Milka & Lovre

After the birders left, our cabin didn’t stay empty for long since we had two couples coming in that same day. One couple, Milka and Lovre from Maryland, arrived at the International Airport fairly early, so Selmo did the pickup at airport and took them cave tubing. Tom did the later airport pickup, and the timing worked out so that he met Selmo at the end of the Georgeville Road and saved him the ride all the way up here and back to drop off Milka and Lovre.



The next day our four guests went to ATM with Gonzo and Carlos. They had a really good time, despite sharing the tour with a couple of women from New York City who weren’t quite up to the rugged adventure, and, in fact, couldn’t even believe that our guests were staying at a place with no electricity. How do you dry your hair in the morning?!?


On their final day they went to Caracol with Selmo. Milka and Lovre were the only guests who went, so they had a private tour of the Caracol site, as well as of Rio Frio Cave and Rio On Pools. They returned shortly before dark, and the ftour of us hung out in the kitchen while I did some prep work for dinner and we waited for the Tikal travelers to return.

Although they’ve lived in Maryland for over 20 years, Milka and Lovre are originally from Croatia. They moved to the US after they were married and their oldest son was born, so they have an adult’s perspective on life in Croatia. They felt very comfortable in Belize, and as we talked we realized it is because a lot of the things that are done here and the way people live is very similar to rural Croatia twenty years ago – no electricity, few cars, subsistence farming, and a relaxed attitude of hard work. Tom and I talked about some of the things that surprised us when we moved here, and Lovre just smiled and said “Of course that’s how it is.”

Milka and Lovre got a ride from Tom into San Ignacio, and took the bus to Belize City where they caught a water taxi to San Pedro for the next part of the trip. Sara and Casey, our other guests at the time, were also going to San Pedro so the four of them made plans to meet out there. It no longer surprises us that visitors’ paths cross so frequently here – it’s just the way it works.

Nancy, Denny, Joan, & Larry

Our next guests, two couples from Massachusetts, spent two days of bird watching with David. Really, they spent two days just birding, since they never emerged from the cabin without binoculars around their necks, scanning the area to look for birds and listening to see what they could hear. Over the course of the two days, they saw 106 different species of birds, and heard but didn’t see another 12, which far exceeded our previous record of 70 seen and 37 heard – which was set by a former guest who recommended that this group spend a few days at our place birdwatching with David.


Our new kitchen palapa was a hit. Tom and I have been discussing whether or not we should screen it, but after sharing it with birders for a few days, we decided that we definitely want to leave it open so the birds can be more easily seen.

We get a big kick out of hosting birders. They don’t require any attention at all, and we have as much fun watching them as they do watching the birds. We started every morning early, so that everybody was in the dining room when the sun was just about to rise and the birds started calling and moving. Nancy, Denny, Joan, and Larry would sit down and start eating, but as soon as a bird chirped or moved outside the palapa, everybody would jump up and start looking at it with their binoculars. At one point a trogon landed high in a tree outside the palapa and was blocked from view by the overhanging palapa roof. Everybody rushed out to get a better look, and as the bird flew off and jumped from tree to tree, everybody followed. One more bird for the list! At some point the official birding would start with David, and they would set off down the driveway or off on a trail in the jungle to see what they could see. Each of our guests saw at least one bird that they hadn’t seen before, and even David was happily surprised to see a few that he didn’t think were in this area.

At night, when all we could do is listen to the owls calling in the jungle, we enjoyed pleasant discussions. Tom and I know the area where everybody lives, and actually went to horse competitions right across the road from Denny and Nancy’s house. Then, we found out how small the world really is when Josh, the writer of Lonely Planet’s Belize book, pulled up in the driveway to see our place. When he started talking to everybody, he asked if they knew a certain gentleman in their town, and they did – and Josh told them that this man is his brother-in-law, so they realized that they know Josh’s sister. In addition, Josh and I found that we attended SUNY Brockport for English degrees at the same time, so we had an interesting discussion remembering some of our professors.

Joan, Larry, Nancy and Denny left our place and headed for Tikal, before coming back to Belize to spend a few days at the Macal River Jungle Camp before going to Placencia for the final leg of their Belize adventure.

Barbara & Shap

Barbara and Shap from Oregon arrived here after a stay in Crooked Tree. They took a transfer from Crooked Tree to Georgeville, where Tom met them to bring them up our road – yet another transfer driver who doesn’t want to subject his vehicle to the rigors of the Mountain Pine Ridge Road! They arrived in time to relax, because Barbara was getting a sore throat, and wanted to avoid the all out chest cold that was making the rounds in Belize, which she had been exposed to in Crooked Tree…fortunately Tom and I were over it by the time they got here!


The next day they headed off to Caracol with Eddie. They had thought about canceling the day before because of Barbara’s sore throat, but fortunately she felt better the next morning. So, they took off for Caracol and spent the entire day touring the site, with a stop at Rio Frio Cave and Rio On Pools on the way home.

The following morning started early, birdwatching with David. We again appreciated our new kitchen and dining room, since the bird tour began with coffee and breakfast under the palapa, watching the hummingbirds start moving and listening to the catbirds calling. The list of birds to be seen around the palapa was exhausted just as the coffee was finished, and Barbara, Shap, and David took off to walk around the property and see what they could see. After a half day of birdwatching, they ended up seeing a total 45 different species of birds and hearing an additional 21, for a total of 66 different bird species identified on or immediately around the property.

That afternoon, Tom took them down the road to go horseback riding with Joe. Both Shap and Barbara had commented that they could have been in better shape, so they felt that seeing the jungle from the top of a horse and letting the horse do most of the work was perfect for them. They saw jungle pools and caves, and lots of birds and butterflies.

The following day they got to sleep in a little since they’d only scheduled a half day’s worth of activities. After breakfast, they decided to get a little bit of exercise and walked to the Green Hills Butterfly Ranch, just a mile down the road. Tom gave them about an hour’s head start, then drove down to meet them to drive to Barton Creek. They toured Barton Creek with Carlos before returning to the farm for a late lunch. They spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, packing, and preparing for their departure for Guatemala and Tikal the next day.

The following morning, after a relaxed breakfast, Tom drove Barbara and Shap to the Guatemala border. There they met Hugo’s sister, who helped them through Immigration and customs in Belize and Guatemala and transferred them to Tikal, where they spent the next two nights. Before they left here, we had helped them set up a Placencia transfer with Gonzo from the border for the next leg of their trip. That part of the trip went well, with a stop in Santa Elena for barbequed chicken, although Gonzo said Shap and Barbara were a little annoyed when he got to the border to get them because they had been waiting there for two hours. Gonzo was there at the agreed upon time, but Hugo’s family had them there about two hours early because they expected that it would take a long time for Shap and Barbara to cross the border – which it didn’t. We’re not sure where the miscommunication occurred, but we will be advising our future guests who get transfers in Guatemala to make doubly sure the schedule is clear.

We’re now waiting for Shap’s promised write-up on their Belize adventure. He promised that he would send us something to post on this blog – so keep your eyes open for the next installment!

Update on BMA experience

I returned to Belize Medical Associates a couple of weeks ago for my six-week checkup.  The doc said everything was fine, although my 10 pound weight limit was continued until the end of March, which didn't thrill me, but didn't surprise me either.  I'd been feeling pretty good, but was still a little uncomfortable and moving certain ways still hurt. 

Now, two weeks later (and almost 2 months post-surgery), I'm feeling almost back to normal.  I still feel it if I unintentionally exert myself - like if I try to shut Tinkerbell's door, which doesn't close straight, and has to be lifted and slammed at the same time - but I'm pretty good about remembering not to do things like that, and I think within a few weeks that won't hurt anymore.  I went swimming at Big Rock a few days ago, and my bikini covers the scar - so my vanity is happy!

And we have one more compliment for Belize Medical Associates, because we know they didn't make us pay "the gringo tax."  When I left the hospital after the surgery, we had paid their estimate, which we had received ahead of time.  After my appointment, we stopped by the hospital office to see if we owed them any more.  To our surprise, instead of asking us to write a check, they asked if we could wait a few minutes so they could cut a check for us!  We received $400BZ back from BMA because their estimate had been $400 high.  Needless to say, we were quite happy with that, and it was the icing on the cake for the whole BMA experience.

