One of these things is not like the other

Okay, actually NONE of these things really have anything to do with the others – but I’m still going to see if I can cobble them all into some kind of semi-coherent post. Damn the torpedos, I say; and why not just start with this universally topical subject:

ARE THERE ANCIENT ALIENS IN BELIZE?!
We ARE in Mayan territory, after all; so [use your hushed Ancient Aliens voice-over voice – if you watch that show, you’ll know exactly what I mean] could this crop circle formation actually be an ancient aerial map for space invaders?!

Well, no, it’s a flyover of the development at Orchid Bay, just across Laguna Seca (you may recall our failed attempt to enter it in a previous post).

We paid a visit there a month or so ago to collect some folks who wanted to have a look at the estate, and since we had time before our planned meet, we poked around and took some pictures.

That’s me, unwilling to leave the shade under these trees and still managing to work up a sweat. Have I mentioned how hot it’s been here lately?

Orchid Bay is a pretty place with nice amenities (beach, pool, bar & grill) for renters (casitas and inn rooms) and buyers (lots for sale). If you’re interested, tell ‘em Ray and Jackie sent you. You know, so we can collect our commission.

LOCAL WATERING HOLES
Besides our semi-regular stops at Cerros Beach Resort and Enrique’s Beach Bar on the Cerros peninsula (yes, those are shameless plugs for friends), our other sometime watering hole is Jam Rock in Corozal.

It’s located right on Corozal Bay, a very pretty spot with (usually) a nice breeze off the water. Both gringos and Belizeans frequent the place, and owners (and husband/wife) Rocky and Teresa are good folks. The picture above is the only one I have, but a local blogger did a post with more pictures – click here if you want to see it (we even know some of the ex-pats she photographed).

We also discovered a nice little place in Orange Walk right on the New River – El Gran Mestizo, which includes a bar/restaurant called Maraca’s and a suite of cozy little cabins for overnights right nearby. When we were there for lunch the other day (awesome teriyaki wings), the manager took us through a few of the accommodations.

All over this property, local wood is used in really wonderful ways. I took some pictures but mine don’t do justice to the place the way that their professional website images does. If you haven’t already clicked on the link above, have a look. I’ll wait. Nice, right?

AND SPEAKING OF PARROTS…
Okay, that was a completely irrelevant segue; just roll with it. What started out as the quaint, amusing ‘Parrot Hour’ here (a regular evening flyover with brief mad squawking) has since devolved into ‘Parrot Yard Party’ starting at daybreak and pretty much continuing on and off all day.

If they’re going to hang around like this and make such incessant noise, the least they could do is stop camouflaging themselves so well in the trees. Because I’ll step outside with the camera and look up at a tree that I KNOW has a whole slew of them in it, and they’ll go silent as I search…and search…and search. Nada. Nothing moves. Not a peep. Really? And then I step back inside and a whole fricking army swarms out of that tree, screeching and taunting me with low-altitude aerials that I could have easily photographed, had I only been in position.

Obviously, this pic is not my photo. I swiped it off the web awhile ago and didn’t think to register the photo credit. So, sorry but thank you for letting me use it, whoever you are, Photographer Who Actually Managed to Foil the Parrots.

Can you tell the freaking parrots are on my list these days?

WATER & ICE
Speaking of lists (how about that one? eh? eh?), these two items are almost always on ours. I can’t even imagine what drinking from a tap is like anymore. And even if we buy bagged ice close by in Progresso, some degree of melt will almost always already be in progress by the time we get home, which means the cubes will then re-freeze into large unmanageable chunks. And speaking of first world problems (ha! now I’m on a roll; see yesterday’s post for reference), there’s just nothing quite as annoying as unmanageable chunks of ice when you want need a cold drink. Have I mentioned lately that it’s been freaking HOT here?!

Anyway – when we first got here, we used the crude but effective technique of smashing the bagged ice on the tile floor inside or the cement floor outside until it was sufficiently usable. The downside of that was it was more work than you’d think, and also invited potential damage to the tile, and it got the bag dirty, which sometimes got the ice inside dirty. Obviously, this was not a long-term solution.

