Off to Tikal

7:00 My visa expires today and I still can't get into ATM. I'll hope over to Flores, Guatemala and see Tikal. Sitting at the next table is a couple going on the Tikal tour. They will ride to Tikal and back in a van for $125 USD apiece. I think I'll take a taxi to the border ($5 bz/ $2.50 USD) and a bus to Flores ($5 USD) and find a place to stay, then take a bus to Tikal ($3 USD).

Time to inventory my stuff, pack and head out. If the waters recede after three days (minimum time to be out of the country for immigration) and before ten days, I'll come back and see ATM.

8:30 The bags are packed. I am off to Flores, Guatemala.

I can make it rain.

No ATM tour today. Maybe tomorrow. If I have to stick around here to see the place I need to renew my visa which I can do on the western frontier, less than 10 miles away. I took a shirt to Bing (see yesterday's post) to have him stitch it up. In the 8 minutes it took me to walk the half mile the sky opened up. I give up. I'll go to Flores tomorrow and check out Tikal. I'll hang out in Flores until I can come back and do Actun Tunichil Muknal.

Cosmos Camping, San Ignacio, Belize

For my third trip I walked to the edge of town, a few hundred meters down the road and took the dirt road that runs along the river.

My first stop was at Cosmos Camping. In the front was a small wood framed house and a large cement block structure under construction. I walked up to the cement block house and a slender slight man came out. "Is this Cosmos camping? Do you mind if I walk around and take some pictures?" Bing escorted me around his place. I observed and stated that it was very beautiful. He bought the ten acres alongside the river 20 years ago, During the day, the tranquility is disturbed by the cement block plant next door;A block maker shakes the cement powder violently to settle it. At night only the sounds of frogs provide ambience

The front 8 acres have been cleared and planted with a variety of fruit trees (
avacado, plantain,
soursap,
creboo, lichi, orange, plum, sapodilla,
noni, tamarind, grapefruit, pomegranate,
malay apple,
guava,
gooseberry, wild cherry, mango,
pitahaya, coconut, golden plum,
jackfruit,
kumquat,
custard apple,
pineapple,
papaya and a few coffee bushes. Passion fruit plants have been ordered and should be planted soon. All organic Fruit salads are available for breakfast if ordered the night before, contents may vary based season which effects availability.

Livestock, chickens provide eggs and chicken soup, one bull and two cows for milk and cheese. Two parrots fly freely and return to their cages at night. When called they may return, call back or just ignore you.

Two daughters, Jessica and Tammy and one son Jorge.

The two acres alongside the river have been left in their native state. A couple of rubber trees have fallen over; I am amazed at the minimal root structure; I guess with rich soil and lots of rain they didn't have to spread far to provide all of the nutrients required but didn't provide much stability in the wind. Bing informed me that there are quite a few campers during the canoe races and that they eat in town and use the facilities there and only come back to camp to sleep. We walked back to the house under construction. Half of the first floor is dedicated to the tailor operation. Clothes are mended and suits are made from scratch. Bing has a small amount of fabric on hand and a big sample book; he fetches the chosen fabric from Guatemala or Belize City as appropriate. The living quarters consists of a small living room that separates the bedroom from the kitchen. The kitchen cupboards are all crafted from Belizean Mahogany.

Camping and Cabins

Rates

• $10 bz per night per person
• Small tent rental $5 bz per night
• Large tent rental $15 bz per night
• Unlimited internet access with your computer $3 bz per night per computer
• Laundry service $10 bz per load. Clothes may be put in the dryer so you can get your laundry done on even the wettest day.
• House with private bath and two beds, $45 bz per night. Additional people are $10 person.
• Breakfast of organic fresh fruits available with one day advance notice.
• With one day advance notice kayaks and canoes may be rented.

Facilities

An outside kitchen provides the opportunity to cook meals over a wood burning grill.

A clean shower and toilet are available for the campers; the toilet is located near the front of the property.

A set of stairs lead down to the river.

Location

13 Branch Mouth Road
cosmoscamping@btl.net
cosmoscamping@yahoo.com
501-824-2116

Walk past the soccer field, make a left on the dirt road and it is 100 yards down on the right. Kayaks and canoes are available for rent on advance notice.

