December 4
Life in the jungle: First thing I went up to the village for groceries. I posted Unlocking True Wisdom: The Power of Following Your Own Advice to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. I then spent the rest of the afternoon continuing an SEO (search engine optimization) course for my website I started last week.
December 5
Life in the jungle: I have no recollection of today’s events. I suspect I was unmotivated and in front of my computer, most of the day working on my SEO course for my website.
Everything & everywhere is mud
December 6
Life in the jungle: I wasn’t motivated today. Andy went to Belmopan for his passport stamp. I watched YouTube podcasts most of the afternoon. Eventually, I got around to posting Embracing Resilience: The Wisdom of Winston Churchill’s Timeless Quote on Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. I also finished my SEO course. There was a short but heavy rainfall this afternoon. I wonder if there will ever be an escape from the mud.
December 7
Life in the jungle: Today was my appointment in Belmopan to hand in my Belize residency application. I got there at 10:20 AM for my 11:00 AM appointment. They gave me a number at 10:42 AM. My number was the next number to be called and I had to wait until 1:30 PM for my number to be called. I was told two things were missing from my application. A “declaration” that I access my money from ATMs in Belize and have the declaration stamped by a Justice of the Peace. Doesn’t everyone on the planet access their money via an ATM? And I had to get a letter from The Tax Center that stated I don’t owe the Belize government any money. How could I possibly owe the government any money?
Due to the fact I don’t really like too many foods, I don’t remember what these are called. They were ok.
I got my ATM declaration across the street for $9 USD. (Oh, I see the reason behind the declaration.) And then bused myself back to Belize City. Because I would have to wait for the late bus now, I took an extremely crowded bus outside of the downtown to The Tax Center. They said I have to write a letter stating I have no source of income in the country of Belize and that I plan to support myself with my savings and provide a bank statement. I was thinking about it after the fact, but what does this have to do with not owing the government any tax money?
I had to take another very busy 5 PM bus home in the dark. Thankfully Verna Mae had a headlamp I could borrow to make my way down my road. The road is quite muddy. There was only a tiny bit of rain today.
December 8
Life in the jungle: I felt the need to do a little outdoor work. I organized my seedling storage area. After lunch, I posted Embracing Discipline: The Gateway to Unleashing Freedom in Your Life to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. There was a heavy rainstorm this afternoon. There continues to be no escape from all this mud. The chicken coop area is a muddy disaster. This afternoon, I discovered a new music band – HolyName. Very cool. I continue to be frustrated with productivity and direction in life.
December 9
Life in the jungle: Internal frustrations for my future continue to suck my motivation. I don’t really remember much from today. I remember the internet being slow. I organized computer files and photos for much of the day in an attempt to get something done. No rain today.
December 10
Life in the jungle: Today is my guilt-free day off. I posted my Belize blog posts Part 50, 51, 52, and 53. We had some amazing bird sightings around the house today. We had three Collared Aracaris this afternoon! Then we had a good-sized flock of Montezuma Oropendolas visit the backyard. These birds weave hanging basket-style nests and have one of the coolest jungle bird songs. Andy got some great photos. There was rain tonight.
Collared Aracaris
December 11
Life in the jungle: Today was cool, overcast, and threatening to rain all day. First thing I headed to the village. I need some lumber to trim and frame the apartment windows later this week. After a few (local) conversations, I have concluded that I have not been getting any chicken eggs these last bunch of months due to shorter daylight hours. I don’t see a point in doing anything about this, this year but in the future, I will have to put some lights in the chicken coop.
Installing trim on the apartment windows
Pepper continues to be a problem as she escapes the yard about twice a day. Saucy gets her excited about something beyond the (yard) fence but Saucy is too big to escape. But Pepper can escape and then Pepper ultimately is punished by being put on a chain the minute she comes back to the house. Pepper does not like the chain at all, but she doesn’t seem to learn.