Cold! And dry…

We’ve been here four years now, and while we know that’s not enough to make us experts on the annual weather patterns, we’re not alone in noticing that the weather this winter has been much different than the past few years.  In each of the other years we’ve been here, December has been relatively wet, with the rain lasting into January and the beginning of February.  This year, the rain stopped in the end of November, and we had six very dry weeks before we had a few days of showers, but now the rain seems to have stopped again.  Plus, it’s been cold, at least by our standards, with nighttime temperatures in the 50s, and daytime temperatures frequently not getting out of the low 70s.  We’ve had this weather in past years in January and February, but it seemed to arrive at least a month early this year.  The locals say the dry season is starting early, and it certainly seems like that to us as the ground is starting to crack, and the leaves are drying up and falling off the trees, making it feel very much like autumn here.  This has been bad for many of the farmers who planted crops in the end of November and beginning of December, expecting a couple of months of rain, but who are now either working to irrigate their crops or watching everything grow very slowly.  The tourists have loved the daily wall to wall sunshine, and they like using blankets instead of air conditioners, but for those of us living here who rely on the rain not just for crops but in order to keep our water supplies flowing, it’s a little frightening.  We will keep you posted…but in the meantime, feel free to do a raindance.

New neighbors

We spent most of last week listening to bulldozers in the jungle. Our neighbors, Todd and Tatiana from New Mexico, are finally getting ready to make the move to Belize on the 75 acres they own in the jungle behind us.


Todd came to Belize shortly after the New Year to try to get things set up so he could come back in March to get a driveway put into their property, and to talk to the house builders in Spanish Lookout about building their house. Everybody always says that everything takes a long time here, but the stars aligned for Todd, and he not only managed to negotiate a good price for the house they want, but he also managed to get the driveway put into the cleared house site. He had to stay a week longer than planned, but he now doesn’t have to come back in March to do it. We were amazed that he could get it done so quickly, but everything just worked – the excavator was free for the week, the weather cooperated, and Todd was here, so it got done. And, the house site is beautiful, on top of a small hill nestled into the mountains, and the driveway is a pleasant winding road to the house site. Now we just have to wait for him to come back in a few months to see if his luck holds and he can get the next steps done as quickly!

Thanks, Caribbean Tire!

We had another “only in Belize” experience recently with the Caribbean Tire store in Spanish Lookout. A few months ago, we had a lot of work done on Tinkerbell. She needed a new starter, and because the old starter had drained the batteries, Tom had to buy two new batteries. We were very busy with guests over the holidays, so Tinkerbell just sat. Last week, Tom wanted to move something big, so he went out to start her up, and absolutely nothing happened when he turned the key. Tom was kicking himself, thinking the starter was bad again just after we had all that work done, but he decided to check the batteries with our computerized battery charger, just to see if that was the problem. When he tried to charge them, the computerized charger kept giving him an error, saying the batteries were no good.


Tom took the batteries out of the truck and headed for Caribbean Tire, where he’d purchased the batteries. The guy at Caribbean Tire took the batteries to run his own tests on them, and came to the same conclusion as Tom – the batteries were bad, after only about three months of infrequent use. The batteries are warrantied for a year, so he prorated the cost of new batteries with three months removed, and started helping Tom purchase the new batteries. During this procedure, Tom mentioned that they were for a diesel Ford F-250, and the guy stopped and asked Tom why he’d purchased these batteries for that truck. Tom told him that the sales attendant at the store had told him that these were the batteries he needed for that vehicle. The guy working with Tom told him that the batteries he’d purchased were too small, and he should have purchased some bigger – and less expensive – batteries, but at least they now knew why the two batteries had gone bad.

So, they had a meeting of the minds to decide what to do – and the Caribbean Tire guy decided that it wasn’t Tom’s fault he’d purchased the wrong batteries and ruined them. He ended up giving Tom two new proper batteries for $30BZ – or $7.50US per battery! You can’t beat that for customer service, so thanks, Caribbean Tire!

Alex ‘s Return Home

Our friend Alex was just here for his winter break from Julliard in New York City, and he arrived with a huge bag of books and school supplies for the schools in 7 Miles.  He said put the word out among his school friends that the schools here needed books and supplies, and everybody gave him something to bring.  When he delivered the goods, he talked to the officials in the town and at the school to see if he could do anything else to help, and they told them that if he wanted to do some fundraising, they would put any money he collected towards finishing the inside of the library.  Right now, the library is just a shell, and it needs shelves for all the books, as well as furniture and wells to make a study space for the students.  Alex returned to Julliard with a clear goal, and hopes to be back this summer to work on the project.  Thanks, Alex, both for the supplies and for the effort to improve the school and the town!

Christmas dinner with a most excellent Running W rib roast

Because we had vegetarian guests here for Christmas Day, we delayed our “Christmas dinner” until January 2, when we had an open night between guest bookings. I knew way in advance of Christmas that we were going to have vegetarians here, so I had sort of decided to skip the rib roast this year. But, I made my weekly stop in Running W one day in the middle of November and ran into Escandar. He asked me if I would be ordering the rib roast this year, and I started to say no and explain, and he looked so disappointed I stopped and asked why he was looking like that was such bad news. He explained that he already had the cow being sacrificed for The Roast picked out, and had scheduled the butchering for Dec. 13. Being a mush, I decided that I would get the rib roast anyway, and told him that I’d want it the week after Christmas rather than for Christmas day.


So, that week I picked up the roast. I put it in the refrigerator and pulled it out to show everybody I knew who gets excited about that sort of thing. We invited a bunch of friends over for Sunday night dinner, and I got the rest of the supplies to make the rest of the dinner, like the all important twice baked potatoes. I remembered how I had cooked the rib roast the year before, and did the same thing that day. It was perfect, again! Everybody loved the dinner and we all ate too much, and it was actually a lot of fun to have Christmas a little over a week after the real day. I can’t say enough about how good the meat is. The grass fed beef here is not as fatty as rib roast in the US, but it is exceedingly tender and tasty. Becky was here, and she’s a Dallas girl, and she declared it the best beef she’s ever had. It was so good that I went back to Running W early that week to see if they still had the matching roast from the other side of the cow. They did, so I asked them to hold it for me to pick up a week later so we could have another beef-o-rama with Julio’s family, which we did. And it was delicious again! Now we just have to decide if we want to wait until next Christmas for another roast, or if we can come up with some excuse to order one (or two!) for some occasion this year…and something tells me we’ll find some reason to do it!

BMA experience

One of the most frequent questions we get about living here is what we think of health care in Belize. Our standard response is that we’re quite happy with it, although we haven’t had to deal with anything extreme. It’s affordable, the doctors are knowledgeable and compassionate, and unless you need some high tech life saving procedure, you will probably be cared for as well here as anywhere in the world.


We recently had to put our money where our mouths are, since I finally got to the point where I needed to have a long-delayed hysterectomy. Tom and I spent a lot of energy deciding whether to do it here, or to go back to the US to do it. We looked into our options, and decided to do it here for a number of reasons. First, we didn’t see any reason why the care wouldn’t be as good or better as what we would get in the US. We researched doctors, and found a surgeon recommended by just about everybody, Belizeans and expats alike, and met him and talked to him before making the decision. We also decided to go to a private hospital, Belize Medical Associates, rather than one of the government hospitals, mostly because this doctor is affiliated with Belize Medical Associates. Second, I didn’t want to travel to have the surgery, and then not be comfortable traveling after the surgery to get home. I wanted to recover at home, since if I’m going to take a trip to the US to visit, I’d rather do it when I feel good and can have fun. Our third reason was not really a decision point, but definitely sealed the deal – it was a lot less expensive to have it done here. We have only catastrophic coverage insurance in the US with a $5000 deductible, and the surgery costs more than $5000 in the US, so it would have cost us at least our $5000 deductible plus travel expenses – probably another $1000-$2000 – to do it in the US, while it was just under $3500 total here.

