Calico Jack’s Zipline

Good day. Today we had an unexpected adventure, we went to the zipline just down the road from our place. We had heard about it a few times but never had a chance to go. I haven’t been on one for about 20 years but Brad has been working at taking limbs off the huge cedar near our house, and using the harness and rappelling down from up 10 stories high. It is about 150′ high and the trunk is 3 feet in diameter at the base. I have been trying to film that process to show all of you, but my technology has been failing me miserably! I may be able to piece together something, but Murphy’s Law has been working here, every time the good stuff is about to happen the battery goes dead, or the camera stops recording on its own, or some other thing.

Anyway, the zipline place we went was very impressive with great views of the mountains and trees in the valley. They had built a nice variety of very sturdy platforms with zip lines under, over and through the canopy of the forest. We went on all 11 platforms and attractions – the highest was 55′ high and another was 500′ long. The runs ranged in speed from 15 mph up to about 45 mph. Those were my favorite, but the only problem was that it was over too quick. I was just starting to get a good breeze going and have a look around at everything when I had to pay attention and slow myself down so I wouldn’t crash into the platform.

Anyway, here’s a video of me coming in for a landing.

Yes, we are still alive!

Happy New Year!

Yes, we know it has been MONTHS since we last blogged. Combination of busy, sick and burnt out on the computer.

But the good news is, we got a web cam for Christmas, so we can now show you videos of the cool stuff going on around here. That is way easier for me too, because writing these posts took literally hours, and I don’t have time for it anymore.

Our first submission is about the fish in the creek – we do this every morning, hope you enjoy

The Hilarious Trip to Guatemala

The rolling hills of Guatemala

We had a chance to go to Guatemala last week with our neighbor and some of her friends. I was excited to see what it would be like there because our neighbor had so many nice things to say about it. That it was less expensive, the roads were good, the people were so friendly, and since it is bigger there are more shops with the things we can’t get here.  Everyone has been telling us that if we want this or that, we should go across the border to Melchor to get it.  The only catch was that everyone speaks Spanish, no English so it would be harder to communicate. I wasn’t worried about that because I knew a little Spanish from my lessons and Brad knew a bit from working in Cuba.

So we decided to go for a few days. The border is only about 1/2 hour away from where we are. It was a good thing we had some veterans with us because there are lots of little rules that you need to follow to keep from making mistakes and spending more money and time at the border. As it was, it took an hour to get out of there.

So first off we drove, rather than taking the bus and walking across the border, which adds some complications. We had to park the truck on the Belize side of the border and go in to get our passports stamped. We also had to pay $37.50/ea to leave the country. Then Brad had to go get the truck and drive through the gate, I was not allowed to be in the truck with him, I had to walk through and wait on the other side. One of the bonuses of leaving the country is that sometimes when you come back, they will give you a 30 day extension on your passport visitor visa. This is good for us because we have to pay a renewal fee every month to be able to stay here. We will have to pay that until our residency application is approved. The first 6 months is $50BZ/ea and every month after that is $100BZ/ea until you are a resident. So you can see how a break at the border is nice once in a while.

Over the border

Then on the Guatemala side, all the money changers approached us and at the border is the best place to exchange money so that was fine, except that they only spoke Spanish. So right away we had to switch our thinking modes to communicate with them. The usual exchange rate for quetzales (Guatemalan currency) to Belize dollars is 3.5:1 but since the US dollar is devalued lately, we were able to get an exchange rate of 3.8:1, which was pretty good! For those of you who are interested in doing the math, the Belize dollar is 2:1 with USD.

Once we were finished with the money, we went into the Guatemalan customs area. We had to get our passports stamped there too. The fellow at the desk didn’t even ask us how long we were staying, he just charged us $40q and gave us a 90 day stamp. For any of you who are thinking of going to Guatemala, make sure that you don’t get charged a fee to ENTER their country. We were only staying for 3 days, and any amount of time up to 30 days is free, so if you are staying less than 30 days you should not be paying. But of course by the time we figured out what had happened it was too late to get our money back.

Then because Brad was bringing the truck he had to get temporary insurance and a permit to drive in Guatemala. For that he needed 2 copies of his drivers license, the receipt to prove he had insurance in Belize, a copy of his passport and 2 copies plus the original title for the truck. He had to fill in some forms and pay another $40q. Then he got a sticker to put on the windshield, that we had to give back when we came back over the border.

the border town of Melchor

While all this was going on I had to use the washroom, but that is not something to take for granted in these countries. My advice is to make sure you have your own toilet paper where ever you go – having a toilet seat is also useful as most places don’t have them. And learn how to ask “donde esta il banos”. Finally the custom guy let me into the locked bathroom for tourists. It was cleanish at least, and there was no one else in there. But I was glad I brought my toilet paper. We never leave home without it.

Main Street Melchor

Once we had that all done I was allowed to get into the truck to drive through the gate into Guatemala, we first had to pass under some type of car wash that sprayed the truck with a chemical. I don’t know what it was for or if it would be very effective the way it was applied to the truck – but there’s no point asking questions about it.

