October 12
Life in the jungle: A full day. First, I went to the ponds and finished fertilizing my papayas with sheep manure. The road is dry. My brain has been trained to think that from June to January no larger vehicles can come down my road. The road is not dry enough for a dump truck but it’s definitely dry enough for a smaller delivery truck. I realized that I could get a jump on another future project. I ordered for delivery three yards of gravel sand mix (base floor) and 100 cement blocks. The delivery guy said the truck was capable of holding 360 – 4” cement blocks. I asked him to try sending a load by the end of the day.
I then headed to the village for groceries. Returning home I started laying a new greenhouse floor. Shortly thereafter a load of 360 more cement blocks arrived. I worked right until dark and pretty much got the first hundred blocks laid.
Three years ago, today I biked into Mexico City. I always considered that a milestone memory as Mexico City is the largest city in the Americas and the seventh largest city in the world.
October 2021
October 13
Life in the jungle: It rained most of the night. We were getting pretty desperate. This morning, I continued to lay cement blocks and build a floor for the greenhouse extension. By lunchtime, I had laid 230 blocks since yesterday afternoon. The expansion should end up using about 945 cement blocks.
While laying block I heard some chicken commotion. A chicken was taken by something in the jungle. I almost felt like it might have been a jaguarundi as I could hear the chicken clucking for a while, and I assumed that it was being carried deeper into the jungle. I skipped lunch and napped for almost four hours in the hammock as after all it was my day off. During the last part of the day, I slaughtered a local hen and a broiler (meat) chicken.
Greenhouse floor extension
October 14
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping in the coconut field. After lunch, I went back to work on the greenhouse expansion project. I was able to lay another 125 blocks today. Except I am basically out of stone/sand mix for the floor base. Because today was a holiday, I was unable to get more delivered.
There was no rain today even though it looked like it wanted to rain any moment. If the rain holds off all night, we may be able to get more materials tomorrow morning.
October 15
Life in the jungle: I cleaned some chicken coops waiting for floor base mix and blocks to be delivered. When I lost patience, I headed to the village. They were just about to load the order and ended up delivering it before lunch. I am extremely impatient as the possibility of rain is almost 100% for the next seven days. Now that I have committed to this project, I don’t want things to be stopped because of the road. When this rain does finally come, I believe the road will become too wet and muddy for any kind of large delivery truck at least until January. [As of February the road is still soaked.]
I also ordered another 360 blocks which came later in the afternoon. Right before dark I headed back to the village to discuss material needs with Saul on the new cabana (tiny house). One hundred cement blocks got laid today.
Pink Hibiscus
October 16
Life in the jungle: The rain held off for another night. I right away made arrangements for a load of gravel mix to be dumped on the bad spot in the road. Then I discovered my wheelbarrow tire flat and completely rotted. I was forced to go to the village for a new one. At the same time, I place an order for the lumber for the new cabana. Before lunch the gravel material was dumped on the road and me and Andy rode up to spread it. I then replaced the wheelbarrow tire.
After lunch, I ordered the new cabana roofing zinc. I was only able to lay about 80 cement blocks today. So far, the new greenhouse floor is about 500 square feet. The rain held off again.
I love taking photos of my Guanacaste tree
October 17
Life in the jungle: I had gotten all the new greenhouse floor materials and road patched just in the nick of time. There was light rain all night (and lots more to follow). I made it to the city without getting wet.
This morning was my dentist appointment for a temporary crown. I am not the greatest dental patient. It was a fairly uncomfortable experience. I had just enough time to pick up most of my construction supplies (nails and screws) for the new cabana build. By the time I was home, my jaw was unfrozen and quite sore. I had plans to work but instead, I took two aspirin and went straight into the hammock. I never did get wet coming home though there were signs of sporadic rain showers from the city back to home. Our road is definitely too wet for any more truck deliveries.
Four years ago today I finished the cross-Canada portion of my bike tour, pedaling 12,340 km over 284 days through the 2019-20 Canadian winter and Covid-19.
October 17, 2020 – a pretty special day for me
My YouTube Channel – Safari Arie – Please Subscribe!
October 18
Life in the jungle: Today was passport stamp day, so back to the city. Things continue to be overcast and rainy due to Tropical Storm Nadine hitting Belize. Somehow, I was able to stay mostly dry today. My residency application is still in the vetting stage. This is frustrating as I am stuck getting 30 day stamps until this is complete. I was able to get more materials for my future cabana build. I was stuck on the 3:30 PM bus which was utter chaos. I feel like they squeezed 400 people on a single bus. It was almost dark as I arrived home.
October 19
Life in the jungle: I could hear the rain before my 6 AM alarm went off. I turned off my alarm and woke up at 8 AM. The rain was mostly light so I cleaned the main chicken coop and slaughtered two broiler (meat) chickens that I had hoped to slaughter days ago. After breakfast, I wrote Belize blog Part 134, 135 and 136. I was able to post Belize blog Parts 106 and 107. I am slowly getting caught up on my blog posts. It rained all day and ended this evening. The frogs and toads were very vocal tonight.
Some species of spider
Belize Part 134 (Sept 29 to Oct 4)
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.
