July 15
Life in the jungle: I started my day by continuing to work on my passion fruit trellis. I also went with Andy to the village for groceries. Even though Andy drives, I rarely take advantage of a ride and go on my bike. But I am busy.
After lunch, I put a second coat of paint on the kitchen floor. It’s been over a week since the first coat of paint, and there is still a tiny bit of stickiness from the paint. One more coat of paint on the floor, and the (kitchen) cabana should be good to go.
The (kitchen) cabana floor is now painted
I then finished the passion fruit trellis. It’s huge and ugly. But when the passion fruit is growing, it will produce a lot of fruit that will cover and hide the trellis. The first two trellises I planted two 20 gallon cloth pots in the ground with two plants each, per trellis. This new trellis is much larger, and I will plant three pots with four plants in each pot. I also got one of those pots planted today.
It’s ugly to look at, but eventually it will be completely hidden under vines and growing delicious passion fruits.
Andy is planting Suriname Cherry trees that he picked up last week around the new pond in the yard. I also got him to plant in some Golden Shower seedlings that I had been raising. He noticed a young crocodile in the pond.
A new resident crocodile
July 16
Life in the jungle: I worked on the new cabana all day. Some minor finishing touches on the framing. I got most of the toilet floor built. At the end of the day, I slaughtered two broiler (meat) chickens.
For days, I have been secretly hoping for a guest as I’m in need of housework, but don’t have time. A hosting request always puts me in the mood for house cleaning. This evening, a cyclist from France messaged me about arriving on Friday.
The toilet portion of the new cabana floor
July 17
Life in the jungle: First thing, I mixed half a bag of cement and made my last two trellis forms for my Blue Butterfly peas. A few months back, I planted some Blue Butterfly peas in a pot and used Andy’s hot pepper wire cages as a trellis. Since I have been in the mood to build trellises, it only made sense to make one for these plants. These vines produce blue flowers that can be eaten and used to make a natural blue dye. I eat the flowers daily, while Andy hopes to test the flowers in a hot sauce recipe one day.
The plan was to spend the rest of the day doing house cleaning. I first posted a video about looking for someone to join our community in Belize. With the new cabana built, it was time to start advertising it. Go figure, a long-time Instagram follower reached out. After a few messages back and forth, that landed a 3.5 hour video chat, and that also resulted in many back-and-forth messages, and that became my day.
I am optimistic that the afternoon was well spent. The funny thing is, I posted the video directly to Facebook, unaware it would post to Instagram. Generally, I post videos to Instagram and use Instagram only because my social media short videos post automatically to Facebook. After over 400 videos on Instagram, my following has grown by less than 20 new followers. I have maybe three regular followers who comment on my content. I find the platform 100% useless. One of the main reasons I dislike Instagram is that you have no idea who your followers are, as the vast majority use made-up profile names. Anyways, go figure, it was one of my three active followers on my profile that reached out.
July 18
Life in the jungle: I spent the whole day doing the house cleaning that I had planned yesterday in preparation for the cycling guest who arrived at around 4:30 PM. There were a few showers throughout the day.
My guest sent me an amusing message this morning
July 19
Life in the jungle: I woke up tired and very unmotivated. I dug and planted the last two passion fruit pots. Twelve plants in total. I still have to attach the sheep wire to the trellis frames. The trellis looks pretty ugly right now. But in a year, it should be producing a lot of passion fruit, and most of the framing should be covered over and hidden.
The way I am planting my passion fruit is 4 plants to a box.
In each box is a 20-gallon cloth pot with better growing dirt in it.
Coconut husk to protect the dirt from the chickens.
I then took my guest to the ponds for a jungle tour. After lunch, I brought him to my large Tubroos tree in the jungle. Somehow, I got completely turned around in the jungle and did a 180, and we ended up going in the exact opposite direction and ended up on my road. During the second attempt to reach the tree and begin extra vigilant about always staying left, I still ended up at least 75 feet to the right of the tree. The challenge is trying to maintain a direction as one makes their way through heavy vegetation. This has never happened before, and this is exactly why I always warn my guests to never just enter the jungle, as you may just find yourself very lost.
I love visiting my big Tubroos tree
Returning home, I took a bit of a nap in the hammock. Later in the afternoon, I framed the last trellis for the foreseeable future for the Blue Butterfly peas. I also did a little yard work.
July 20
Life in the jungle: This morning, I transplanted some Golden Shower seedlings from cups to bags. I also planted half a dozen Flamboyant seedlings at the river lot and three more seedlings around the new pond in the coconut field.
Baby Flamboyant tree
I then took my traditional Sunday nap. After waking up, I wrote Belize blog Parts 170, 171, 172, and 173.
After feeding the chickens, I installed (sheep) wire on the Blue Butterfly pea trellis.
My Blue Butterfly pea trellis
Blue Butterfly pea flower – tastes good
July 21
Life in the jungle: Late this morning, my French guest left to continue his bike tour around the world.
Yesterday, while adding the (sheep) wire to the trellis, I had a piece of wire (under tension) pierced my bicep. The bicep is sore, tender, and a bit swollen. I am hopeful that nothing serious will come of it, but my arm is understandably too sore to do any physical work.
After feeding the chickens, I wrote Belize Part 174. I then did a full review and edit of my bike touring blog post called Stealth Camping on Bike Tour and my 18 Solid Reasons to Bike Tour with a Trailer.
In the afternoon, I had a video chat with my web developer to make a minor edit on my website that I couldn’t figure out. He also put me on to this Japanese process of finding purpose called Ikigai.
So, for the remained of the afternoon and evening, with the help of ChatGPT, I sort of went down the rabbit hole of Ikigai. Because of my online presence and regular ChatGPT use, ChatGPT is quite familiar with me; in fact, I would go so far as to say ChatGPT can explain me better than I can. Which is kind of scary, but I suppose kind of useful.
For some time, I have wanted to re-explore the poetry side of me. I have become fascinated by the creativity required to write song lyrics and how songs are a music band’s legacy.
My poetry has usually been instigated or inspired by an emotion. But while I often feel things deeply about what I see on a video screen, I rarely feel any personal emotion. And therefore, have been extremely hesitant to start a poem in a very long time. But tonight, I thought I would just write one, so I wrote one called Emotionally Dead.
A young Spiny tail iguana in the chicken coop
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of words or people that may or may not be part of this particular 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 parents’ 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 at the end of 2023. When I offered Andy 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.
