Another Week Closer to Belize

On Friday, we celebrated Dennis’ last birthday in Minnesota; his next birthday will be in Belize. The countdown widget on the righthand side of the blog, shows that Dennis’ retirement is only 18 days away from today.  I am more excited than he is. 

I was sorting through my old photos and pulled these from our third trip to Belize.  The first is some land we were looking at before we found  what we wound up with.  This was 10 acres plus another 40 if interested on the west coast of the Northern Lagoon.  It was beautiful, even in the rainy season, nestled into the Peccary Hills.

 George, a local guide, took us by boat from Gales' Point in the Southern Lagoon, to the property.  We saw big, fresh jaguar prints in the muddy track.

George slogs valiantly along the flooded road with me close behind.  Less than 2 weeks before this trip, Dennis had arthroscopic knee surgery, so he elected to stay on dry ground rather than risk injury or infection of his still healing knee.  Good call on Dennis' part; the water got mid-thigh deep on me in one place. 

Also on this trip we went to the Maya ruins called "Xunantunich".  To get there we had to cross the Macal River on a hand-cranked car ferry.  Below is a view of the river from the ferry.

And above is a shot of the ferry after we got off.  It can hold 2 or 3 cars at a time.

The ruins are quite impressive.  The shot above is of the largest structure there, but there were many more. Dennis was able to hike up to the top (and, more importantly, down again) in spite of his recent knee surgery.

The carvings are intricate and detailed.  I hope we can go back soon and get more photos now that I have a better camera and more lenses.

Back to the present - Craig sent photos of the completed concrete work.  We are very pleased with it and can hardly wait to see it for ourselves.

It will be so much easier to keep things clean and dry.  This area is about 600 sq.ft. of space.  Later on, once we get the water vats moved to the foundation for the bedroom expansion, we will do the remaining 300 sq.ft. 

In front of the back wall, you can see a small, white appliance that in Belize passes for a clothes washing machine.  It is quite simple, but does do the heavy work of washing.  It doesn't really spin dry, though.

This is about it for today's post.  The day started out cool and rainy and will end cold and perhaps snowy.  A good day to work on packing for the big move next month.  

Hope you stay warm and dry.