We were on our way through Melchor. Mostly it was little shops with a lot of things hanging out of the shop windows. We didn’t stop so I don’t know for sure what was available there. It reminded me of the little rural towns in Canada where there is a main street where all the shops are located and the houses are in the streets further back.

excellent roads

The landscape seemed to change immediately. There were more jagged hills and trees along the road, and the road itself improved greatly. Instead of the rough and crumbling pavement we are used to in Belize, the roads were smooth wide asphalt, with lines painted down the middle and shoulders. Of course we did run into some shockingly rough spots where they seemed to have forgotten to pave the roads, there was even a washout, I assume from one of the big rainfalls. We had to go around a detour in that spot. Those parts of the road were in the first 20 minutes of crossing the border and the other 4 hours were smooth sailing.

town "taxis"

We noticed that there were a lot of semi trucks, probably 7:1 semis to cars. The other thing we noticed is that there were no people standing on the side of the road wanting to hitchhike. They have developed a great system where there are “taxis” guys driving around minivans who will stop and pick up people and drop them where they want. It only costs a few quetzales for a ride. In the towns they have cute little mini cars that holds about 4 people and they will also take you around short distances in and around the town. They are sort of like motorized rickshaws. I noticed lots of young ladies carrying big plastic tubs of dough using them to get into town where they made fresh tortillas to sell on the street corners. By the way, most people in Guatemala are descended from Mayans, so the average height of the men is 5′ 6″ and women are 5″ 2 or less.

Modern conveniences

The gas stations were pretty modern, there were even Shell and Texaco stations. They had all the usual junk food for sale in the stores and gas was much less expensive there than here. We pay about $9.60/gal, there it was around $8/gal and the prices ranged widely across the parts of the country we saw.

Our destination was a town called Rio Dulce, which is about 4 hours south of the border, on the shores of a large lake that empties into the Carribean ocean. Lots of big ships are moored in the marinas along the shore and it is supposed to be a safe harbor during big storms at sea. This is one of the bigger towns, and they have a big market in town.

Where we ate most meals

After driving for about 4 hours we reached the place we were staying – arranged by our neighbor as we had no idea about accommodations in Guatemala. It was right beside the highway (and I mean 20 feet from the road to our table), about 5 minutes from town. Our mealtimes were frequently punctuated by semis passing by using their jake breaks to slow down as they approached the town limits. Many times we had to stop and wait for them to pass to finish our sentences. Regardless of the location, we were treated to a warm welcome and a delicious meal prepared by our hostess. There was salad, fresh tortillas, beans, rice, and stewed chicken. This seems to be the traditional meal in Guatemala, as it is in Belize.

One side of the street

After lunch our friends took us for a tour of the town and pointed out the good places to eat (Pollo Express), and places to get certain items like underwear and sandals.

There was a big fruit and vegetable market, but I was concerned about how clean the food was considering that ALL the traffic (including semis, livestock trailers and garbage trucks) passed right by them all hours of the day and night.

Despite the closeness of the roads, it was very festive and colorful, it reminded me of walking around the midway at Klondike Days (Capital X for all you youngsters).

Notice how short the mirror is for Brad?

When we got back, we were shown to our “room”. The facility is set up with small cabanas and one “apartment” style building for accommodation. The rooms were full so one of the cook ladies said we could stay in her room for the night. It is usual for the staff of places to live on site where they work. Her 1 room house was quite small, about 15′ x 20′, with a small bathroom. It was sparsely furnished, with a bed and headboard that she used as a shelf, a small kitchen table with 1 chair, some tables and shelves covered with sheets along the walls that held all her cooking supplies, food, linens and clothes. She had 1 small sink with only cold water and a cement floored shower stall with a 40 gallon tank of water in it. The toilet had no seat? I wonder if she took it with her or she just uses it that way all the time? The walls around the place were covered with pictures and stuffed animals, and she had a couple of stereo systems on the shelves, but I’m not sure if they worked. The windows had wooden doors that pulled shut and screens that seemed to be made from old shade cloth (sort of like loosely woven plastic potato sacks). You could see daylight through all the walls and ceiling, and there was another “suite” above us too. The place smelled of perfume or maybe it was an air freshener. Whatever it was, it made me sneeze a lot. There was no lock on the door except a slide bolt on the inside. We found out later that she used a padlock to lock the door from the outside (when we came back from town and found the door locked) Luckily we didn’t leave any of our things in the room. I really wish I would have taken more photos of the room but I never got a chance. A lot of times I found myself wondering if I could live in such a small place – which indeed is the norm for the locals in Guatemala and Belize.

Our first night

That night we didn’t sleep much, it was quite noisy from the traffic, and the roosters crowing. Did you know that roosters crow all night? Neither did I. Maybe he was confused by the bright yard light, which shone directly in the window across from our bed. I also couldn’t breathe, either because of allergies to the perfume or the tremendous amounts of smog. So another note to those of you with allergies – bring some type of anti-histamine with you!

other side of the street

We decided to explore town the next day and see what we could find in the shops. Mostly it was plastic junk, and piles of clothes that could not be sold in the states. I was trying to find a pair of pants that were made out a natural fiber like cotton, linen or hemp, but most things are rayon, polyester or spandex – not so good for hot, humid weather. I tried on a few things – literally in the back corner of the stall under a pile of clothes – they didn’t have change rooms. I did find 1 shop that had some natural fiber clothes and they were even styled with a bit of a Guatemalan look so I got a pair of wrap around pants and an embroidered long sleeve top, good for the cooler fall weather here. We saw some cell phones shops, the fish market and marina and went and had fried chicken at Pollo Express for lunch. It was about 7 pieces of chicken, fries and coleslaw for 75q which is about $11 CAD, better than KFC!

All my cameras have malfunctioned down here so I wanted to get a waterproof one. Everyone said the best place for that type of thing was “the Mall” in Puerto Barrios, another big town 1 hour away so that’s where we went after lunch.

