We Are All Good

As they say - we dodged a bullet this time.  What a relief for us - Hurricane Lisa shifted north prior to making landfall in Belize.  Our relief was at the expense of Belize City - which experienced a sudden but impressive storm surge followed by extensive post-hurricane flooding.  The brunt of the damage was to the poorest communities with sub-standard (even for Belize) housing.  Although there was property damage, I have not heard of any lives lost.  The only real impact Lisa had on me and Dennis was the nationwide outage of telecommunications.  We had some limited phone service restored on Friday (Lisa made landfall on Wednesday) and then on Sunday had full phone service and internet again.  Power was out over most of Belize for about a day, with it mostly restored by Sunday.  That didn't affect us since we have our own solar power system.  

Looking to the southeast this afternoon - clear, calm sea.

Barnie enjoying a little sit-down after her walk.

Just look at her gorgeous Little Richard eyes!

Happy Clove.

Happier Clove.

Clove thinks that everyone would benefit from a good roll in the sun-warmed sand.  I think she's on to something.

Home Again!

And I can see!  The surgery was easy, with dramatic results.  I stayed in Dallas a week and returned home Saturday.  More about the stay in Dallas in the next post(s); today I am focusing (get it?) on the last leg of the journey home.  I left DFW at 11:04am Central Daylight Time and arrived at PGIA in Belize at 12:30pm Central Time - a flight time of just under 2.5 hours.  Belize stays on standard time year 'round since we are so close to the equator.  PGIA, Belize's only international airport,  is pretty small with only one runway and one taxiway.  It was about maxed out on how many international fights it can accommodate when we landed, so the airport with its extra covid screening process was a zoo.  I just did make my connecting flight to Placencia at 1:30pm.  I was able to sit in the co-pilot seat, my favorite spot on these small planes.

Posted placard just in case I get a hankering to try to fly the plane!  

Big planes lined up at the terminal.  My American Airlines plane is second from left with the striped tail.  

The day was perfect for flying.  Once we were airborne, the pilot  switched on autopilot and was hands off until we neared our first stop at airstrip in Dangriga.

The beautiful Belize River adjacent to PGIA.  Several times I have been lucky enough to spot manatees swimming in the river as we flew over, but not this time.

Belize City, the capital until it was levelled by Hurricane Hattie in 1961.  You can see the municipal airstrip jutting out into the sea at the upper left of the city.

A view of the Northern Lagoon with the sea to the left.  The strip of land between the lagoon and sea is very low and marshy during the rainy season.

Just south of the Northern Lagoon is the equally creatively named Southern Lagoon.  We are over the sea here, and the water is so clear you can see the sandy bottom.

Sea, shrimp farms, mountains in the distance.

Flying low over former shrimp farm ponds on the right as we make the approach to the Dangriga airstrip.

Jungle below and then the airstrip up ahead.  Dangriga is to the right.

We made a 10 minute stop in Dangriga to let a couple of passengers off and then continued flying south to Placencia, total flight time of 40 minutes.

Placencia airstrip, spans nearly the entire width of the narrow peninsula.

Until 4 or so years ago, when we landed in Placencia, once we got off the plane and collected out bags, we would walk back down the runway to the canal you see on the right of the runway.  Someone would be waiting for us in a boat to bring us straight home.  After a little oopsie at the airstrip in which a plane clipped the top of a car on the road at the far end of the runway and fell into the sea (minor injuries, car and plane totalled), national aviation safety had a review of procedures at the airstrip and changed things up.  Now there are barricades that come down to block the road when a plane is landing and no one is allowed to walk down the runway.  Now we must take a taxi to the dock in the village.  Probably safer, but not as much fun.

I got home around 3:30 on Saturday and was ecstatically greeted by Dennis, Clove, and Barnie - it was a grand welcome.  The only bad thing is that I caught a vicious cold somewhere along the way and have been taking it easy except for walking the dogs.  I haven't even completely unpacked.  Today is rainy with lots of thunder this morning.  Scaredy-cat Clove decided she was a lap dog so I could properly comfort her.

8:40am

10:30am

10:45am

She is on the foot of the bed now that most of the storm has passed, but she still insists that my foot must be touching her.  What a wuss.

A Fraught Week

We are back at home after a harrowing week that involved emergency first aid and admission of Dennis to the Belize Healthcare Partners (BHCP) private hospital for 3 nights.  I will spare you the details, but here are the highlights. We had to get Dennis to a vascular surgeon/angiologist.  I should say THE vascular surgeon/angiologist because there is only one in all of Belize.  Many of the doctors in Belize are Cuban trained and are excellent; the angiologist is no exception.  Dennis and I flew up to Belize City as soon the angiologist was available - did I mention that this happened over a long holiday weekend?  Fortunately my emergency first aid held tight for the 2 days before she was back in the country.

