacodo tree along with a few other plants. This is where they are hardened up enough to be planted in the ground.

The orchids are a type of air plant and are absolutely beautiful when they bloom and very interesting looking while they grow.

This is a different kind of air plant. Colette bought it last year on the mainland and we put it up on tree. As you can see, we now have two Bromeliads and they seem very happy indeed.

And so it isn't really true that Colette doesn't do anything for the garden. She shops for it. This was one of her early contributions.

More recently she went to Belize City to visit the shop where everyone goes to buy anything to do with growing things - Prosser.

This is Prosser Feterlizer and Agrochemicals. Somehow it doesn't feel that inviting from the outside, but the guys inside were more than happy to help by providing us with seeds that were tolerant to the local climate and coconut food.

Yes, we have about 10 coconut palms planted now although Buddica has done her best to reduce that number.

We really learn so much here every single day. Palm hearts are considered a delicacy by humans and are very expensive. Well, what do you think happens when a dog discovers a 'delicacy'?

We have had a couple of disasters, but we are finding an equilibrium with Buddica and so she has limited her damage to days when she knows we will feel guilty enough not to be mad at her if she trashes the garden. Strangely enough, those days coincide with the days we don't get her out for a decent walk. Noticing a pattern here?

We don't just spend time in our garden. We have a spectacular roof. We can see the Caribbean Sea, the Barrier Reef, the Lagoon and, of course our neighbour's houses.

I think we all spend time looking at our neighbour's homes. This is Miss Cathy's place, she lives sort of diagonal to us.

Well it seems that she watches us too!

This picture was in an email we got from Miss Cathy. She'd snapped our 'guard' dogs hard at work.

Meanwhile, on the other porch, Midas and Maya take a break from gardening.

Let's get back to spying on neighbours. This is our direct neighbour's house. His name is Wally. This is a woodpecker that lives in Wally's roof.

We've named him Wally's Pecker.

And finally, just to prove that we do leave the confines of our home sometimes, this is Maya on her bike (RIP) as we cycle into town.

This is the road that leads to our house, the lovely Mermaid Manor.

This blog would not be possible without the chocolates, seeds and other amazing gifts that our wonderful friends have been bringing us.

We're not going to name you all in case we embarrass ourselves by missing someone out, so please just know that we think you are wonderful.

2008-12-21T11:55:00.015-07:00

How to Cook a Tapir
A Memoir of Belize
by Joan Fry

Interview with the author, by Colette Kase

Five years or so ago, I joined an online forum about Belize. This was in the early days, when Maya and I were doing research on starting a new life and we had set our sights on Belize. It was through this forum that I met Joan Fry.

Joan is an award winning author. She has written several books about horses and it was this shared interest in animals that sparked a fascinating, fun, stimulating and wonderful modern electronic pen pal relationship. Joan and I would discuss her book projects, my writing efforts, our animals, our shared irritations and gradually developed a strong friendship.

It was a surprise though, when Maya and I were standing in Belize International Airport, waiting for our flight back to England after one of our reconnaissance trips to San Pedro, when I heard someone shout my name. I turned to see a familiar, yet strangely unrecognisable face approaching me with a big smile. It turned out to be Joan Fry. Fortunately, I am somewhat more recognisable than she is. We were both very excited to get the chance to meet, totally unexpectedly, and this only proved to strengthen our friendship over the years.

Joan is an amazing writer and I was thrilled when she really dug in and started to work on her most recent book, How to Cook a Tapir, which is a memoir of her time living in Belize in the 1960's. She had tempted me with interesting snippets about her experiences but I couldn't wait for her to put it all into print. I probably encouraged her to the point for being a nag, but I am just absolutely delighted to be able to help introduce this wonderful new book.

How on earth did you end up in Belize in the first place?

I married an anthropologist who was interested in studying the Maya. Actually he was my high school sweetheart--two years older than I was, and did he ever use that fact to his advantage! The early 1960's were "the good old days" when fathers and husbands always knew best. But--I digress. My husband had spent the previous summer living with a Kekchi family in Crique Sarco and had met the local priest, Fr. John Paul Cull. Father Cull promised me a teaching job, even though I was only a sophomore in college and not Catholic.

What did you think when you first discovered that you were going to Belize? Had you even heard of it?

The country was called British Honduras in those days, and no, I'd never heard of it. Nobody in family had either, except my grandfather. He'd been a sailor in his younger days and remembered taking mahogany out of Stann Creek. It was fun for me when I actually saw Stann Creek, although I was violently seasick at the time and couldn't properly appreciate it.

What were some of your preconceptions about Belize?

I didn't have many, although there had been a spate of jungle movies when i was a kid, and they inevitably featured tarantulas the size of toy poodles. I've always been terrified of spiders. The first time I saw a real tarantula was when I was washing my hair in a stone "shower" underneath the cistern in our boarding house in Belize city. I thought some of the stones were covered with black moss until I splashed shampoo on one and it moved.

What was the biggest culture shock?

I was one of the first white women most of the women of Santa Elena had ever seen, and they gawked at me nonstop--I was their entertainment. Being a blue-eyed blond who was taller than most of them made them even more curious about me. I was never alone. At least one person was always in the house with me, and if my husband and I walked to the Rio Blanco pool for a swim, half a dozen kids would follow us. That went on for months. Actually it went on as long as I lived there, although by the time we left, the people who visited genuinely wanted to visit, not stare.

Who was your first real friend in Belize and when did you realise that you had become 'friends'?

Her name was Lucia Bah, and she was a neighbor who spoke fairly good English. Her daughter was one of my students. I realized we'd become friends one day when she confided that she didn't like another neighbor's husband because he beat his wife and kids so violently. Yes, it was gossip, but it was also the first time a woman trusted me enough, and was interested enough in hearing my thoughts about something, to initiate a conversation. Lucia also taught me to cook. I owe her a lot. I wish she'd lived long enough to see this book.

Did your husband (at the time) prepare you sufficiently for your experiences or did he mislead you at all about what life would be like?

He showed me photos but made everything sound very romantic--and there's really no way to convey the humidity, the smells, the feel of the jungle through photos alone. I had done virtually no traveling (except to Ontario, Canada, which was like traveling to upstate NY), and was in no way prepared for any of it--the open sewage canals in Belize City, the caste system (don't forget, BZ was an English colony then), and particularly the poverty of the Maya. They were subsistence farmers--very few of them even used money. They bartered for what they needed. My husband insisted that I wear skirts and blouses because that's what the Maya women wore and wouldn't allow me to smoke because the Maya women didn't. He was wrong on both counts. Most women didn't wear blouses at all, and they smoked home-rolled cigars.

What is your favourite Belizean recipe and why?

Escabeche. It has a unique taste (each cook arrives at a different balance between chile pepper and vinegar), and to me, believe it or not, it's a comfort food.

Do you still eat Belizean food? What foods do you miss from Belize?

I still make escabeche from time to time, and I still like making and eating soup of all kinds. Especially when the weather gets cold. I love chili but hold the beans. I do miss tamalitos--green corn tamales--but the food I miss most is corn tortillas. They don't taste authentic even in the Mexican restaurants that have a token Mexican woman in front making "fresh" ones. As for corn tortillas you buy in the store--have you ever taken a look at what's in them? I'm looking at a package right now, ant it lists nine ingredients! What the hell is amylase? All they should contain is corn treated with lime (the mineral, not the fruit), and water. The best are incredibly fragrant with a soft, moist texture. I'm drooling!

You clearly have had a lifelong love for Belize since coming here in the 60's, what is it about Belize that has kept you enthralled all these years?

"Enthralled" is a good word. I've asked myself that question, and I still can't give you a definitive answer. I'm sure the Maya continue to fascinate me because they had a lot to do with forming my values. I was an only child and a girl and had led a very sheltered life in the States. But in Belize, I was alone a lot--my husband was always off conducting ethnographic studies. So when I had a decision to make, I only had myself and the Maya to fall back on. I made some bad decisions but more often than not I made the right ones, probably because there was no authority around to tell me any different.

Did you really cook a Tapir?

Yes. And it was delicious!

How to Cook a Tapir - A Memoir of Belize, by Joan Fry will be released in April 2009. The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon, which happens to be offering a great pre-publication price. To order click here.

Happy Holidays from Colette, Maya, Buddica, Midas and Octavius.

Politicians, Pimps, Punta and Pussycats

2008-11-14T14:48:00.017-07:00

This week we learn about the letter 'P'

Maya loves up her watermelon

The rain finally stopped and Maya was able to go out in the pouring torrent and rescue a watermelon. We grew a number of watermelons successfully and they were quite, curiously sweet and delicious. Why do we say 'curiously'? Well, we were not sure how they would grow in our garden and our limited cultivation skills meant it was a trial and error. Maya pollinated the watermelon flowers by hand until the bees discovered the patch and then it all went crazy. We probably had about 20 healthy watermelons before the rains, but sadly lost much of our crop. Not nearly as sad as the many people who lost their crops, homes and livelihoods on the mainland as the floods took hold. We send a big shout out to all the Belizean people who have suffered terribly during this national disaster.

