It’s been raining here, up until this afternoon. It hasn’t really bothered us, but it’s making the locals not so happy. In our minds, it’s still warm, and the rain isn’t snow, and while there have been showers where it’s rained hard enough that you get pretty wet, for the most part it’s just been gray and drizzly and only a minor inconvenience. We’ve actually sort of liked it, because we’ve been driving around with a real estate agent and looking at properties, and we figure that if we like something when it’s gray and dripping, we’ll love it when it’s sunny – which is a better perspective than falling in love with a place because it’s beautiful in the sunshine, and then finding that it’s dismal in the rain.
The only problem with the rain is the mud, just like anywhere else. Poor Tinkerbell was humiliated because we went out looking at properties with the real estate agent on Thursday, so we walked to town and went in his truck, and left Tinkerbell at the campground. When we got back that afternoon we were going to drive into town to pick up a few things, and as soon as Tom started to back up, he realized she was sunk in the mud. We decided to wait and see if it dried out at all by Friday. It didn’t. It rained most of Thursday night, so by Friday morning Tink was sunk to her rims. Tom jacked her up and started packing stuff under the tire, but it wasn’t working. After two or three jack and pack cycles, Greg (the campground owner) heard the engine and came down to see what we were doing. He walked back up to the house, got his old VW Golf, and towed her out of the mud. How humiliating – the big heavy duty Ford unmired by a measly VW Golf! That little exercise complete, we went to meet the realtor, only about an hour and a half later than expected. But hey, it’s Belize, and nobody really cared.
Speaking of taking the truck into town, Tom has already had two offers from people wanting to buy her. The customs agents had said that there nobody wants this type of truck because gas is so expensive, but we weren’t in town an hour before the offers started. It seems to be difficult to get an affordable vehicle strong enough to pull a trailer, and everybody seems to have something to tow, whether it’s a work trailer, or an equipment trailer, or a stock trailer, or just some piece of crap with a hitch on wheels.
A few things have happened that have made us laugh. We were with the realtor and were getting ice cream cones, and the owner of the ice cream shop came out to meet us since they’re also from the US. He asked us where we were from, we said New York, he looked us up and down, and said, “Upstate, obviously. Which city?” We THINK it was a compliment. Then today we were in an internet café owned by a guy from England who works in the US sometimes. He had asked us where we were from, and left it at New York. Then a woman came in and was talking to him, and she managed to “insult” him three times in about as many sentences, first by saying he was Australian (he’s British), then, when she found out he was British by assuming he is from London (he’s not), and then, as she was trying to untangle herself, she referred to the woman working with him as his wife (she’s not). He came over to tell us about it and to laugh about how clueless people from NYC are, and he never even checked to make sure we weren’t from the Big Apple. When I pointed out that he’d made an assumption similar to the insulting woman’s assumptions in talking to him, he looked baffled and informed us that it’s obvious we’re from Upstate because we’re relaxed and nice.
We’ve only had to gulp over things costing more here than in the US twice, so far. One was a bag of dog food that cost $40USD. I thought the $20 or so I was spending in the US was pricey, but now we know why the Belizeans feed their dogs tortillas and spoiled meat. I’ll be checking out the feed store when we’re halfway through this bag, reading the ingredients lists and trying to find a reasonably good reasonably priced dog food. The other was our laundry. There aren’t any self service laundromats in this area, and maybe not in all of Belize, so the choices are to drop it off and have someone do it for you (which they call a laundromat), and the other is to get a washboard and do it in a utility sink. We hadn’t done laundry since Texas, so we’d racked up almost two weeks worth on our drive through Mexico, and I didn’t really feel like doing it by hand. So, we dropped it off in town, with instructions to pick it up that evening. Tom went to pick it up, and found that it was almost $35USD! I’m still resisting the washboard, so we’ll probably ask for rates at the next laundromat, and hope we find a place to buy that already has a washer!
The property search is interesting, and we’re glad to be started. Our real estate agent has been great about finding places that interest us, and we spent all day Thursday and part of Friday looking at houses and property. We have another day or two of looking to do next week, and then we’ll probably start making decisions. The good news is that we’ve heard from multiple sources that once an offer is accepted, it’s possible to close within a couple of weeks, so if we find something we like we could be calling Belize home by the end of February. But, we have a few decisions to make and a few bridges to cross before we get there.
And I probably should have said this before, but thanks to everyone for your support, and all the good wishes, thoughts, and prayers that you sent in our direction. Obviously, they worked! We’re here safe and sound and loving life, and we hope all of you are too.
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