Sunset Balcony

A quick construction update here.  The screening for the veranda has been completed.  It joins up with the screened in portion of the old veranda and wraps around to the northeast corner of the addition.  Most of the north side of the covered veranda will remain without screen.  We like having a mixture of screened in and open areas.  What we call the "sunset balcony" on the upper level of the west side has been completed, too.  I am in happy anticipation of evening cocktails while sitting on the balcony and watching the sun set over the jungle. Salut!

The north side of addition.  The sea is on the left (to the east).  This shot was taken while they were putting up the rail on the sunset balcony. 

The sunset balcony has great views over the swamp around Black Creek and the adjacent jungle.  Before we venture up the stairs to the next images, queue up the appropriate music from the movie Vertigo by clicking here.

Stairs from the back veranda up to the balcony.

The footprint of the balcony is a roughly 10ft square with a tapered end off the north side of the square.

Looking toward the tapered end from the top of the stairs.

Looking toward the top of the stairs from the tapered end.

 The views are grand.

Looking south from the top of the stairs, you can see the older cabana with the shade cloth-covered pergola.  That 10-yr-old roof doesn't look too bad! 

View to the southwest across the swamp and Black Creek.

Those taller trees along the left horizon are the dense jungle through which the Monkey River runs.  The jungle is home to troops of Howler Monkeys that give Monkey River its name.  We can hear the monkeys howl during the still, pre-dawn hours.  It is a sound unlike any other.

The sunset balcony is 22 feet above the ground.  

15 steep steps from the balcony to the veranda and then another 16 not-as-steep steps from the veranda to the ground.

Do you think we need stair rails?

Run Through the Jungle

Back in my pre-retirement life, I was gym rat.  I loved to go to the gym and was there at least 5 days a week.  I found that a good, sweaty workout was a great stress reliever.  Fortunately the very job that generated this stress also provided access to a wonderful gym on site.  I miss that gym - much more more than I miss my career!

Here in Englishtown, there is no gym, so I am learning to make do with what is available.  With our neighbors at SteppingStones (a former fishing resort) and Barebones Tours, we have developed some paths and trails through the jungle that connect our properties.

Our cabana is at the bottom of the photo where the red line starts.  My mini warm-up, the red line, consists of walking down our stairs and then ~200 ft to the start of the orange line.  I start my run at the orange line, take the left turn to Black Creek and back and then the run up and down the stem of the Y 2 or 3 times to get 3 miles in before coming back the way I came for my cool-down.  That is Great Monkey Caye at the righthand edge of this Google Earth image.  BareBones Tours is at the north end of the orange line.  This whole stretch is the Englishtown of the title of this blog and is labeled as such on the official government land plats.

Click the link to listen to CCR while I take you on my 

 "Run Through The Jungle".  

The beginning of the orange line.  That is my little bird-watching seat at the bottom right.  This trail goes through swamp, so the path had to be built up from sand and seagrass brought in one wheelbarrow load at time over a period of 5 or so years.  Washed up logs and wood scraps from building projects help to stabilize the path.

In the rainy season, there is standing water on both sides of the path.  Even during the dry season, the ground is squishy. 

You can just make out the footbridge just before the path bends to the right.  A series of 4 bridges lets the water drain from the right toward Black Creek to the left.  This swamp is a haven for agoutis, gibnuts, raccoons, all kinds of birds, snakes, lizards, crabs, insects. Huge ferns, 3 mangrove species, and other water tolerant plants are a nearly impenetrable (to humans!) barrier on either side of the trail.

The branch of the Y that goes to Black Creek has been in place longer than the other branch.  It goes through palmetto and reed beds.

Here it looks like a path through a dry woodland, and while it is a little higher and dryer than other parts, it is still wet on either side.

The branches of the Y converge at SteppingStones Resort and the stem of the Y basically follows the shore up to BareBones Tours.  This section is on dry ground, all it took was clearing a path and light maintenance to keep it cleared.

Sea to the right and jungle to the left.

Sea view with lilies, palms, and sea grapes.

Some times I have company on my walks and runs.  This is Kalli from SteppingStones.

A great path with a sea breeze to help dry the sweat.