Maya braves the rain like a superhero to save her watermelons.

Once the rain cleared it was time to be cultured, uncultured and everything in between. We'll start with the seriously uncultured and move forward from there.

Pedro's Halloween Party had a 'Pimp & Ho' theme. We couldn't resist and dressed ourselves up appropriately as Flava Flav and New York. Well, we did our own versions, which were good enough for Maya to win first prize. She has won a trip to the mainland, which means she'll be able to go and play on some of her beloved pyramids very soon. We probably haven't mentioned that Maya has been hit by a stroke of luck recently, winning the best prize at the SAGA Humane Society Halloween fundraiser. Maya won a skydive. No joke. Watch this space. We'll have pictures and hopefully they will be of her landing in one piece. The skydive is part of the Boogie in Belize event, which have faithfully avoided, due to sincere cowardice, since we have lived here. Now there are no excuses. Time for Maya to write her will.

Maya and Colette in their Pimp & Ho costumes.

Don't try this at home kids.

Since our title alliterated quite furiously upon the letter 'P', pussycats got a mention. That is because we had a little spot of pussycat trapping. Some kitties had started to breed out of control locally and along with our lovely neighbour Brad, Colette dutifully captured up those little cats and got them vaccinated and neutered at SAGA Humane Society.

Empty Cat Trap

Cat Trap Fully Loaded

Colette then decided that instead of rescuing cats, for a while at least, she'd rescue humans instead and went on a First Responders course held by Bandage International and the Belize Red Cross. Incredibly this two day course was absolutely free and it was really appreciated. Colette might also have enjoyed getting to pin people down and wrap them in bandage, but the less said about that the better.

Poor Anna at Colette's mercy.

Anna gets to return the favour.

Belize is full of surprises and there is nothing more surprising than a magical Belizean Fairy Princess turning up during a life saving course. But she did and it is lucky as some of the victims....umm we mean patients certainly needed some magic.

Some of the victims really needed some magic.

Belizean Fairy Princess.

We've done the pimps, we've done the pussycats, we've even thrown in a princess as a bonus. Now, to what you have all been waiting for - The politician!

We've had a bit of culture recently. Culture is something we miss out here in San Pedro. We love the handful of bands who play here every night of the week to earn their crust, but we really do like something a bit different now and again. Well, this week we got it. Firstly we were invited to a private viewing of a drama group who were visiting Belize from the USA. They were very good and they had performed at numerous schools around the country, warning them about AIDS and sending a strong message about safe sex. Their message was very powerful and there were a few tearful members of the audience. Unfortunately, people telling sad stories in front of a small private crowd, just doesn't make for great pictures, so we'll spare you.

But in the same week were able to see some of our favourite music played by the Garifuna Collective, made world famous by Andy Palacio (RIP). We've told you in previous blogs about our trips to Hopkins and also about Norman Cook, AKA Fat Boy Slim coming to San Pedro to record with Andy and the Garifuna Collective. Well, they really are fantastic, so it was a surprise and pleasure to see our own Senator Eiden Salazar, who also happens to be a TV presenter and owns the local radio station, turn up to show off his skills on a drum.

Senator Salazar on the right demonstrating his excellent

drumming skills.

Our lovely friend Walter was at the gig and as he comes from Punta Gorda and grew up with Garifuna music, he sang along to every song.

Colette can't Punta but she still loves to dance with Walter.

This is what the Punta really looks like.

Coconuts Hotel will be featuring The Garifuna Collective weekly. Hurrah!!

The wires pulled across this traditional Garifuna Drum give

it a unique snare like sound.

We'd like to thank Kerry, who works at the Waffle House, for answering Colette's international appeal for grits and bringing her a fine bag of authentic Waffle House Grits. Thanks Kerry. It was a truly heroic effort, made even more so by an explosion of grits in your suitcase. You're a star.

Ta ta for now from sunny San Pedro.

You are what you love.

2008-10-23T13:25:00.020-06:00

(picture courtesy of the Secret Museum of Mankind http://ian.macky.net/secretmuseum/)

"When we feel love and kindness toward
others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also
to develop inner happiness and peace."

The Dalai Lama

Aren't we lucky we can love? We eat, sleep, get jiggy with it and poop. Those things don't give us much to feel superior about as a species. But above and beyond all that, we love. Who and what we love probably are one of the biggest factors in who we are as individuals.

Colette has just come back from the USA and there is a lot of love going around there. People in the USA right now really love their political party, they love their candidate, they love their country and they love the fact that the cost of gas is finally going down. A lot of people love Tina Fey too.

But this blog isn't about that sort of love because love is a word that can be bandied around far too easily. 'I love my car' and 'I love my HD TV' are really strange but truly human expressions of love. 'I love my Mother' and 'I love you' are the sorts of love that make us feel much more fuzzy inside. Maybe some sports fans will disagree as I suspect that some people love their football team (and 'football' here is universally used to encompass both American and proper (ie British) football) almost more than life itself.

So, let us start with 'I love my Mum'. Colette and Maya both call Colette's Mum, 'Mum'. Well, 'Mum' right now is heroic with many people in her family and community depending on her; one in particular is Mum's CASA kid. 'What is a CASA kid?', you may ask. Well, CASA stands for 'Court Appointed Special Advocates'. This is a national non profit organisation in the USA, which does a remarkable thing. It gets volunteers from all over the country to become the champion of the most vulnerable children. Kids who find themselves thrust into the court system in the USA find themselves often the middle of battles between adults who all have their own agendas. Children have no legal right to proper representation in these circumstances and some of these children have been terribly neglected, abused and violated by those who are supposed to 'love' them. The CASA looks after the interests of the child and makes sure that they have someone fighting their corner. Mum is one of these. We love her and we just wanted to let her know.

So here are a couple of pictures we've scanned in tribute to our Mum.

Colette & Mum in France in 1972

Mum in Louisville in 1973 - Eat your heart out Victoria Beckham

So while Colette was in Georgia sharing in all the love, Maya was in Belize sharing in all the rain. Oh boy has it been raining. Parts of Belize have been declared national disaster areas. Here is a picture from our front porch of our neighbour's garden.

Is the laundry dry yet?

But of course, we had puddles of our own. This is Midas enjoying a waterfront home at last.

Now where did I bury that bone?

The rain didn't stop Maya from spreading her love to our wonderful garden though and in the short breaks, she tended to the plants that she has nurtured so tenderly. Of course the dogs all helped.

Oh for a sweet, sweet watermelon

That isn't my bone. Why do humans think that rubber toys are anything like bones?

Meanwhile in the nursery, Buddica hides the bone in a hibiscus

This is Avril the Avocado grown from seed

This is our baby jungle

This is a Flamboyant Tree grown from seed

Maya also managed to get a couple of great pictures of birds expressing themselves when the rain stopped.

This is weather for ducks, not a Kiskadee like me

If I had lips, I'd be pouting

While we all think of love as a great thing we need to remember that love, or the pursuit of love, can lead to serious consequences, particularly for the young. That is why Maya and Colette are involved with the San Pedro Aids Commission. Maybe some of you didn't even know that there is an AIDS commission for San Pedro. Well, it is part of the Belize National Aids Commission. The San Pedro Aids Commission has many accomplishments under its belt already including:

Teacher training
Educational materials for young people
Production of AIDS informercial
Production of AIDS awareness posters and billboards
Financial assistance for people living with AIDS and their families

They even managed to win 1st place at the San Pedro Lighted Boat Parade last year with their fantastic floating red ribbon.

To put it all in context here are some of the most up to date figures on HIV/AIDS in Belize

HIV/AIDS in Belize
3,400: Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
2.1%: Estimated percentage of adults (ages 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
59%: Estimated percentage of HIV cases that occured among women (ages 15-49) by the end of 2007
over 200: Estimated number of children (ages 0-15) living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007
over 200: Estimated number of deaths due to AIDS during 2007
Source
UNAIDS 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. July 2008.

The San Pedro Aids Commission is sustained wholly by volunteers and community contribution and does a wonderful job. They are about to introuduce condom machines to San Pedro to be placed in 'useful' locations.

So a reminder - World AIDS Day is on the 1st of December. The weekend before World AIDS Day, the 29th of November, the San Pedro AIDS Commission will be excited, thrilled and quite beyond themselves to announce a Rock Fest for AIDS. Watch this space for more information.

We think the French AIDs poster below reminds us all to be careful where we seek love.

With much love and a sting in the tail from us both to you all - Signing off from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize.