Not quite two weeks out, we’re quite happy with the decision to do it here. Everything went according to plan, and the care in the hospital was outstanding. Tom was allowed to wait in my room while I had the surgery, and he said that after the surgery the nurse sat in the room with me until I came out of the anesthesia. When I was a little more coherent, the nurse didn’t stay in the room, but came in to check on me at least once an hour, and helped me get a sponge bath and brush my teeth in the late afternoon after the surgery – which did wonders for making me feel human again. The next day, after the IV and catheter were removed, they left me alone except for coming in every four hours to check vitals, but if I needed something – like pain meds – somebody was there within about 30 seconds of me ringing the buzzer. And, best of all, when I was sound asleep for the middle-of-the-night vitals check, the nurse elected not to wake me and just skipped it so I could sleep. The surgeon himself was in three or four times a day for the two days I was there, and was happy to answer my many questions. In the US, I spent a fair amount of time with my mother in hospitals, and I remember wondering if anybody worked there since it seemed that my mom sometimes had trouble getting a nurse into her room, and she was always complaining that they woke her up in the middle of the night, and my experience here was the complete opposite.

There were a few notable differences between surgery here and surgery in the US. Here, I was still completely conscious when I went into the operating theatre, and remember being strapped to the table with my arms out. I had knee surgery 10 years ago, and don’t remember anything like that. And, the day after the surgery, the surgeon showed up in my room with a bucket and showed me what he took out of me. I’m not sure if that’s standard procedure, or if he just decided that with my many questions, it was easier to just show me rather than explain. And, I actually appreciated it, because having him show me what was wrong made it very clear to me that the surgery was the right thing to do – and for the day of the surgery and a few days afterward, I was definitely wondering what I did to myself. I really respected the doctor for this because what he found wasn’t what he (or a few other doctors) had diagnosed, and he admitted that when he explained what he was showing me. I had to do a bit of disassociation as he was palpating my parts (“It’s just plastic, it’s not out of me…”), but, as I said, I now completely understand why I needed the surgery, and I might still be wondering if I hadn’t had the show and tell.

So far, so good with the recovery. I’m still a little sore…but I have a six inch incision in my lower abdomen, so I guess I can’t expect to be instantly back to normal. The doctor used to live up here and he knows the road, so he waived my two week checkup, figuring (correctly) that I wouldn’t feel like bouncing myself down the nine miles of bad road it takes to get to the Western Highway. He gave me his cell phone and his email so I can reach him at any time if I have any concerns, which I haven’t had so far.

Do I have any regrets about doing this in Belize? Definitely, no. Would I do it here again? Definitely, yes. And, we feel much more comfortable about some of the what-ifs we think about, knowing that we’ll probably need more medical care as we age.

Love the new kitchen

Have I mentioned that I love my new kitchen?  We’ve now been in it about a month, and the novelty of having a large well-lit space has still not diminished.  We had a few guests who rented the whole cabin so I was feeding a lot of people for every meal, and we also had a lot of extras over the holidays with our guide friends stopping by or doing drop-offs or pick-ups and deciding to stay for a meal – which is the way we like it!  I share the space with a few birds who seem to like to stop by to see what I’m doing; it has become routine for me to look up and see a hooded warbler or a wood thrush perched on the rail around the dining room, or to look at my feet and see an ovenbird or a water thrush hopping through the kitchen, or, once, to stand at the stove stirring something, hear a buzzing near my ear, and turn and see a hummingbird hovering right next to my head looking to see what I’m doing.  And, we get WiFi in the dining room, so the dining room table has become our new office – and we couldn’t ask for better working conditions!

Steve & Karen

The day Valerie and Jack left, Steve and Karen from the UK came in to stay with us for a few days. Tom picked them up at the International Airport, and their flight was early enough that they had time for a stop for cave tubing. Although they were married a few months ago, this was their honeymoon trip because with their jobs, this was the best time for them to travel.


They spent their first full day here horseback riding with Joe. They toured Joe’s caves, and then made the trek to Big Rock, which they really enjoyed. The horses were good, the weather was good, and they had a great day. They came back here to a party, because Gonzo had taken Lauren and two other guests from San Ignacio to Offering Cave, so there were nine of us for dinner. This gave us time to plan the next day for Steve and Karen, when they were scheduled for kayaking.

But things never seem to work quite according to plan, although everything always works out. Steve and Karen had asked for details on what they were doing that day, and we’d said we couldn’t really say, because things don’t always happen according to schedule. And, because Gonzo had arrived back in San Ignacio so late after having dinner here, he didn’t know until the next morning that the kayaking plans had changed, and what was going to be a kayak trip in the Mopan with Link turned into a full day canoe trip in the Macal with Tony, with a stop at the Chaa Creek Butterfly Farm. That, however, was fine with Steve and Karen, and they got to see a few things they wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Steve also took an unexpected swim as he leaned out of the canoe for a look at some wildlife, but nothing that could be ruined by water got wet, so all was well. Tom had to work in Belize City that day so he took Becky to the airport, and that evening Gonzo and Lenny brought Steve and Karen back to the farm and stayed for dinner again. Our guests this week found that although we only have two rooms and you might expect small, intimate dinners under the palapa, it’s not unusual for people to show up around dinner time, and mixing with the locals and finding out what it’s like to grow up in Belize isn’t difficult to do here!

For their final full day, Karen and Steve went on a hike with Melvin to the base of an 800 foot waterfall. They had the same tour of the farms behind 7 Miles as Al and Kathleen, and they made it all the way to the waterfall. They also made really good time on the hike, and were back here by mid-afternoon, in time to have a beer with Melvin.

The next day I dropped them at the Guatemala border so they could spend a few days in Tikal before heading to the cayes to snorkel and dive. I had arranged for them to be transferred to Tikal by Hugo, with a stop along the way at the Yax Ha archeological site. Hugo met us on the Belize side of the border, grabbed Karen’s bag, and took them off to get through immigration and customs between Belize and Guatemala.

Lauren

Lauren from Colorado was our only single traveler of the holiday season, and she came here after spending time in Punta Gorda. She took an express bus from Punta Gorda to Belmopan, and then got a bus from Belmopan into San Ignacio. Neither she nor we had any idea how long it would take to get from PG to SI by bus, so we had made plans to meet at Mr. Greedy’s Pizza at 3PM. The buses were actually much quicker than any of us had anticipated, and she had arrived in San Ignacio before noon, so she checked out the market, went to an internet café, and went back to Mr. Greedy’s shortly before 3, and was there only long enough to be mildly harassed by the hangers out who think any woman there alone needs to be kept company. Immediately upon my arrival, Lauren started to get a good idea of how things work in Belize. As I was talking to her, one of the bartenders who lives in 7 Miles told me he was getting off work at 3, and asked if I could give him a ride home. It wasn’t quite 3, so I told him that Lauren and I would go to the market and then come back to pick him up. So, we went to the market, where Lauren got to hear all the local gossip I traded with Gloria as I picked up a few things that are better fresh. We then went back for JJ, who was almost ready, and when he got in the truck he asked if we could go up the hill to pick up his 18-month old son. Of course we could, so we did. We then headed out of town, with just a few more quick stops for this and that. Coming up the Georgeville Road, we picked up a few more people, and I explained to Lauren that the buses don’t run out here, and most people don’t have cars, and you get to know the “commuters” sooner or later, so it’s not really like even picking up hitchhikers. We took JJ and his son into 7 Miles, so she got to see Cayo’s version of the rural Belizean village, and then headed back to the farm.


Because she was traveling alone and [understandably] didn’t want to pay the single traveler premium for tours, we had agreed that we would just see what fell into place when she got here. Valerie and Jack being here and planning to go to Caracol on their own was perfect, and Tom and checked with them before Lauren and I even arrived home to make sure they didn’t mind a third person for their trip. They didn’t, so we spent some time that evening making plans for Caracol the next day.

While the three of them were at Caracol, I was in touch with Gonzo, who had found some people who wanted to go to the Offering Cave. Since we’re so close, he could pick Lauren up and take her for the normal tour charge, so as soon as Lauren, Valerie, and Jack arrived home, I posed the question to Lauren. She had been thinking about doing the ATM tour, but when I explained that the Offering Cave has a lot of the same features as ATM, minus the river, and that it’s a much less traveled cave, she was quite excited to make the substitution.

