Our Beachfront Home

Our Beachfront Home
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Friday, May 30, 2008

Caye Caulker May 2008

Okay, I have been getting questioned why I haven't posted anything recently. I guess I was afraid of boring people. Apparently that is not a problem so here goes.

The month of May started out slow as we had been to San Pedro at the end of April to update our visas. On May 5th, we moved into the Castle. It takes a bit to settle in to a new place. We spent some time just tanning on the deck, reading, swimming and generally being lazy. We take our snorkelling gear to the swimming area and practice our swimming. Isn't that what being retired is all about? We did make sure we sent both our moms flowers for Mother's Day.

Most days are pretty laid back for us. We walk to the village and check for mail, then do our grocery shopping for the day. Fresh fruits and vegetables along with some sort of meat or fish. There are a number of fruit and vegetable stands in the village and we try to hit them all. Meat we get from the local grocer, but fish we get from the fishermen when they come in. They clean them on the docks and sell them right there.


Fisherman cleaning his catch of the day


On the 14th, Bob got his bike and I ordered one for myself. The only one there in my size (short), was pink and I didn't want a pink bike. We made arrangements that I would pick it up around the middle of June when we were back from our trip to the West Coast.

On the 29th, we went to San Pedro for the monthly update to our visas. We decided to stay overnight as we wanted to try out the Blue Water Grill for sushi. Yes, sushi. Being from the West Coast originally, we miss our sushi. Even when we lived in Edmonton, we had regular sushi feeds. Our friend Joyce introduced us to a first class 'all you can eat' sushi restaurant that was just a quick LRT and bus ride away from us. Or we could just walk over the bridge and down Whyte Avenue.

We stayed at the Mata Rocks Resort. It was a bit of a hike from the water taxi, but we managed it. We got our exercise to get ready for the sushi we intended to eat. We actually took a taxi into town when the time came. The sushi was very good, the one thing that was missing was there was no saki. After dinner we were walking along the beach back to Mata Rocks and it started raining. We did the only option available, we stopped at the next bar. We had our very own private crawl. We made it back to Mata Rocks just as it was starting to pour. We were soaked through to the skin. Never, never, never wear white capris in a rain storm. Turns out it was the rain from Tropical Storm Alma, a Pacific storm. Not to worry, we found out that we don't melt in the rain. When we woke the next morning, there was no electricity and no water. The Continental Breakfast was served as advertised. Buckets of water were brought to the door for flushing, which was a good thing. A shower would have been nice, but we were heading home that day so we decided that it was all just another adventure. We would definitely head back to Mata Rocks.

This photo was taken from our balcony in the morning. You can see the clouds don't look happy.

The rain had stopped and the sun was trying to shine as we headed back to Caye Caulker. Little did we know what was waiting for us. As we were on the water taxi, Tropical Storm Arthur was forming practically right beside Caye Caulker, but that is in the next post.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

More Birds of Belize

We just keep finding more birds that are waiting to have their pictures taken. There is a red-headed woodpecker around here that just won't sit still enough for me to get his picture, but I will keep working on it. So far all the pictures have turned out to be a blur of red and grey.

We have a resident hummingbird who is very gracious and poses for me. As you can see, he likes to sit still on the clothes line.

Front




and back




Not sure what the rest of these birds are called, if anyone can tell me, please leave a comment.

This guy likes to hang out in the wetlands area along side the airstrip.





This little guy hangs around in our garden.




This guy is everywhere and likes to attack iguanas sunning in the road.



I think these two are trying to look at the same thing at the same time, must be a fish.