Birds, Bees and Bromeliads

2008-08-10T11:08:00.018-06:00

What a busy month. We have loads to tell you. Let's see - It started with Colette deciding to rescue a parrot. Someone locally had just gotten a young Red Lored Green Parrot. These are native to Belize and we have learned recently that it is not legal to own any native birds. Many people do keep parrots as pets here and all of them (except for those imported legally under CITES - and there isn't many of them) have been poached from the jungle. This usually involves cutting down the tree and raiding the nest. These poachers then sell the young birds, often with their wings cut terribly, to people who want to keep them as pets.

Parrots are intelligent, engaging and entertaining animals and it is not surprising that they so many people want to keep them as pets. Unfortunately, the wild population is being decimated in Belize by poaching and by citrus farms, who consider parrots a pest and slaughter them (legally) by their hundreds.

Colette was lucky to have been in touch with the wonderful people from Belize Bird Rescue http://www.belizebirdrescue.com/near Belmopan on mainland Belize. They did everything within their power to assist Colette so that she could bring the parrot to their sanctuary for rehabilitation. So we'll start this blog by following one young Red Lored Green Parrot on his journey back to freedom.

This young Red Lored Green Parrot had found its way from somewhere near the Macal River on the mainland. It ended up with a family who was finding it difficult to care for it. They had only had it a few months.

Belize Bird Rescue sent Colette an appropriate carrying cage with a little perch in it. This picture was taken at the local airport as she was preparing to fly the parrot over to the mainland. Belize Bird Rescue were waiting for her at the other end and whisked her and the parrot off to their amazing facility near Belmopan.

Both of us love mainland Belize and Colette was thrilled to have this opportunity to spend a little time there. Little did she know that she was going to be visiting a magical place and spending time with some amazing people.

As she got near to Rock Farm, where Belize Bird Rescue is located, she recognised a landmark from previous visits to the mainland. This is a huge Christian radio station that sticks out eerily high up on a hill, rising up out of the jungle. The drive was spectacular as always but she wasn't prepared for the beautiful place that Rock Farm is.

It is an idyllic place, clearly built with love. Almost like something out of a children's story book or fairy tale, where animals are everywhere, happy, healthy, friendly and living their lives to the max. Horses, ducks, geese, guinea fowl, chickens, turkeys, parrots, dogs and even owls are all over the property.

Colette says that it was like being a kid again, collecting freshly laid eggs, horseback riding or walking down a path to find this engineering feat of a watermill. This watermill is completely driven by water and is just made of pipes and wood. It provides fresh water for the whole farm.

So while the little parrot settled into his temporary new home (above) and got to know some of the other parrots, Colette wandered around Rock Farm.

This is the next stage for parrot rehabilitation. Once their cut wings grow back - and sadly that doesn't always happen - they can relearn to fly in this luxury aviary with six full sized trees.

But there are plenty of other trees at Rock Farm. Here are some bananas and a Breadfruit tree in the forefront.

Here is a close up of a Breadfruit growing on a tree. They are thinly sliced and fried like crisps.

Colette went horseback riding and while there are no embarrassing pictures of her on horseback, you can see what a wonderful place Rock Farm is for horses.

These are locally known as 'stingless bees' although I understand that they can sting. They were just hanging around and doing their bee thing.

There isn't a place at Rock Farm where there aren't any animals. This cute grotto is a happy place for ducks and chickens.

And there are chickens everywhere. They even came upstairs and would hang out on the balcony with the people and dogs.

Of course none of our blogs are complete without a dog picture. Here are two of the pack of six that prowl Rock Farm. Bad guys beware. Good guys watch out - you might get licked to death.

Colette had the opportunity to get some lessons from the Bird Rescue Belize people in how to groom a Cockatoo. This extremely endangered but magnificent Moluccan Cockatoo certainly enjoyed the attention. These birds are not native to Belize and this bird had been brought into the country by someone who had no idea how to care for it. As a result, he has been so lucky to end up with Nikki and Jerry who run Belize Bird Rescue, but they make it plainly clear that they are not pet bird keepers and that it breaks their heart that this bird can never be returned to the wild, nor will he ever meet others of his kind.

There were just so many things that reminded Colette why she loves the jungle in Belize so much. Flowers like these were all over the Rock Farm property, just growing wild.

You couldn't turn a corner without finding another beautiful tropical flower. When you see them in flower arrangements in the USA and Europe it is hard to imagine that they just grow wild some places. Belize is one of those places and there is a great flower story coming up later in this blog.

Here is the orange orchard at Rock Farm. It was such a beautiful place, Colette didn't really want to leave.

But this owl, which had recently been rehabilitated by Belize Bird Rescue, did indeed want to leave. He is now free flying on the property and will soon be heading back off into the wild.

Owls move so quickly and quietly it is a real challenge to get a picture of them flying, but Colette just managed to capture this one as he flew away to freedom.

Colette did have to return home and she misses San Pedro like crazy when she is away. But before she did, she went to visit our lovely friend Chap, who runs Junglewalk books in Belmopan. It really is the cutest little bookshop, run by the cutest guy. Love ya Chap.

Meanwhile, Maya was at home getting our garden started. It may look a bit bleak in this picture but those are baby palm trees that you can see growing. Some of them will provide us with coconuts when they get bigger.

Knowing that the garden is Maya's baby, Colette went and bought her the plant that you can see above. It is a pink Bromeliad. The picture above is of it where we placed it up a tree, where they grow. They are, in fact, air plants of sorts. It will grow onto the side of the tree but take no nutrients from it. Colette bought this at a great roadside restaurant on mainland Belize called Cheers http://www.cheersrestaurant.bz/. They sell all sorts of beautiful orchids and bromeliads. They promised Colette that this one is salt tolerant and will do well on the island.

Here is a close up of its magnificent flower. You can just see the little smaller purple flowers that are starting to sprout. When Colette brought it home we heard a strange croaking coming from it. We discovered a little stow away tree frog that still sits in it now and chirps loudly every night. A bit sad really because no one ever chirps back.

Maya works really hard in the garden every day, which is pretty evident if you look at her arms. She deserves some rest and relaxation with Buddica. But Colette decided to try to get some action in a completely new style (for her anyway).

Those of you who know her will be shocked, but believe it or not, Colette tried windsurfing. Here she is is trying to get up on the board. Yes that is her in the brown bikini. She no longer has that blonde hair.

Now she is getting the hang of standing up. That is difficult for Colette when she is sober and standing on land. This is a challenge.

And thar she goes. She is actually standing and moving. She didn't do too badly and really had a great time. She got this lesson compliment of Sailsports Belize http://www.sailsportsbelize.com/

Thanks for that. Maya is going to give it a go next time.

While all this was going on, ACES, http://www.freewebs.com/ppinpg/the American Crocodile Endangered Sanctuary, from mainland Belize had been busy preparing 'Debbie', a crocodile recently rescued from San Pedro, for release into their sanctuary habitat. When Debbie was captured in a pond, about 200 meters from our house, she was found to have suffered a number of injuries at the hand of humans including a bullet hole, spear wounds and broken ridges. She was also harbouring a nasty bacterial infection. Marisa Tellez, the zoologist working with ACES, makes it clear that the American Crocodile has the most powerful immune system on the planet. If Debbie is suffering from an infection from the water, then the human community needs to start worrying about what is in that water.

Debbie settled into her new home without any serious fights with the others, much to everyone's relief. Debbie was lucky. Two other crocs from San Pedro have died in recent weeks. One was clearly killed by poachers and had its head cut off. The other ACES had attempted to rescue after locals had captured it but a hook that someone might have tried to catch him with had caused internal injuries to the croc and he died.

But it isn't all bad news for the animals. Colette helped out at this SAGA fund raiser in Central Park, San Pedro. The charity raised a wonderful $2500BZD. Congratulations to everyone.

So, lots of thank yous from us to Jerry and Nikki at Bird Rescue Belize for being lovely people and for welcoming Colette into their home and family. Thank yous to ACES for doing work that isn't hugely popular because Crocs aren't very pretty, but very important. Thank yous to everyone that helped raise money for SAGA, http://ambergriscaye.com/sagasociety/

Blog Gone to the Dogs

2008-07-10T13:17:00.012-06:00

WARNING

THIS BLOG MAY BORE THOSE WHO DON'T CARE FOR DOGS

Dog Days in Belize

Buddica

Those of you who read our blog regularly will know that Buddica is the newest addition to our family. We now have three dogs and so much of our life revolves around them that we felt that we should dedicate this blog to our dogs and some of the dogs we know.

Midas

Midas came with us from London. Her mother was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and her father was a Hungarian Puli. For those of you unfamiliar with those breeds, here are a couple of pictures.

The dog on your left is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. This one looks very like Midas's mum. The dog on your right is a Hungarian Puli, sometimes called a 'rasta dog'. Anyone who knows these breeds and knows Midas realise that she is much more Puli than Staffie.

Midas's pedigree was in the free advertising paper in London called LOOT. She was born on a council estate in Peckham, South London and she seemed so sweet when we collected her. She quickly became known as 'Feral Sheryl' and 'Prawn of Satan'.