Top of the World

I am not quite on top of the world, but I am feeling pretty damn good. Nice to leave your trouble 100 miles away. Beautiful day. Code is rolling of my fingers, months of backlog getting wrapped up. Next stop is to get the training center built. That will probably take until the end of the year. Put in a few missile silos and fire.

Tomorrow I shall go to Actun Tunichil Muknal.

Better pictures are found in National Geographic Adventurer.

Still Hanging

This is getting to be a routine. For the third day in a row I spent most of the day coding while sitting in Flayva's restaurant in San Ignacio, Belize. I am a bit behind on a java development project and this is a productive environment.

Coffee is a finger wag away, the music is not distracting and the internet, well, it works... most of the time although it can be painfully slow.

A friend of my elder son posted that he is pulling out of Facebook. I considered how much time I had frittered away and decided to abstain for a month. Most of the activity was friends of friends; people I have never met who friended me and then post something every two minutes. A simple thread could be dominated by two people who take over a wall post and turn it into a chat room. Enough.

I blocked postings on my wall, prohibited the most egregious individuals from seeing my posts or commenting on them and gave notice that I was not going to be on for a while.

It is almost seven in the morning; where is my coffee? I can't hang here for more than a few more days without renewing my visa. Before I leave I would like to see Actun Tunichil Muknal.

San Ignacio and Matthew

Hurricane Matthew struck much farther south than initially anticipated. Yesterday was like a work day. Up around six, I had a few coffees, breakfast of fry jacks, bacon, scrambled eggs, beans and fruit. After surfing and killing a little time on facebook I rebooted into linux and started programming. It was a little slow at first, I didn't have my memory muscles in place, but in the end it was a very productive day. After a light rain I walked up to Cahal Pech, programmed some more and made another trip. That can't be much more than five miles, I need to get my mileage up and my food consumption down. I had curried lamb at an Indian restaurant with various Indian breads.

The cute little mestizo behind the counter dispatched somebody from the kitchen to fetch me a paper. I was disappointed to find in this little oasis of apparent tranquility has its own problems. Last Thursday a man was hit on the head with a rock, stabbed under the arm pit and in the gut and thrown into the river; robbed for $25 Belize (12.50 USD).

I returned and coded until ten, when the restaurant closed. It was a quiet night in town; not much to do or see so I just went to bed. This morning, around five I was actually cold, I scrounged around and found a sleeping bag. I stayed in bed until I was awakened by "Peace Train" playing in the restaurant beneath me.

Perhaps I should stick here another day and get some more coding done; I am behind schedule.

Hiding in Belize

I am hanging out at Flayva's in San Ignacio, Belize. Flayva's is a good, cheap restaurant with exceptional service and free internet. My room is upstairs, barely converted out of closet status. The door is a bunch of boards nailed together and secured by my padlock on a hasp. It doesn't matter; I spend 10 minutes a day awake in the room. As I write this Sergio my erstwhile guide and now buddy walked in and gave me a hearty greeting. Sergio is a very affable Lebanese-Belizean who speaks excellent English; he is also a first rate tour guide.

A straw hat is perched atop a pretty face that complements a tight little body in a gray t-shirt and blue jean shorts. Forgive me while I take an intermission... These girls are from Australia and staying down the road.. Catch up you later.

Hurricane Matthew is bringing intermittent light showers.

Scrambled eggs, refried beans, bacon, scrambled eggs and fry jacks (kind of like a sopapilla without the sugar), avocado, watermelon and pineapple are delivered to my table. No chance to exercise and blogging and programming in a restaurant is not the way to fitness.

Caracol

I woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Went downstairs to get some coffee and asked Mark, the owner of this joint, where the best tour company for Caracol could be found. He pointed to the only other man in the room, sitting at a table with his tours book. "The only tour for the day in town" I was told. Well that narrowed down the choices. The usual price of $75 US was discounted to $65 US as I was staying at the place. Interesting, the room is only costing me $12.50 US. They were leaving in 20 minutes. I ordered a breakfast burrito and went up to my room to grab a pancho; it looked like rain. I was given a 'to go' cup and my burrito. The truck was idling out front with two tourists in the back seat. I grabbed shotgun and off we went.