We knew we were in the right place when we started seeing all the McDonalds signs. The mall was about equivalent to Westmount – for all you Edmontonians you’ll know what I mean. Vacant stores, and a few small shops among the big department stores. There were also kiosks and a food court. One of the stores what sortof like Sportchek, one was sortof like Kmart and one was sortof like the Brick. I say this based on what was for sale in each of these stores. It was in the “Brick” that I found my camera. It wasn’t exactly the one I wanted, but last year’s model of the Olympus Stylus Tough. I was actually quite impressed with the selection of cameras they had, they had 2 waterproof cameras. The one I got was $1299.00q and a Sony for $5000.00q! We were doing our best to communicate with the sales person, but I must have done alright because I jokingly asked if I could have a discount in my broken Spanish and he said, “Si!”  It turned out I got the camera for only $900.00q after the discount, which is about $130 CAD. That’s not too far off what I would have paid back home so I’m happy with that. Now I can take pictures when we go swimming in the creek or if we go sailing again. We also looked in one of the clothing stores and Brad got a pair of work pants and I got a long sleeve cotton work shirt, because my other one is flannel and way too hot.

We got back to our room and found the door locked, so we asked our hostess what was happening. She said the cook needed her room back but we could stay in another cabana. I won’t say much about it because a picture is worth a thousand words.

nice scenery

exterior of Cabana

looking in from the door

looking out from bathroom

the no frills bed

Lysol please

More Lysol!!

Good enough for Brad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we came back to Belize.  All I can say is that Guatemala was quite an eye-opening experience.

If you go there, I would recommend you bring some key items – toilet paper, a toilet seat, hand sanitizer, a flashlight, mirror, washcloth & towel, soap and anti-histamine.

A sense of humor would help too.

Hurricane Matthew

We are sitting here waiting for the hurricane to pass over. It is supposed to arrive here around noon today, but who can really predict that?

We have been told that it might cross over land but we don’t know for sure. I was able to get online to read the news reports last night but today the Internet seems to be throttled back so that all I can do is chat and email. Good job Hughes Internet! When you really need service, they’ll make sure you don’t have it. (long story)

So I really don’t know what’s going on, it’s raining and a little bit windy. The creek is up about 3 feet from all the rain the last 2 days. I guess there is flooding and landslides in Honduras and Guatemala which is not good. They have much higher concentrations of people so the damage that happens is always worse than here.

All the people living near the coast and on islands have been evacuated to more inland locations. I guess there are shelters set up in the town nearest us just in case. They even cancelled school yesterday so people could get ready. There were people stocking up on food and boarding up windows in town.

Brad figures we don’t need to worry too much as the winds are predicted to be 50mph but I still think that is strong. Since our windows are always open- and we can’t really close them, do I need to move everything from in front of them? Do we have to bring everything inside? I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out. It might not even reach us as we are 45 miles from the coast. We don’t need to worry about enough food, water and power as we are pretty self sufficient that way. Now seems like a good time to read a book.

Update:
It is one day later and all is well. There really was not much more than a rainstorm here. By 2pm the sun was coming out. Today it is sunny and hot- back up past 30!

It seems our biggest problems these days are the spiders and termites! We’ve been trying to get rid of them for weeks.

1 Year Anniversary

Well, it was just a year ago that we took posession of the place and started our new life in the jungle. It is amazing how fast time goes by, and yet how much can also happen in that time. We have seen, heard, and learned so many things this year-in addition to the things we already knew. Here’s a list of what I can think of now.

We’ve seen – and not at the zoo:
Toucans, iguanas, lizards (4 kinds), geckos (one lives in our house), bats (brown and fruit), frogs, toads, snails, fish, gibnuts, coatimundi, pecarri, boa constrictor, parrots, vultures, cranes, motmots, butterflies (blue morphos), hummingbirds, preying mantis, giant cockroach, tarantula, scorpions, beetles, spiders, termites, ants (6 types), centipedes, jaguarundi (small jaguar), lightening on a cloudless night and thunder that lasts for 10 minutes, and lots more I can’t think of right now

We’ve eaten fresh fruits right from our orchard or within 10 miles of it
Pineapples, bananas, oranges (7 types), apples (4 types), lemon & limes, mango (5 types), papaya, petaya, jackfruit, mamay, coconut, sapodilla, Surinam cherries, monster fruit, black sapote (like chocolate pudding), rollinya (like lemon pie filling), watermelon, cantelope, avocado, sweet corn, Ginger, cacao (100% pure!), lemon grass, allspice, cinnamon, tomatos, peppers, sweet potatos, rice, beans, Chaya, ackee, star apples, breadfruit, starfruit, mulberries, strawberry fruit (these are berries off a tree that taste like those cookies with a jelly and creme filling), black raspberry, spinach, eggs from Aggie and more.

We’ve heard all kinds of new bird calls, howler monkeys, gibnuts, pecaris, and maybe a tapir!