Years later, we bundled her into a plane and flew her first to the USA, where she spent some time on St. Simons Island getting used to the heat and used to the sea. Then we brought her to Belize. She stayed with us at the remarkable Jungle Dome near Belmopan, where there happened to be a couple of dogs that also came from South London. They taught her the ropes and then we brought her to San Pedro.

Midas rests after a hard day

Midas is the spoiled one in the household. Her life revolves around hunting swimming, diving off of docks, finding dead disgusting things to roll in or eat and catching crabs and lizards.

She sleeps in our bed at night and generally gets what she wants. If she doesn't get it quickly enough, she whines and whines and whines until you start to understand why people shake their children to death.

Midas's favourite spot for catching ticks

Midas entertains tourists and locals alike by jumping off of the docks and into the Caribbean Sea. She is fearless and often swims alongside sting rays that are much larger than her. Sometimes we swim with her and she loves that. Midas is very friendly, sweet and obedient and extremely irritating. She often stinks and has to be hosed down every day. She is weirdly intelligent and often looks like she is trying to form words. That can be frightening.

We don't just want to bore you with just our spoiled dog's lives, so we want to tell you a bit about how other dogs live here. Most of our neighbours have dogs. In our small neighbourhood of about 12 houses, there are just as many dogs. Some of them are kept under control, but most roam the neighbourhood turning over rubbish bins, fighting with other dogs, getting run over, shitting everywhere and mating with anything that will stand still long enough.

Many, in our neighbourhood, are owned by foreigners (not Belizean), who seem to think that this is OK. Obviously, we have moved here from a country obsessed, anally retentive and ridiculous about its dogs to a country where people value other things. We have no doubt that most people here can't quite believe how we behave with our dogs. We pick up after them, keep them on a lead near the road, brush them and walk them regularly. But there is defintely a change we have observed about the way many people keep their dogs here and if the local grooming parlour is anything to go by (it is called Pampered Paws and it always very busy) then people are starting to change the way that they keep their dogs here. There certainly are a bunch of different breeds appearing here. We saw an adorable pair of French Bulldogs just the other day. We've seen Weimeraners, Pit bulls, Boxers, Sharpei, Chows, an Elkhound, Pugs, lots of Chihuhuas unsurprisingly, a Visla, Greyhounds, Italian Greyhounds, German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Dobermanns, Schnauzers, Yorkies, a Schipperke and a whole bunch of other dogs since we've lived here. The local cross breed is known as a "pot licker'.

There are two dogs that live at the Town Board lot, which is very near to us. They follow the garbage truck every day on its rounds. They must be two of the healthiest, handsomest dogs you'll see on the island. They run, eat and shag all day. No doubt they have fathered hundreds of puppies. It doesn't appear that anyone owns them, they sort of have a symbiotic relationship with the garbage men it seems. They guard the truck at night and get to follow the truck all day.

They may not have very long life spans as heart worm is virulent here. Dogs, in general, don't live long and not many people know about or can afford heartworm treamtent. In fact, Octavius, our first beach dog, had a bad heartworm problem when we took him in.

Octavius

Octavius looked like he was 10 years old when we first met him. He didn't move much and slept all curled up on the doorstep of one of the beach condos we were living in at the time. They seemed to leave food and water out for him. The tourists that had been living in that condo turned up on our doorstep on the day before they left and asked us if we could feed him. They pushed $50 in to our hands and we weren't about to say no.

Once we started to feed him, we began to realise what a mess he was. All four legs were red raw and sore from some sort of skin problem. His ears were being eaten by flies and he seemed generally unwell. We were living in a small one bedroom condo - for you brits who aren't familiar with condos, it is just really another name for a flat - with our dog Midas. We were not in the position to take on another dog. But we also knew that the local humane society, SAGA http://ambergriscaye.com/sagasociety/ , was under a great deal of strain. So we decided that we would pay to have him castrated, get his vaccinations and then put him back on his beach.

We'd done some research and discovered, much to our surprise, that he was only about 18 mths old. He had been brought to the condos as a puppy by one of the security guards. He and some of the maintenance staff sort of watched him and did everything they could to encourage him to be a guard dog. Much to their dismay, tourists started feeding him. In their eyes, this made him useless and he was pretty much abandoned to make his own way with the tourists.

Many dogs here are excellent beach ruffians. They know exactly where to go to be fed and which swimming pools are easiest to drink from. They know which security guards to avoid but most of all they know that all local men on bicycles must be driven off of their beach by any and all means possible. The cutest of these dogs get adopted by tourists and flown home to whatever country they are visiting from. Some less fortunate and perhaps less attractive dogs, such as Octavius, just don't have the energy anymore to be charming.

Cycling along the beach here can be a hazard. Colette has been bitten on her bike and we often have to deal with dogs chasing us. Belizean workers, who cycle every day back and forth to work, are at war with the stray and beach dogs. The dogs attack them and chase them and they in turn, either develop amazing cycling techniques to avoid being bitten, threaten violence or use violence. We watched one of our next door neighbours puppies grow from a newborn, timid, sweet little thing that wouldn't say boo to a goose into a certified, paid up, expert bicycle chaser. We often here the kerfuffle as she attacks passing cyclists, sometimes followed by yelping as the biker hits target with a kick or a stone. We hope she doesn't get chopped by a machete as this often happens to dogs here that chase bikes.

We discovered that Octavius, who used to be known as Blackie (but somehow we couldn't bring ourselves to walk around calling our dog Blackie), had also been a top cycle chaser in better days. He didn't seem to have the strength when we met him.

Octavius is a handsome beast

It took us several weeks of feeding him before we could get him into the house. We ruined the process slightly as we had to put drops onto his ears to stop the flies from eating them. Well, Colette managed to get the drops on once and he wouldn't come near her for days. We tried to get him onto a golf cart but he panicked and he screamed if we tried to put a leash on him.

So, the vet offered to come over and put him under at our place so that we could load him onto a cart and get him into the surgery. We'd put some weight on him and he was looking better, so he was ready for surgery. This was all planned with military precision. Oh well.

Octavius disappeared. A week went by and we were sad and giving up on him when he reappeared. He was thinner than he'd been before. He was covered in wounds, one in particular completely punturing his top lip, but he seemed strangely content. Clearly there had been a bitch in heat somewhere and he'd had a good week.

So, we set about getting him back in shape for surgery and the day finally came. He went to the vet with balls and came back with none. He spent the night in the condo and then he seemed to want to stay. He wasn't a very attractive dog at the time, with oozing sores, missing teeth, a wonky eye and very bad breath and we really didn't want another dog. So we told ourselves that he should go back to living on the beach and we'd keep an eye on him.

What we hadn't reckoned on was that now that he was strong and healthy, he was more than capable of taking on any cyclist or jogger that happened to pass. And the more time he spent with us, the more this territorial behaviour began to extend to any situation we found ourselves in. He followed us everywhere, for miles, waiting for us for hours outside shops and restaurants. He was quickly becoming our dog and he was a huge liability. Even if we didn't want him to be our dog, anyone who saw him with us who had a complaint about him reckoned that he was ours. After all, we fed him - that pretty much makes you a dog's owner in Belize.

Eventually after complaints from neighbours and our own common sense kicking in, we realised we had to make a decision. Either he was our dog or he wasn't. Now that he was known as a cycle chaser, we knew they'd have problems finding a home for him at SAGA, so we resigned ourselves to keeping him.

Putting him on a leash and keeping him in the condo exacerbated his aggression towards certain types of people and his territorial behaviour, but we decided that managed properly, it would be very good security for us. His reputation was well established and he could be frightening and formidable.

A not very scary, sneezing Octavius

It has taken some time, but he is now an absolute babe. Other than the white hair everywhere, he is a perfect house dog. He is a very frightening watch dog and we know he will bite. Now he doesn't have to be put away when our friends come round. The new house and big garden have relaxed him and given him confidence. Either way, having a good guard dog is not a bad thing. Dealing with the heartworms was unpleasant and worrying, but after coughing up blood and worms for a few months, he shows no symptoms anymore. The bad breath is about the only thing we have to suffer.

Octavius - From Homeless to Housepet

So we're just settling in to our new home and Colette arrives with another dog. This one, covered in ticks, scrawny and hyperactive, seems to be the dog that she fell in love with. It is easy to work out why.

Buddica shows off her 'flat' command

Buddica has now been spayed and has all of her vaccinations. She is learning how to walk on the leash, but she is so strong that we are using a great tool called the Halti Harness. She is learning the basics but has shown a great propensity and enjoyment for trick training. She is extremely smart and takes great pleasure in working out how to do the things she is being taught not to do. For one, she isn't allowed in the bedroom. So she slowly works her body past the boundary to see how far she can get.

One paw in the bedroom

She is not supposed to get on the furniture.

Does this count as furniture?

