More than a year ago

Steve (of Shadows and Light fame) has motivated me to get off the "inactive blog" list and start writing posts again, so you can blame him!  But all the blame is with me for not having posted anything in well over a year!  How did that happen?  Well, it started like this . . .

In February of 2023, my lovely niece Becki came to visit us.  This was her second trip to Belize and, I am hopeful, the second in a long string of trips in the future.  This time, like the first time, she came to join me at a yoga retreat.  The first retreat, which was fabulous, was at Ray Caye and you can read about it here and here and here. In 2023, the retreat was at Sleeping Giant Rainforest Resort in Maya Mountains of Belize, also fabulous. 

But first!  Big change - cut off my long hair which had grown so much during covid! 

16 inches of braided, grey hair sent off to Locks of Love.

I was so relieved to have short hair again!  I felt pounds lighter.

My friend Melanie, who joined us on the yoga retreat, and I drove up to the Philip Goldston International Airport in Ladyville, Belize to pick up Becki.  Good tidings were foretold by the rainbow over the airport while we waited for Becki to clear customs and immigration.

Double rainbow for double goodness.

Rainbow in rearview, the three of drove to the stunning Sleeping Giant Rainforest Resort for the yoga retreat.  The grounds were so lush.

Resort grounds with path to the swimming pool.

The pool.

We were in a creekside suite which looked out across the Sibun River Valley.  In front of our suite was a koi pond fed by gurgling creek.  We were surrounded by beauty you could see, smell, and hear.

View from the private veranda of our room.

Koi pond in the rain

Also beauty you could taste - the food was as lovely as my companions!

Becki and Melanie at dinner.

Our yoga sessions were at various locations in the expansive resort.

Sunrise yoga at the riverside pavilion.

We also had sessions adjacent to a creek way back in the jungle and another on a deck overlooking the valley.  Everywhere the walking paths were lined with amazing plants that hosted multitudes of birds and other wildlife.  The paved paths between the resort buildings wound through beautifully tended, yet natural looking, gardens.

Ginger flowers.

Orchid.

The reddest hibiscus I have ever seen!

Rougher trails criss-crossed creeks over hammock bridges and climbed up mountains, sometimes with steps and other times with only rope handholds with which to pull yourself up the cliff sides.

Selaginella.

Limestone cliff behind those trees.

Catching my breath as I look down the steps I just climbed.

Flowers and ferns on the cliff face.

Becki, puling herself up the mountainside.

And contemplating how much further there is to go . . . .

View of the Sibun River Valley from the mountaintop gazebo.

Panoramic View.  All of the forested area is part of a national forest reserve.

After the hike

That was 13 months ago and so much has happened since then.  More to come.

Dawn Rainbows

I know, I know -you're thinking "Not more rainbow and sunrise photos!"  But I think these are really special.  I glimpsed this most magnificent rainbow through the bathroom window while groggily brushing my teeth.  Grabbed the camera and ran up to the sunset balcony to try to get some shots. Then turned around and saw the sun newly risen above the sea and peeking through the rain clouds. The show was over in less than 3 minutes.

Never seen pink rain falling from a rainbow before.

Golden sunrise.

These shots are not enhanced - just cropped a little and darkened a bit to compensate for over-exposure.  I was still half-asleep and didn't even have my glasses on yet; yea for autofocus!

Falling On My Head Like A New Emotion

We could see it coming ...

6:30am - here comes the rain again.

6:54am - falling on my head like a memory.

7:00am - falling on my head like a new emotion.

Click here to dive into Annie Lennox's ocean.

7:00am - Rain over Black Creek to our west.

Blue-grey tanager getting wet in the tamarind tree.

7:06 - sun shining down on the eastern horizon.

7:27am - rainbow beyond Black Creek.

7:28am - A flock of white ibises flies across the rainbow.

Tamarind flowers in the rain.

Young pods mixed in with the flowers.

The flowers are orchid-like in appearance, but they are legumes related to peas and beans - as you might guess based on the seedpods.

The series of photos above was taken in the space of an hour during which a quarter of an inch of rain fell.  The day is now bright, sunny, and fresh with a light breeze.

Sand and Early Morning Rainbows

Sand - there is new sand on the beach!  Still nowhere what had been there, but things are improving.

The sandbags along the shore are almost covered by sand; only the tied ends are visible as white blobs on the wet sand to the right of the dock.  The bags to the left of the dock are fully covered.  You can also make out the submerged sandbags of the breakwater that runs under the dock in the foreground.

 The shore is still a big mess with washed up seagrass and driftwood, but even that is gradually getting covered by sand.

View from the dock looking toward the buttonwood tree.  The shore has built up a bit of a slope now.  The brown stuff under the buttonwood is seagrass sitting on top of the sandbags that were placed in front of the buttonwood to keep it from getting undermined by the waves.

