Moonracerfarm Belize: Vaca Dam

Back in September 2011 Lea, Gonzo’s mother (Gonzo owns/runs/guides River Rat Tours, the tour company we use for most of our guests) built a firehearth for our kitchen.You can go back in the blog to check out that project.When she was done creating it we asked how much she would like to get paid for her 2 days of hard work here. She responded that she didn’t want anything, she likes to help her friends and pass on some of her traditional knowledge to keep some of the old ways alive. However, while she was here we noticed that she loved Marge’s island table in the kitchen.So, Julio and I made one for her, a little shorter than Marge’s and we put drawers on either end so she has some extra storage space.

We completed the table in October while we were still very slow with guests and delivered it in early November.

Lea's kitchen work table

When Julio and I delivered the table we looked out over the Macal River gorge at the Vaca Dam, a hydro dam that was completed recently. The dam is on Lea and her husband Antonio’s land. I asked Antonio if we could go down to see the dam and he said sure, let’s go get permission and we can check it out. What surprised me was the fact that Antonio had never gone down to check out the dam prior to that day.

We drove down to the guard compound, found the boss, Antonio asked for permission and down we went into the river gorge in our little truck.

Here are a couple of pictures from January 2005 that Marge and I took of this same location when we were here in Belize for the first time on vacation. We came to this exact location with River Rat Tours to kayak down the Macal River for the day. We put in just below where the dam is and took these pictures as the workers were putting in the first test holes for the foundation.