The other dogs are supposed to be acting as role models.

Were you trying to relax?

But her new tricks are so cute, that she is hard to resist. (and for those interested, Colette is using a clicker for the tricks)

Buddica attempts tap dancing. Tightrope walking is next.

Buddica demonstrates enthusiastically how to do two tricks at once

Praying and waving

For those of you who haven't seen a dog pray before, here is another chance

For those of you who prefer waving, here is another chance to see that

People often ask us if the dogs get along. Having a puppy in the house has been great for all of them. They all play for hours in the garden and wear eachother out. It is hilarious to watch and gives us endless entertainment and laughs. Buddica does steal the toilet paper and she rearranges the garden every night, but the pleasure that we and the other dogs get out of her balances it all out.

Midas and Buddica putting the world to rights

Three dogs and eleven coconuts

But we must remind you that our dogs are loved, beyond reason and cared for. Not all dogs in Belize are so fortunate. Below is a picture of a little dog saved by the SAGA Society in San Pedro. Unbelievably, the people from whom she was rescued wanted her back. Obviously that never happened. So, if you are ever feeling like helping, get in touch and we'll tell you how you can help dogs in Belize.

It's a Jungle Out There

2008-05-29T08:53:00.009-06:00

"The cockroach and the bird were both here long before we were. Both could get along very well without us, although it is perhaps significant that of the two the cockroach would miss us more." -- Joseph Wood Krutch, (1893 - 1970) US naturalist, conservationist, writer

We now have a yard; land that we own outright. It feels different. It feels good. It's a bloody jungle out there. But before we get to that, we'd like to introduce you to Buddica, our new family member.

Colette was on the beach walking our other two dogs, Midas and Octavius. This pup came running over. Octavius can be an old grump at times, particularly as this beach used to 'belong' to him. Colette asked some tourists to hold the pup until she passed but then had second thoughts. Colette is one that believes in love at first sight with dogs and it seems this is what happened here.

Buddica a brave warrior princess

Not long before we left the UK, Squidge, the doggy love of Colette's life died of a rare brain disease. He was a handsome chap. She has missed him greatly and it looks like this new pup may fill the void.

Squidge - Gone but never forgotten

Buddica had clearly been neglected and was infested with literally hundreds of ticks. We've never seen anything like it. Honestly, it was like a horror movie. She laid down on the tile floor and they started evacuating her body. Hundreds of them. Before we knew it they were climbing the walls, small black specks all over the walls and rapidly moving upwards. You couldn't walk without hearing a noise like bubble wrap as they popped under your feet, leaving blood stains behind.

We were frantic, killing them individually, spraying them, sweeping them into piles for mass slaughter. As Midas has already had one bout of Tick Fever here (also known as Erlichosis), we were particularly concerned. For those of you who have pets and are thinking of bringing them here, Tick Fever is something you need to educate yourself about. We know of several dogs that have been brought from abroad and have succumbed to this disease because their owner didn't catch the symptoms early enough. You can get some basic info here http://www.familyvet.com/ehrlic.htm

Anyway, the horror continued as we discovered that her tick infestation was heaviest in her ears. Maya bravely tackled the ear ticks but there were so many that it was soul destroying, so we decided to take the pup to the local grooming parlour, Pampered Paws. This is run by a lovely woman, Kathy, who has become a friend. We'd also like to thank Sharon (aka Shazza) for lending us her golf cart for emergency puppy issues. They cleaned her up beautifully and she came home with no ticks, but covered in scabs left behind. She perked up amazingly.

Of course we made sure that the grooming parlour/petshop and the local vet/humane society had a picture of her in case anyone had lost her, but so far - no one has claimed her. She's now had her first set of vaccinations and will go in to be 'fixed' as they say around here in a week or so more. More pictures will come in future blogs.

You can never expect the expected in Belize. At least that is what we've discovered. Buddica slept through her second night here and I woke up to find a very happy, proud puppy next to the carcass of a beautiful green iguana that had been living in our trees. Here was the most recent picture of him.

RIP Mr Iguana

Colette was very sad but wanted to dispose of the carcass before Maya woke up. She got a shovel, put it out of the gate and then broke the news to Maya. We were all sad, but Maya went to get on with gardening, arriving back into the house 10 minutes later explaining how she had found the iguana's stomach. Colette had thought the puppy must have eaten the stomach so didn't look for it when she disposed of the rest of the carcass, but poor Maya found it.

Then about two hours later, Colette hears Maya scream from the garden 'GET THE DOGS INSIDE'. Not knowing what was going on, Colette gathered the dogs inside and went back out. Maya says 'There is a huge snake out here'. Colette thinks 'Maya is scared of snakes and exaggerating'. So she wanders down in her bare feet and dressing gown to find this:

Oh dear, this snake is rather large

No exaggeration. This was a big snake. Colette has worked with invertebrates in the past and has handled snakes and lizards and wasn't very frightened. So she pulled the planks off the snake and he suddenly looked even bigger.

What on earth are we going to do with this?

The thick piece of wood next to him is a 4x4 to give you some idea of his thickness. Anyway, Colette has a look at the snake closely and it doesn't look too well. Probably in slough - about to lose its skin. During this period, snakes are vulnerable and blind during part of the process.

Closed eyes and dry skin

We were pretty sure that he wouldn't survive our dogs and anyway we were worried that the area is getting pretty built up. Many Belizeans are understandably scared of snakes. Given that Belize is the home to one of the most deadly snakes, called the Fer de Lance, locally known as the Tommygoff it is hardly surprising. Apparently there are none on Ambergris Caye, but the fear runs deep amongst Belizeans and rather than wait to discover whether a snake is deadly or not, they tend to just 'chop' them all. Machetes being the weapon of choice. We also have a group of horrible little kids (these being exceptions as most children we know in Belize are wonderful) who chase down wildlife in the neighbourhood, torment and kill it. Bored little boy behaviour. So, we thought it was better for the snake if we rescued and relocated him. We're not sure what the snake thought, but by this time, he was getting seriously pissed off and started hissing.

It is amazing how hissing has such a strong primeval effect. It makes your hair stand on end and gets your adrenalin going. Maya is genuinely scared of snakes, so this was going to be very interesting. The first thing Colette did was get a big dog kennel.

Welcome to your temporary home

Then, in true Crocodile Dundee style, she wrangled the snake with a long piece of wood, head first into the crate.

Arrghh he's coming back out again

He was a big snake, he was an angry snake and it was no easy task. Finally Colette managed to get the rest of his body in. Colette did all of this in her dressing gown.
Gratuitous picture showing Colette's lovely Gap dressing gown (thanks to Smiley and Kate for the gift)

We then carried the crate into the office. Maya was nearly having a heart attack. So, Mr. Snake went to live in our office for the next few days for observation and Colette got some advice from people in the know.

You would think that was simply enough excitement for one day. So did we. But at about 9 at night we heard the puppy yelling in the garden as if she had been hurt. She was also barking like crazy. So out we go, at this time of night in our underwear and bare feet. Out into the dark.

Puppy has cornered one of our Giant Blue Land Crabs. These buggers are big and very aggressive. They are also rather comical. When we moved onto this land, we were aware that there were 20 - 30 large crabs living here. They dig big, deep burrows, which are a nuisance. Otherwise, they aren't much trouble. We had been talking to people and gathering advice for dealing with them. Our Belizean friends told us that they were good to eat. Some told us to wait up at night and shoot them with a pellet gun. Others recommended digging them out. And yet other advice said to fill their holes with water forcing them out. Maya had taken on the rather passive aggressive method of filling their holes every day to make their lives difficult.

So now it is night time, we have three over excited dogs who all want to earn their bravery awards by taking on a crab. Eventually we decide to use a shovel. So between Maya and Colette screaming at the dogs to back off, giggling hysterically, shrieking ocassionally it must have been quite a sight to behold. Colette finally got the crab onto the shovel and then flung him over the fence. Upon doing so, both Colette and Maya covered their heads as Colette has notorious bad aim and we both expected the crab to land on us. Fortunately the technique worked. It was only afterwards that we wondered if we had thrown the crab into our neighbour's truck. Whoops.

Actually, they are interesting creatures and here is a good story about them http://www.nieworld.com/special/endangered/story07.htm. They are eaten commonly here but unfortunately we are two scared of them to try to get one into the pot.

Well over the past week, with the new pup developing her killer crab hunting skills, we have evicted another four crabs. Last night we scored two. One of them was the biggest crab in the universe. We are sure of it. He was so big that the shovel method wouldn't work as he was too big to sit in the scoop. So Colette had to get him to grab the shovel and then quickly fling him into the mop bucket. Unfortunately, the mop bucket was not big enough to allow us to get hold of the handle without being attacked by the vicious land crab - who we had been alerted to by the puppy's pained shrieks as she bravely fought him. So we had to use the shovel to get the bucket out of the gate. Here is a picture of a crab caught earlier this week in the daytime, to give you an idea.

