A few days ago, even though I’m way too busy, I decided to write a memoir about the last 12 years of my life and what it took to get to this point.
July 27
Life in the jungle: There was no rain today. I worked on my book all day. I got about 11,500 words of chapter 4 – Mexico the Generous completed.
July 28
Life in the jungle: First thing, I chopped at the ponds. On June 27th, I found a Morelets crocodile nest at the second pond. I am concerned about the crocodile nest. It doesn’t look right. [A few days later, Andy would see the mother croc near the nest, so hopefully everything is good.] I discovered that the bird’s nest I was watching was empty of its babies. They were still way too young to fly away. Either a snake or a green iguana must have gotten them.
After lunch, I wrote 5,500 words of chapter 3 – America the Beautiful. This year, I was unable to hike Victoria Peak due to my schedule. I considered that hike to be my adventure outside my comfort zone or possible capabilities. With this book being more of a memoir, I wonder if writing it is this year’s adventure outside my comfort zone.
My Buddha Belly bamboo stalks, which I acquired a few weeks ago, are doing well
July 29
Life in the jungle: I started my morning chopping at the ponds. The middle mound and most of the first mound are now complete.
After lunch, I did a proofread and edits to chapter 1 – Hard Lessons, and then I started back to writing chapter 5 – Alone in Belize. While searching my website, I came across a buried blog post about my story of how I was introduced and my first visit to Belize. It was originally written and posted during my bike ride in December 2020.
I decided to edit and update it accordingly and repost it. That took a little bit of work. You can read it HERE.
They were forecasting rain today, which never came.
My first pond
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July 30
|Life in the jungle: I wanted to continue working on my book, but I’ve been neglecting other jobs. I spent the whole day working on the new cabana that was built the other month. I finished the toilet floor framing and started and completed the shower floor. I framed and enclosed the shower floor framing with plycem. All that’s left is for it to be tiled. I won’t be the one doing that job, and I will get the other cabana shower I recently built tiled at the same time. Whenever that job will be done is anyone’s guess.
I cleaned up and prepared to get things ready for the floor. It was then that I realized that all my tongue-and-groove lumber is wet from being stored outside. All the lumber is wet. This is not good. I can’t install it wet, as the lumber will likely shrink considerably when it dries. I stored all the lumber in the cabana out of the weather, but I am unsure how long I will have to wait for it to dry. Probably a very long time.
The toilet floor & shower floor in the new cabana
July 31
Life in the jungle: Today, definitely didn’t go as planned. I slept in for about an hour past my 5 AM alarm and decided to head to the village for groceries. While in the village, someone randomly mentioned tomorrow was a government holiday. I have no idea which one. I just knew my plan was to go to Belmopan for my passport stamp.
I panicked and raced home, and got Andy to drive me to Belize City Immigration instead of Belmopan for my stamp. Immigration was surprisingly quick, but at first, they tried to give me a hard time, as all my stamps are from Belmopan, and they couldn’t understand why I had all of a sudden chosen to come to the Belize City office. So, I had to explain that “you guys have a holiday tomorrow,” and I missed all the village buses. And I had to catch a ride and was dropped off while my ride took care of other business in the city. He found my excuse weak and said that he didn’t think his supervisor would approve of my stamp.
The Belize City immigration office is the Belize District immigration office. I live in the Belize District. For the last few years, I have taken an extra bus, three hours returned to go all the way to the Belmopan office, which is in the Cayo District, to avoid this exact sort of nonsense and stress. I felt obligated to explain this to him, but kept my mouth shut, and eventually he figured it out, and I got my stamp. I only got a 30-day stamp, as even though my conversation with Belmopan immigration from last week said that they hoped to have my residency done in two and a half months, I am still hopeful that it might be completed in the next 30 days.
By the time Andy and I returned home, there was very little left of the afternoon.
Spider lilies, common along the riverbank
August 1
Life in the jungle: First thing, I chopped in the coconut field, until I received a message that four broiler (meat) chicks were waiting for me in the village. I also specifically went to arrange some deliveries of cement blocks for tomorrow. During the rainy season, it’s only by fluke that the road dries out enough for a medium-weight (not dump truck) truck to be able to come down our road. The problem is that the window of opportunity can close at any moment with a rain shower. And if that rain shower is heavy enough, the road could be closed for weeks or months. The hope was that if they came first thing, then there would be time for a second delivery later in the day, as long as there was no rain.
As a result of the hardware store having problems getting their cement block factory started, I have been waiting way over six months for blocks. Tomorrow, the road will finally be dry enough for these critical deliveries.
My trip to the village turned into a longer visit than expected, and my morning was swallowed up.
After a late lunch, I filled trenches with dirt for the rest of the day. I dug up a Mexican burrowing toad while digging dirt. These toads live completely underground and pretty much only come out one night a year, after the first “heavy” rainfall, to breed and then disappear back underground. So, it’s always neat to come across one.
No rain today.
It’s always nice to run into a Mexican Burrowing toad
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.
