What have we been up too...

Time sure does fly.

We are in the final month before our trip home to MN and a visit to the UP of MI. I think that is on our minds the most. Family Vacations, friends, good food, and 2 little dogs.

We have been riding our new bikes to work each day. Yep, we have the coolest bikes on the block with fenders and a head light. Strange riding in the dark. But we have been luckly to not have any rain in our area for the past almost 2 weeks. The last post of the rain that came, well it flooded the road so we had to got through about 4 big puddles with no dry land around. Those puddles come form the marsh land on the non sea side of the road. One rainy night we did take the little red truck back to the house as we were doing our laundry at the resort...a crocodile crossed the road!!! SO... I don't like the idea of riding in the dark it there is water on the road.

The following photo is of the repaired road... they filled one of the big puddle area. Yes, this is repaired. Many of the dirt roads in Belize are like this...or worse. It takes 45 minutes to get from Hopkins to Dangriga... what would be 20 minutes on all paved US style roads. The dirt roads is the main reason why.
We don't go-go-go like we did when we first moved to Belize. WE go to Dangriga about once a month to maybe every other week. You plan every trip wisely... Driving is just not that fun.

Lets see... We are missing our friends Jim and Lois who are summering in Colorado and our friends Tony and Angela who are back in Alaska for about 6 weeks. Rugger is missing his Mommy and Daddy too... But Aunt Vicki and Uncle Phil are trying to spoil him!

So it mostly just Phil and I together... we love the game Phase 10 (and challenge Erika and Bridget to a wild card marathon in MI.)

Phil fixed the AC after the first week of being in our house. This week he fixed the washer and dryer! He even washed out the green water that was in the washing machine. What a great husband! He likes to surprise me with projects he finishes when I am working...I had to work a few days that we are normally both off. He also killed the first scorpien in our house. They do say if you see one, you have more. So we do keep our eyes open...

Also we are following closely Phil's nephew and his family as they go through the start of Chemo. Know that we are thinking of you and lifting you all up in prayer! www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnverly


SO I need to also get more photos of Hibiscus. I thought I got a photo of them all, but have found about 3 more I missed just on the resort grounds.

Another cool thing is I have had some guests staying at our resort tell me that they have been following our blog! So if you are coming to Belize and staying in the Hopkins area- drop us a line!

More soon!
~V&P

Hibiscus of the Week, Week 15

Hibiscus of the Week, Week 14

Hibiscus of the Week, Week 13

Rain Over the Sea

It was raining this morning. Thunder and lightning too! I

ts been a while since we had a thunderstorm roll through.
Our little house has a tin roof. I was awoken to this "strange loud noise" at 3 this morning. The building we lived in at the Resort was all concrete and we couldn't always hear rain and thunder. So it was strange this morning as I tried to figure out what was going on is a half asleep state.

More rain came in around 6 this morning....

When you see this coming you have about 5 minutes to shut your windows! Its the distance that makes it look so cool, once it close enough to you the sky just looks gray.

Sugar Cane

The norther part of Belize is know as the cane area. Once upon a time it was more in the southern area, as the old plant form the 1800's in here in Sittee River. Hence, Orange Walk district and town was then the orange grove area... now its this area. Funny how things go.

Here are some stocks of sugar cane. I remember seeing it for sale in Rainbow in Forest Lake, so give this a try sometime.

This one has a shoot, so we will plant it. I guess in 6 months it will have mature stocks.

You cut above or below the joints, then stand it up and slice off the green. Cut into sticks. You just chew on them and "drink" the sweet water. We have had them soaked in Pineapple Juice and put into a drink as a swizzle stick. Very nice!

Dangriga Town

Here are a few places in Dangriga we frequent.

The post office Our PO Box
OK the first set at the 01-100 or so. the next set is the 200's and the third set are the 100's.

Most all the restaurants in the Hopkins area buy fresh corn tortilla from here. They use them for fresh chips... Good stuff!

Making corn masa

This is what forms them, cooks them and then sends them down the line to be packaged and sold.

Our favorite place... A&D hardware.

You order all your things at the counter, they write it up, then another person checks the receipt then you go over to the cash counter to pay. So the other day it took about 45 minutes to get 5 items. But the guys who work there are very helpful and fun to visit with. They keep a tight system on their inventory, that is for sure!

They call Phil "Mr. Spa" sometimes.