So, the next morning, Gonzo arrived with his other two guests, and Becky who stayed here to hang out and visit with me and Tom for the day. They did almost exactly what Gonzo had done with Cheryl, Liz, and Tom and few days before, although since the road was already clear, they had enough time after touring the cave to take the hike to Sapodilla Falls. They said the hike is less than a half hour each way from where they have to leave the vehicle, and Sapodilla Falls is definitely worth an hour’s hiking. And Lauren suddenly had the condition of the Rio Frio Cave road put into perspective when she saw what real Belizean off-roading is like! The whole group of them stayed for dinner that night, so we all stayed up too late – again – talking and laughing with our other two guests, Steve and Karen, who had arrived the day before.

The next day, Thursday, Lauren decided to just hang out here around the farm and actually take one day to relax on her vacation. It was a good plan, but it didn’t work out that way. The morning and the early afternoon were fine. Lauren set herself up in the sun in the yard with a book, and managed to get some reading done as well as seeing a wide variety of birds and a few small animals. Then, later in the afternoon, she decided that she should confirm her Maya Island Air flight from the International Airport in Belize City to Cancun for Saturday, since she planned to take her time getting from Cayo to Belize City, and was going to stay at D’Nest Inn before flying out on Saturday morning. The good thing was she decided to confirm the flight Thursday evening; the bad thing was she found out the flight had been canceled and nobody told her, despite the fact that Saturday flights from PGIA to Cancun had been canceled well before she left home for her vacation. We don’t get phone service here, which limited her contact options, but she emailed a friend in the US and asked him to get on the phone and find out what was happening. He confirmed that the flight had been canceled, so Lauren slipped into replan mode. It was a major PITA, but she finally figured out that she could bus from Cayo to Playa/Cancun on Friday, so she would be there for her flight to Colorado early Saturday afternoon. That’s what she did, and it worked out, although she has yet to get her Maya Island Air fare refunded, and she also lost her deposit on her D’Nest room, which she had to cancel last minute because she could no longer spend her last night in Belize City – not to mention it became a somewhat stressful journey rather than a relaxed day of seeing a few more sights. So, we are definitely discouraging people from booking with Maya Island Air and steering them towards Tropic Air if they want to use either of Belize’s domestic airlines.

Despite the stressful ending, we had a really good time during Lauren’s stay here. We used to worry when we booked single travelers because we were never sure how high maintenance they’d be, but since this situation ended up with us making a new friend despite adverse conditions, we’re now sold on single travelers!

Valerie & Jack

Our next guests were Valerie and Jack from Alabama, who had rented a car and were driving around Belize with the long-term goal of moving here. They’ve been to Belize before, but had never managed to get to the Mountain Pine Ridge. They had wanted to stay here for more than one night, but we were booked solid so they took the one night they could get. Fortunately, they were very easy going, since when they arrived Tom was out trying to resolve our internet problems, and I was picking up Lauren in San Ignacio. They let themselves in the gate and made themselves at home in the dining room to wait for Tom’s return – exactly what we would have told them to do!


Tom got home and got them settled in their room, and then when Lauren and I arrived I finished making dinner. We had a great dinner conversation, since all of us come from very diverse backgrounds and have lots of stories to share. We got the plans set for the next day, when they were planning to drive to Caracol and take Lauren with them.

The Caracol day went almost as planned. They left here in the morning, with their lunch packed, and met the convoy at Augustine. They went to Caracol without a guide, and had no problems touring the site based on the informational brochure. They had left here too late in the morning to go to Rio Frio before the convoy left, so they decided to do that on their way back. It was a good plan, but that road – the same one where the Kia van had slipped off and had to be engineered out – must be in really bad shape because even with 4WD and Valerie’s expert driving, the small Suzuki SUV was not able to make it back to the cave. After doing what Jack described as a 36-point turn, they made it back to the main road, skipped Rio On Pools, and returned here shortly before dark with a very dirty car.

We had time for a quick Belikin before they headed off into San Ignacio, where they planned to spend the night before heading back towards the coast the next day. While they were out, I had made plans for Lauren to go to the Offering Cave the next day, so they promised to return when they have more time so they can do some of the other adventures that are so easily done when using Moonracer Farm as your base camp.

Cheryl, Liz, Tom

Tom picked our next guests up at the Radisson in Belize City. Mother Cheryl was traveling with her 18-year old twins, Liz and Tom. Liz is studying to be a zookeeper, and she had scored an internship at the Belize Zoo, so Cheryl brought Liz down, with her brother, to make sure she wasn’t flying into a situation that was completely uncivilized. Sharon doesn’t indiscriminately hand out internships at the Zoo, so the first question Tom asked when he picked them up was how Liz managed to do it, and that was the first question I asked when they arrived here. By that time they had already been at the Radisson for a few days and had already been asked the same question more than a few times, so they all realized that Liz was about to embark on an experience that is much coveted.


On the way from the Radisson to here, they had time to stop at Jaguar Paw to go cave tubing after lunch at Cheers. Tom learned something on this trip – you can rent watershoes for $3US at Jaguar Paw, so no worries if you want to do that and you don’t have watershoes and don’t want to get your own shoes wet. Cheryl, Liz, and Tom had gone snorkeling and had visited Lamanai while staying at the Radisson, so they managed to continue their string of adventures on their transfer day.

The next day they set out for the Offering Cave. Cheryl and I had emailed prior to their arrival about what tours they could do during the one full day they were here, and we decided that since Liz would be spending more time in the country, staying here was a good opportunity for them to do something that is off the standard tourist track, but still a real adventure. Gonzo showed up at 8AM with Adrian, a gentleman from London vacationing in Belize. We were just finishing a batch of banana pancakes when they arrived, and they hadn’t eaten breakfast, so their departure was delayed while Adrian and Gonzo had the full-on Moonracer Farm breakfast. They then loaded into the Montero, picked up Don Antonio in San Antonio, and headed for the cave. The road hadn’t been cleared much since the hurricane, so Don Antonio packed a chainsaw, which apparently came in very handy. Gonzo let both Liz and Tom drive the vehicle and use it to pull trees out of the road, so half the adventure from their point of view was just getting to the cave – although that was fun too. They returned here with enough daylight left for a trip up to Big Rock. Gonzo drove them there on the fire road, so that was yet another 4-wheeling adventure, and I have no doubt Cheryl returned home thinking that we don’t have any real roads here in Belize! Gonzo and Adrian stayed for dinner that night, so the fun that began at 8AM didn’t wind down until well into the evening.

The next day Cheryl, Tom, and Liz had to leave to get Liz to the Zoo, but since she didn’t need to be there until the afternoon, they had time to go to the Butterfly Ranch on their own in the morning. Then, after the very long day the day before, Liz and Tom decided they needed naps (and I do remember that college holiday feeling of exhaustion after a whole semester and getting through finals), so Cheryl, Tom, and I hung out in the kitchen palapa. For Tom and me, this was the best part of the visit, since they are from a small town south of Syracuse, NY, and Cheryl grew up in Rochester. We remembered all of the same natural disasters (blizzards and snowstorms up there!), knew all of the places each other talked about right down to the road names and landmarks, and generally bonded based on our wealth of shared experiences. Apparently you can take the people out of Upstate, but you can’t get Upstate out of the people! They didn’t have to leave until mid-afternoon, when they all got in the little blue truck with lots of hugs to head for the Tropical Education Center and Liz’s internship – which, last we heard from Sharon, was going quite well!

Voltec, June, Ilsa, Sean, Ruth

For June and Voltec and their adult children Ilsa, Sean, and Ruth, the Hopkins schedule shuffle was just one more glitch in carefully made plans that just didn’t quite go the way that was expected. June and Voltec live in Poland, Ilsa lives in Poland, and Sean and Ruth live in the US in New York and Florida. June had tried to carefully orchestrate everybody’s flight plans so they’d all end up in Belize for the holidays, but from the beginning the plans had to be adjusted. This is a hazard of travel any time, and especially during the busy holiday season, but everybody was willing to go with the flow and replan as necessary, and nobody let the minor schedule adjustments get in the way of having a good time.


Because this family arrived early in the day and because they had to cancel some of their Hopkins plans for their early departure, we helped them turn the travel day into a tour day by letting them take our little pickup into the Mountain Pine Ridge. The original plan was to go for a swim at Big Rock, but they took a left instead of a right at the Hidden Valley turnoff and ended up visiting 1000 Foot Falls first – a bonus! They talked to Pedro at 1000 Foot Falls and he told them how to get to Big Rock from there, so after viewing the highest waterfall in Central America, they made their way to Big Rock where they had plenty of time to go for a swim before heading back to the farm for dinner.