The poor puppy now looks like we enter her in dog fights. She's got little pincer wounds all over her face. She seems ever so proud of her new vocation though and we have committed to going down whenever we hear her bark as she is very reliable. Once we got rid of the gigantic monsterous crab, the dogs discovered a gigantic monsterous toad. Toads can be toxic here and dogs can die if they eat them. So we had to escort Mr. Toad off the premises. Trying the shovel method proved pointless as the toad just jumped off, clearly higher on the evolutionary scale than a land crab. So we employed gentle toad herding methods that seemed to work. For those of you reading this and worrying, we won't mention that we haven't evicted our resident tarantula as he seems to be able to stay so still when the dogs are around that he is virtually invisible. If they discover him and start bothering him, he'll have to go too.

In between all of this, we monitored the snake, who seemed to improve although he never shed his skin. We decided that since he seemed stronger, we would relocate him. Our lovely neighbour, Wade, used his truck to assist in the project. Yes, this is the same truck we thought we had landed our crab in earlier in the week. Wade confirmed that no crab had been discovered. So we're safe. Although we're sure we hit our other neighbour's house with one last night as it was flung over the fence.

So, we covered the cage, loaded it, hissing loudly into the truck and then drove to a heavily wooded area near the dump. We thought that a dump would be a place teeming with rats and that this would make our serpenty guest very happy.

Colette says soothing words to Mr. Snake

We tipped him out of the box and then stood and watched as he slithered into the woods looking back and hissing at us for effect. Just for those who don't know, Boas can and do bite when threatened. They are not venomous, but can cause a nasty bite with fangs at the back of their mouth, designed for holding prey in place.

Bye bye Mr. Snake. Have a great life.

So, special thanks to Mother Nature for keeping us busy and entertained.

Belize, our new home.

2008-05-18T11:34:00.008-06:00

"A little Madness in the Spring is wholesome even for the King."

- Emily Dickinson

Our house is finished, except for some finishing and repairs. We've moved in and it is glorious. We still might be a bit mad many seem to think. Two and a half years ago we had two properties and successful careers in London.

Now we have one house in Belize. Right now, we are spending all of our time and energy on the house, meanwhile trying not to spend too much money. It is amazing how quickly a project like this can swallow cash.

We have some pictures of the inside, without our furniture, before we moved in. I know that many of you have asked us to put up pics of the inside with furniture, but blogging is an interesting thing in terms of your home and privacy, so all you'll get here are pics before we moved in. If you want to see it now, you'll have to drop in, or email and ask nicely for some private pics.

Entrance and Kitchen

Doors to back porch and dining area

Bedroom

Shower tiling

Super cool Jetsons style lighting

We have to be honest and warn everyone that we don't have a guest room. The house has one bedroom and a bathroom upstairs. We have an office and bathroom downstairs, but we didn't finish work on the bathroom so that we could spend money elsewhere in the house. We do not have a sofa bed.

So, if you want to come and visit and stay with us you'll have to bring an air bed or a tent. Camping on the roof might be quite fun. In fact, our roof can be seen from this aerial picture, taken by Colette when she went to Belize City to collect our shipment from England. All of our worldly possessions.

A free Belikin to the first one to spot our roof

Colette had to go over to meet our trusty customs broker George. He really is wonderful and did a brilliant job. Message us if you need a good customs broker in Belize. Once we have cleared customs, our items are shipped by boat to San Pedro. Our shipment arrived in two big crates and they had to send a little Bobcat forklift truck to help get them off the truck. We had been moving house and emptying boxes all day. When this arrived at 5:30pm when we were just about to relax, we nearly died. But we piled in and emptied the crates by 10:00pm.

All our worldly goods

May is Mothers' Day time. In San Pedro, the Mothers are treated like queens for a day with a huge Mother's Day Extravaganza held in Central Park. Food, drinks and entertainment were laid on by San Pedro Town Council for nearly 800 mothers. Colette was honoured to have been asked to assist. She worked as a server along with other volunteers. She managed to drag along her friend's son, Junior as he was visiting San Pedro from his home in Ladyville on the mainland. Most of the volunteers were highschool kids from San Pedro High and Colette was supposed to organise the serving of food and drinks to a table seating 70 women. Colette had Junior and two lovely helpers from the Highschool. Colette has not served a table for over 20 years so she spent a lot of time apologising and offering to get napkins for various ladies.

Delightful Miss San Pedro welcomes Mothers

'I love you Mom' Gifts for all Mothers

Preparing for a whole lot of Mothers

On the other hand, the kids from the High School were on the ball. Junior and the two girls (yes Colette's team of servers consisted of four) were amazing and it was apparent that all of the Mothers had a wonderful evening. When the Mothers arrived they were greeted by Miss San Pedro (we apologise for the deterioration of photo quality but Colette's little digital has nearly died) and given a gift. They were then seated by a local dignitary. Meanwhile, the servers went crazy taking orders and bringing drinks. After over 750 were seated, with extra tables and chairs having to be found because so many attended, a turkey dinner was served. Then the tables had to be cleared in preparation for dessert. Meanwhile, there were various prizes and competitions involving Mothers jumping up and running around a lot. Hilarious, absolute chaos but organised and everything went smoothly.

The High School Boys give the Mothers a treat

But just for a moment, think about organising a meal for over 750 women, with unlimited alcohol available to them, using only teenage volunteers and it all going off without a hitch. Unbelievable. We do love our little island and what it can accomplish.

How many Mothers?

On that note, we've been observing our local elementary school develop. They are called Ambergris Caye Elementary School and we think they are great. We know a lot of the kids and their parents. The school is adorable, run incredibly well, the kids are very well behaved and happy and they have just installed this fantastic adventure playground for the kids.

School is not available for free to children here. Many churches run schools, which subsidise the costs heavily to make an education available to most. There are also a number of other private schools on the island, Ambergris Caye Elementary being one of them. Just because it is private does not mean the children have wealthy parents. Many parents work two and three jobs to keep their kids in school and have high aspirations for their children. Things are changing and the quality of the schools are improving. Also, many children are supported by wealthier members of the community, local charities and the schools themselves through scholarship programmes.

A playground worth screaming about and do they scream

Now that we have our precious belongings, we've been able to go through our old photo albums. We thought you'd enjoy seeing these old pictures of us. Can you guess which one is Maya and which one is Colette?

A few other things before we sign off. We'd like to thank our friends for their amazing patience with us during this house building project. We have been no - shows at so many parties that we're sure we are now on the Z list. We love our friends here on San Pedro and abroad and really appreciate your support.

We'd like to thank the lovely Capt Jeff yet again for allowing us to fill our freezer with fish. He is a great fisherman, friend and we love him.

Finally, we'd like to thank The Tudors for being the sexiest, most beautiful and dramatic show on TV for a long time. If you haven't watched it - do!

The tawdry and terrific Tudors

February Retox and March Madness

2008-03-23T09:53:00.009-06:00

Home is Where the Heart is

This amazing series from the Lunar Eclipse on the 20th of Feb 2008 was taken by Maya

Life has been a whirlwind recently. Colette had to take off to London for two weeks in February and that threw us all out of sorts. Both of us were dreading it. Colette, because traveling always makes her ill and the weather was freezing in the UK and Maya because she was going to have to deal with the house project all on her own.

We both had our adventures in those two weeks. Maya of course, fished. Big thanks to the wonderful men in our life, Bill and Capt Jeff, for making the these fishing days possible. The deep sea fish with Dilzon was an absolute adventure with swells of six - ten feet. Maya says the boat literally kept going straight up at a 90 degree angle and then WHAM, it would hit the water again. Colette was pleased she wasn't around to experience this particular day out.

This is Maya holding Bill's Wahoo (does that sound rude?)

This is Maya holding the Jack that she caught.

This is what Jack steaks look like.

Meanwhile Colette arrived in London and stayed with her great friends Anna, Pete and Vanessa. It was very hectic and full of entertaining social events. Just after Colette arrived, Anna had a brilliant success with her PR campaign for Litter Kwitter. Oh yes, we must share with you about this interesting product. It assists you in teaching your pussy to poop on the pot. If you really want to see this amazing device, check out http://www.litterkwitter.com/en/index.php . She actually somehow got Ricky Gervais to plug it on the Richard and Judy Show. Hilarious.

Anna watches a cat using the Litter Kwitter on TV

Within two days, Anna had roped Colette into appearing on an daytime TV show - for those Brits reading this it was the Alan Titchmarsh Show. Colette was helping her to plug another amazing animal invention called the Paw Plunger, http://www.pawplunger.co.uk/ . The world is full of these amazing things that you just can' t live without.