Sergio was my tour guide, a fourth generation Belizean of Lebanese descent. There were enough Lebanese in the country such that he is pretty much undiluted Arab. Sergio responded affirmatively to my question regarding his Catholicism. "That's fortunate. I haven't seen any mosques here."

My tour companions were a Dutchman, now a professor of Amer-Indian studies in a university in Stockholm and his son who resides in the Netherlands.
Within minutes the paved road gave way to dirt roads winding by jungle resorts on the river. Land here is $1,500 bz (750 USD) / acre. Verdant, lush and quiet. Lovely place for a quiet getaway.

After half an hour we passed a sign indicating the turn to a 1,000 foot waterfall. Sergio asserted that it was actually 1,600 feet. Not common for attractions to be undersold. Shortly there after we entered a park of pine forest. I observed the very small pines and asked why there were no trees over 20 years old. Sergio stated that 11 years ago the Southern Pine Bark Beetle wiped out 60 percent of the trees in the park. Strange park, land is for sale. Presently we passed Five Sisters Lodge, a Francis Ford Coppola resort with five small waterfalls.

The toucans were out in force, on the road, at the ruins; we must have seen over a hundred.

Caracol is the superlative Mayan site in Belize: with 35,000 buildings it has the most structures; extending over 30 square miles it covers the most area; home to an estimated 200,000 people it had the highest population; most hieroglyphics. The zenith of the city state occurred around 700 A.D.

After lunch we stopped at Rio On Pools during our return trip. Water cascades over large granite boulders pools, collects and cascades further.

We had an unscheduled stop at a local subsistence farm. The old farmer had a produce stall in town and moved out into the country when his wife died. He took a young woman for his wife and kept her pregnant; four kids later she is due again. The bed is the dirt floor of the shack. Crops raised include the near mandatory banana, usually eaten green and cooked, and yucca. A nancite tree must have pre-dated his agricultural efforts, which commenced but a year ago. Naked little children wandered in squalor amongst the pups and the chicks.

Everybody seemed happy and healthy and that is the important thing. Who am I to judge?

Pictures are uploading. It was a wet day. Lots moisture inside the lens.

Independence, Belize

September 16, 2010

We arrived at the marina to see Bryan's boat submerged.

I had the key to Steve's 40 foot Chris Craft and when bed time came I entered the cabin, moving stacks of fishing rods and stepping over 120 quart coolers that blocked the aisle in the main salon. The boat has no air conditioning or lights, you will understand when I get to the Steve posting. I returned to the Marina office, got a big fan, moved an extension cord through the salon door and powered on the fan. Not quite the air conditioned rooms with queen sized beds I have become accustomed to. Bryan, my travelling companion told me that we got the house back. The house is a duplex, each side having a single large bedroom, a bath and a closet. Our side has big comfortable beds and air conditioning. There is a TV but no antenna or cable and the DVD doesn't work. I laid up and read 'Give a Boy a Gun' all night long.

The wind howled, the skies opened up, the thunder crashed and the electricity went out a dozen times during the night.

September 17

Bryan ran down to the store and brought back eggs, bread, and black beans and we made breakfast accompanied by instant coffee.

Bryan sent Steve an email asking if Steve can bring his truck over and pull the boat out. We can't call, Bryan doesn't have a phone and the "Marina Phone", a majic jack on a notebook computer, doesn't work because the owner doesn't know his password.

The boat was bow first to shore, the stern was submerged and the outboard was completely under water. Attempt number one was to take a boat over and lift the sunken boat. I had to laugh, I computed the volume of the water in the boat but couldn't remember how many pounds a cubic foot of water weighed so I mentally did the math in metric absurdly using 1.05 grams per cubic centimeter for the salt water although my estimates of the dimensions used in computing the volume didn't have 3 digits of precision. "You have over 4,000 pounds of water in that boat, you are not going to lift that, I am not going to try." It failed miserably.