The next day they went kayaking and toured Xunantunich. This day also ended up requiring some scheduling flexibility, because we had all planned on having them go to Xunantunich in the morning while it was cool, and then kayak in the afternoon. However, Link, the kayak guide, had scheduled another group that wanted to do a full day of kayaking, and the morning portion of that trip was more what our family wanted to do. So, when they got to town, they discovered that they were going kayaking first, and then touring Xunantunich in the afternoon. This worked out fine, and they returned here in the afternoon, pleasantly tired after a full day.

We had a somewhat heated discussion over dinner because the “face” June had seen for their transfers and excursions had been Becky, Gonzo’s girlfriend. Becky was here on vacation for the holidays, and because Gonzo ended up guiding every day, Becky ended up taking care of a lot of the River Rat business issues. This was fine with us, and Becky didn’t really mind spending part of her vacation keeping business going, but June, who is a consultant who helps get small businesses running in developing countries, wanted to know why we were doing business with a US company rather than a Belizean company. At first we weren’t really sure what she was asking, and her kids were trying to sidetrack her to avoid a discussion, but when we realized that her very valid perception of River Rat was the very white Becky, we were glad she asked the question and allowed us to answer rather than just thinking that we were avoiding doing business with Belizeans. When we assured her that River Rat Expeditions is in fact 100% Belizean owned, and that all the guides are 100% Belizean, she felt better. And, the discussion energized all of us so that we ended up staying up talking and laughing until after 2AM. So much for being tired after returning from a tour!

The next day everybody transferred to Belize City, with Selmo driving again. He knew June wasn’t too happy when he had dropped her off the day before and wasn’t quite sure what to expect, so he was pleased that we’d worked out the misunderstanding and everybody was happy again. They were off for a brief stay in Caye Caulker before everybody had to head back to their far flung homes.

Tom, Sally, Bridget, Tommy, Patrick

As Tom was dropping off our Christmas guests in Hopkins, Selmo was picking up our next guests, a family of five from Chicago consisting of parents Tom and Sally and their adult children Bridget, Tommy, and Patrick, in Belize City. Our little blue truck only holds four passengers comfortably, so when we have a party of five adults coming in, we need to call in the reinforcements with bigger vehicles. They had a late flight, so it was just about dark by the time they arrived here, but we had plenty of time for Belikins all around in the brand new kitchen before dinner.


On their first day here, Selmo picked them up bright and early and took them to tour the Chechem Ha Cave, which everybody enjoyed. After the cave tour, they were treated to a real Belizean meal with Gonzo’s mom, Lea, at her house overlooking the mountains that border Belize and Guatemala. They spent the afternoon floating down the Mopan in tubes, seeing the wildlife and Bullet Tree village life, with Tommy being the only one to capsize – but no harm done, although it gave everybody a reason to tease him at dinner.

The next day they took a full day horseback ride with Joe. Everybody always loves Joe’s rides, and this family was no exception. They enjoyed not only seeing the caves and swimming at Big Rock, but also getting a chance to talk to Joe, whose family is Maya and who has lived in San Antonio for his whole life. From what he said, Tom managed to squeeze a good number of the stories we’ve heard from Joe out of him, and Joe even told him a few things we hadn’t heard before about life in this area in the past. When we heard about their day, the thing that amazed me most was that even though it was just a few days after Christmas, in a very busy holiday week, they had Big Rock Falls all to themselves for most of the time they were there. “Busy” has a whole different definition in Belize!

They had to leave the next day on a Tropic Air flight out of the Municipal Airport in Belize City. Their flight wasn’t until 2PM, and you don’t have to show up too much ahead of time for the domestic flights in Belize, so they had time to take a quick visit to the Butterfly Ranch in the morning. That their schedule was so flexible turned out to be a good thing because Gonzo, along with some of the other transfer companies in San Ignacio, was having car problems. This 5-member family was leaving and another 5-member family was coming in from Hopkins, and with only one large vehicle to work with instead of two, the transfer schedule had to be shuffled. The family coming in from Hopkins was scheduled at the last minute for an 8AM pickup, with plans to arrive here, pick up Tom and Sally’s family, and get back on the road heading to Belize City by 11AM or so. It didn’t work out quite that way since Selmo started having trouble with the vehicle on the way to Hopkins, so that pickup didn’t happen until almost 9AM, and it was after 11AM when he arrived here. In the meantime, Becky had commandeered another van in San Ignacio, and she had driven here to meet Selmo to swap vehicles so he had a dependable vehicle for the Belize City transfer. We had the replacement van loaded and ready to go when Selmo arrived, so we loaded up Tom and Sally’s family, Selmo switched vehicles, and they headed for Belize City – and arrived at the Tropic Air terminal with 10 minutes to spare! We always tell people not to worry, things always work out in Belize even when it seems that all of the carefully made plans are crashing, and now we have one more situation to prove that it’s true!

Danielle & Mariah

We had some unscheduled visitors during the Christmas week as well. Just as we were sitting down to eat one night, we saw lights at the gate. Tom went down to see who it was, and found two women looking for a place to stay. They had planned to camp at Augustine, but got a little nervous when they realized that they were the only ones there, and that they were the only women surrounded by an army camp of men. I’m sure they would have been absolutely fine and safe at Augustine, but they probably wouldn’t have been able to get much sleep. Our cabin was full, but since they had planned to camp anyway and had all of their camping gear with them, Tom took them to our palapa area, and they set up their tent under the palapa – very cool since they could leave the fly off since the palapa protected them from moisture, and bug free since the tent was screened. They then joined us for dinner, and were a welcome addition to the party.


The next day they decided to leave their stuff here while they took their vehicle to explore around San Ignacio. They ended up going to Barton Creek Cave, and then going into town and taking a trip to Xunantunich. When they returned that night, they found some lost people, with a baby, at the Junction, looking for Mystic River and unable to get their car started. They came and got Tom, who helped them start their car and gave them directions to Mystic River. They wanted him to go with them, but he declined, more afraid of the wrath of his wife if he ruined dinner than of upsetting people who were okay anyway!

They told us at dinner that night that they would be leaving the next morning and had scheduled a trip to ATM for the next day before heading to Monkey Bay and the Baboon Sanctuary. In the morning, they showed up, grabbed a quick banana muffin and headed out. We later heard from Gonzo, who ended up being their ATM tour guide, that they had a good time and continued on to Monkey Bay after the tour.

Ranjani, Praveen, Vishnu, Leela

Our Christmas guests were a family of four from Washington state, mom Ranjani, dad Praveen, 12-year old son Vishnu, and 10-year old daughter Leela. The entire family has traveled extensively around the world, and we were delighted that they decided to spend part of their Belize vacation with us. Ranjani and I had corresponded extensively via email prior to their trip to help them make the most of both their time and their money. Ranjani had told me that they were also spending time on Caye Caulker and in Hopkins, and they wanted to go to Tikal while they were here. They ended up beginning their trip on Caye Caulker, and they then took the water taxi to Belize City where they were able to get a Linea Dorada bus to Tikal. I had suggested this plan of action because the Linea Dorada bus is relatively inexpensive and travels direct from Belize City to Tikal, and although it is not able to stop anywhere in Belize, it was an ideal way for the family to avoid our expensive transfer, get to Tikal for a few days, and end up in the western part of Belize where it’s much easier and less expensive to get here. Hugo transferred them from the Jaguar Inn at Tikal to the border, and Tom picked them up there. They arrived here early enough to walk around the property and see some of our jungle before dark.


On the first day they were here, they went canoeing with Selmo and Becky. They started in San Ignacio and canoed up the Macal River. Ranjani had expected more of a jungle canoeing trip, but in addition to iguanas and other wildlife along the river, they also got to see life along the river – people washing their cars, women washing clothes, and children playing in the river. After their canoe trip, they visited the San Ignacio market and had lunch at Hode’s before returning to the farm.

Then they went to ATM with Gonzo. Being Christmas week, a very busy week for tourists, the cave was busy but the tour guides were able to spread out the groups enough that it didn’t feel like a Disney World attractiogpn line moving through the cave. They were impressed not only with the cave, but also with Gonzo’s knowledge.