Some of Colette's mates organised a surprise drink in town. That was the beginning of the end for her liver. Almost every day, friends organised drinks. Tons of them. Mostly red wine. Colette sends her love and thanks to all of her wonderful friends for helping to keep her drunk throughout her stay. Petey, Anna, Vanessa, Smiley, Sam, Carolyn & Caroline, Roger (the lingerie idea is a winner), Chamois, Ingrid, Hilary and everyone else who will probably now be offended that they weren't mentioned. You guys are true British heroes. Well except for Ingrid, who is a Spanish hero.

Colette reports that London is still cold, grey and dirty although traffic seems to have definitely improved. The weirdest thing was that no one spoke English. A huge influx of Eastern Europeans and people from other countries has made London feel like a foreign country. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be quite difficult when you asking for directions to the Post Office and no one can help you.

While Colette was away, the house continued under the careful supervision of Maya. It will be weeks before we move in. We can finally unpack. Both of us have come a long way. We can't wait.

Stucco day at Mermaid Manor

The living room looking towards the kitchen.

The bedroom.
The screened porch.

Back of the house

The Magnificent Mermaid Manor.

Maya finished another one of her paintings. This one is of the fish god.

Fish God

Colette arrived back from London and went straight into the Belize International Airport restaurant. She ordered Stew Chicken and smothered her rice and beans with Marie Sharps, so much so that the waitress warned her to go easy. Home truly is where the heart is and our hearts are in Belize.

Politics but no Political Correctness

2008-02-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Politics but no Political Correctness

Belize February 2008

Carnival

This week, Belize got a new Prime Minister, Dean Barrow. This is after 10 consecutive years under the PUP Party. Belizeans showed clearly that they wanted change, with a landslide victory for the incoming UDP party.

Outgoing Prime Minister of Belize, Said Musa, on the left and new Prime Minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, on the right

The build up to the election included hard hitting TV advertising, parties, banners, t shirt wearing and flag waving. Pretty much like an election anywhere else. There certainly were no holds barred with 'Musa Abusa' (Musa being the outgoing Prime Minister) as a slogan for the UDP opposition and 'Dean Barrow is Dangerous for Belize' as a slogan for the PUP Government.

Musa Abusa

For Lower Electricty and Telephone

All A We Da One

Fi U, Fi Me, Fi all o We

During the same week as election was Carnaval on San Pedro. We were extremely priveleged to be invited to participate in the old San Pedro tradition of Comparsa. A Comparsa is a dancing and singing group, which travels from home to home, performing and collecting money for charity.

Dancers looking fresh on Day 1

Naughty songs in Spanish - 501

Gringa Mestiza

Comparsa at it's finest

Pretty Mestiza

One sexy Mestiza

Each night, each Comparsa has a different theme. We were in Miss Rosa's Comparsa group. We had to dress up in character and learn a new song each night. The first night we were 'Modern and Sexy Mestizas'. We were all dressed in traditional Mestiza outfits. Some of the members shortened their skirts or added IPODs to the outfit. Our song was all in Spanish. The Mestizo culture is strong and vibrant in San Pedro as the island is actually just an extension of the Yucatan Penninusla, cut off by enterprising Maya folk a thousand or so years ago so that they didn't have to boat all the way around to the end of the penninsula.

The second night is when political correctness went out of the window. Fortunately, Belize has not been scourged with self censorship. I wasn't 100% sure of the song, but I know it had orginally been written by a local musician. The Comparsa had changed the lyrics. Most were in Spanish, except the chorus, which was in creole and went like this:

White man have nothing to do
Black man ony smoke di weed
Chiney man da fu cook di cat
Spanish man baila Carnaval

Ole, Ole

We sang loud and proud dressed up in our various costumes. I was the lazy white man (understandably white men are considered lazy here as they all have workers do everything for them). Several women, some black, some lighter skinned, blacked up when necessary and with fake rasta dreads, were dressed as black man. They all carried huge gigantic, fake joints - sucking and puffing as they danced along. Another lady dressed as a 'chiney'. This is what Chinese people are called in Belize. The 'chiney' lady carried a metal wok and stir fried a cat in it, bravely represented by a stuffed Garfield.

The song caused a great deal of mirth amongst the homes that were visited. We must point out that part of Comparsa is about making a fool of yourself and being ridiculous, so our toughest competition were a group of local men, dressed as women and singing crude songs, dancing and dry humping eachother all the way down the road. Now, let's put this celebration in perspective for you.

The groups dance every night for about 5 hours solid. Each group is led by a truck with some sort of sound system. There are children's Comparsas, which tend to be raising desperately needed funds for their respective schools are held earlier in the evening. When the adults come out, they have a free supply of booze coming from the back of the truck. On our pick up truck there was a man and a keyboard set along with speakers, a big cooler full of ice and booze, a bucket full of rum punch, 5 gallons of water and about 10 children. Fortunately, children here learn how to mix a rum punch very young and they love getting adults drunk. So they were very keen to make sure the rum was always plentiful.

Getting grown-ups drunk

Rum keeps everyone dancing

Comparsa ladies have beautiful hair

What the kids really want to do at Carnival is paint. San Pedro has a unique element to Carnaval, which doesn't exist anywhere else. On the day that Carnaval starts, the Town Board cover the park with sand. Businesses cover their signs with plastic. And the Town Board provide all of the children with bottles of water based paint. The children (and quite a few adults) run around for the next few nights painting eachother. Paint does get everywhere even though the kids are pretty respectful and don't paint those who don't want to participate. It is surreal to see gangs of hundreds of children flocking down the roads, all covered from head to toe in paint.

Da Girlz show how it's done

After three days of dancing, everyone was broken. Colette couldn't walk for two days and still cant ride her bicycle. Maya was in charge of making sure that we could plug into each house, so she faithfully followed the truck carrying a pile of extension cord, dashing in every house to find an electrical outlet. She doesn't hurt quite so bad.

Meanwhile, life goes on for us on the domestic front. Our house is nearly finished. After all of the warnings and bitching we heard from everyone about what a nightmare building a house would be, we've been so lucky. The house is a bit bigger than we anticipated and somewhat overwhelming.

Mermaid Manor grows

Aerial view of our 'hood'

We try to take advantage of our wonderful surroundings every day. Maya is getting to be quite a good nature photographer. All of the nature pictures here were taken either from our garden or a neighbour's garden.

Jesus Lizard

Roseate Spoonbill

Upside Oriole feeding from Hibiscus

Birds like to party too - Wading bird gathering

In the midst of all of this, we went to Belize City to look around. It is a very run down city and there is a lot of crime, so we don't recommend it as an overnight destination except for convenience. Nevertheless, it is the old capital of Belize and has a rich history. We went to see the Museum of Belize and it was really fascinating. It is built in what was originally the old prison and that in itself is a fascinating story. The photo here is of St. John's Cathedral. It is frequently referred to as 'the oldest building in Belize', which we find ironic as Belize is one of the best places in the world to see Maya pyramids. It is though, the oldest Anglican Church in Central America and is also very cute.

St. John's Catherdral, Belize City

Belize continues to enamour us on a daily basis. There is so much to do here and so much that we want to do that we are excited continually. So, to our friends who are living in the rat race, who get up every morning to take the same route to work, to do the same unfulfilling, but well paying job, to come home the same way, get drunk on Friday, recover Saturday, see friends on Sunday and then start all over again on Monday - think about this. Getting up naturally early every morning because the birds are so lively and enthusiastic about the new day, going out to your own garden to pick fresh fruit looking at the dozen different colours of flower growing around you, smell coffee roasting at the coffee maker down the road and drink your coffee knowing it was roasted yesterday, walk down to the beach stopping to chat with neighbours and friends, walking along finding interesting items washed up on shore, watching sea birds hunt, spotting interesting new marine life, then head home to cycle into town, taking your time as you meet so many friends along the way, do some work, head home for lunch, make your way back into work, maybe walking the beach this time, then come home to grill fresh fish and watch the sun set, listen to spanish music and reggae drifting on the breeze, watch the wildlife and think about how wonderful tomorrow is going to be.

Feeling trapped?

Just fly away.

Then and Now

2007-12-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

We've been getting nagged about not blogging for a while so we'll begin with excuses and then get on with the blog. Firstly, Colette was away for ten days in October. This threw us out of kilter a bit but she had a really good time with her family in Georgia. When she came back we finally went ahead with our plans and our house is finally being built. Oh, had we mentioned we'd bought some land? Since she has come back, we've been just a little bit busy. So now that things are relaxing again, here we are to update you with all of our antics.

So, off Colette goes and abandons Maya to hang out with her Mum and her family in Georgia in the USA. Colette spent much of her childhood in Georgia and so it brings back fond memories. The first place they stayed was at the country house called Long Pond. It really is something out of a movie. It belongs to the family of Colette's Mum's Husband and we both love staying there. You feel like you are stepping back in time when you are there. Meanwhile, Maya finished one of her wonderful paddles.