As I write this, the breakwater extends all the way down our property to the south and they are still working on the part to the north.  In the photo below, taken Sept 15th, the breakwater extends from the dock only to just in front of the buttonwood tree. Notice how the wave breaks hard to the left of the buttonwood, but is not breaking at all between the buttonwood and the dock.  That is just what we wanted!

Breakwater in action!  See how much flatter the waves are near the dock?

We think we are the right track with the breakwater.  Since I took those photos a few days ago, a lot of seagrass has washed in on top of the sand, so we can't really tell if the sand is still there.

The sea is beautiful and calm today.  The crew made good progress extending the breakwater to the north.  Next week is a short week because Monday is the celebration of the Independence of Belize.  Never-the-less, I believe they will finish Stage One of the breakwater next week, unless the weather turns bad.  Also, we have the electrical engineer, Jose, with us today.  He and Dennis are repairing the big diesel generator.  We had the coil rewound, which required shipping the coil to the town of Spanish Lookout.  So they are working on that as I write this.

Jose and Dennis working on the big diesel generator.  Note the essential tools - the can of Liquid Wrench and the persuasive hammer.

This morning at dawn, a very gentle rain shower drifted in from the southeast.  The sun was low on the horizon (as it tends to be at dawn!), peeking through the falling rain over the sea.  To the west was a gorgeous double rainbow.  By the time I got my camera and went back up to the sunset balcony, the intensity of the rainbow had faded, but it was still a lovely sight.

Rainbow over the jungle.  The Maya Mountains are low in the distance.

A Great Egret flew over.

And thus started another day.

Rainy Days

The scene below, with the view of Greater Monkey Caye obliterated by heavy rain, has been with us off and on for the last 4 or 5 days.  And during each of those days (and nights), several inches of rain has fallen.  The good news is that our water vats are full.  The bad news is that Monkey River and Black Creek are full - and overflowing.  We hear that there are places on the Monkey River Road that are under seven feet of water!  Three or four sunny days with no rain is all it will take to dry out the road.

We run to lower the sun shades and get them lashed down when see rain like this approaching!  They do a good job of keeping the driving rain out of the veranda. 

The heavy rains and high winds have pushed in some higher than usual tides for us; a beachcomber's delight.  Below are a few of the items of interest that have washed up.  This site is wonderful for exploring sea beans.

Except for the green striped sea urchin, the rest of the objects are loosely called sea beans and are seed of various sorts.  There are 2 sea hearts (middle or top row and bottom right), 2 very different coconuts (top left and top right), a hamburger bean, Mucana sp. (bottom left),  bull's eye (bottom right).  Still haven't ID'd the one in the middle. 

During the rainy spells, we do chores inside the cabana.  Dennis is putting little foam sheets behind all the wall cover plates for electrical outlets and switches since they seem to be an entry point for small insects.  Behind one outlet cover plate he found these little pieces of shell.  They are gecko eggshells.  Apparently the geckos also realized that small insects where coming entering through the wall plates.  We love the geckos because they do eat the insects; we love to have them in the cabana.

Delicate shells leftover from gecko eggs fell out of the wall outlet.

It looks like all but one of them was successfully hatched.

The rain has not been constant.  In fact there has been some very pleasant sunshine.  I get outside whenever possible to see what is going on.  The sun drew out this wonderful pair of baselisk lizards.  They are also called Jesus Christ lizards because they can run on water.  They have an extra row of wide scales on the long third toes of their hind feet that give them this ability.  You can see the scales in the photo below  and on the photo of the female if you click on them to see them bigger.

This guy held his ground as I took pictures.

He let me get quite close for a good look at his crest, which is folded back here.

This female does not have a crest, but is more richly colored than the male. Look at the scales on the long toe of her left foot.  These scales enable her to run on water.

She, too, let me get quite close, although she was poised to run into the wood pile if I made any sudden moves! 

The rains also brought out lots of small flying insects, which brought out lots of dragon flies!

The air was thick with dragon flies! 

Nice photo ops when they would land. 

I have not delved into dragonfly ID's yet, but there are at least 4 different kinds.

During breaks in the rain, I managed to walk along the jungle path and saw a large butterfly or moth flitting along.  It finally landed and I was able to take the photo below.

Owl moth with a great eyespot!

Dennis came out of the generator shed after turning the generator off and said "get your camera!"  So I did, and followed him back into the generator shed to see another  impressive moth.

Ascalapha odorata, Black Witch moth.

This moth also likes to fly into our window screen at night when we have lights on. At such a large size (4 to 5 inches across), it looks and sounds like a bat or a bird trying to get inside.

With all the rain also come rainbows.  This one arched across Greater Monkey Caye and seemed especially broad. 

 

 At this point we will forego the pot of gold and settle for some dryer weather!  Of course, we will look back on this rain fondly when we are in the midst of the dry season, so I will try to enjoy the rain while we have it.