Jungle to the west.

There may have been a dwelling in this little clearing at some time in the past.

The lot to the left has been cleared recently.  The owners live in the US and may build a vacation cabana here.  Or may not; plans in Belize tend to stay fluid.

This is a great old tree.

BareBones is on the other side of the palm.  Our friend Craig Pearlman, owner of BareBones, lives there.

View across the water toward the east just.  That is Great Monkey Caye at the left.

View to the south back toward our place.  This is low tide; you can see some green seagrass exposed in the shallow water.  The little island is Little Monkey Caye.

More views through the seaside jungle.

Headed back south, the sea is to the left and jungle to the right.

It takes a little fancy footwork to run the path, ducking for leaning trees (that dark line on the leaning tree is a termite tunnel), stepping over tree roots, avoiding crab and armadillo holes.

This leaning palm and the tree in the previous photo were very likely blown over in Hurricane Iris in 2001.

Dennis accompanied me on this walk to help clear away some of the vines and branches in the path. This area is the site of former Bob's Paradise, a resort that was blown away in Hurricane Iris.  Major hurricanes are quite rare here in southern Belize.  Iris was the unusual one with a zigzag course that delivered her to this protected pocket in full strength without loosing any force by passing over Honduras or Nicaragua on the way.

Back on the branch of the Y between SteppingStones and our place with a good view of one of the footbridges.

This area was a tangled mess of downed trees and vines.  We cleared away only what it took to make the path.

Finally, there is my birdwatching seat again on the left; the end of the trail is just ahead.

There is always something noteworthy to see along the trail.  Appropriately enough, on Easter Sunday I saw 2 bunny "rabbits" on the trail.  "Rabbit" is the local name for agouti.  They did look a lot like bunny rabbits, albeit bunny rabbits with very short ears, as they bounded into the swamp.  Just like me, they "... run through the jungle.  Whoa, don't look back to see."

Thankful

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving in Belize Thursday the 30th by hosting a small dinner party for our nearest neighbors, who are all American, and also Richard and Joy who live on site here and help us manage the place.  The guests included Craig who lives about 3/4 mile up the beach from us, Laquita and Bill who are housesitting at SteppingStones about 1/4 mile up the beach, and Chery and Sam who recently bought the MonkeyHouse about a mile to the south of us.  It was also the first Thanksgiving in Belize for Laquita and Bill and for Chery and Sam.  Everyone brought a contribution to the table and we did it up right with turkey, gravy, dressing, roasted root veggies, cauliflower soup, broccoli casserole, homemade bread stuffed with cheese, cranberry sauce, peach cobbler, pecan pie, and pumpkin cookies. Of course accompanied by lots of fine liquids.  Dennis and I certainly enjoyed it, and it seems our guests did as well.

November is almost at its end and this is only the second post I have managed to make.  Who knew retirement would be so busy?  I have plenty of things to blog about, like this gorgeous moon.  For the full moon and the next 3 nights it had a distinct pink cast to the color that was quite unusual.  It just looks plain orange in the photo, but in person it was a lovely salmon color.

Night after November's full moon (the Beaver Moon).  I wasn't able to quite capture the distinctly pinkish tinge to the color. 

Some of the other things to blog about are the plants that can be seen along the jungle trail we made.  The photo below is of the trunk of a dead tree that is supporting all kinds of epiphytes.

Tree along the jungle path.

Lots of birds have been passing through, too.  And there has been new activity at the hummingbird feeders.  

Juvenile Male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.  The next photo shows how I know it's a male. ;-)

He's getting the first of his ruby feathers!  They really glow like that when the light is at the right angle; I didn't enhance the color at all.

All kinds of interesting things going on.  I'll do my best to post more frequently.

In the meantime and in the spirit of the holiday I will simply say that I am thankful that Dennis and I can enjoy our new life in Belize; I have never been happier or more contented.  Here's wishing the same for each of you.

Back to Belize

Seems life has been conspiring to keep me from posting a blog entry recently.  Computer issues, mainly.  But also getting ready to go back to Belize.  In a couple of days, we'll be at our beachfront jungle for a couple of weeks, seeing sights like that pictured below.

See you there.