Wasn't That A Party?

What a day yesterday was..... I got my laundry done and hung out to dry and Bob says to me, "Want to ride the bikes to Maya Beach, check out some friends' property, visit with C & M, stop in at the gallery, then maybe have a drink before heading home?" Are there bears in the woods? Of course I do, so we hop on the bikes and start the trek to Maya Beach.

The ride to Maya Beach wasn't bad at all, except the dogs that tried to tear me off the bike at our friend's property. We survived that and headed to our next stop, visiting with M & C. It was hot work pedalling yesterday and we were very happy to scoff down a huge glass of ice cold water. We had a nice visit, cooled down and headed to the gallery. Checked in and then headed to Maya Breeze.

We had a great time visiting, drinking, more visiting, more drinking. We actually only had three drinks, but you know Jake, each one is a double (at least). I said something to him once about how strong the drinks were (I wasn't complaining, just talking). His answer to me was "Mum, you asked for rum and coke, not coke and rum." He was right so I shut up and drank my drink.

Then it was time to get back on our bicycles and ride home. Except that Little Bit talked us into stopping at her place (minor detour) and seeing her new little baby ducks. Well heck, if we were going that far, we might as well check out J & B's new place. J, you need to smooth out that road just a little bit or level it or something because the rocks are large and very difficult to ride bikes on and when I went to get off my bike my footing was uneven and yes, that was me you saw go down in a tangle with my bike. Now I have road rash.

So we limped back down the road to Little Bit's place where she insisted we needed another drink to calm me down after my fall, and we insisted that we could ride home. We had a drink, checked out the baby duckies.... they are so cute we took pictures (on Deb's camera).

We learned one thing last night and that was that when you ride your bike in the dark, you can't see the road. I followed Bob's silhouette because I couldn't see the rocks or the tracks in the road. Lucky for us, most of the trip home was on the paved part of CocoPlum.

So we made it home and geeze, my laundry was still out (I had forgotten all about it), took me a bit of time to get it in but I did. I think we ate dinner about 9 o'clock, but it sure tasted good.

This morning we woke up to pouring down rain, no wind so it came pretty much straight down, but did it pour. Then the sun came up and I took the pictures below, before it rained again. The second rain was just a short shower and has stopped now.

By the way Barnacle, that was Bob saying "Good Afternoon" as we rode past your place on our way in to Maya Beach and it was Bob saying "Good Evening" as we rode past on our way to Deb's place. I would never be a smart ass like that. HA HA HA!!!

A Day In The Life

Yesterday was just another day in the life of the beach bums. We got a notification earlier in the week informing us that there would be a power outage on Saturday from 7:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Right, then we got another notice saying that to support Earth Day, we should voluntarily turn our power off for an hour Saturday evening.

Friday at 11:45 a.m. the power went off for a couple of hours, no biggie, we are used to that. We wondered if these two hours would count towards the Saturday outrage oops, I mean outage. Not only did they not count towards Saturday’s outage, they tacked on a couple of extra hours. My guess is that they knew there would not be a large following of the voluntary shutdown.

So what do we do when there is no power for a day? We make sure we get that coffee pot on early, stock up on water, and make sure we have snack type foods in the cupboard. Then we take the books to the hammocks and when we get bored with relaxing, we go for a walk with the camera.

Yesterday's sunrise.

False Caye.

Da plane, da plane.

A real skinny house.

A fixer upper.

We walked along the beach for a bit, then crossed over to the road and walked through Surfside.

The road looking north towards CocoPlum.

The road looking south towards Seine Bight.

Woody!!

The lagoon from Surfside vantage point.

Interesting street names.

Butterfly.

A beach bum.

Looking north towards CocoPlum on the beach.

Looking south towards Placencia.

Home again.

When we got home, this little guy was waiting on our back steps to visit.

Cheeky Birds

Sassy looking bird isn't he?

Gotta love this guy.

Retirement

I was trying to figure out what to put on the blog today, so I gathered up the camera and went outside thinking, I will play with the different settings and see what I get. So with zoom lens on, I headed around the yard, snapping photos, changing the settings and snapping the same photos.