On their final full day here, they took a full day hike to the base of a waterfall. Melvin wasn’t able to guide them that day because he had just been called as a fulltime horse guide at Blancaneaux, but he contacted his cousin as a substitute so there was no problem with hiking through his family’s private land behind the Village of 7 Miles. Everybody enjoyed the hike, although they said it was too chilly to swim in the pools at the bottom of the waterfall. And, they made good time – they were back and waiting for Tom to pick them up a half hour before the scheduled pickup time, despite the fact that they guide wasn’t sure how quickly they would move with the 10- and 12-year olds. Next time Boris will worry about keeping up with the kids, not with the kids keeping up with him!

The family had originally planned to return to Caye Caulker for a few days, but because they felt that they’d seen most of the caye during their stay there, they decided instead to go to Hopkins so they could mix some more jungle adventures with the seaside activities in Hopkins. So, on their departure day, Tom took them to Hopkins so they could mix some snorkeling with some more hiking in the Cockscomb Basin Park. They had considered getting a taxi from Belmopan to Hopkins, but since it was the day after Christmas, which is Boxing Day and is a holiday here, no taxis were available in Belmopan, so Tom got to get a quick glimpse of the sea as well.

Tom, Kate, Cara, Dustin

Our next guests were two couples, Tom & Kate and Dustin & Cara, from San Francisco and Oregon. They had all lived in San Francisco until fairly recently, and all four have been friends for a long time. They had originally inquired about staying for a longer period of time, but since we were already booked and only had two nights available, we worked with them to pick tours so that they could make the most of their time here.


The first day they were here Jake picked them up at 8AM to go to Caracol. Tom and Dustin are both engineers, so seeing the Maya’s engineering marvel of Caracol was high on their list of what they wanted to see while in Belize. They liked Caracol, but the gods’ payback for them being engineers viewing the Maya’s handiwork was that they then had to use their engineering knowledge, not to mention their muscles, to get the Kia van back on the road after it slipped off the muddy road and into a ditch on the way to Rio Frio Cave. Jake was a little frazzled with this turn of events, but the four guests just considered it part of the adventure, and it gave them a good story for the dinner table that night. Even with the mishap, they had time to stop and see the Rio On Pools, so Tom, Kate, Cara, and Dustin felt that they got more than their money’s worth on the trip.

The next day we said an early goodbye to them as Tom took them to Georgeville to meet Gonzo for their ATM tour. Because we couldn’t accommodate them for another night, we had arranged with Gonzo to deliver them to Crystal Paradise Resort after the tour, where they were spending the rest of their time in Cayo, while Tom delivered their luggage to Crystal Paradise on his way to Benque to pick up our next guests. We heard from them when they returned home, and were happy to hear that this plan worked flawlessly.

This group was the first to enjoy our new kitchen and dining room, and, as we’ve found with everybody who has since seen it, they were happy not only with the food, but with the ambiance. They appreciated things like being able to use our WiFi to surf the internet by kerosene lamp, checking in with family and friends in more civilized parts of the world who probably weren’t running off of batteries and lighting with kerosene.

Al & Kathleen

Tom started December with a last minute, 2-week trip to visit his parents in Florida, which was a great Christmas gift for both Tom and his parents. Upon his return, however, it was right back to work since our first guests of the holiday season, Kathleen and Al from Oregon, arrived two days after Tom’s return. It wasn’t much like work, however, since we had a great visit with them and really enjoyed helping them get to know this area.


They arrived here slightly frazzled because they didn’t realize how far out we are – not necessarily mileage-wise, but because of road conditions. They got a bus into San Ignacio, and figured it would be easy to get a taxi here. They found a taxi driver who said he was willing to take them from San Ignacio to Moonracer Farm for $8BZ, so they loaded their luggage and jumped in the car. Unfortunately, because they didn’t speak much Spanish and the taxi driver didn’t speak much English, they didn’t realize until they were well on the way here that the taxi driver had no idea where he was going, and didn’t realize how far out we were on bad roads. He kept trying to drop them at every resort they passed all the way through Cristo Rey. Fortunately Al had looked at the maps on our website and had a general idea where they were going, so he was able to tell the driver to just keep driving. They finally got here, and the taxi driver had to not only tell them it was going to cost more than $8, but also admit that he was worried that his car was going to have problems navigating the 12 miles of bad road back to town. Fortunately for Al and Kathleen, it only cost $50BZ, which is the standard rate, so they didn’t end up paying any more than they should have – although $8BZ would have been nice!

For their first full day here they toured ATM with Gonzo, who had also recently returned from a trip to the US. As everybody is, they were quite impressed, not only with the cave, but with the tour. Gonzo and Carlos had combined their groups, so all the guests had the benefit of the expertise of both guides, which is interesting because both, being Maya themselves, feel a personal connection to the cave and share that connection with their guests. Because the connection is personal, it’s different for them, and all of the guests appreciated getting this difference in perspective.

On their second day they took a hike with Melvin. They didn’t really have a destination, but parked at Ka’ax Tun and hiked through the farms and into the jungle behind the Village of 7 Miles. They had originally requested a jungle hike, and they found the information that Melvin shared about the flora and fauna of the jungle fascinating, but they said they were somewhat surprised at how interesting they found the wealth of information that Melvin shared about the plantations, as he calls them, in the farm fields, from what was planted and why, to how it had to be cultivated, to what would happen to the produce when it is harvested, to generally how people manage to make a living farming on what looks like a pile of rocks. Melvin also took them back to his home for a Coke after the hike, and they found his stories of life in a very small village in rural Belize as interesting as the farm and jungle lore. Al and Kathleen had brought a package of school supplies to distribute to children in this country, and after their day with Melvin they ended up delivering the package into his safekeeping so he could distribute it to the schoolchildren of 7 Miles.

The next day Kathleen and Al were heading to Tikal for two nights, so we delivered them to the border with instructions about how to get a guide for the Temple IV Sunrise tour, and advice on getting back into Belize so they could finish their Belize vacation on Glover’s Atoll.

Merry Christmas to Me!

The kitchen is done! Actually, there are a few more things to do, and some more permanent counters need to be built along with a pie safe, but they finished enough of the shelves and counters that I could fit all of my stuff in there, and moved my appliances from my dark closet of a kitchen in the house into this light, airy, and spacious kitchen.



It was a hard push to get the last few things done. It seemed like we were almost there, but every time I contemplated actually making the move, I realized a few more things needed to be done. The walls were done, the door was done, and the kitchen part of the building was lockable, but I didn’t think the one table they had completed would offer enough space to both store all my stuff and give me room to work. So, they built another table with shelves and hung some wire racks over the stove site and the center table. The second table still doesn’t have a top, but the shelves underneath give me plenty of space for storage, and I have more than adequate counter space, especially compared to the old kitchen – which had virtually none.

Just yesterday, Julio came to help and we did the big move. Tom and Julio moved all the big stuff, which involved disconnecting the gas and the plumbing in the old kitchen and connecting it in the new. I went out to transfer our guests to the border, and when I returned home not only were all the appliances out of the old kitchen, but they’d put them in the yard and thoroughly cleaned them – even the inside of the oven! Then we all just carried stuff out to the new kitchen. None of us could believe how much stuff I had crammed into my tiny kitchen, and how quickly it filled the new kitchen. I finally left the carrying to the men and I started stowing stuff, and it was just about dark by the time I had the kitchen in a condition where I could make dinner in it last night.

So far so good on how it works, although our first guests to eat out of the new kitchen are just about to arrive, so we’ll see how it works when put to the test. In the meantime, I’m enjoying sharing it with a hooded warbler and a great-tailed grackle (which I prefer to call crazy tailed grackles since their tails never seem to following them quite straight), although I might be less taken with the birds in the kitchen if I find they’ve decided to try the lemon squares I have cooling on the counter. We’re still debating about whether or not we want to screen it. The bugs aren’t really a factor here, and screen tends to get dirty and obstruct the view, especially of the many birds we have around here, so we’re going to try it unscreened for a while. But, if the bugs are too bad, or the birds sample my baked goods, we might have to screen it. We’ll see.

Dena & Steve

Dena and Steve from Leeds, England, visited us over the US Thanksgiving week. Dena and I did a lot of preplanning via email because I was worried that things could be busy since it was Thanksgiving week and lots of people from the US would be here on vacation. As it turned out, our US visitors who were scheduled for that week postponed, so Dena and Steve ended up being here by themselves for five days.

