July 27
Life in the jungle: In four days it will be two months ago that I got sick with a chronic cough and the coughing returned again last night. Another sleepless night. This morning I was up early to head back to Belmopan. [Last week I discovered that likely my paralegal has been screwing me over since my arrival in Belize.] On the bus, I sent a good morning message to James (my paralegal) about being on my way to the Attorney General’s office. Guess who replied pretty quickly. He has agreed to meet me on Friday to hand over my corporation papers. This is interesting because according to the Business Registry office, I have no corporation. I told him I would only meet at the Lands Department so I could find out exactly what was going on and who my contact person was. With that agreement, I jumped off the bus when it reached my usual hardware store stop instead of going to Belmopan. I spent the morning getting supplies and caught the 12:30 PM bus home. This afternoon I cut the grass around my house yard.
A good sized praying mantis
July 28
Life in the jungle: I started my morning properly organizing all my seed bags and seedlings. Things were getting a little unorganized. Because I have some passion fruit plants to plant along my fence that goes around my house, I weed-whacked those fence lines. My zinc (for my roof) was supposed to be delivered this morning. They screwed up and didn’t communicate with the delivery tractor owner. No zinc today. I went up to the hardware store. I ran into Saul. I told him I needed 1/2 yard of gravel delivered for my septic tank weeping tile bed. He said possibly Saturday. [He never got the gravel delivered until September.] I needed to cut and fit all the PVC for the apartment septic system. Completing that job, I realized I had an extra 2 ft of 4″ PVC pipe left. So last minute I extended and dug my septic trench 2 feet longer. I worked right up to dark but I got the trench completed.
Septic pipe laid
July 29
Life in the jungle: My morning started with a phone call from James. He has convinced me the person we need to speak to regarding my deeds is in Dangriga until Wednesday and that we will meet with him then. So, I headed to Belize City only to meet him for my corporation papers. Just my luck I got stuck in a 10 minute downpour going down my road headed towards the bus stop. I could hear the rain coming from the house but I had to catch the bus.
I met James in Belize City. Apparently, in regard to my corporation, everything has been completed and submitted. We are just waiting for the certificate of incorporation. Which is supposedly why the registry had no record of my corporation. James gave me my original copy of my corporation. I had signed two copies. One for me and one for the business registry.
In regards to my property deeds me and James are supposed to meet a marshal from the Belize Supreme Court next Wednesday. [Which we would never do. James is screwing me over the whole time.] The delay is we are waiting for the Supreme Court to appoint Wayne as the executor of his father Melford’s estate. And that the delay is not Wayne’s fault. Until this happens the Lands Department can not process my land deeds and that is why they are not in their system. James apologized profusely about his lack of communication and I had a very frank conversation with him. He took full responsibility and did not blame me for my actions. And swears up and down that he is not in cahoots with Jack and Jill against me.
Since I now had time on my hands, I headed to the Belize Tourism Board. Due to my area rep no longer working at the BTB, on June 13th, I had to email the general email address for hotel owners. Feeling a little bit more confident about my corporation status I headed to the office in an attempt to get that mess sorted out as I am confident that my tourist license is expired and no one replied to my email 16 days later. I met my new representative and he took all my information down to review my license. So, I am feeling better about that. [I would never hear from anyone.]
From there I took a local bus out to the cell phone/internet provider in Ladyville. The most recent update is that they are in the middle of upgrading existing customers before they take on new customers. But they have the equipment. So, there is light at the end of that tunnel also. [Again I would actually never hear from them ever.] I have yet to hear anything from the Labor Department. But overall, for the first time in a long time, I feel almost optimistic.
I caught the bus home expecting to receive my zinc roofing at some point this afternoon, but they had already delivered everything. I spent the remainder of the day moving all the construction materials within my yard including the last 50 cinder blocks that I needed for the greenhouse. I also drilled all the holes into my weeping tile pipe to allow septic water to drain away. I am exhausted. What a day, what a week. [Ultimately most of my week was all bull shit and a waste.]
My Cattleya orchid is in bloom
July 30
Life in the jungle: I spent the day laying the remainder of the cement blocks around the perimeter of the greenhouse. Joe had laid most of the cement blocks while I was in Hopkins the other week until he ran out of blocks. My day was interrupted by a few short rain showers until a big one hit and I ended up in my hammock taking a good long nap. My septic trench got a fair bit of rainwater in it.
Towards the end of the day, Isaac (Saul’s son) delivered some lumber. I was actually kind of disappointed as I was expecting four times more lumber. Saul called me right before dark looking for Isaac. He must have got stuck on the road as the road is getting very bad. There was more rain tonight.
A Morelet’s crocodile skull that has been sitting outside forever. I realized that it would look better and last longer inside my house.
July 31
Life in the jungle: I woke up this morning at about 5:30 AM to the thought that I needed to start writing my book. Finally, after eight months of indecisiveness, I have finally decided to write my book about my bike ride.
I also woke up to a Messenger message from a customer of my brothers. He was curious about how I arrived and was able to stay in Belize from the immigration perspective (not my back story of wanting to live in Belize).
I had plans to do some framing in the greenhouse. Before I could even get started the sky was suggesting to hold off. Even after that rain shower ended things did not look promising. And I was not about to pull out power tools and construction materials when the sky looked the way it did. Ultimately it would rain on and off the entire day.
This morning’s Messenger question ended up inspiring a 2,900 word blog post on moving to Belize. Wayne stopped by the house. It turns out that Isaac did get his truck stuck in the mud last night. After a movie and a nap this evening I started organizing some of my notes for this new book I have decided to write. I bet it takes me more than two years to write this book.
Belize Part 36 (July 21 to 26)
Belize Part 35 (July 15 to 20)
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.
Jack & Jill – These are my ex-property managers (names changed). They are Canadian, they introduced me to Belize in 1997, sold me their house in Belize in 2003, and rebuilt my house from 2014 to 2018. I have known them for over 30 years. After almost 20 years of me supporting their life here in Belize Jack decided quite unexpectedly to declare “war” on me right before Christmas 2021. They would end up stealing my business license and causing me a lot of grief. They live on the farm, but not on my land.
Wayne – He is the son of the original owners of the farm (both owners are deceased). The original farm was 2 – 30 acre pieces minus 2 – ¾ acre parcels for my house and 2 – ¾ acre parcels that Jack & Jill own which were all originally purchased from the original owners. In 2017 Wayne sold me 40 acres of land from the original 60 acres (30 acres plus 10 acres). Wayne lives in his parent’s house and has a few cows on his remaining 17 acres of land.
Orlando & Joseph – Orlando is an older gentleman from the village and Joseph is technically one of my closest neighbors living just across the river. These are the guys I now call on when I need construction help. They kind of work as a team but sometimes only or the other shows up when I call.
The ponds – I have 2 large (300ft long x 50ft wide x 10ft deep) ponds on my 30 acre parcel of land which is basically jungle. I have about 60 coconut trees (mostly mature) around the ponds. I have plans to plant a few hundred papaya trees here plus other fruit-bearing trees around the ponds.
The coconut field – I have about 400 coconut trees planted (various growth states) on about 3 acres of cleared land of the 10 acre parcel. I plan to add various fruit trees to the same field as soon as I can.
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 2 main seasons. The rainy season and the dry (no rain). The wet is obviously the rainy season.
Chopping – using my machete to clear brush and unwanted trees