You have to time any trips to Dangriga very carefully. All government businesses close form 12-1 or 1:30. Many of the stores as well... like A&D, but the "Chinese stores" (most little groceries stores) stay open. Also if you are not at the front door at 7:50 when the bank opens... you can expect to stand in line for at least 30-60 minutes to get to a teller. If you go just before lunch or in the early afternoon, its not as bad. Never go the day before a holiday! And Mondays and Fridays are not so good either.

Summer Windows

I remember growing up as a child and watching the tree frogs sit on our window screens on hot summer nights and catch bugs.

The other night we came home to this in our window... I think I like tree frogs better.

The underbelly of a Wish Willy

Critters'

So when it rains, the ground fills with water and these little guys come out. Crabs. I guess they are a land crab. You see their holes everywhere in this country! And so in the evening they come out and kinda try to take over.

I have seen them come into the dining room at JRl and the other night here were about 20 on Tony and Angel's deck.

The other night we were there, there was just a few.
Some do get very big. We have been told that a claw from a big one could pop a tier. I have gone for my walk in the morning and the have run at me instead of from me. Silly little things.

Right now at the Almond Beach Pool we have a hatching of baby iguanas. They love these purple flowers.

That same morning as I took the photo of the iguana, this humming bird was just feet from me. My lens was still "foggy" from coming out of the AC. Very beautiful!!

Sun Sets

Just a few shots off the dock at Beaches and Dreams the other night. So beautiful the sun set. It almost like the sun setw to our North this time of year.
Thunder cloud

Hibiscus of the Week, Week 12

A MN Cabin on the Caribbean Sea

We decided to rent a house down the road about a mile from the Resorts. The price was right and its nice to have a place all our own. We moved in on the 29-30 of June. Can you believe it took 3 trucks loads to move us from a one room apartment to the little house? And that is no furniture being moved. We have purchased a lot of things along the way... mostly kitchen things as we love to cook.

Now, being I have never lived on a lake I don't know the answer to this... I call the front of the house the side that faces the road... Phil says the front faces the Sea or Lake back home. So if anyone has the correct answer, let me know. So we will make it fare and call it the road side and sea side...

This is the view as you walk into the house form the road side. This is before we cleaned it up. It even smells like a MN cabin! Nice BIG kitchen! Lots of cupboard, a 2 sided sink, and a DISH WASHER! The oven and stove even have a broiler!!!! Its so great! Below is the sink and stove... there are vines growing in the window... we hope on our next days off to have someone help with the much needed yard work.

Below is going out the door to the road side and the little door to the right is the bathroom.

HUGE fridge too! Bedroom door just past the fridge.

Then the bed room: Remember, this is before I have cleaned, moved furniture and set up my bedding. Bedroom connect to bathroom as well. it is also, as a bonus, the hottest room in the house!

King size bed. nice and firm!
We went form one short dresses with 3 drawers to these to babies! The furniture is made by the Mennonites. Beautiful stuff!

Notice the AC in the wall. Well, it doesn't work. And that leads to a "Well, that's Belize" story. I guess these things have a frame that mounts into the wall. The AC's are screwed into the frame for shipping purposes. When you install one, you unscrew the unite form the frame, install the frame then slide in the AC unite. Well, not so much in Belize... Phil has found many AC's that are still screwed into frames with shipping screws and installed into the walls...as the one in our little house. But to add to the wonder of it all, the wood trim around the AC is GLUED ON TO THE WALL!! Above, looking back to the road side door. Got to love our table and chairs! And this is the "family room" or "TV room"... The TV works!!! It takes a bit to warm up and have the picture come in clear... Anyone have that at their cabin too?

OK... if you walked all the way to the end of the house, this is the last part. The old porch that was finished into a room. You can see the air matres in the corner... we have been sleeping there in the evening breeze... very nice. Then we are up with the sunrise. I love this room! We play cribbage here, read books and I have my morning coffee looking out to sea. This is the little screen porch that has another door going outside to the Sea Side...

Front of the house... I mean Road Side of the house. Notice all the weeds. Yes that is a nice garage. It has a broken washer and a broken dryer fully included in the rent! :-) Phil is going to do his best to fix them. Please also not the nice big beautiful beach house to our left. Most of the houses in this area look like that... ours is one in a million! And for sale! I think like 400,something...
This is the side yard. These are hibiscus and another flowering bush... that is the vines that are growing into the kitchen windows. We plan on making it look good over the next few months.

So this is the Sea Side below

It has a shower on the back, that kinda nice. I washed all our plastic furniture outside there this morning before work. The sun dries things fast.

And there is our beach. We are in a shallow area so it take a long walk to get to where you can swim free. The beach needs some TLC too... lots of a"stuff" to clean up.

So, that is our latest.