We’ve learned:
To use a machete
To identify, remove and treat ticks
To look after a chicken
To nurse a baby owl to health
To catch and kill fish with our bare hands
To open a coconut
To harvest bunches of bananas
To cook plantains
To make food with breadfruit
To make traditional beans & rice
To make tres puntas tea
To make a poultice out of red head
To recognize the Mosquitos that carry dengue fever and malaria
How to fix a sunburn fast
How to use a Mennonite washing machine
What a Mennonite auction is like
Where tapioca comes from (a cassava plant-which we have growing out back)
To make tortillas from scratch
To make awesome salsa and guacamole
To make super granola
Banana cream pie
The best way to catch spiders and put them outside
How to pop out beefworms
What tick fever is like (always bring a roll of tape on walks)
What having Amoebas is like
What dengue fever is like
Not to saw sapodilla wood in short sleeves
The different gardening seasons
How to fix an old tractor so it will mow just one more time
Where the best bathrooms are in the main towns we visit
Where to find the groceries and supplies we need and who has the best prices
Where the smooth parts of the road are
Where to go sailing in the Caribbean
Which post office to use for mailing letters
How to use skype to phone people

The big projects we’ve done this year was to put in a new toilet, add another water tank behind the cabana, build a garden space behind the house, do lots of planting around the front and side yard, build a bugproof sundeck off the bedroom, moved the satellite dish to the house and for me to go up to Canada to get my car and drive it down here.

So that’s a good list, as you can tell we’ve been keeping pretty busy. we already have a bunch of things on our list for the coming year. I have a couple of web projects I am working on that I will be sharing in the next couple of months that I hope you will like.

So that’s it for today – time to start the laundry!

Maiden Voyage

Today we took O’reilly for our first big trip. Who is O’reilly? It’s my car, funny I’ve had it for 8 years and never given it a name. I usually name all my cars. Anyway, I figure since it’s 24 years old and the most dependable car i’ve ever had, the name ol’ reliable fits- and I just shortened it to O’reilly.

The roads are mostly paved. The worst roads is the one up to our place. There was much worry about my car making it on the road, but brad had to admit that my car handles the rough road quite well. I never had any doubt- I just have to drive slow and pay attention to the big rocks and ruts.

Our destination was Hopkins, a small town on the east coast of Belize. We had heard that there were nice beaches and places to go snorkeling. It is also not well known so it is less touristy and quiet. We wanted to go in the ocean again before the oil spill spreads down here.

It took about 3 hours to get there along a very scenic road. The landscape towards the southeast is much more like virgin jungle, and there are massive hills and valleys that the road winds though.

As you can imagine, my car does not have a/c so we just rolled the windows down. I also do not have a fancy stereo, just the radio/tape deck it came with. There aren’t much for radio stations down here, and reception is not good unless you are in the broadcasting town. So we have been enjoying listening to all our old tapes and CDs from our youth. I can convert the CDs to mp3s and put them on my iPod and play them through an adapter for the tape deck. We’ve been listening to the Carpenters, Moody Blues, Kansas, Fleetwood Mac, Orleans, blondie, and many more. Funny how listening to music can take you back to another time so thoroughly.

So the drive was lovely! The combination of the sunshine, the music, the scenery, the smell of the vegetation and the feeling of freedom I got from driving my car again after a year of being a passenger was wonderful! I wonder how much people appreciate driving their cars? I know the stop and go of the city is maddening, but take a trip out on the open road this summer and give yourself the experience. Bring some old music from high school to listen to as well.

The last part of the journey, the road deteriorated quite a bit, but finally we reached the small town. We could see the beach and the sparkling blue waters of the ocean at the end of every block. We didn’t know where we should park so we kept driving until we saw someone. Brad got out to talk to him and came back looking disappointed. Apparently the reef is 12 miles out and the boat ride to get out there was $300. But we could go swimming anywhere we wanted.

We decided to keep driving down towards the resorts and see if they had any tours we could join. On the way, we passed a sign that said, “everything hemp”. Of course we had to stop because I had been looking at buying hemp hearts and just brought fresh oil down from Canada to make salad dressing. It is very healthy and tasty! And we can’t get it down here. I had also been researching hemp based sunscreen and skin creams and was thinking of ordering some from the UK but if I could buy some here that would be excellent!

We turned off the road and came to a funky painted up bus, with blankets hanging on clotheslines behind it, and a painted sign for the hemp store. We weren’t sure if we should stop there or not, but there was a spot to park so I pulled in. Immediately the dogs started barking (everyone down here has dogs) and we heard a woman’s voice calling out of the bus for the dogs to be quiet.

Out from the bus came a lady with dreads down her back, dressed in layers of colorful hemp draped over her. She invited us into her shop to see what she had. Turned out she did have hemp cream she made herself from all natural ingredients and oil from Canada! She even usually has hemp clothes but where she was at the time she had no electrcity so her sewing machine didn’t work. She has been living in Belize for 11 years. The past 3 on her own since her husband died. She was very interesting and kind. We left our car at her place and she showed us a path through the trees to get to the ocean.

The ocean and beach were great. If it hadn’t been for the garbage washed up on shore from the tours boats, I would have thought it was a 5 star beach. The sand was white and soft, and the water was so many shades of blue with the sun sparkling on it. Even the water itself sparkled with what I thought were tiny fish scales, and when we looked down at the ocean floor we could see shimmering ripples where the sparkles had collected.

We walked in the water welcoming it’s warm embrace. I always have to remember to keep my mouth shut lest I get an unwelcome taste of the salt water. We put on our snorkel and flippers and tried looking around, but the ocean was too stirred up. So after driving all that way, we decided to just swim, and float in the water. I have an easy time of it. I just take a breath, jump up a bit and all of a sudden I’m on top of the water laying flat as though I was laying on the floor. Even my arms float. Brad has a hard time of it. He just sinks, I think he has trouble surrendering to the water. If he could just trust things to be ok I think he could do it. I made him lay on his back and held him up so he could sort of get the feeling.