Waiting our turn to take off.

Dennis saw the angiologist and she, having seen only 1 case of this particular condition back when she was a resident in Cuba, got him stabilized in her office and scheduled for admission at the same facility.  Which was a good thing, because she would not allow him to sit up at all for the next 24 hours and then only sit in bed with feet up for the next 2 days.  Once he was admitted, I had to fly back home to take care of the dogs and get someone to care for them for the next days before flying back up to Belize City first thing in the morning.

Quick flight back home for me the same day.

Barnie and Clove are guard dogs, and while they are sweet and loving with us, they tend to attack strangers or people they have taken a dislike to.  Fortunately one of our workers gets on well with the dogs and he was able to walk and feed them when I flew back up to Belize City.

Dennis got great care at BHCP.  The only complaint either of us has is the minimal level of communication, but I suppose that is the case in most hospitals.  At any rate, he was discharged with followup appointments with 3 different specialists because of confounding conditions that need to be addressed.  We came home by road, since I was unsure if Dennis could manage the steps to board the plane.  It was an enjoyable trip with a very personable and caring driver.  

Behind the sugar cane truck on the George Price Highway.

The first followup appointment is with the angiologist, who will assess Dennis's progress and determine if he needs further treatment, either from her or in the US where additional procedures may be available.  We only have to go to Dangriga, a 2 hour trip,  for that appointment, since she has clinic days at the public hospital there.  Much easier than going to Belize City, which would likely involve an overnight stay.

For now, we are home enjoying the company of Barnie and Clove and observing the flora and fauna of our paradise.

Adult yellow crowned hight heron.

Shell ginger.

Rails and Posts and Beams

I mentioned in the last post that when I returned from Colorado, Dennis and the crew had gotten the rails up along the stairs and around the deck on the existing cabana.  As you can see in the next photos, they did a great job!

The rail around the landing at the top of the stairs.

The rail around the deck.  It is good not to have to worry about getting too close to the edge!

You can see the new wood decking is a fresher color than the old.  This is one of the things about building in Belize - they ran out of the decking and we had to wait about a year, due to the major flooding last fall, to finish the deck.  And even after it was available, the width was slightly different than what we had first.  sigh ...  So it even after it weathers in to the same color, it will still not match.

The rail as seen from the ground.  I am quite pleased with how it turned out.  Now I can also see that the concrete needs to be pressure cleaned and painted.  It's always something!

Now for the new construction project - we are finally to the stage of getting the 4 huge support posts and central beam in place.

The set up for pulling the 8x8 inch x 10ft posts up to the main level.  There is the post at the foot of the "ramp".

Dennis, Derwin, and Tiger get the rope fixed to one end of the post.

Richard and Paschal hoisting the post up the ramp with ropes.

Paschal and Derwin moving the second of the four posts.  These posts are of Santa Maria tropical hardwood that is native to Belize.  It is similar to white oak in weight but is nearly as hard as maple.

The posts that will be positioned at opposite walls.  They had to be cut at an angle due the walls not being parallel.

The end of the post was shaped so that it fits over the floor joists and rests on the concrete column below.  Here the guys are lifting it into place.

The 3 central pieces of the beam rest on a tongue in the post.  

It took several days for the 4 posts to be shaped, fitted into place, and secured once they were plumb.  Then came the construction of the beam that rests on the 4 posts, spanning the addition from front to back.  The 25 ft long beam is made of 5 layers of wood.  The 3 central layers are 2x10 inch Santa Maria and each outer layer is 2x12 inch Santa Maria.  The 3 central pieces were installed first.

The top of the beam is level with the top of the walls.   

The outer layer of Santa Maria has been installed on the beam.

The outer layer of the Santa Maria is getting a smooth finish since it will be exposed in the finished room.

This side of the beam is awaiting the final layer of Santa Maria.  Here you can see the tongue that central layers rest on with the outer layer on the far side being 2 inches wider and covering the tongue.

In the midst of all this construction, Dennis had cataract surgery in Belize City.  He has a wonderful ophthalmologist, Dr. David Hoy, who did an excellent job with the surgery. He even corrected an astigmatism at the same time.  This required 2 overnight trips to the city; one for the surgery and another for the 2 week checkup.  We flew up for the surgery, but drove for the check up.  Both times we stayed at Villa Boscardi B&B.  We highly recommend it for staying in the city.  It is lovely, clean, and in a convenient and safe neighborhood.  Check them out on Trip Advisor.

Next up will be the construction and installation of the roof trusses which is currently in progress.