Okay, okay, I have far too much time on my hands, being retired and all. After taking a few (okay twenty-four) pictures, I came back inside, downloaded and checked them out. The yard wasn't enough for me so I headed out to the beach, and then hit the road.

Monotone (black and white) setting was kind of cool.

Then I went to the other end of the log and took a photo in natural colour.

This is the same photo cropped, when I was taking the picture, I never even saw the iguana.

Then I walked out to the road, might as well show what it looks like when there are no road crews working on it.

This is the same picture cropped. I never saw this little coatimundi (a relative of the raccoon or VAMPOONS) either.

So in response to Barnacle's blog today, "Retirement makes you blind".

Colds and Raccoons

Yesterday, I was coming down with a cold. Yes, Virginia, you can get a cold in the Tropics. But not to worry, because at last, I think I have come up with the cure for the common cold.

First off, I suffered all day yesterday with a damn head cold. Also, I was still agonizing over cleaning up the mess that the raccoons had made, messy little buggers. Where was I, oh yes..... the cure. Last night while I was cooking dinner, I had a 'one barrel' and coke with a squeeze of lime. It certainly put me in a better mood to cook dinner. Before bed, Bob brought me a brandy snifter of Baileys on ice (to help me sleep).

Sometime, in the middle of the night I heard another noise outside. The power was out but I got dressed, grabbed my broom and a flashlight and headed outside. They weren't going to get me two nights in a row, oh no...... They were out there, the garbage can had been moved from the position I had securely placed it, another couple of inches and they would have been able to open it. I never saw them, but I scared them away (another vision comes of me running around in the middle of the night brandishing a broom in one hand and a flashlight in the other). Back to bed I went.

This morning I woke up to sunshine and skies clearing. I was determined to shake this cold as I was tired of sniffling, sneezing and generally feeling like crap. I made coffee, put on my bathing togs, put on my favourite sun screen (so as not to burn to a crisp), followed by a generous greasing with baby oil (no sand fleas for me) and headed to the chaise lounge on the deck to enhance my tan while baking the damn cold out.

It worked too..... I tanned both sides (front and back), avoided sand fleas, read my book, had smoothie delivered for breakfast and felt so much better. My head cleared and I could breathe again.

I came in to make this post and sneezed. Now my head is all stuffed up and I feel like crap, but I know exactly what to do. I am going to take the bottle of 'one barrel', forget the coke, a bucket of ice for the Baileys, a new book and head back to the lounger. I just didn't cook quite long enough.

That's my cure, and if it doesn't work for you, you will just have to practice until you find your own. In the meantime, let me share my view of the world today.

Rocky Raccoon

Okay, maybe there is some news. Last night we had some visitors, RACCOONS!!!!

It was about 2ish this morning when I heard a noise, it sounded like someone was breaking in downstairs. Now I am not a scaredy cat, so no, I didn't rush and wake Bob up, I walked around, listened and then decided it was the huge lizard that lives mostly quietly in our roof. I still couldn't sleep though so I stayed up until about 4:30 when I finally went back to bed and fell asleep.

Of course, I slept in late and by the time I went outside, the garbage was all over downstairs. There must have been a herd of them because they sure made a mess. We have a locking garbage can, but we all know how smart these critters are. Next time I hear a noise in the night, I will not be sitting quietly by the window to see who it might be. I will be down the stairs with my broom (that opens up visions doesn't it) chasing the little buggers away.

The picture above is compliments of 'Free Nature Pictures'.

Speaking of critters, if anyone down here has a problem with ants, we think we found something that works. We are testing it and if it holds good for the next couple of weeks, I will report back.

Views From A Different Angle

When we used to live in Maya Beach, we had an awesome view of False Caye. There is great snorkelling over there, actually there is great snorkelling all the way from the caye to the shore. Lots of coralheads along the way.


This view is from Maya Beach looking south.

This is the view from Seine Bight looking north.

We had some company stop by yesterday, Little Bit (you can see why she is called that), stopped by with her son Scott and his wife Georgie. I think they are planning on moving down here. I didn't really get to talk to Scott alot, but really enjoyed chatting with Georgie at Ladies Night. We are looking forward to their next visit.

