What’s A Rickshaw?

We are still in Belize but maybe in about 3 weeks we will be going back to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala. We need to take the boat out of Belize or they want lots of money to import the boat if we stay any longer. Remember that some of the countries down here are smaller than some of the states in the US. All have different rules. Money is always a problem any where we go and as I have said in lots of our blogs if you are down here and have white skin and blues eyes, everyone thinks you have lots of money. All these countries want money if you sail in their waters. You just have to learn to get along and play by their rules. Having a car down here is a luxury and we can’t afford any thing better than a bicycle to get around but Pam and I both need a bicycle. A bicycle built for two would be nice but where would you find one down here? Getting Pam on the handlebars would work if she would quit laughing and be serious. She says that may have worked when we were young but now after we have been marred 53 years we need to act our age. If you’re reading this and know us you know I build things. We built our boat, we built the last house we owned. With very little money, the building or fixing things is a way of life so I gathered up all the bicycle parts I could find and built us a bicycle built for 3.  Now if you think about it. I’m excited at riding around Placencia Village here on our bike built for 3. I can see Pam peddling along with me setting in back waving at the people as we past by. Groceries setting in the seat beside me. Life is good when you think about it but Pam is already asking where we are going to put it on our boat when we go to sea. I just put that in the same place that young woman did in    “Gone With the Wind”. I will think about that tomorrow but to day we ride.

Cut it apart and get started

It’s coming together

Maybe we will be riding soon

Placencia Village. Belize

We are still in Belize and it’s “HOT”. This is the worst time of the year to be here. It has to do they say with the sun traveling north and it being dry this time of year. The sun is over head not just high in the sky. With this we have been doing what all people do where the sun is baking you like a potato. Find shade and a breeze to get along. We have been here a few weeks and are learning where to find stuff. If you have ever been to a third world country you know shopping is not the same as being in the US. Shopping is more where to find stuff than getting a bargain. Some time just finding something you can use is hard. There is several grocery stores here but no where here can you buy fresh meat. What they have is all frozen. Pam and I being from the country and me coming from a working farm enjoy a good cut of meat. In most of the Caribbean no one has ever trained to be a butcher. Most places they just hang up a animal and just start cutting off small pieces. A lot of the meat in the Caribbean is cut very thin maybe just a quarter inch thick because of it being so tough. Here in Belize they do have some cuts of meat like pork chops and some steak like T-bones but as I said it’s all frozen and brought in to this part of the country mostly for the tourist. We have been lucky and have had a couple of fare steaks but as you know if you gamble you loose some times. This week Pam lost so being the good husband I am we had to shared my steak because even if we payed good money my steak was okay and hers was just bad. Freezer burnt or old when they froze it. Remember as I have said in a lot of our blogs living in the Western Caribbean is not cheaper than the US. The people that say they can don’t tell you how they live. Living off black beans and rice ever meal is not living well to me so this is why, maybe you can call it “the art of shopping” is part of living well down here. Pam has gotten good at it. When we find pork we make our on sausage and we grind fresh corn to make grits. Where we are at a marina they deliver to the crew boats going out to the islands early in the morning twice a week and Pam is there seeing what she can buy. The islands are where the tourist go. She will have them digging in boxes handing her thing down from the trucks. Round tomatoes are high on her list and near the bottom is bananas but at 7 for 50 cents, don’t ask her if she has something to nibble on for a break unless you like bananas. Maybe in all of this is the adventures of being here. Every day we see things or hear things we are not expecting. We went to the village last week and decided to eat out. Always and adventure. First place we stopped they were out of chicken. They fry the chicken and then cut it up with a saw in strips with the bone still in it. You eat the strips of chicken and pick out the bones. It’s okay. The next place we came to they had T-bone steak on the menu out front but they had no steaks. Said they hadn’t had any for months or at least a long time she couldn’t remember but had forgot to take it off the menu out front. We were headed back to the boat when we saw some people we knew eating at a place where a man cooks half chickens on a grill outside under some trees. There are some tables there to eat on. This is not a restaurant with outside tables. The tables are the restaurant. We decided to eat there. This is served with coconut milk rice not as good as it sounds but setting there with friends, Breeze blowing through the palm trees and easy night in the Caribbean, every thing was good. The usual language in Belize is English but that’s not true either. It depends where your at and who you are talking too. Most can speak Creole and most can speak some Spanish. Some have trouble with English. We were setting there laughing and talking when a man came by and sat down on a table top beside us talking and laughing. The owner was trying to tell him something and none of us could understand what he was saying. I was at one point thinking he was saying “asphalt”. You know like payment on a road when we all came to the same conclusion at the same time, he was saying, “Ass Off”. Here as in all the Caribbean you don’t set your ass where you eat. As I am always saying about being here,the food is bad, the music worse and it’s hot but it’s hard to tell anyone what it feels like as I have already said to be setting here among friends eating something different with the sun going down and it cooling off a little with the trade winds blowing off the ocean rustling the palm trees in the Western Caribbean.

A restaurant we have not ate at yet. But we like the name

Main street Placencia, Belize

This is the graveyard. In the center of the village Four young boys just finished painting the fence

More Time In Belize

This past week we had to go back to Big Creek and get our passport stamped to stay in Belize 30 more days. Remember you have to pay for every day your in Belize and you can only get 30 days at a time. It cost Pam and I five US dollars every day we are here. Think you can go some where and not be affected by politics. This week we hit 16,000 total hits on our blog. Maybe we have done this by not talking about politics or religion. This week I hope I can talk about both with out taking sides but let people know it’s always there as you travel.

They are great farmers too

Here a Mennonite is selling watermelons at the Hokey Pokey ferry landing in the town of Independence side. Dressed in his home made clothes, driving horses. I would bet living with out electricity or running water by chose. My biggest surprise is how good they are at being mechanics, fixing anything and are not allowed by their religion to drive cars or live with modern things. You need to get it fixed here in Belize take it to the Mennonites. My biggest let down is they don’t like or can’t listen to music. On the politics side not only do you have to try to abide with their policies in the countries you are in but sometimes we are ask about Trump by the locals here. Here in Central America all the American news they get is sound bits and the discussions they see on CNN. That’s the American news channel you see the most down here on the few TVs that are here. This week CNN was on the TV in the customs office and at the Hokey Pokey ferry dock where we had to wait on the ferry. Remember the ferry here is just a long runabout built here in Belize to carry people across the water between Independence and Placencia. Powered by an outboard motor. When we are ask about Trump I think about how it was with Obama in office. Reading an article a few week back that was on our computer was and interview of a man in North Korea. The North Korea man said that their Superior Leader could talk at 2 months old and walk at 3 months old, drive a car unattended at 3 years old and go where he pleased. It went on and on. I have heard some people here talking about Obama and it sounded like that so with only sound bits you can just guess what they think about Trump and that wall. Along with politics and religion here and every where you go is what people are accustom to. Here I just can’t believe no one eats banana sandwiches. Being from the deep south in the USA some people up north turn up there noses at a banana sandwich made with peanut butter but down here most locals don’t eat peanut butter either. Maybe all of this is just a trap we fall into as we try to change people minds to think like us. I think maybe Pam and I will just do what we have been doing for a long time and not try to change anyone’s mind on anything but it’s hard with the no banana sandwiches thing. Maybe just this one time people just need to be showed the light on that.

This is an old British phone booth. It is going to one of the islands here.

This is an oven still used every day by John the Bakerman