With nothing better to do we set off for Steve's house . Independence roads...the roads were initially sand with fist size chunks of rock that are hard to walk on. Soon the road degraded to a sharply crowned road made of clay. Walking on the apex of the crown resulted in one sliding down to the shoulder. Although it had ruts filled with water at least the road was flat and at low altitude. The son blared down, my shirt was completely soaked with sweat. School buses frequent the road and pedestrians have to straddle the crown to prevent sliding off the road. The buses honk as they nearly brush you accompanied by Belizean students hurling taunts in Creole from the open windows . The road was bordered by Savannah grass.

I observed "Belize must have the best real estate agents in the world." Which elicited the reply "He bought the place on line, site unseen."

We walked by large concrete block houses in various states of construction before work is abandoned. Finally we walked down a private road and Steve's house was evident. A six foot cyclone fence abutted the road behind which three Rhodesian Ridgebacks circled and barked excitedly. A large fifth wheel motor home ran parallel to the fence. This motor home serves as Steve's "temporary" quarters while he deals with the frustration of building in Belize. On the drive sits a Ford F350 pickup truck with a 6.5 liter 10 cylinder diesel engine. Behind the truck the garden appointments are completed by a 56 foot shipping container.

The house itself is a shrine dedicated to residential concrete. Massive concrete pillars support 14" concrete floors. I am reminded of an over engineered parking garage. The third floor is wood lapped cedar on dimensional 2 x 4's on 16" centers. The roof is made of cedar delivered the day the tree was cut down, wet and with no dimensional stability. Strewn around the room is every top end DeWalt non-cabinet making wood tool available. The floor is covered with sawdust and dog shit.

It does not appear that anybody is in a rush to finish this project.

The view over the inter-coastal to Placencia is not bad, but won't survive construction on the lot that stands between this lot and the water.

Steve called out "I replied to your email" of the fifth wheel but did not emerge. I stumbled on a piece of construction material laying on the ground which was met with aggressive barking from the dogs expressing their displeasure at my actions. "Let's get out of here." "Oh, he won't be much longer." Finally Steve emerged in his standard apparel, khaki shorts and a white oxford long sleeve shirt with epaulets, immaculately groomed, with a pipe in his left hand. Apparently he had to go to Placencia for some banking. Bryan wanted him to pull his boat out, a task of l hour. Instead we stared at his boat for an hour.

Steve is constructing rub rails for the boat. The design is interesting, veneer layers glued with gorilla glue. He started on this project when I came here two weeks ago. Coffee was consumed, pipe and cigarette smoke filled the air. The place was a testament to projects that won't get completed.

Finally, Steve agreed to help. We drove back to the marina, chocked the wheels on the truck and put that 14,000 pound winch to work; pulled the bow up the steep slope and Steve departed. Bryan hooked up a pump and emptied the boat. It was God awful hot and bright.

Now it was time to put the boat back in the water. After half an hour of negotiating with Antonio, ropes were procured. Antonio understands Spanish but I don't understand a single word he says; he is an affable shrieker. Shuttling back between the dock and the sunken boat Bryan strung a double loop of line; I was about to get a demonstration of "Dutch Windmill". A stick was inserted between ropes and twisted with a large stick thus shortening, but it soon became evident that this was not going go without a risk of snapping the rope.

The next attempt was to pull the boat with the 40' Chris Craft. Only the starboard engine worked. This is Steve's boat. It was a miserable failure.

I couldn't take it any more. "Want to here my suggestion? Let's throw that four inch pipe under the boat 8 feet behind the bow and dig out the dirt from under the bow and roll the damn thing in." So we got some shovels and got the boat to fall on the pipe but it wasn't enough. "OK, now we have to get engine up." "No it pops up automatically." "Bryan, not in that direction." I came up with the idea, you get in the muck, unbury the prop and lift the engine. Once that was completed the boat still wouldn't budge.

I said, "That's it, I need 2 liters of water and a rest for an hour." He came in and asked me my next plan. "Wait an hour. That's my plan." The tide was coming in. It's not much, but it helps. An hour later, Phil came home, Bryan went to get him to hook up the truck and pull the boat. I walked over to the boat and pushed it off the bank down in to the water while they were setting up.

So the plugs were pulled and the oil drained but Bryan couldn't the oil filter off. I tried for 30 seconds and left, this thing isn't budging. I walked around, looking in trash cans and found a broken fan belt. Awesome. I walked back to the boat, wrapped a section of fan belt around the filter and took my trusty multi-tool out, wrapped the needle nose pliers around the overlapping sections, gave a twist, threw down the fan belt and walked off the boat. "Give up?" "No, I broke it loose, do the rest by hand."