Of course in this process I dropped his snorkel and mask that I had draped over my arm! So we spent the next 30-45 minutes trying to find it in the stirred up water. We finally decided to stop when Brad saw something big and black swimming near the surface about 50 feet away. Turns out it was probably a manatee.

We got out, we both felt a bit hot anyway, and made our way back to the bus. Our hostess had gotten out the hose so we could wash the salt water off. Then we went and sat down behind the bus in the shade of the blankets and towels hanging there. We had some lunch and a nice visit. Her and her husband had moved down to start a catamaran tour business. She asked us if we wanted some fish. You can’t go to ocean and not have seafood. Well for the time-being down here anyway. She even sold us the fresh fileted fish she had bought that morning because the fellow was out when she called to get some for us.

We had a hot drive back to the house, and I could feel my sunburn developing. We got home just before sunset so Brad could do his evening chores.

I tended to my sunburn. Someone said that dabbing apple cider vinegar on was supposed to help take the sting out. I think it worked a bit. Then I put on the hemp cream we just bought and that felt really good. This time I think my burn will turn into a tan!

I think we will go back. Our hemp lady knows the people down there that took over her husbands sailing business, and I would love to go sailing on the ocean!

Coatimundi, Flood flies and Jackfruit

the racoon-like coatimundi

We have a new exotic animal to introduce to you. It isn’t one that we have as a pet, although we do have some wild ones in the bush around the house. Our neighbor has one that originally was a pet, until it reached maturity and attacked her. Now it stays in a large pen outside. Brad likes to go and pet it, but since it doesn’t like women, I stay away from it.

Some interesting facts:

Adult coatis measure 33 to 69 cm (13 to 27 in) from head to the base of the tail, which can be as long as their bodies. Coatis are about 30 cm (12 in) tall at the shoulder, and weigh between 3 and 8 kg (6.6 and 18 lb), about the size of a large housecat. Males can become almost twice as large as females and have large, sharp canine teeth.

All coatis share a slender head with an elongated, flexible, slightly upward-turned nose, small ears, dark feet, and a long, non-prehensile tail used for balance and signaling.

Coatis have bear- and raccoon-like paws, and coatis, raccoons, and bears walk plantigrade (on the soles of the feet, as do people). Coatis have non-retractable claws. Coatis also have in common with raccoons and other procyonids (and others in the order Carnivora and rare cases amongst other mammals) double-jointed and ankles rotatable beyond 180° and therefore the ability to descend trees head-first. Other animals living in forests have acquired some or all of these properties through convergent evolution, including members of the mongoose, civet, ferret-skunk, cat, and bear families. Some of these animals walk on the toes of the front paws and soles of the back paws.

The coati snout is long and somewhat pig-like and extremely flexible and can be rotated up to 60° in any direction, the former being part of the reason for its nickname the hog-nosed raccoon. The nose is utilized to push objects and rub parts of their body.

Unlike most members of the raccoon family (Procyonidae), coatis are primarily diurnal. Coati females and young males up to 2 years of age are gregarious and travel through their territories in noisy, loosely-organized bands made up of 4 to 25 individuals, foraging with their offspring on the ground or in the forest’s canopy. Males over 2 years become solitary due to behavioural disposition and collective aggression from the females, and will join the female groups only during the breeding season.

When provoked, or for defense, coatis can be fierce fighters: their strong jaws, sharp canine teeth, and fast scratching paws, along with a tough hide sturdily attached to the underlying muscles, make it very difficult for predators (e.g., dogs, jaguars) to seize the small mammal.

Coatis communicate their intentions or moods with chirping, snorting, or grunting sounds. Different chirping sounds are used to express joy during social grooming, appeasement after fights, or to convey irritation or anger. Snorting while digging, along with an erect tail, states territorial or food claims during foraging.

Coatis additionally use special postures or moves to convey simple messages; for example, hiding the nose between the front paws as a sign for submission; lowering the head, baring teeth, and jumping at an enemy signal an aggressive disposition.

Coatis’ breeding season mainly corresponds with the start of the rainy season to coincide with maximum availability of food, especially fruits: between January and March in some areas, and between October and February in others. During the breeding season, an adult male is accepted into the band of females and juveniles near the beginning of the breeding season, leading to a polygynous mating system.

The pregnant females separate from the group, build a nest on a tree or in a rocky niche and, after a gestation period of about 11 weeks, give birth to litters of 3 to 7 young. About six weeks after birth, the females and their young will rejoin the band. Females become sexually mature at 2 years of age, while males will acquire sexual maturity at 3 years of age. Members of the coati band will follow the pregnant female and eat the young that are born

Brad adds that they can swiftly strip the poisonous spines off a tarantula and eat it.

Flood Flies

Well the adventures never end around here. Rainy season has started and it has brought the flood flies with it. These little bugs come in the twilight on evenings after the first big rains. They are  termites with 4 wings that try to get into your house. They don’t seem to hurt anything, but they leave a big mess because as soon as they land, they drop their wings and start crawling all over the place looking for soft wood to burrow into. Our kitchen counters and floors were covered in wings this morning – but no sign of any flood flies. The ants seem fairly fond of them, so we had to clean them up right away. We didn’t have as many in the house as the previous owners. We saw a video they took of the swarm that came last year, and ours were nothing like that (you can watch the video from in the link posted above). We also knew that this was an annual event so we have spent many hours sealing up all the cracks around the doors and windows and in the roof to keep them out. The ones that got in this time must have come in through the window frames. Another job for Brad.