One day we were sitting at the bar at Jam Rock and the bartender picked up what looked like a police billy club and whacked the crap out of their bagged ice. Huh, I’m thinking. We need one of those – or something like it.

The ideal fix presented itself after one of the wheelbarrow arms broke. We bought a new one at the feed mill so Ray could replace it (good as new now). He tossed the pieces of the old arm outside and they laid there for a while before I realized: Hey! Saw off the jagged edge and there we go: Ice Basher, complete with handy grip.

Brilliant, right? Still crude, but much more effective.

And, I might add, not only at bashing ice – The Ice Basher doubles as a handy outlet for aggression. Like, where (BAM) in the HELL (BAM) is rainy season this year?! BAM BAM. Or, if those freaking parrots (BAM BAM BAM) don’t shut up, I’m going after ‘em with a .357.

Oh, don’t go all PETA on me, anyone, of course I am kidding. But you get the idea: Get yourself an Ice Basher – it’s functional AND therapeutic.

Moving right along…

BELIZEAN HARDWOOD
Besides the very common mahogany (national tree), there are many beautiful varieties of wood in this country – click here for a good sampling. Including, believe it or not, the wood harvested from my nemesis, the poisonwood or che-chen tree, which is surprisingly beautiful. If not presumably painful to harvest. If you’re me, anyway. Some people say it doesn’t bother them at all. Yeah, whatever. Those people suck.

I’ve mentioned zericote wood before, which is commonly used for gift shop items like the toucan at left (our homeowner’s property) and our parrot. Yeah, seriously, parrot – what the hell was I thinking when I bought that?

 

And how about the ceilings here in the lagoon house? All different kinds of wood, all gorgeous. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I just lie in bed for awhile taking in this view. Yeah, that’s what I tell Ray – THAT’s why I don’t just bound out of bed. I’m EXAMINING THE CEILING. You know he believes me, too.

Outside on the screen patio, more of the same.

Even a picnic table becomes a work of art here (this one is at the New River Stop).

And for some really exceptional wood products, visit Graniel’s Dreamland. If we had four or five extra suitcases for the (eventual) trip home, it’d be full of this stuff.

EVERYBODY, SING ALONG!
This is the logo for a line of Central American hardware (and machetes) sold in many places around town. Every time I see one of these signs, this little ditty goes off in my head:

 

I’m a casa, you’re a casa
We are casas all
And when we get together…
(slight pause for resounding finish)
We give the casa call!
(insert gnawing sounds here: Nom nom nom, etc.)

What can I say? Clearly, the heat is getting to me.

And I’ve always thought this little melody just one of many quirks of my Milwaukee childhood; but I Googled it and apparently it is a scouting song so it may be familiar to others. But if you have no idea what I’m talking about, see this. And you’re welcome for the earworm. 🙂

Okay, the last bit. Really, I promise.

‘BUSH’ REAL ESTATE SIGNAGE
FYI – for the record, there are actual Realtors in Belize and most of them use the signage you’d expect. But creative signage abounds everywhere in the bush. We see this sign on the way to Orange Walk and it always cracks us up. Yet again, we have “crude, but effective” – right?

And if the image of the property on this sign intrigues you enough to call, just let me know if you can’t make out the phone number – and remember, non-locals, you’ll have to add Belize’s country code (501). Also don’t forget to tell ‘em Ray and Jackie sent you, so we can get our commission.

You doubted – hell, I doubted! But that there is a semi-coherent post, out of pretty much nothing. Guess we better get back to traveling soon, huh?

Sunday rounds

Well, it appeared that it wasn’t going to rain yesterday so we gave up wishing for it and decided to make our regular run over to the beach to check out the property, run the water / power briefly, etc. So we’re over there, and guess what rolls in?

