Dennis and I celebrated our first New Year's Eve in Belize three years ago today. And it has been an exciting, exasperating, exhilarating, exhausting, exquisite, expensive, and expansive three years!
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| In 2013 we started construction of the addition to our vacation cabana to make it suitable for full-time occupancy. Still not completed, but the end is in sight. 2016 will see us moving in. |
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| Lots of butterflies. |
Our friends Julie and Phil helped us celebrate my retirement after I spent most of 2013 commuting back and forth from Belize to Rochester for work.
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| The deck decked out with pennants to celebrate my retirement. |
Out in the jungle behind our cabana are wild orchids.
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| Orchid flower stalk after the rain. |
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| Orchid in bloom. |
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| Orchid seed pods. |
Along the Monkey River Road we often see chachalacas.
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| Boom chachalaca! |
The weather is always interesting.
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| Waterspout at sea. |
Also along the Monkey River Road are provision trees with their gorgeous blossoms
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| These flowers peel open like a banana to expose their showy pompom flowers. |
The sea casts up its treasures at our feet.
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| Beautiful silver and teal blue chondrophore hydrozoans about the diameter of a bottle cap wash up now and again. |
Battles are waged in the jungle.
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| Male blue land crabs get feisty as mating season approaches. The fighting claws on these huge fellows are bigger than my hand. |
Birds survey their water-side domain.
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| Bare-throated tiger heron looks out from a treetop along the Monkey River. They also patrol our beach and Black Creek. |
Out in the jungle are the remains of past civilizations.
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| Dennis in the partially restored Mayan ruins of Nim Li Punit. |
The photos above are only a small hint of what Belize holds for us. There is so much to explore and experience in our new home country. So much to look forward to in 2016 and the years to come.
Wishing you all a peaceful, happy, and healthy New Year, where ever you are.