Steve and Dena arrived in San Ignacio after using William’s Belize Shuttle transfer service to get from the airport in Belize City to San Ignacio. William doesn’t want to wreck his vehicles on our road, so his driver left them at Hannah’s where they were able to get a snack since they missed lunch, and Tom met them there and brought them back to the farm. When they left, we did the reverse and dropped them at Hannah’s where William met them to take them back to the airport. This worked out great as far as we were concerned. While we don’t mind doing transfers and understand that for many people it’s not only less expensive than renting a car, but also much less stressful, it was nice to have somebody else do the driving and put miles on their vehicle instead of ours, and after paying both us and William for our respective legs of the trip, Dena and Steve saved a few dollars.

Dena and Steve did the kind of vacation that Tom and I think we would do if we were guests at Moonracer Farm. The only thing they did that took them out of the Mountain Pine Ridge was their ATM tour, which, if you’re adventurous, is a must do when you visit Cayo.


The first day they were here they rode with Joe from his farm near San Antonio to Big Rock. This gave them a good introduction to the jungle, and in addition to seeing the caves on Joe’s property and the Big Rock waterfall, they got to see both the broadleaf jungle and the mountain pine ridge. They said they rode all day and didn’t see anybody else on the trail or at Big Rock, which surprised us since we expected people to be at Big Rock during the holiday week.


The next day Selmo picked them up bright and early and they headed back into the Mountain Pine Ridge. Their first stop was Rio Frio Cave, and then they made their way up to Caracol. On the way back, they stopped for a swim at Rio On Pools, and remarked that Rio On must be the place all the swank hotels use to model their natural-looking swimming pools. Selmo said the water was perfect in both temperature and depth so the area was just like a water park.


The following day I joined Steve and Dena on a hike from the back of 7 Miles to the base of a beautiful 700 foot waterfall in the jungle. Melvin was our guide, and he led us through the land his family farms, across government land, and then up the river to the base of the falls. Prior to coming here, Dena and I had discussed whether or not a guide was needed to hike in the jungle. I basically insisted that they use a guide, and Dena, slightly reluctantly, gave in, since she and Steve have hiked all over the world, frequently without a guide. Here, however, we don’t know of any trail maps, and especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Richard, many of the jungle trails are very windy with seemingly inexplicable detours, and it’s difficult to describe where you’re supposed to look for other trails and which way you should go. In addition, if you haven’t spent much time in the jungle, a guide is good both to tell you what to be careful of as far as the flora and fauna go, and to help you spot wildlife that most of us would never see on our own. During the hike, Melvin led us off the trail to see area caves, and pointed out a variety of birds we wouldn’t have seen including toucans, blue crowned motmots, a red capped manakin, and a crested guan. He also told us which trees weren’t safe to grab as we negotiated the muddy, steep, and often treacherous trail, and helped us keep our hands off the poisonwood, basket taitai, and give and take trees.


And, best of all, he got us to the base of the waterfall which, with the number of stream crossings we had to do, was an accomplishment since it would have been difficult for us to follow the trail alone since it used the waterway as the trail in multiple places, before shooting back into the bush. As we were hiking out, Melvin suddenly stopped in the trail and put up his hand for us to stop behind him. Steve, Dena, and I stopped, and Melvin gestured us forward and pointed to the side of the trail, where a very beautiful but very deadly coral snake was coiled. Chances are we could have walked by without disturbing it, and coral snakes are generally not aggressive, but at that point Dena turned to me and thanked me for insisting that we take a guide, and said that she didn’t even want to think about how many dangerous things they may have walked blithely by without Melvin’s eyes and jungle awareness.


For their final trip, Steve and Dena went to ATM. We usually send our guests to ATM with Gonzo, but Gonzo was out of the country so we booked Steve and Dena on a PACZ tour. PACZ is an excellent tour operator with a great reputation and great guides. However, for Dena and Steve, this trip was a little bit of a letdown after the rest of their Moonracer Farm stay. They’d gone horseback riding and hiking and visited Caracol with the two of them being the only guests of our hand-picked guides who are also our friends, and had come back raving about each tour. For the ATM tour, they were part of a fairly large group – two vans with two guides, and eight people with each guide. Dena was a little nervous about the trip; she’s a triathlete, so she’s a good swimmer, but she’s a little claustrophobic and wasn’t quite sure about swimming in a cave and could have used a little reassurance from the guide. However, one of the other women in the group was a non-swimmer, so the guide understandably focused most of his assistance and reassurance on the non-swimmer, who he judged to need it more than Dena. Dena understood, but remarked that it was a very different experience with a very different feel than their other three tours. Nonetheless, they really enjoyed the trip and were amazed, as everybody is, by what ATM offers.

The next day we dropped them at Hannah’s bright and early, where William met them to drive them to the airport.

The Kitchen - Finished floor and walls in progress



One of the things we are learning with this project is that a lot of things that can’t really be seen have to be done in between the good photo opportunities showing a lot of progress.  This floor was done shortly after the last blog post, but then a number of things had to be done to get ready for the next big step in building.

We decided that because I want the kitchen area of the building to be open, but it still needs to be secure because we will be storing things like alcohol in there, we needed to cage it in.  In part, this is just good reuse of material we have on the property, but in addition to being secure yet open, it provides a good backing for the palmetto (pimento) sticks we are using for the walls.  However, before the cage material could be put up for the walls and ceiling, it had to be taken down from the cages still standing on the property, which is an awkward and time consuming job.  And, it’s not easy to handle in big pieces, so getting the walls up and straight was a job, and getting the large pieces into the rafters took a few extra hands.



 Once the cage material was up, the next job was to take a day and go up into the Mountain Pine Ridge to collect the sticks. Tinkerbell was drafted for the job, and Tom went with a bunch of local guys who knew where the palmettos were, and how to cut the sticks. The local guys also knew the process of stopping by the Forest Department to pay for this sticks, which cost $.10BZ per stump. Pretty cheap lumber!


Once they had the sticks here and unloaded, we had a big conference about what we wanted the outside walls to look like. We decided that the walls should be four feet high in the kitchen area to provide a backsplash for the counters, and three feet high in the dining area so they don’t impede people’s view when they’re sitting at a table. Tom used his power mitre box and set up a line so that the sticks were fed to a board, Tom used the saw to cut them, and they were then stacked to the side.

The other part of the conference was what we wanted the sticks to look like.  Many places around here have palmetto stick walls, but most leave the hairy bark on the sticks.  We decided that since this is a kitchen, we’d rather have the bark peeled off in hopes of giving bugs one less place to hide.  Plus, we like the look of the peeled sticks.  But, it was quite a job to peel each stick!

 

Once the sticks were cut and peeled, the noticeable construction was able to start.  They put up two guide boards between the supporting posts and inside the cage material, then nailed the sticks to the boards from the outside of the cage material.  Because the sticks were all cut evenly, it took two people inside to keep them at the right height and straight…

…and one on the outside to do the nailing.  Daniel made it a point to hammer the nails in from about a 45 degree angle so when you look at the wall, you don’t see metal nail heads on the wood.

His effort was well worth it.  We’re quite pleased with the look of the walls, and are looking forward to getting the sticks up the rest of the way around the building.

Mimi & Doak

The day Abigail, Staci, and Caleb left, Mimi and Doak arrived in San Ignacio. They are thinking of eventually moving to Belize, so they were trying where at all practical to travel like the locals and really see the country, dealing with the “burps” in the system as they went along. Since Tom and I try to live like that as well here, we thoroughly appreciated the effort and tried to help however we could, and while Mimi and Doak’s stay here wasn’t the well-choreographed stay of the completely pre-planned, pull-out-all-the-stops vacation, all four of us had fun and learned a bit.