The funny part was the view out to the bay was still this (though not for long)…

So we headed over to Cerros Beach Resort for a beer or two with Bill and Jenny, and the rain came (woo hoo on both counts). And then two bedraggled boaters from Corozal put in at the dock (Gwyn from the Seabreeze Hotel with a friend) and they joined us for a round or two to celebrate not having been electrocuted.

Photo courtesy of belizeadventure.com.

I sampled some of Bill’s homemade pineapple wine, which was delicious, and I think based on my later state, maybe a little potent.

That, or maybe I should have been counting the Belikins I was having and stopped at some reasonable number.

Instead, eventually we said goodbye to this crew and headed on down the road to visit Donna and Enrique at Suena Del Mar.

Samson and Hot Dog had to say hello while Temper looked on from behind. Better shot of Samson, below. He’s a sweetie.

Hector’s daughter Julissa works there, and today her younger sister Shaely had joined her, and it was fun to see everybody. We haven’t been there in a while so it was time to catch up.

It’s amazing how much fun you can have around here pretty much doing nothing but hanging out.

Watching Samson and Hot Dog fighting over a stick, as usual (and Temper ignoring them, as usual).

A Belizean family was out enjoying the beach. They’d left this baby asleep in one of the hammocks, so when she woke up, she was a little bewildered (“you’re not my mama”). So cute…

Oh, no, out of beer. Ray and Donna signal for the waitresses…

…but the girls are otherwise occupied at the moment. Ha! Busted trying to take a break.

I say I’ve probably had enough anyway, but Enrique twists my arm…

So, one more round, but that’s IT. It’s time to go home. We know, because Julissa brings the bill.

Thanks, friends in Belize. We needed a day like this one!

Back to La Isla Bonita

So we’re packing for the trip to San Pedro, and I’m thinking I packed pretty well – right? That’s my stuff on the left. Yeah, well, clearly, I know nothing about packing. Sheez. Next time Ray’s packing my suitcase too.

Onward. 9 AM flight to San Pedro, and here I am running through my pre-flight checks with the pilot (just kidding, though I did get to fly in the co-pilot seat – very cool).

On the way out, Ray caught a nice flyover pic of the Cerros peninsula. The cut & wide pool at about mid-photo are part of a seemingly-stalled development called Mayan Bay Estates (we suspect the resident croc may live in that pool). The other spot of civilization (just above MBE) is the settlement of several homes (including the beach property we care-take) plus Bill and Jenny’s Cerros Beach Resort. On the opposite side is a more active development, Cerros Sands. And the Cerros Maya ruins are just out of frame, below all this.

Home sweet (sometime) home at the yellow arrow, below. The roof of the blue house is visible, the yellow house is further in and harder to spot.

This was my view of the propellors and instruments.

And of Ray behind me.

We nailed the landing at San Pedro airport (see video posted on Facebook page). Busy place – as the pilot swung us around on the tarmac, I snapped three flights that had been waiting for us to clear the runway, now heading west into the wild blue (the two already in the sky look like white birds here).

On previous visits, we’d stayed on the beach just north of town, so we thought we’d try a place a little closer to the center this time. Here’s the view from our balcony at the Sunbreeze Suites – overlooking the water taxi dock this way…

a dive dock the other way…

…with a view of the pool, too. Settled at hotel – check.

Next stop…

…Fido’s for calamari and beer. Ahhhh. It doesn’t get much better than this…

It was still hot, but sooooo much more pleasant out on the island than in the jungle (how hot was it? you ask: So hot that I am pretty sure that my ear wax was melting – no joke). So, after lunch we headed back to the hotel to thoroughly enjoy the AC that we’d left on full-blast.

Ray noticed a fisherman cleaning fish on the dock, bringing around the stingrays again.

After the AC break, we headed downstairs to the pool.

Note pool rule #6. Apparently enough of a problem here that they feel obliged to document it?!

I heard some people at the poolside bar talking about stingrays in the water again, so I headed that way and in short order was targeted by this guy, who introduced himself as Coco Loco.