This afternoon I posted Embracing Certainty: The Power of Saying No When in Doubt to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.
Montezuma Oropendolas
December 12
Life in the jungle: I woke up to rain. Today I was planning to return to Belmopan to finish my residency application. But not in this rain. No way, no thank you. Later in the morning when there was a break in the rain, I decided to start installing window screens on my apartment windows. I got the first window completed and started on the second window when it started to rain again and then rained the rest of the day. Temperatures were quite cool. In the afternoon and evening, I finally spent real time working on (short) social media videos. I got 16 videos edited and completed.
December 13
Life in the jungle: After yesterday’s rain the road is probably at its muddiest and water-covered this whole year. All day was overcast and cool. I spent 30-40 minutes at the Tax Center getting the necessary documents required for my Belize residency application. I missed my express bus to Belmopan by four minutes. Fortunately, another bus line came by ten minutes later.
It took 45 minutes to process and officially submit my Belize residency application with immigration. I have an interview appointment with them on February 7th. I caught the next bus out of Belmopan getting back to Belize City in time for the 3:30 PM bus home. On my road home, I came across the biggest Blacktail Cribo Snake I have ever caught. It was a battle to catch him. I saw his tail exposed and his head was hiding in the grass. Having to act extremely quickly I grabbed him while still straddling my bike. Once I had him, I had to figure out which one of my full panniers had the empty pillowcases (to bag him). This snake was not happy to be caught. At 7ft long he had most of my body sections wrapped up at least once. At one point he had my free arm wrapped up from behind my back. Many times, he was completely wrapped around either one of my legs. He kept spinning his body multiple times. It was all I could do to hold on to him and try to retrieve an empty pillowcase. But I did bag him. Before reaching the house, I wiped out my bike in the mud. In the house, Andy and I measured him at 7ft. This is the biggest Black Tail I have ever caught. This evening, I wrote this blog post.
Right after catching this beauty – Black Tail Cribo snake
Belize Part 103 (Nov 27 to Dec 3)
Belize Part 102 (Nov 19 to 26)
Of Note: At this time I am currently 11 to 12 months behind in posting my Belize blog posts due to having no internet for the first 18 months of living in Belize.
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of words or people that may or may not be part of this blog post. This glossary will be at the bottom of every blog post for Belize.
Wayne – He is the son of the original owners of the farm (both owners are deceased). The original farm was two – 30 acre parcels minus two – ¾ acre parcels for my house. In 2017 Wayne sold me 40 acres of land from the original 60 acres (one 30 acre parcel plus 10 acres from the second parcel). Wayne lives in his parent’s house and has a few cows on his remaining 18 acres of land.
The ponds – I have two large (300ft long x 50ft wide x 10ft deep) ponds on my 30 acre parcel of land which is basically a jungle. I have about 60 coconut trees (mostly mature) around the ponds. In my first two years of living in Belize, I also planted about 250 assort fruit tree seedlings (Lime, jackfruit, custard apple, pomegranate, and avocado).
The coconut field – I have about 400 coconut trees planted (various growth states) on about 3 acres of cleared land of my 10 acre parcel. I have planted about 350 assorted fruit trees (lemon, starfruit, mango, soursop, cashew, lime, orange) all raised from seed since my arrival in Belize in 2021.
The river lot – my house sits on an ¾ acre lot. I have a second joining ¾ acre lot that allows me river frontage on the Belize River. I call that my river lot.
The dry – Belize has two main seasons. The rainy season and the dry (no rain). The wet is obviously the rainy season.
Chopping – using my machete to clear brush, vines, weeds, and unwanted trees. Generally, when I chop I am removing unwanted vegetation around my baby fruit trees.
Andy – A fellow Canadian who rode his dirt bike from Canada to Belize. When I offered him the use of an apartment that I recently built and the use of my greenhouse Andy decided to stay in Belize permanently and start a hot sauce company here.