I drank another two liters of water, washed all my clothes, except one pair of shorts and sat out for 10 minutes until the clothes dried in the tropical sun. More water, another shower.

The filter was flushed out, the plugs put back in and new oil was added. I went off to read a book, then got a report that the engine "tried to run". I guess that is success in Belize.

The kitten was no longer in the parrot cage. Antonio "Donde este gato?" "No mas aqui, la jungla". Another stray cat. I was wondering what the plan was, but it is weird here.

Bryan moored the boat with the stern to the shore so it probably won't sink again tonight.

Phil

Phil is a jack of all trades, he has farmed, driven trucks long haul, owned and operated a freighter and engaged in oil field drilling; now he buys fixes and then sells heavy equipment. A simple question such as "What is this tool for?" can elicit a ninety minute response on checking moisture content in plants and digressing into farming, soil composition. You don't have to say anything to keep it on, he talks, without a comma, in a Georgia drawl. He is a big guy, 6 foot 3 and must be over 300 pounds. He leaves at 6:30 in the morning in a truck with a staggering amount of material on the dash. He returns so covered in filth and grease one might believe he rolled in it. A few rum and cokes and he retires to his RV for the night to do it again then next day. Phil is the diametrical opposite of Steve. Phil built this marina, excavated the water with heavy equipment I am sure he maintains himself. Then he built the rec house, parking lot and kitchen. He probably did it in a few months.

Fred Sanford Marina

On the sides of the club house are three inoperable washing machines, three dead freezers, one dead refrigerator. Behind the club house is a television dish that is not hooked up, and four propane tanks. The car port sports a feltless pool table, chair parts, a gynecological examining table, six dead batteries and then some miscellaneous trash.

The main room to the club house has three tables situated at the edges piled with various debris. The dining table sits in the middle. A pair of speakers that are not connected to an amplifier and a non functioning TV compose the entertainment center.

Lodging for Antonio, the inscrutable, highly excitable and completely incomprehensible caretaker is a RV while a fifth wheel provides accommodations for the owner operator, Phil.

A duplex each with a bedroom, bathroom and closet provide the nicest quarters.
The dock is 200 feet long, currently boasting a broken rusting high volume water pump. Moored are the following boats

• 25 foot 90 hp 4 stroke panga
• 1966 40 foot Chris Craft with no air conditioning, no lights, and only one working engine.
• Thrice submerged 23 foot panga with a very abused and ill maintained 50 horsepower four stroke.
• Dingy
• Single masted 26 foot Sailboat

September 18

8:00 The Rotweiller that lives here decided to accompany me on my trek. Every one to three hundred yards a pack of snarling dogs leaped out from under houses, snapping, growling, sometimes chasing sometimes just sniffing ass. People sat on the porches and watched their dogs abuse pedestrians. I yelled "Call your damn dogs off." but if there was any response it was feeble and ineffective.

These people are the dogs caretakers, not their masters.

9:00 Bored out of my frigging head and hot. Bryan pulled the plugs which were fouled by the oil injected through the spark plug holes during the reconditioning. I finished my second liter of water for the day and went to offer my assistance or heckle depending on his mood.

9:30 The engine won't run. I'm sure the carburetors need a thorough cleaning.

10:30 We walked back into town. More dogs. I bought a can of carburetor cleaner. Then we stopped at a grocery store to buy some bags of water. They last 10 seconds so you may as well buy the 25 cent ones as the two dollar ones. Especially if you are drinking 12 liters of water a day.

10:40 I think I will go to Placencia to go snorkelling.

I arrived at the Hokey Pokey water taxi as the boat was pulling out. They saw me gesturing and returned to get me. Fifteen minutes later we were in Placencia. There were few tour companies open and those that were couldn't find enough people to put a tour together for the afternoon, but they had one scheduled for the next day. My morning walking had resulted in some serious chafing and I couldn't really walk around much. I had a lunch of gibnut, a local rodent, for $10 and killed time at an internet cafe while waiting for the next water taxi.