Jack Fruit

We had our first taste of jackfruit the other day.  We have a tree in the orchard, but it is not mature yet (I guess they take up to 40 years!). Our neighbor has a huge amount of them and doesn’t like them so we thought we better try it out since our other neighbor says they are his favorite fruit. No small claim considering the amount of different fruits we can get here.

Anyway, jackfruit is an amazing food. You can eat almost every part of it and each part tastes different.

Here’s some info about it:

The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus or A. heterophylla^[1]) is a species of tree in the mulberry family (Moraceae), which is native to parts of Southern and Southeast Asia. It is the national fruit of Bangladesh.

It is well suited to tropical lowlands. Its fruit is the largest tree borne fruit in the world^[2], Reaching 80 pounds (36 kg) in weight and up to 36 inches (90 cm) long and 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter^[3],

The jackfruit has played a significant role in Indian agriculture for centuries. Archeological findings in India have revealed that jackfruit was cultivated in India 3000 to 6000 years ago.

The actual “fruit” is a round orange colored bulb that is surrounded by many stringy white fibres, and inside each fruit is a large seed – as big as a brazil nut.

The orange fruit has the consistency and taste of juicy fruit gum, according to Brad. These can be eaten raw or dehydrated to make chips. The fruit has Vitamin A, C, Riboflavin, magnesium, potassium, copper, manganese and some protein.

The seeds would give you around 135 kcal/ 100 gms. It is a rich source of complex carbohydrate, dietary fiber, vitamins like vitamin A, C and certain B vitamins, and minerals like calcium, zinc, and phosphorous. They contain lignans, isoflavones, saponins, that are called phytonutrients and their health benefits are wide-ranging from anti-cancer to antihypertensive, anti-ageing, antioxidant, anti-ulcer, etc. Jackfruit seed powder has the ability to relieve discomfort due to indigestion. Boiled Jackfruit seeds are a very tasty and nutritious snack. Boiled Jackfruit seeds can be used as an alternative to potatoes. Jackfruit seeds, which appeal to all tastes, may be boiled or roasted and eaten, or boiled and preserved in syrup like chestnuts. They can be canned in brine, in curry, and, like baked beans, in tomato sauce. They can also be included in curried dishes. Roasted, dried seeds are ground to make flour which is blended with wheat flour for baking.

The white stringy inside have the consistency of noodles or cooked chicken. They are often used as a meat substitute in many Indian and Asian recipes.

It takes a lot of work to get all the food value out of the jackfruit. It has very sticky sap inside, so you need to put oil on your hands and the knife before you get started.

Then we cut the fruit into quarters, and cut out the middle core that the strings are attached to.

Using your fingers, you get under each fruit and separate the strings from it, and pull it out of the stringy area

Do this until you get them all out, Then get the seeds out of the fruit and remove the protective layer on the seeds.

Cut the stringy part away from the green outer rind.

the racoon-like coatimundi

delicious stirfry noodles

They look similar to breadfruit – but bigger

Notice the sticky white sap, as bad as melted marshmellow

Cutting out the core for easier removal of fruit

get hold of the fruit and pull

you have to get under the stringy fibres

this is the fruit part

these are the seeds

delicious stirfry noodles

I made a whole meal from the different parts of the jackfruit! A nice veggie stirfry with  BBQ “chicken” and topped with slivered “chestnuts” I plan to try making butter “chicken” next, and we are going to make our own dehrdrator so we can start making dried fruits and fruit leathers from this abundance of fruit.

to make the noodles – I boiled the stringy flesh in sea salted water for 15 minutes, then put into a frying pan with sesame oil, garlic and onion, then stirred it a bit and added peppers, tomato and carrots. A splash of Braggs Aminos finished it off.

The “chicken” was made by marinating an unripe jackfruit both the fruit and the white strings in BBQ sauce for 1 hour and then cooking for 30 minutes until it got tender.

The Seeds were boiled in salted water for 20 minutes and then cooled in cold water, cut in half and then peeled to get off the hard outer shell.

Yes, this is an all afternoon project, but we managed to feed 8 people from just 2 jackfruits!

Abundant Harvest

As I sit here sipping on a fresh smoothie made from coconut milk, bananas, mango and jackfruit (all fresh from our property) I am feeling so glad that we moved here.

Umm yes, it is big!

Even though it is just the start of the rainy season and the summer gardens are just being seeded now, we are already being blessed with more fruits.  A new crop of watermelon, cantelope, & corn was just harvested, mulberries, strawberry tree berries, black raspberries, star apples, jackfruit, pineapple, papaya, bananas, and even cashews!

Our Easter feast

Just a few months ago we had an abundance of garden crops – peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, yams, cabbage, eggplant, carrots, romaine, okra, beans, broccoli and cauliflower.

We also had a good crop of surinam cherries and sweet potatoes and I was able to make a few pies!

Already the mangos have started to develop and in another month or so they will be full size and ready to harvest. The breadfruit is also starting to put on fruit and getting bigger and so are the avocados.

that's a lemon, in case you were wondering

And just when we were starting to run out of oranges, the new crop is continuing to get bigger. By the end of June we should be able to get the first oranges and grapefruits, and by September we will be surrounded again.