I felt very badly about the first burp, because if I had put a little more thought into it, I probably could have prevented it. All through the planning stages of their trip, Mimi and Doak had planned to stay at the Belize Zoo’s Tropical Education Center the night before they came here, then get a bus on the Western Highway and arrive in San Ignacio around noon. After Hurricane Richard, the Belize Zoo was closed. I knew the Belize Zoo was closed and I knew Mimi and Doak planned to stay there, but it never occurred to me to ask them if they had confirmed their reservation. I just sort of assumed (yes, I know that little ditty about the word “assume”) that although the Zoo was closed the TEC was open, or that if the TEC was closed Mimi and Doak would have been contacted, but that wasn’t how it worked out. Mimi and Doak spent the first part of their vacation in Placencia, and discovered while they were there that the TEC was closed along with the Zoo. They had already purchased roundtrip Tropic Air tickets from Belize City to Placencia and back, so on their return they just spent the night in Belize City before coming here. They had no trouble getting a bus out of Belize City, but when they got to Belmopan they waited through three or four full buses heading west to San Ignacio, and finally gave up and got a cab, arriving in San Ignacio around 3:30, instead of 2PM, which is when they had anticipated their arrival based on the bus they caught from Belize City. I felt like a dope not only because I had totally missed connecting that they were staying at the [closed] TEC, but also because I knew they were going to Placencia, so if I thought about it I could have had Selmo bring them directly from Placencia when he dropped of Staci, Abigail, and Caleb, and the transfer cost could have been split. Mimi and Doak assured me that it was fine, and that they probably wouldn’t have done that anyway since they had their Tropic Air roundtrip tickets, but still…I don’t like to miss those things.

The second burp occurred on Mimi and Doak’s only full day here, when they had scheduled a much anticipated trip to ATM. We had some communications difficulties with the guides (life in the land of no phone lines or cell reception), and their guide never showed to pick them up in Georgeville. Since Tom was waiting with them, he did a quick replan and took them to Barton Creek Cave instead, which they had never visited, although it wasn’t on their “A” list like ATM. After visiting Barton Creek, they came back here for lunch – surprising me as I was finishing up my salad lunch on the porch – and then after lunch went with Tom into the Mountain Pine Ridge to visit Rio Frio Cave and Rio On Pools. Again, they assured us that it worked out fine because they know they’ll be back and can see ATM later, and they enjoyed what they did, but still…I don’t like it when things don’t go according to plan and our guests have to compromise on what they get to do.

Their departure day actually went as planned, and despite the fact that they had to leave, everything worked like it was supposed to; they had a half day horseback ride scheduled with Joe, and Tom dropped them off, the horses were ready, they went for a ride, and Tom picked them up and they came back here for lunch before heading into San Ignacio to stay at Rosa’s for their last night in Cayo. We had a minor panic attack because neither Tom nor I could place where in San Ignacio Rosa’s is located, but after reading a few TripAdvisor reviews that mentioned how it’s near a big nightclub, we knew it had to be the place next to Blue Angels – and we were right, finally, about something! After a relaxed lunch discussing politics and religion, Tom drove them into town and we thanked our lucky stars that Mimi and Doak were such nice, laid back guests who had an enjoyable time here despite all the setbacks.

Staci, Abigail, and Caleb

Abigail, Staci, and Caleb in ATM (bottom to top)

November started with a four night stay by Staci, Abigail, and Caleb. They flew the red-eye TACA flight from LA, which put them into Belize before 10AM, so they were able to go both zip lining and cave tubing on their way to Moonracer Farm, and have time for a short nap before dinner when they arrived here. The next day they had planned to go to Xunantunich, not realizing that it takes only a half day to tour the site, so when Tom dropped them off with Selmo in the morning, Selmo very happily did some last minute planning and called Chechem Ha so they were able to take that tour as well that day, along with a traditional Belizean lunch at Benny’s. They following day they rode horses with Joe to Big Rock, and stopped at two different caves. This was good preparation for their final tour of ATM, which they did with Carlos on their last day here. Their order of go for their tours was intentional on our part, and when we explained why we had them start with cave tubing, then do Chechem Ha, then do the smaller, less explored caves, saving ATM for the last, they understood that if they had started with ATM, everything else would have been a little bit of a letdown.


Once again, we had a very enjoyable time visiting with the three of them each night at dinner, and stayed up way too late talking just because it was fun. Caleb and Abigail are interpreters for the deaf, and Staci and Caleb both work at the jail, so they had lots of entertaining stories about their jobs, which Tom and I thoroughly enjoyed. From here, they had Selmo transfer them to Placencia, where they spent the remainder of their vacation before heading home.

Can you help the Belize Zoo?

While we didn't have much damage as a result of Hurricane Richard, the area around the Belize Zoo was hit quite hard, and the Zoo suffered extensive damage.  The Zoo is closed for at least this month as they clean up, repair, and rebuild.  And, of course, they need funds to do this because the rehabilitating will cost a lot of money, and they won't have any income during the time the Zoo is closed.  If you would like to help, go to the Belize Zoo's website and click on the Hurricane Relief Funds donation button on the right side of the page.

The Belize community is pitching in with donations, volunteering time and equipment to help with the cleanup, and auction items for a few benefit auctions which will be held this month.  But you can help no matter where you are!

A new chapter in water news

Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while know that in the time we’re lived here, we’ve had to work with a somewhat unstable water situation. We had been getting our water through a pipe from 7 Miles, but between more farmers getting on line for the water, and the pipe getting old and both filling in from the inside and leaking, less water was getting to the village and we frequently didn’t get any water at all for weeks on end.


Last summer, the San Antonio water system was finally finished. San Antonio has a bigger pipe than 7 Miles, and more than enough water was being delivered to the village. Because San Antonio had been getting water from 7 Miles, the pipe runs between the two villages. Because all of the people right in our area had been without water for months, people petitioned both village water boards to see if we could be switched so we would get water from San Antonio, and the water boards agreed that we should get San Antonio water, although we still pay the Village of 7 Miles.

Since that agreement was made, our water situation has been much improved, although there have been a few glitches in getting the San Antonio system up and running, and we’ve still had periods of time where we didn’t get water – but the periods of time have been a few days to a couple of weeks, rather than months. So thank you, San Antonio for letting us get your water, and thank you 7 Miles for consenting to give up a few bucks of our water bill to pay San Antonio for the service!

In addition, we purchased a couple of more 1,000 gallon tanks, so we can now store 4,400 gallons of water on the property. Right now we’re getting plenty of water, but the San Antonio farmers will be drawing more water off the system for irrigation in the dry season, and we’re at the end of the line whether we get San Antonio water or 7 Miles water. Plus, politics being politics wherever you are in the world, we don’t quite trust the water boards of the two villages not to get in a tiff over something and use our water supply as collateral, so we want to make sure we have a backup.

More kitchen progress

While Tom and the guys have been very busy working on the kitchen these last couple of weeks, we didn’t have a whole lot of visible progress. The floor for the kitchen part of the building is of smooth concrete, but Tom wants the dining room part to be a little fancier. Adix, the mother of Hugo, the Guatemalan driver/guide we use for Tikal trips, has a restaurant in Guatemala with a floor that Tom really likes – log cuts laid into the concrete. Tom talked to Hugo about how they did it, and talked to some of the guys around here who have worked with concrete, and came up with a plan to get the floor he wants.



First, he went to Linda Vista lumberyard and ordered slabs cut from a hardwood tree. After lots of calculations on the part of the lumberyard manager, Tom, and a sample floor laid out near the mill by Hector, the man running the chainsaw, Tom ended up with 134 slabs.

Each about 3” thick, it took two trips to Spanish Lookout in Tinkerbell to get all the slabs back to Moonracer Farm.


Then the tedious task of sanding and linseed oiling each slab started, which is what has taken most of the past week and a half – and it would have taken even longer without some help from Julio and Ian over the weekend.


Finally, just yesterday, the work started on the floor. Tom said it’s a lot like tiling with slate, which he did in our house in New York. They put down a thin layer of concrete, then lay each cut into the concrete, and work on getting it completely level with the floor and the other cuts around it. Fortunately Tom has more patience than most people, and after a few very slow and frustrating cuts were level, he said it got a little easier.

They finished a little over half the floor yesterday, and had most of the other half done before lunch today, but discovered that a few more cuts needed to be sanded and oiled. The total number used on the floor will be 126, so Tom, Scott, and Hector were very close in their original calculations. Tom is planning to make some rustic night stands with the leftovers.


While Tom was sanding the remaining cuts, Julio started filling in the concrete between the cuts to make the level floor. He said it’s not as difficult as it would seem, mostly because he’s able to stand on cuts that are already in hardened concrete, so he can work from a comfortable position. With any luck, we’ll have the floor finished before the weekend!