No, not a Motorcycle, a Bicycle!

The twin towns of Cayo, San Ignacio and Santa Elena, are separated by the Macal River with two bridges that cross. One, the low bridge goes into San Ignacio while the other, the Hawksworth Bridge a.k.a. The High Bridge, leaves San Ignacio going into Santa Elena. Last Thursday, Brad and I went across the High Bridge to do our grocery shopping on the cheaper side of town before catching our bus, as is our usual custom. While climbing the steep hill that is immediately after the bridge, I looked up the road to check for traffic. Since this is a one way area, my quick glance confirmed there was no one coming the wrong way so I diverted my attention to the traffic coming across the b

ridge as I crossed the street. Before I knew what was going on, I had been thrown across the street. Puzzled, damaged and trying and figure out what just happened, I realize I am laying in the road. I jump up, to my ankles dismay and hobble out of the street just as a car drives by. Brad runs to my side to assess the damage and asks where my glasses are. By this time, a car had already driven over them and they were in a million pieces in the road. Shocked, hurt and unable to see very well my brain started wheeling over the recent decision to leave Belize due to a lack of funds. With just enough money to hold out until our flight I looked down at what remained of such a huge part of my life and each shard looked like little dollar symbols being ran over in the street. I had a melt down. The glasses were the final blow! I had a scratch on the rt lens that a puppy of the Samuel twin's chewed into it in the tenth grade so I know I can date them to at least early high school. No matter how crazy of a night I had or how adventurous of a trip I engaged in, I had never lost or broken my glasses. I am now 34 years old and therefore have had those same pair of specks

8 days later.

for more than half my life. When I regained my wits, I searched for the cause of all this disarray and saw a terrified young man on a bicycle. Yes, a regular old foot powered bicycle. I have no idea where he came from or why the hell he ran rite into me but the look on his face told me he just knew I was going to go off on him. To his surprise, I did not get upset with him, hell, I never even asked why or how he hit me. He was on the verge of tears himself and I already knew there was no way he could afford to buy me a new pair of glasses. I told the boy he could go after I gave him an old lady lecture on paying attention and what if he had hit a girl half my size..... I have seen a little girl get hit by a biker. He hit her so hard, he flew over his own handle bars and rolled about three times across the road. When the little girl tried to stand up, she passed out. The whole family came out of the house, the women to get the girl and the men armed with sticks to get the biker. The biker got his bloody self on his bike and took off. After my accident, Brad helped me get to the closest place to sit, a dingy little bar called Compari's, and called a close friend for a place to stay in town for the night. While waiting for my friend to finish work, we had a couple drinks at the bar while listening to all the lectures about how I should have made that boy pay for what he did. I tried to tune everyone out as my head was in a lot of pain and I had a softball sized knot just below my knee that was quite effectively distracting me. After, maybe too many drinks and definitely too much money was spent, we went to crash at my pals house.

***Let me back track for a minute. Many of you are probably wondering why in the hell I have been wearing the same pair of glasses for over 15 years. The following may be a topic where folks want to point out how my logic is flawed, that's fine but it's your opinion. I have lived this and it is what I feel...When I was first told I was going to need to wear glasses, my brother and I had the exact same script but in the opposite eyes. I, being the studious type back then, wore my glasses all day so I could read the chalk boards and because I was told I was supposed to. My brother, on the other hand, was a bit older and more conscious of public opinion and was embarrassed to wear his. Over the years I grew so dependent on my glasses that there was no way I could go out without them. My brother, who was still refusing to wear them, didn't need them to see to drive or to read far away. I began to think about why my eyes were getting worse rapidly and my brothers were not. It boiled down to one difference, I had allowed my eye muscles to rely on my glasses to focus instead of exercising these muscles and keeping them in shape. My brother refused to wear his and let his eyes work to focus for him. At that point, I decided I would only increase my prescription when I exhausted the ability of my current pair of glasses. To this day, my brother only uses his glasses for night driving and I need mine for everything but close up reading.

Last year Brad and I were in Va. for three months. I was aware it was time for a new pair and tried to set up an eye exam. Without insurance, most offices wouldn't give me an appointment and those who would were asking anywhere from $70US to $250US for the exam. If you have read our blog, you will know this is outside of our price range. I did have a newer script from the time I was working at Intel and tried to use this for my new pair. No Go! Your prescription must be less than a yr old for you to be able to use it. We decided we would wait until we were back in Belize to go thru all of this. The time and money were never right and I probably would have gone a few more years with my old trusty pair.***

The aftermath.