Now we have figured out how to process the cacao pods, plus the tree is producing a lot more since we pruned it. I now have 2 cups of raw cacao nibs, almost enough to grind into powder to make hot chocolate, or maybe macaroons with the shredded coconut we make from our own trees!

just like the leis in Hawaii

It is also so beautiful here. Lots of the trees are in blossom (again) including our plumeria trees, and it smells even more lovely in the orchard again. Even driving down the road last week, there were huge trees towering over the road and they were covered not in green leaves, but in flowers ranging in color from bright red to orange,  yellow and pink! I have to find out what those are so we can get some planted in our yard.

And speaking of the yard, things are starting to fill in very nicely in the front yard where I did some landscaping last year. I will take some photos and put them on the next blog. My goal is to get this place somewhat looking like a resort, but that is going to take a long time.

Did I mention that we have a hammock on the deck too? For those days when it is 34+ degrees and just too hot to stay in the house. Nice to sit out there and read after a dip in the creek.

Northern Visitors

Myron and Jo

We had a visit from Brad’s neighbor’s Myron and Jo, a few months back. They ventured here in their rented vehicle after seeing many other parts of Belize. We talked about their vacation highlights while we sat around the table eating BBQ chicken they brought from a local street vendor in San Ignacio. They did a lot of exciting things – we will keep them in mind for when we need a break from here.

We gave them a tour of the place and Jo liked everything except the sand fly bites. (She got them before getting to our place. We only have ticks, not sand flies)

We appreciate them making the journey up the mountain to see us and especially the excellent chicken they brought and shared with us.

We should have gotten their photo up months ago, but the roadtrip took up much of my time. better late than never!

Weekend Visitor

We had a very special visitor this weekend. A baby owl! Not many people get to even hear an owl, let alone see one – but we got to touch and feed one.

Owls have always been one of my favorite animals. I have never really thought about it, but from a young age I have always known what my favorites were. On the land – big horn sheep, in the sea – octopus, in the sky – owls. I even had a hoot-bot when I was younger. I never thought I would get to have a close encounter with one. It gave us an opportunity to find out more about them too, I did a bunch of research so we could do a good job looking after him. Here are some of the sites I looked at http://birds-of-prey.org/cm/owl-facts/ ,  http://www.mrsmacdonald.net/owl_facts.htm , http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/newmexico/science/art16566.html

So how did this happen?

Friday:

I went with Brad to see our neighbor – she was leaving for the states the next day and we were going to look after her place. That night was a final check to make sure we knew what to do.

She asked us if we wanted an exotic pet. Well, we looked at each other and said, “what kind of pet?” When we saw the little guy in it’s kennel it wasn’t at all what we were expecting. It was such a small bird, just laying there blinking so quiet and shy.

We asked what happened to it? Apparently the night before, her worker was startled by it in the dark and he panicked – worried that it was a snake – and gave it a few whacks with a big stick. When she heard the commotion she ran out and stopped him, but the damage was already done. She brought the bird in and assessed it’s condition, it wasn’t bleeding and didn’t seem like anything was broken. She put it in the kennel to rest and gave it some water.

We thought about it, and about the 2 cats and the dog and the chicken and declined the offer. She said that was too bad, but she could probably get her friends in town to look after it, as they already had a parrot.

Saturday:

Then we went home and slept on it. When we woke up early in the morning we looked at each other and said, “let’s go get the owl”. We were not interested in keeping the owl as a pet, but we could at least help look after it until it was recovered enough to go back into the jungle. I got my Birds of Mexico book,  we got in the truck and drove down to tell her our decision.

She brought the kennel out and showed us how to pick up the owl and how to give it water from a spoon. We also decided that it was probably hungry, since it hadn’t gotten any food the night before. Luckily ? a bunch of chickens hatched the night before – so there was fresh food available. Her worker was sent to bring one of the chicks back. I won’t get into the gory details, but the owl was very glad to get some food. I hope you know that owls are birds of prey and only eat live food. We were trying to recreate it’s normal feeding habits as much as we could.

I looked up the owl in my bird book, he was a mottled owl – with brown eyes. They are a type of wood owl. I looked for more information on that particular type of owl but couldn’t really find out too much. The full grown size of a wood owl is between 12 – 15″, and this fellow was about 10″, so we figured he was still young. We also figure that he probably was a fledgling – just learning to fly, which is how he ended up on the ground. So that would have put him at about 9 weeks old, which fit, since spring started about 2 months ago when all the birds started nesting.

I tried some feeding and water spooning too. When we had all our questions answered we brought the little guy home. We also decided to call her/him Winky, because she just kept winking and blinking at us the whole time. You will notice that I change the gender throughout the story, because I don’t want to commit to one sex or another.

We figured he could stay in the office with the door closed at night when Pixel was in the house, and during the day the door could be open because the cats are always outside. So knowing that owls are nocturnal, we figured that he might want to sleep so we put him in a dark corner of the office and let him rest. In the meantime we had to find him food.

We figured we would try to feed him again around noon. Well, it was HOT! It was up to 37 over the weekend and we were worried about him getting overheated, so we brought him outside on the deck table. We also knew that we had to feed him and give him water so he could regain his strength.

How do you feed an Owl?

We found out from our research that owls eat anything from insects to frogs, lizards, mice, snakes and other birds. We didn’t know really where to get this type of food, all we knew was that it had to be fresh. We were sort of hoping that Folly would catch a bird or a mouse, or Pixel would catch a lizard (as they so often do) but of course, there was no hunting going on in the heat. So we got the idea to try and catch a fish from the creek. Brad got out his fishing reel and flies and figured he would hook one of the ones he always feeds oranges to. I had the idea that we would have better luck with a net. However, we didn’t have a fish net, so we had to improvise one. We had a couple of bee-keeper hats, so Brad cut the center out of a 5 gal pail lid and I sewed it onto the hat, and we were all set.

