January 18
Life in the jungle: First thing this morning was making patio stones. Then I laid the cement blocks for the floor perimeter of the dirt bike shed. Then I got a message from Jamie wanting to visit as he had a day off. Jamie lives across the river and was the guy that saved the day when my internet tower was installed. One of the very few guys around here I like. I only make note of this as it is probably the first time someone I know invited themselves over for a visit. As far as I recall no one I have ever known in 30 years has ever visited me just for the sake of hanging out. Jamie saw a mountain lion on my road on his way over. Saucy is in heat. No rain during the day.
January 19
Life in the jungle: There were some short heavy rain showers first thing in the morning. I mixed my 1/2 bag of cement for the dirt bike lean-to foundation that is being built beside the greenhouse. There was only enough cement left to make four patio stones.
I posted Embracing the Challenge: It’s Hard to Do Hard Things and How to Overcome to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. I spent the afternoon researching Belize blogs, Expat Belize Facebook group questions and posts, for blog ideas and my future first bike tour in Belize. There were on-and-off short rain showers throughout the day.
January 20
Life in the jungle: I started my morning with my dozen patio stones. I transitioned to working on the framing of the dirt bike shed. I discovered that I had to go to the village for lumber. I would never have guessed it would take almost all afternoon to install five pieces of lumber to frame this shed to the greenhouse frame.
My bike trailer comes in real handy sometimes
New dirt bike lean-to shed
Andy caught a young boa constrictor on the road. This is his second snake and first boa constrictor. Later in the afternoon in the village, he bought a Morelets crocodile in the village for $5 USD for the purpose of releasing it back into the wild.
Andy caught his first boa constrictor
This afternoon I got a message from my niece in Alberta. “My roommates are hosting a cyclist who is doing a bike trip across Canada. I mentioned your trip to him, and he said that he actually read your blog and took some of the roads you had recommended. He says he’s been hosted by some of the same people as you. Thought that was kinda cool.” – That is cool.
I received a really cool message from my niece today
January 21
Life in the jungle: Even though it’s Sunday I made patio stones this morning. I have come to realize that I need a morning routine that has me outside the house when Andy is making his breakfast and starting his day. Since Andy started living and sleeping in the apartment, for myself, it’s the only time I get agitated about someone else living here. The rest of the day I am fine with his presence.
Jamie showed up this morning because he and Andy planned a BBQ to make tacos. (I guess they really hit it off during Jamie’s visit the other day). During his visit, Jamie said something that triggered a very cool idea for an adventure. I asked Jamie if he was interested in canoeing the entire length of the Belize River (274 km/ 170 miles). I estimate the trip to take 7 to 10 days to complete. Not only did he say yes, we came up with an April 7 start date. I am super excited about this adventure.
Every March there is the La Ruta Maya canoe race from San Ignacio to Belize City. About 100 canoe teams race the distance in four days. While I am sure others have canoed the route there doesn’t seem to be any documented blog posts or videos of anyone else doing this trip on the internet. Which is kind of crazy as the river is only 274 km long. Needless to say, I am pumped. The last time I did a weekend canoe trip was in 2010. Today there was lots of rain and overcast all day.
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: On April 7th Jamie Madrill and I are planning to canoe the entire length of the Belize River. [Edit: ultimately, we would not start this trip until May 23. This trip would also be one of many reasons why I have never been able to start bike touring in Belize.]
My YouTube channel – Safari Arie – Please Subscribe
January 22
Life in the jungle: It rained the entire night. I barely got my patio stones made between rain showers. After breakfast, I wrote Belize blog posts Part 107, 108, and Part of 109 and posted the blog post – Future-Proofing Your Brand: A Decade-Long Strategy for Success to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website.
Truthfully, I had very little motivation today. I watched a few YouTube videos on canoeing (as a result of this upcoming adventure) and made some notes. Today I collected six chicken eggs this evening. That’s my daily record egg collection, which is pretty pathetic given how many chickens I have.
January 23
Life in the jungle: I made my patio stones, headed to the village for groceries, and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing some research on making social media videos.
A Morelets crocodile rescue from the village
January 24
Life in the jungle: This morning I made my patio stones. There were sporadic but short heavy rain showers all day. After breakfast, I posted Welcome to my website blog post to the 14 Belize groups I follow. And I posted Mastering Discipline: Why the Price of Regret Far Exceeds the Price of Discipline to Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, and my website. I spent most of my afternoon editing videos on CapCut on my computer. With my current feelings of lack of motivation, I pretty much feel like I am wasting my time. Andy saw a mountain lion on our road on his way to the village.
January 25
Life in the jungle: I sort of slept in this morning. The roosters were making their rooster noises at 5:30 AM about every 10 seconds. When I was finally up and about, I made my patio stones. After lunch, I made and placed four footings for a cover that is going to be built over the river pump to keep rain off the pump. Somehow that sort of took the rest of the day.
I built molds for footings to build a protective cover over the river pump
Belize Part 107 (Dec 30 to Jan 6)
Of Note: At this time I am currently 11 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.