There's not really a lot of news today. It is overcast with light winds, but no rain. Nice day to be on the water or in the water. I hear from Edmonton that it is cold and bleak there today.

Pelicans At Play

What an incredible beautiful day. Blue skies, flat clear water, very gentle breeze and pelicans at play. I went for a walk and thought I would share what I saw.

There are actually seven pelicans in the picture and I'll give you a hint, there are only three sitting on the water.

Okay, there are four sitting on the pilings, two of them very close together.

They were sitting on the pilings one second and then they were diving and playing right in front of me.

One by one, they all moved closer.

And did a little dance of sorts.

This guy looks like he is standing on water, but is really taking off.

This one sort of ran as he was flapping, getting the landing gear up.

Ladies Night

What can I say, it was another Wednesday night at Little Bit's place. This week was co-hostessed by Georgi, Little Bit's charming and lovely daughter-in-law.

Little Bit was serving Pinot Grigio, mmmmmmm, that was great, have another glass Sharyn. I think I will, thank you, I better take some to Pam, her glass is almost empty. There were all kinds of food, yet again, let's see...... there were carrot sticks and dip, Pam brought a to die for dip which was served with Marie Sharp's Seasoned or Salted Chips and there was birthday cake.

Each time we go, it is different, but the same. Last night there was no rest for Little Bit until she dug out the cd that we wanted to listen to. There weren't a lot of us, but as usual, we all had fun.

I think I have to cut back on the talking and laughing as this morning I have a sore throat and have almost lost my voice. Bob will be wanting more Ladies Nights if that continues.

A friend from Edmonton sent me the 'Quote of the Day' and I thought I would share it. See below. Thanks Azmina.

Little Bit turns 60!!!!

Last night we went to Little Bit's 60th birthday party. It was held at Bella Maya Resort and everyone had a great time. The snacks served were conch fritters and fried plantains, very yummy indeed. The beer was free thanks to Little Bit's son Scott.

I took a ton of pictures and when we went through them this morning, CB said, "You can't put all those on the blog". He was right of course.... sigh......, but not to be daunted, I decided to play with making a movie of the pictures and the result is below.

Be gentle as it is the very first time testing this on the blog. There is no music, but if this works out, maybe the next time.

Our Ship Has Come In?

I don't know if anyone here noticed yesterday, but we were recipients of a 'cruise past'. We were riding in the village (Seine Bight) when we first noticed the Mayan Queen. She (why are all boats "she"?) looked like she was anchored off Placencia Village near the airport. Later we noticed she was heading towards us.

I went for a walk on the beach with the camera and managed to get a few shots as she headed north and skirted around False Caye.

The picture below is a good comparison of her size beside the sailboat she was crossing in front of.

I did some research and found out that this is the 17th largest yacht in the world. The actual name is Mayan Queen IV and is owned by Mexican mining billionaire (and experienced yachtsman) Alberto Baillères. This yacht is 301' 8" or 93m with a gross tonnage of 4200 and was built in 2008. Big enough to live on and out run those hurricanes.

For those interested in ordering one, she was built by Blohm & Voss and the designer is Tim Heywood. I couldn't find the cost, but I am sure it is out of our range. Maybe we could afford the dinghy she pulls behind her.

Road Work in Seine Bight

We thought we better do our share of keeping eveyone up to date on the road work, it isn't fair to expect Barnacle to do it all. These pictures were taken on Friday 13th.

As you can see, traffic goes through no matter what. The guy on the motorcycle was having some fun I think. Looking south towards the village.

They appear all lined up ready for work. Still looking south.

Everyone's favourite flagman. He was excited to have his picture taken and scrunched up his flag.

The traffic seems to never stop. South view again.

Okay, this one is looking north towards Maya Beach. More to follow next week as they have taken the weekend off.

Home Sweet Home

We are back from our little side trips to Belmopan and Punta Gorda and we are all moved into the new digs. Of course, that didn't take much with only four suitcases and a box of things we have collected.

Some pretty flowers surrounding us.

Planned beauty.

Yard art.

Bar table.

More planned beauty.

Our outdoor shower, we are hoping that is a guy.