We waded into the creek at Watson’s swimming hole, brad tried his luck with the line, but they weren’t going for it. I tried to catch them in the net, but they were too fast! Then we tried at the opening to the spring. We knew the water was shallow there, I got a few small fish (about 1 inch long) and we put them in the pail of water. Then we moved up near our swimming area. I had a bit better luck – I caught 3 minnows about 3 inches long. Well better than nothing! It took us about 45 minutes to get this far – at this rate the poor owl was going to starve.

It was a learning experience to try and feed him.

You may not know this, but owls have unusually long necks – this is what allows them to swivel their heads 3/4 of the way around. So when you look at the photos of us feeding him, just know that we are not hurting him or bending his neck back too far. In fact we tried to imitate the way a mother owl would feed her young, from up above, and by opening their mouths to drop the food into their throat.

I was in charge of the feeding, Brad was in charge of holding and petting. So I was the one who reached into the bucket of fish, scooped one out with my bare hands, and crushed it’s head with the pliers. Then I ripped it into bite size pieces and fed them to Winky (yes, that’s what we called him). At first he wouldn’t eat, the fish would just hang there in his beak. Then we’d stroke his head and throat and all of a sudden he would tilt his head and chew it and gulp until it was gone. Once we had gone through all the fish, and he had enough water to drink, we put him back in the kennel to rest. He was very weak and passive. He just laid on the straw and looked at us. We stayed outside and read while he was out on the table. When the sun went down it started to cool downso we brought him in and put him in the office for the night with the door closed.

Sunday:

Brad got up early to go dig for worms in the orchard. We thought maybe Winky might like some variety in her diet. However, he had no luck. I guess it is too hot for the worms too – they have probably burrowed down 6 feet by now. So plan B, Brad found a termite nest and scooped them into a bucket, now we had some bait! We had no choice but to go fishing. We tried again in the swimming hole with the net. I figured out a way to move the net underwater so the fish would swim near it, and Brad sprinkled termites into the water near the net. It worked great! The fish would swim into the net to get the food, and I could scoop up 5 or 6 at a time. We had a good bucket full in just a few minutes! Now we could make sure Winky got enough to eat.

Winky was much more alert and energetic this morning. I had brought her out of the room to sit with me while Brad was digging worms. I laid on the couch and pretended to be sleeping, and then I would peek at her, and she would be closing her big eyelids!

When he got back we took her out on the deck for a feeding. One of the things I read was that birds sleep perched on branches, they have special muscles that lock into place once they are on it. We thought she would be more used to being on a perch than sitting on the table, so we found a stable forked branch for her to sit on. She liked it!

While she was perched we managed to get her to eat 6 fish for breakfast and 5 for lunch. We also noticed that she had ticks on her eyes! Big fat ones, 5 on her eyelids and 1 on her chin. We pulled them off carefully, and she seemed to feel better, she stopped squinting her eyes so much! We figured the ticks must have come from the grass in the kennel – pastures are notorious for tick infestations, so we dumped out the grass and cleaned out the bottom, and just put in a towel and a branch to perch on.

Again we sat on the deck and read while she rested in the kennel. She even made an owl pellet. As you may or may not know, birds have quite different digestive systems than our. They can only excrete the digestible parts of their food. Anything like bones, fur, feathers or scales is regurgitated. Most people would be grossed out – because it did really smell… But once we saw that she was sitting up, alert, having regular elimination and even made a pellet – we knew that all systems were functioning normally!

Finally the sun began to set again and we brought her inside to the office. This time we thought it would be better for her to be on the desk near the window so she could look out and get a breeze. She started going crazy trying to get out the kennel door to the window. We took that as a sign that she wanted to get out. While she was flapping around we looked at her wings, they seemed to be fully open and normal shape, so there was no problem there.

We decided to take her down on the driveway and open the door to see if she would fly away. We wanted to make sure that if she couldn’t make it, she wouldn’t fall so far and get hurt. Well she hesitated at first, Brad stayed with her holding the door open, while I made sure the cats stayed away. Then when I got there and looked in the window and said “Hi baby”, she turned her head and flew out of the kennel. She flew straight out about 50 feet and up into a tree. I think she had been planning all afternoon – she kept looking at the trees around the house. We couldn’t see which tree she was in, and didn’t hear anything from her that night – although she never made a sound anyway.

Brad could have sworn he saw a little brown owl streak past him Monday at sunset, going along the driveway again, but we aren’t sure. We hope she is strong and healthy and having fun out there, where ever she is!

Here’s a gallery of the photos we took. He is so cute I just put them all up, and really they don’t even do justice to how sweet this little bird was – I wish I would have taken some video. If only I had known she’d only stay for a short time.

first time out at our place

He was pretty weak, so he sat on the table

not very lively at first

I had to slide my fingers along the beak to open it

I also had to position the fish to go down his throat

making sure the fish doesn’t fall out

ready to do a gulp

just a few more swallows…

this is our fish net

Works great for scooping fish

we caught all these fish in about 15 min!

Looking better after a day of rest

Ready to eat breakfast

This was her first moment on the perch

Getting more confident

I thought I saw ticks on her eyelids!

Look how much stronger he is!

after every swallow he would look at Brad

They made clicking noises to each other

what a beautiful baby!

its amazing what eating 6 fish can do

back in the clean kennel

now you can see how big she is

her first pellets

Once we saw these we knew she was healed