Having never been with out my glasses, the plan was to make an appointment the next day to procure my next pair of eyes. We all got up early, early and waited for the city to wake up while trying to make light of all the colours I was turning. Here I want to remind folks that Belize is a small country and I guess it can function with just two optometrist in the Cayo area and one of them serves Cayo, Belmopan and Belize City. No one would be available until the following Tuesday (and it was now Friday.) On Tuesday, I received a call from the Dr.s secretary asking to reschedule as they did not have enough appointments to warrant the Dr.'s services for that day. So, finally, on Thursday, in less than 15 minutes, I received my new prescription. YAY!

So, what am I trying to say in this blog? I'm not entirely sure but here are a few things I have recently learned. It only cost me $55Bz to get my new prescription, compared to at least $140Bz in the states. If you are an optometrist and are thinking of relocating to a tropical environment, we could use you down here. You don't have to be in a motorized accident to get a little whip lash. Everything is a bit easier to handle when you have the help of good friends.

Thanks for reading my rant and don't forget to look both ways!

The wrong way indeed.

You may have noticed we havent updated in a while. Did we get killed by robbers? Have a car accident?

No - but we finally reached the bottom.

We reached the bottom and now have to bounce out and head somewhere to refuel. Belize has made my 30s a magical time in my life and am very sad to have to leave. We have what we think will pay for our plane tickets and about $200 extra. I hope its enough. However running out of money on the way is not what I am so worried about.
Trying to be an American again is going to be difficult for me. I have never "fit in" up there and I definitely feel like Belize is my home, not the US. I am looking at jobs online and and they all sound like, well, crap. If you are reading this from the US, you have a chance to see me in a paper hat and standing by a buffet with a fake smile day after day after day. Maybe I can even have a high school kid for a boss.
I have a college degree in micro electronics and majored in semiconductor manufacturing. Why not work in my field? Well, I will give it a try but I am 99% sure I will not get it. Its a 5 year gap in work history, credit, home address, references - everything a company uses to determine if you are a stable employee. One look at my resume and it easy to tell I am not in it for a career. So, what do I do? I think I missed the deadlines to go do seasonal work in Alaska, Grand Canyon, ect. Im still looking though. If I cant find one soon its going to be Walmart or 7-11 jobs for me.
What would you do? Really, I want advice.

This blog will continue. It will be updated less often. I will use it to document our attempt to make money to come back to Belize - the RIGHT way. With money!

Upcoming events on this blog will include...
Finding work in the USA. - not easy right now.
saving a goal amount of money
returning to Belize and kicking ass
spending wisely
getting residency
carving out our life in a way WE see fit.

Step by step we will do it. You get to learn from our mistakes.

Unless...
Do you have opportunity for us? We need the help.
Also...
We don't need our $50us per month house anymore. Do you want it? The garden is about to give fruit and veggies. We have furniture and all the household goods someone would need to live here. Even a bicycle.
Some one could relieve me of these things for a very special price and I would be happy to talk my landlord into keeping your rent the same price. (Like I said before - $50 rent is not normal or easy to find for new comers to Belize.)
I am going to start selling everything to help with travel money, but if you want you can move in here and have it all. (you would need to buy it all new to live here anyway)

Want to move here? Have a job for us there? Either way - email me or post a comment. Lets talk.

Until then I will be here looking for plane tix and work in The States.

Changing Weather

This is a cool time of year in Cayo, Belize. Well, it's actually hot as hell but the weather is interesting.
We can see the rainy season coming  Every evening at 4pm, a big thunder storm rolls past over the distant mountains.

Its dry season now and we need the rain, so it's a bit of a tease. Every evening we see this storm in the distance. And, every evening you see it a little bit closer. Just when you are sure the storm will make it to you and you are about to get rain - POOF! The clouds break up and the sun is still hot. 

The way I see it coming in every day, I would guess we have 2 weeks before we get our evening showers back.

UPDATE: The 4pm rain actually hit today! Maybe i was wrong about the 2 week thing.
Are you thinking that rainy season must be gloomy and boring?
Its just the opposite. In fact, right now in the peak of the dry season, everything looks brown (to me, tourists still see lush jungle). The rains we are going to get are mostly going to be an hour of rain at around 4pm every day. Eventually we get a morning rain as well. Its not very many days where we would get an all day gloomy rain. I love the rainy season. Its my favorite time of year.
Here is an example of how we get a rain and still have sunny day.

The first picture was taken at about 4pm and shows hard rain. The second picture was taken at 5pm and shows the sun back out. Just in time for sun set.

We ran out of food again, but we can still eat!