Longpond is an amazing pre civil war house

Look at the size of those Oak trees in Georgia

Colette did some shopping for us as some things are quite difficult to get in Belize. Egg cups. She had a really hard time getting egg cups so that we can eat our boiled eggs and soldiers in the morning, but that was one of her little successes on this trip. The biggest one though was buying Maya a brand new fishing rod. You see, Colette organised a visit with her lovely friends Bill and Becky. They met at the amazing Bass Pro shop in Savannah, Georgia. Bill and Becky came all the way down from South Carolina for this excursion and much fun was had by all. Bill is such a sweetheart, he offered to bring the rod down on his next visit as a big surprise for Maya. He even bought an extra large rod carrier. It is very difficult at this stage, not to make rude jokes about rods, so we'll leave that to your imagination. We must also mention that Colette now knows she does not like Bison burgers.

Colette wonders where the batteries go

Bill and Maya's Big Rod (Special thanks to this special man for bringing this and many of his own gifts - We love ya!)

Colette really enjoyed picking her Mum's brain (actually, you have to wonder if this was an exchange of ideas or just an excuse to drink excessive amounts of wine) about ideas for our house as we had just bought some land before Colette left. Colette's Mum has just finished building her own house and understands the stress involved with the experience (time for more wine). They spent a night on St. Simon's Island at the family's beach house and Colette always says this brings back memories of her childhood. St. Simon's Island is very beautiful and very memorable.

The amazing Live Oak streets on St. Simon's Island could inspire memories even if you didn't have any

Upon Colette's return we proceeded with building. We are extremely lucky to be working with some excellent people on this project and everything so far has gone very smoothly. We will update the blog with pictures of the build as it goes along, but just to give you some ideas here is the build up to today.

Our lot before we started major clearing

Major progress with clearing

A gate appears in our massive fence

These are the pilings being made that will hold up our house

And this is a piling after it has been put in the ground

This is our septic tank for our poop

These are the foundations for our downstairs office

This is what the lot looks like now. Don't worry we are already growing new plants

We've also been doing little projects here and there. The first you might like to look at is The Cave Diver. This is a promo trailer for a programme that will be submitted to National Geographic. Maya directed it and Colette did the voice over. http://youtube.com/watch?v=LgF_WAbpCho . We worked with some really lovely people on this and it is just another reason why we are sure we have made the right decision. We have so many friends who are still in the rat race and not enjoying it. Get out! Get out now! There is so much out there to do and see and live. Don't waste your lives being miserable, doing the same thing week in and week out. Follow your dreams.

Another project that we've worked on are posters for World Aids Day. The local Aids Commission asked us to put together a couple of posters based on their ideas.

On top of all that, we brought out a set of Christmas Postcards for San Pedro. They've been very popular and are now being used by the Town Council as their official Christmas card.

We are often asked what we miss in San Pedro. What do we miss from our previous lives? We don't miss much. Probably a bit of culture would be nice. We only have live music on the island and there is not much variety. No comedy or theatre or anything else like that, well unless you enjoy laughing at sunburnt tourists and drunk local gringos. But to be honest, our lives are so full, rewarding and fun why would we look back. Obviously we miss our old friends and extended family, but not enough to go back. Just for your sakes, we have and here is a quick photographic look at our previous life. Enjoy looking at it. In the meantime, think about us as we are just off to go on a sunset cruise with a bunch of friends.

Our house in London and Colette's old 4x4, which lovingly is still in the 'family'

Our Ikea kitchen, which was lovely but nothing like the custom hardwood kitchen we will have soon.

Evey single day we saw our local shopkeepers. We'd buy our morning papers here on the way to work

Every morning we would take the Tube to work. This is our local station, Blackhorse Road.

This is Knightsbridge in Central London. Busy and grey

In the evening, we would buy our papers from the news stand. It is different going from two papers a day to once a week.

There were some places to get peace and solitude in London and the Serpentine was one of them.

But our favourite little oasis in London was our wonderful garden.

Flags and Flags - You work it out

2007-10-07T09:45:00.000-06:00

After the hurricanes and then moving back into our house, we have been recovering. It has been a very hectic month for us, but a very quiet time for San Pedro. We have two seasons here – high season and low season. These are determined by the number of tourists that visit and the number of tourists that visit can be severely affected by the number of hurricanes that visit us. Whether or not the weather is nice, low season is very low here. We love it, but we don’t have a business to keep running. Every year at this time, most of the businesses close. Restaurants and hotels shut up shop and their staff gets time off. Some places shut for the whole of the season. This time of year is a struggle for everyone who depends on tourism. The beaches are empty, the streets quieter than normal and crime goes up. We don’t have a lot of crime here, but desperate times call for desperate measures. That said, two women we know have been victims of crime in the last month or so. One of them scared the burglar so badly with a butter knife he ran away and left his bicycle behind. The other one grabbed the mugger’s hair until he had to bite her to get her to let go. He got caught of course and her stuff was returned. So, advice to all of the bad guys – us girls on San Pedro are tough. Don’t mess!

Speaking of messing….once we moved in, Maya had to face the dreaded bodega. A bodega is a name for a storage shed. This shed had been used for storage for a long time without having ever been cleaned. Rats had been living in it as well as a 3 foot long iguana. Colette removed a dead rat, nearly threw up into her hand and refused to set foot into it again, so it was left to Maya and she was truly heroic. We now have a clean a fully functioning bodega for all of the junk we have collected in our short time in Belize.

Even though it is quiet season, we all find plenty to keep ourselves occupied. There have been a number of parties, including our own. We had a combined birthday party with about 8 other people. We’d all had our birthdays ruined by the storms and decided to have one big birthday bash. This was on a Monday night at the Roadkill Bar. For those of you who haven’t been to San Pedro, the Roadkill Bar sits on a road junction. It is outside of a nightclub called the Barefoot Iguana. It consists of a bar, an 8 foot gap, and a fence to keep you from falling into the road. On Monday nights, they play bluegrass music. Our lovely friend Drummer Dan was recovering from a gallbladder operation – more on that later – and a local accountant (who really does look like an accountant) took his place. We were all a bit stunned to see him setting up the drums and he did a damned good job as well. San Pedro is like that, people surprise you all the time. Drummer Dan did turn up to show his face and his belly to all and sundry. Here are a few pictures of one of the fundraisers – this was a yard sale, which in San Pedro tends to involve the recycling of junk like the stuff in our bodega – that ensured that Dan was able to pay for his surgery. Just another reason why we love living here.

Of course we don’t have pictures of our party because we were too busy having a good time. And while we were having a good time a golf cart full of stunning women went by. By stunning, I mean they were dressed up like glamour goddesses, made up like drag queens (maybe that should have been a giveaway) and they received plenty of hoots and hollers as they putted by. Given that this was the most rocking place in San Pedro that night, they turned around, came into the party, danced, posed for pictures and disappeared into the night. When they left, many men had smiles on their faces as women here don’t often dress up in sequence, high heels and mini skirts. We found it amusing that most of these guys didn’t notice (or did they choose not to notice?) that this was a group of women who averaged about 6’6” in height. Still not getting it?

Ok, we’ll have to crack and get to the point. 150 gay, lesbian and transgendered divers spent a week in San Pedro. They were from all over the world. Aussies, Brits, USA ‘ers, Dutch etc. They belong to a group called Diving for Life that does a big dive trip annually to raise money for HIV and AIDs charities. So far they’ve raised over half a million dollars just by organising dive trips and having a bloody good time. They made a substantial donation to the local Aids charity, spent a lot of money on the island, tipped (from what we hear) extremely generously and generally brightened up low season on San Pedro to no end.

On their last night, they held a costume party and of course, we were invited. Now some of these guys and gals brought a whole suitcase just to hold their costume. So, we were certainly not disappointed. We have to admit, our birthday bash was great, but this party was fantabulistic.

We mustn’t forget that during September is Belize’s Independence Day. Everyone is very patriotic and flags fly from every golf cart and house. We examined some of the flags and found them to be rather odd. Belize’s flag is the only flag in the world with human images on it. So that makes it kind of unique. The two human forms are supposed to represent a Mestizo person and a Garifuna person, but the flags that arrived from wherever they were making them cheap and in bulk, made it look like they were both Chinese, just one coloured brown and one coloured yellow. We did some research into the flag of Belize and discovered that the Latin phrase, sub umbra floreo, on the flag means ‘in the shade we flourish’, which is very apt we think. Have a look at some of the flags we saw and if you really want a giggle, log onto the Belize Government’s home page and note that the flag is backwards for some reason. Obviously, we wouldn’t want to comment on the politics of our host country or make any comment on the backwardness of the flag on the Government website, which by the way is http://www.governmentofbelize.gov.bz/ .

We want to dedicate this blog to John, Krista and Gerrard. They have gone back to the freezing, icy cold of Canada and left us here. John was Maya’s best fishing friend forever fishing buddy. We miss you guys!

Also, a big shout to Capt Jeff. Always a wonderful host and a great friend.