We’d seen him before, he has a little shanty of sorts further along the beach where he carves coconuts and stuff. I figured he was going to hit me up for some money but he said no, he was going to make me a grasshopper, for free, here, hold this. So I took the palm fronds he asked me to hold and watched him create this little piece of art for me. Then he explained that if I wanted a hat like his (um – no), then yes, he would charge me, but the grasshopper, no, for you, free.

Ray got out of the pool long enough to assess that I was okay, then went back to watching me from the pool, shaking his head. I always seem to attract ’em. What can I say? It’s my magnetic personality.

Eventually we’d had enough sun and headed back upstairs. A pretty Mayan woman and her equally pretty friend or sister were working the vendor table below our balcony, with their adorable little kids running all over the place.

The littlest one just couldn’t resist the water and eventually was covered in sand from head to foot. So cute!

Busy spot on the beach, here. The water taxis came and went all day (small ones for around island and the two big ferries to Caye Caulker). And every time a fishing boat came in, it was frigate feeding time.

Also a very pretty spot to take pictures as dusk fell…Love, love, love this place!

Pics to follow up previous stories

I found some pictures on other people’s Facebook pages that belong to stories I’ve already told here. Just thought I’d add them to the mix – enjoy, and thanks to Donna, Eric and Linda for the swipes!

Here’s us at Enrique’s Beach Bar & Botanas one windy afternoon – that’s Donna, Ward (a visitor from Canada checking out the real estate), me, Ray and Enrique.

And here’s us also at Donna and Enrique’s, sampling the very first smoked chicken off the new hearth oven (lucky us!).
Also at Enrique’s, this is the American military crew with their host Belizean officials that came out to Cerros to try to vaccinate Bill and Jenny’s dogs (when they weren’t successful, they went for lunch at Suena del Mar instead).

Here’s a traffic jam at the New River ferry. You wouldn’t think a bad dirt road would get this busy, huh? I haven’t seen it this way myself, but once when Ray went into town without me – without the camera – he said he waited almost an hour to get across (8-9 cars were already in line when he got there, and at least 6-7 more behind him by the time he got on the ferry).
Also that same day, he said the sugar barges had come through, further holding up the ferry’s crossing (they tie up to one side or the other and lower the cables until the tug and barges are through).

 

Life on the peninsula

 There are two buildings on the property. The yellow guest house began as a sand-floor boathouse, rebuilt by Les and Michelle into a snug, comfortable residence. The blue sea house is new construction, nearly finished, which will eventually become Tea’s retirement home.

Besides care-taking the property (with help from Hector, a Belizean jack of all trades who knows it well), our other major house-sitting duty will be to oversee the remainder contracted work on the sea house and/or to help with whatever new renovation projects that Tea will direct.

Both properties operate “off the grid” – ie, solar power (with a backup generator) and a cistern water collection system – which will be an adjustment, both in learning to use and maintain them properly, and to be vigilant so that we don’t run out of either electricity or water. It’s a remote location, but we’ll have internet, phone, and TV connectivity and all the basic comforts of home. Not to mention the best views you can possibly imagine, right out every window: Spectacular sunrises and sunsets on Corozal Bay, with the outline of the crumbling Cerros Maya ruins nearby, and the town of Corozal lit each night like a strand of diamonds across the way.

Les and Michelle gave us the quick tour and then we headed over to Cerros Beach Resort to check in for our two-night stay. We met owners Bill and Jenny, who showed us to our beach-side cabana so we could settle in.

What a great little hide-away! Our room was clean, simple, and rustic, with a great arched ceiling of bamboo and thatch that made the whole place feel expansive (we took a picture while lying on the bed, but it doesn’t do it justice). There’s no AC, but a steady breeze streams through the screened and shuttered windows. No TV either, but who needs it, with great views out to the bay and the manicured lawn (though if you must have your technology fix, the resort’s bar/restaurant close by has both TV and internet). The bed can be canopied with mosquito netting, but we didn’t need it and slept well. Bill and Jenny are a wealth of knowledge about life in Belize and were a lot of fun to talk to over meals (and the food was good too!). Visit www.cerrosbeachresort.com if you want more information.