I returned to Independence and took a taxi to spare my sore legs. We agreed that he would come pick me up the following morning at 7:45 so that I could catch the 8:00 water taxi.

Bryan told me that Phil was upset because his ketchup bottle was missing. I had probably thrown out an empty bottle. At this time I learned that Phil refills his ketchup bottles from a mixture he prepares from dried ketchup and water. How was I to know? So.... sore as I was walked back to town again with the dog that had adopted me and had the usual abuse from the usual packs. Needed more urgently than the ketchup was some baby powder and baby oil. I didn't have enough money with me, so I hit the ATM. Independence doesn't have a bank but it does have an ATM that is emptied on Friday, payday. How was I to know? There was more money in my money clip so I returned to the Marina but by this time I was tired of walking and gave the money to Bryan and asked him to get the supplies.

Sunday, September 19

I was up at five. A fisherman came by around six, shot the shit over some coffee and offered me a ride to the water taxi at half past seven. Expressing my gratitude, I told him I had arranged for a taxi pickup and didn't want to screw over the poor working stiff. The guy never showed; I had missed my full day snorkelling trip because I was trying to do a good deed.

The oil had done wonders and my walk to catch the eleven o'clock water taxi was not a problem. I was able to withdraw funds from the ATM in Placencia.

At 12:00 I booked an afternoon snorkel trip and was told to return at 12:30. At 1:00 I inquired about our departure. At 1:30 I gave up. I booked a tour with the company next door, had lunch, killed time on the internet and took the 6:00 back.

Monday, September 20

I grabbed my spear gun. I had bought it a week before and it was a pain to travel with and I was heading out the next day. Time to sell this thing for whatever I could get. I whacked a few dogs with it. In front of one house I called out to the owner, as I had many times, to get his damn dogs only this time I threatened to kill one of them and had my spear gun pointed at the most aggressive of the pack. Amazing, the owner heard me this time and called his dogs, who ignored him. My legs were well healed and I walked to the Hokey Pokey and caught the 8:00. By 8:30 I was at the dive shop. I told the guy behind the desk that I wanted to put up a sign that I had a brand new spear gun for sale; less than a month old, never been used and I had the receipt in hand. They all lusted over its four foot spear and double bands. One guy offered by 50 bz. I had just paid $170 US for it I was sure not going to take the equivalent of $25. "I'll pay you a hundred on Friday." This wasn't going well. They stroked it, examined it, some explained to others how to use it.

Nine o'clock rolled around and it was time to go snorkelling. I got in the truck and met Mark, a man who has the world by the tail, but as I have posted his pictures I am not at liberty to blog any information he disclosed. A few minutes later we were dropped off at the dock. I was shocked to see that our dive boat was a 38 foot cabo; I am accustomed to pangas and boats of their ilk.

Mark's dive master gave him a refresher on connecting the BCD and regulator to the tank. For you non divers a BCD is a Buoyancy Compensation Device, the inflatable vest one wears to regulate depth. I marvelled at the gear, the vests looked like they new. Two signalling devices were attached, a rattler, for use under water and a whistle when surfaced. The tanks had stickers certifying that they had been recently inspected. The hoses, regulator, octopus and gauges all looked like personal property. This was a dive operation unlike any I had ever encountered. Twenty minutes later two people came down to the boat, wearing T shirts with the dive company emblems. It was obvious that the the tall, bushy eyebrowed guy in his mid sixties was the owner of this fine craft. Was the woman his wife?

The boat cruised along at 26 mph at 2200 RPM, the big 455 house power Caterpillar diesels consuming fuel at the rate of 40 gallons per hour. Ralph, the owner of the boat and the dive company told me that Belizeans don't "get knots" so the instruments were set to terrestrial units of measure. When Ralph wants to go diving the tour is run off his fishing boat; I just got lucky.

The woman was Patricia Ramirez, the dive master. She and Mark sat in the Salon with Mark alternating between Spanish and French reviewing the fish of the reef. I chatted with Ralph, a Canadian from Saskatchewan, who had been national manager in Africa and Indonesia for twenties years for a Canadian oil company. I told him I couldn't live in Belize, there was too much crime; he replied that it was exaggerated. After an hour we stopped in front of a moored sloop and took aboard the two man crew, a man and his wife in their mid sixties. Fifteen minutes later we were at the coral heads near Laughing Bird Caye so named as it had been a nesting ground for laughing gulls before the increase in human activity.

