Rain continues to fall daily or every other day. We should be well into the dry season now, but wet and muddy conditions are causing daily frustrations and grief.
February 7
Life in the jungle: This morning was a trip to Belmopan for my passport stamp. After last month’s disappointing news, that my residency application had just entered the vetting stage and not five months ago like I was told, I got a two month stamp instead of my latest habit of a one month stamp. I didn’t even bother inquiring about residency status. I had to wait 50 minutes in line for my stamp.
From there, I walked to Belmopan Aggregate Builders Supply for some prices on a new electrical panel for the house. I need to upgrade my house panel and then put my old panel in the new upcoming cabana, I hope to build shortly. The old panel will be put in the cabana so it can then feed another two or three more cabanas I want to build in the future.
From there I went to Chicken Express restaurant. I never been, and Andy happened to mention it only the other day. While the chicken was good, it was cold and lunch took an hour instead of 10 minutes plus it cost me $4 USD more. So, I don’t think they will see me again anytime soon.
Of course, I was stuck on the 3:30 PM bus home. On the bus this morning I was inspired for my next blog post about jungle lifestyle and the essential skill of discipline.
Nobody knows the hell it is to ride the bus in Belize
February 8
Life in the jungle: There was rain first thing this morning. This rain is mind-boggling. I headed to the village during a break in the weather and still got rained on. After lunch, I continued working on my Snakes of Belize blog post. I followed a ChatGPT prompt that I soon realized screwed up my snake species list and I had to reverify all the Belize snake species all over again. Lots of time was wasted on that rabbit hole. But it made me realize how many future blog posts that people are going to make via ChatGPT are going to have all sorts of wrong information when they use ChatGPT to strictly churn out content. [This blog post is currently unfinished and is unpublished until later in the year.]
I ended up getting the text part of the blog post, cut and pasted into a draft on my website.
At the end of the day, I slaughtered a rooster and a broiler (meat) chicken. The weather for the rest of the day was good.
February 9
Life in the jungle: There was a little rain first thing. I spent the morning house cleaning. After a late lunch, I took my traditional Sunday nap in the hammock. Later in the afternoon, I wrote the first 1,000 words on my jungle lifestyle discipline blog post.
Last week, Andy became re-motivated to start making and posting YouTube videos about life in Belize. He has the editing knowledge that I don’t have and does long-form videos. Check out his first video HERE. I think his videos will fill in a lot of the gaps I don’t cover in my content. Please Subscribe.
I recently started making regular style (not Belizean style) tacos for supper.
Generally, 5 days a week, I eat a portion of chicken & 3/4 cup of rice, and 2 days a week, I eat spaghetti
February 10
Life in the jungle: Every morning I keep saying I can’t believe it’s still raining, surely today is the last rainy day of the wet season. With another wet rainy morning, I continued with my blog post about living with discipline in the jungle, the title is going to be The Key to Surviving the Jungle Lifestyle in Belize – Discipline. Before lunch, I had it basically completed at 3,600 words.
After lunch, I was determined to get some outdoor work done. I chopped a bunch of larger tree branches leaning over the driveway. I also chopped along the road to the ponds and did a bit of work at the ponds until the rain sent me home.
I saw a Montezuma’s Oropendola bird do a really nice glide over the ponds right in front of me. In the front yard, four Gray-necked Wood-rail bickering amongst each other in the backyard.
Another meal addition is pizza bagels
February 11
Life in the jungle: Last week I had a procedural check-up at the medical clinic for the purposes of a driver’s license. I never had time to submit all the paperwork. During my clinic visit, I was given a referral slip to the blood clinic to get my blood tested for myself. So I stopped at the blood clinic before the driver’s license office.
At the driver’s license office, I couldn’t help but be amused that I just had to pay and that was it – no test required, not that I need one at my age and after being a truck driver and all. But it was amusing to get a driver’s license in another country basically requiring only a formality medical check-up and a signature.
The part that frustrated me was that my first year will expire on my birthday on May 18th. But the main reason I am rushing to get my license is that I am hoping it is sufficient documentation to get the Belizean rate to climb Victoria Peak, Belize’s most famous mountain, in a few months. I am determined to climb Victoria Peak this year, but the tourist rate is $600 USD versus the Belizean rate of $300 USD. I would never pay $600 USD to climb a mountain, given how full the planet is of mountains that you can climb for free.
Upon reaching home, I had zero motivation for the rest of the afternoon. Strangely I found myself a little pissed, which in recent times is unusual for me. I’m not sure if it was the cost of the driver’s license or the condition of the road. Our road is in really bad shape, and by this time of year, it should be starting to dry out. Instead, it’s in the worst condition in over a year.
So many essential projects are at a standstill because of this constant rain.
I always appreciate coming across a Red Rump tarantula
Belize Part 152 (Jan 29 to Feb 6)
Belize Part 151 (Jan 21 to 28)
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 assorted 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 a 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 season (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.