Thank God for the Bluego banana trees in our yard. These things are awesome. Before they are ripe they are like potato. After they ripen to a yellow and just start to get black spots they are sooo sweet. Much different than a regular banana.
Like I mentioned earlier, we ran out of food. So, at that point we did what any rational person would do. We went in the yard and started looking in the usual places. No cocoa nuts, no mango yet, none of my crops are ready. Hey, I see a bunch of bluego banana!
We have used these many ways aside from eating them ripe. (which is rare)
We usually get them green and fry them in some way. Awesome chips, french fries, with the right spice combo - veggie burgers and tater tots. They also boil nice. We use them in soups too. I have not tried mashed potato yet (I dont think it is the right texture), but it might be good.

click it to see it bigger

New Office

Our rental came with a few pieces of furniture but most we're busted up from the last renters. We've had this door (from the bureau in the pic.'s background below) floating around for the last 6 months and weren't sure the best way to keep it from being damaged any further. Today, determined to expand the surface area in our home, I came up with an idea for that old door. We held it around in a few different spots and decided it would work best as new desk. To minimize the amount of wood used, we built our previous computer desk incorporating a ledge that was already on the wall (the transition from cement block to wood) so we didn't get to choose the height. In less than 15 minutes, Brad and I recycled that old door into my new desk and the old desk can now be a corner chair. 

I would like to point out the sweet cooler in the foreground. We had lived in Belize for 4 years prior to our first trip back home. In that time we did plenty of window shopping with the thought of what is a better deal in the states vs here. COOLERS! I tell you, even the little 7-11 Styrofoam cooler is at least $30Bz. A decent one is no less than $150. Before coming back to Bz we checked with our airlines and asked if a cooler is an acceptable carrying case and the maximum dimensions they would allow. Being who we are, we took the entire 3 months north looking for the best bargain on a cooler and we found these guys (we each brought one) for $50US. We packed everything we brought back inside our cooler and used tie straps to cinch it all tight for the flight (also a good thing to have brought due to the quality available there). We left the bigger handle out side while rolling it around and tied it up when in transit. It was an excellent chair while in travel too. We've rejoiced on many occasions that would have been hampered without them and they have served as a fridge, chair, bug free environment, washer, step stool, back stretcher... you get the idea. It 's not unreasonable to live life here with out a refrigerator but you still need a place to lock up you food. I highly recommend bringing a cooler if your on a budget and will be here for an extended amount of time.

Update: Recycled bathroom trash...

So far so good...

These are 1 week old melon (cantaloupe)

I will keep posted how they are doing.

You can see there are some with nothing growing? I put papaya seed but the ants carried them away. I have poison but don't like to use it. I think I have to with the papaya when I replant it.

Recycled bathroom trash into food. That sounds gross!

Living in a remote place, you tend to look at things a little differently.

I recently went shopping for ordinary seed trays to start plants in. I found that they were selling for $5 each. Thats not bad, but I would see what I could do before I spend money. I have tried the cardboard egg crates, but seeds never ever sprout in it. I have tried and still use the bottoms of plastic bottles to plant in, but I need lots of them.

Then one day on my way to burn trash I looked at the toilet paper rolls in the trash. It didnt take long before we had saved up quite a pile of them. I just cut the bottom and folded it so it holds dirt. I have some ready to go with cantaloupe seed in them. I am planning to plant papaya in the rest. Papaya is a good experiment because it cant be transplanted. I think I can just plant the whole tube somewhere. Maybe they can grow up to 2 months in this. Then you can walk around and plant them wherever you want and not have to maintain them and an area for them out in the yard.

I have a small pizza box I am using too. I have dirt and local tobacco seeds in it. I got thos seeds a long time ago and don't know if they are still good. I have planted them out in the yard and have seen no sprouts yet. Lets see how they do in the shelter of the pizza box.

What does it cost to make a quick run to the store?

I went to the store today to restock the kitchen. We already had veggies and beans. We didn't need more rice or flour. So it was a small restock. Today I decided to get a few treats and some of the "expensive" stuff we don't normally buy.

Here we have what I bought for $37bz. Is it a good deal?

I dont know. I forgot what these things cost in other places. I think my normal weekly grocery costs are about $50bz to $75bz. That buys my rice, beans, flour and veggies. Meat has become a luxury so I will not include any. We eat meat when we go into San Ignacio or once every 2 week at home.

Above you can see I got some things that will last a long time. The oil and coffee will last a month or more. The bread goes moldy fast here so we try to eat that up in 2 or 3 days. The spaghetti is a treat. It breaks up the rice and beans routine. The milk in the cans is a treat too. One is for mashed potato/cauliflower tonight and the other will be for morning coffee.That big white blob looking thing in the lower left of the picture is a half of a chicken. We get it at the shop near our house for $5bz. Its a pretty good deal for me. The last items, in the bottom right, are treats for Amy (and me). Those little cups are ice cream and that particular brand of cookies is Amys favorite. The ice cream cost $1.75bz each and the cookies were $1bz.

So, do you think it a good deal? I'm happy with it.