Since going to bed on August 21, I’ve been sick with a very unsettled stomach. It’s been a few years since I was sick for longer than 24 hours.
August 27
Life in the jungle: My stomach was finally settled enough that I could trust being on the bus to Belmopan today and finally deal with my Belize residency.
It’s kind of funny, as for the last four years, one of my biggest fears was always what if I woke up on passport day and my stomach was upset. I could never risk a bus trip without an accident. Go figure, I get sick right before my very last immigration visit. Technically, as far as my passport is concerned, I still had two more days before I had to show up.
Overall, Belize Immigration and my residency completion was a smooth process. I handed in my security bond, they photocopied my passport pages, had me pay $1,500 USD, and told me to pick up my Belize Permanente Residency card in two months. During my time there, I kept expecting them to change their minds about giving me permanent residency.
After being in Belize for 45 months, and 21 months since I handed my permanent residency application in, I am officially a Belize Permanent Resident. What a journey to get here. I sincerely never thought that I would get it.
Pride of Barbados bloom
August 28
Life in the jungle: I am officially on the 4 AM wake-up schedule, unless I am going to the city. The city is exhausting enough. The other week, I realized that waking up at 5 AM was still not early enough. I’m not trying to discipline myself to death, but my reality is that there is too much work on the farm and in front of my computer to get done.
I’m too exhausted in the evenings, and at least an hour (in the evening) is being wasted that could be better spent. So, on my new schedule, it means when I get in (the house) at 6 – 6:30 PM, I race to take a shower, make and eat dinner, do dishes, and be in bed as close to 8 PM as possible. The plan is to use the extra hour in the morning as often as possible in the week to work on my book. It also means no more lunch (as my first meal), but instead a late breakfast.
This morning, I started going through all my old Facebook bike touring groups. I haven’t posted a bike touring blog post since I was on my bike ride through Mexico. I shared my stealth camping blog post to 26 groups. I also joined 20 Canadian groups to see what kind of traction my Canadian photos might generate. As mentioned, a few days ago, I plan to post blog posts to Facebook groups once a week every week moving forward to increase my website traffic. Jungle lifestyle blog posts to expat Belize and off-grid groups, and bike touring blog posts to bike touring groups.
We are expecting rain, which didn’t come today. But it gave me a sense of urgency to move dirt around the greenhouse floor expansion. I spent the whole day moving dirt. The edges of the new greenhouse floor expansion are pretty much completely filled in now.
My Royal Palm tree in my yard
August 29
Life in the jungle: Before sunrise, I was able to spend a little time editing my book. My hope is that I can put in about an hour of work on my book before feeding the chickens (most days). My day was mildly frustrating as I had spent most of it building barrier boxes for certain plants that the ducks seem to enjoy eating.
The ducks have been going after certain plants, specifically my recently acquired lobster-claw heliconia and a golden shower seedling, which were recently planted. I have to build protective barrier boxes to cover these plants before they are completely killed. I find myself less enthused about keeping ducks as time passes.
I also planted some Avocado seeds Verna Mae gave me, and I built three footing molds for the greenhouse floor expansion. We need to frame up a shade cloth frame over this new greenhouse area as soon as possible.
Andy also installed a new light outside the (kitchen) cabana, and I helped him put a plug in the newest cabana so that we now have an outlet there, so when I get back to working on the cabana, I don’t have to run extension cords.
I had to make 4 such boxes to keep the ducks from killing these plants
August 30
Life in the jungle: First thing, I worked on my book. After feeding the chickens, I didn’t trust the sky and all the non-stop thunder. I decided to keep editing, which turned out to be a good call.
I admit I ended up taking a small nap. Between rain falling and proofreading, I had trouble keeping my eyes open. After breakfast, I kept working on the book editing.
I finished editing Chapter 1 – Hard Lessons (6,500 words) for clarity and grammar, and got the first seven pages of Chapter 2 – The Canada that Took Me In edited before I needed to change gears. Somehow, I went down the rabbit hole of A Hero’s Journey. I ended up writing and publishing that blog post before supper.
For the first time in years, I have red ants in the kitchen.
August 31
Life in the jungle: At some point after 3 AM, there was loud, non-stop thunder and heavy rain. This continued after my 4 AM alarm. At about 4:15 AM, the power went out, and I was left completely in the dark. I turned on all my lights and lay in the hammock waiting for power, which never came back on until 8 AM.
At 6 AM, I woke up again, fed the chickens, and wrote Belize blog Parts 181 and this post. I then spent the rest of the day editing Chapter 2 of my book. I got about 6,100 words completed or 12 pages.
Pepper Tree Frog
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.