The first dive was pretty good, the water was warm and clear, with no current. Brian pointed out and identified a wide variety of fish, which were plentiful. It is a lot easier to communicate when snorkelling than when diving. I retrieved a conch and Brian caught a big crab. When the divers had exhausted their air or bottom time we swam back to the boat.

Lunch was jerked chicken, potato salad, and of course, rice and beans. Hot dogs were provided for the kids. Ralph allows the kids of his employees to tag along for fun. I saw a big barracuda and threw my chicken bones overboard one by one and watch it eat them.

The second trip Brian bothered a nurse shark hiding in the reef, it brushed against me as it swum out of hiding. He then caught a big lobster and finally succeeded in finding a spiny starfish. As we neared Laughing Bird I had to swim through trash: bits of plastic, plastic bottle caps, plastic bottles, plastic grocery bags; it is a serious problem in Belize. There was a small sandy area that we walked on to get to the island. The island is tiny, about an acre. The trash is raked to the water's edge. The sand is white and coarse. Pathways are bordered with conch shells; interesting, considering that the entire area is a national preserve, no harvesting allowed and the only residents of the tiny island are park rangers. After five minutes I had covered every foot of the border and every foot of trail then I visited the visitor's center and signed the guest book; the previous entry was almost three weeks prior; it is the slow season.

Rather than wait for the divers to return and rush the half mile swim to the boat I suggested we leave and take our time on the half mile swim to the boat. We dropped of the sailors and returned to port. A couple of minutes later I realized I left my hat aboard and returned to the dive shop. Ralph very graciously offered to drive me to the marina to get my hat. We had a discussion about all of the security measures they either had in place or were instituting to keep people from stealing outboards: security guards, motion sensors, cameras, deputized armed locals with sirens and flashers for their cars. A crew of people were cleaning the pristine boat. Ralph took the three kids with us and we headed back to the dive shop.



The chicken nachos I ordered at Wendy's had to be eaten with a fork, the chicken was piled on so high.

At the Independence water taxi dock I inquired as to the location of the fish co-op to be advised that it didn't sell fish. A wiry little guy staggered over and told me that he could show me where to buy fish. We walked half a mile down the road, to the house of the manager of the Hokey Pokey. My self appointed procurement agent borrowed a phone and called one of the local guides. He confirmed that he had some snook for sale so we walked about a mile down the road and I bought a 10 pound snook. I tried to carry it to town but my procurement agent insisted on carrying it. This is never a good thing. Finally in town I took the fish and said, "I have to go in my own direction." The guy asked, "What about me? Aren't you going to take care of me?" "You are getting a cut from the guy who sold the fish, don't fish off both ends of the pier." Whatever the hell that means.

I walked the final mile back to the marina and put the fish in the refrigerator. Bryan had the carburetor that Phil had fixed installed and took his boat out for a test run. It ran well but was inclined to idle fast.

I pulled out all of my stuff and compared it to my list. Somehow, somewhere, I had lost six high capacity nickel cadmium rechargeable batteries and I didn't have a clue. How the hell could this have happened? Everything was packed into ditty bags.

Phil came back; we drove to the store got potatoes, chips and the fixings for dip. We called Steve and we ate well beyond satiation and told bad jokes until it was time to go to bed.

Tuesday, September 21

I popped back over to Placencia, went to the dive shop and called Ralph, telling him that he could have the spear gun for 100 USD, but I wouldn't take anything less. He told me he would be by in an hour. I went to the coffee shop/internet cafe/computer repair shop and killed time on Facebook. Ralph came by and bought the gun. I grabbed a quick lunch and the 12:00 water taxi. Sirens wailed and horns blared down the road, an ambulance was followed by a firetruck behind which was an eighteen wheeler blaring its horn. Oh... it is Independence day.




All of ditty bags were stuffed into the back pack; the day pack contents were inventoried. Extraneous supplies included an extra snorkel, mosquito netting fine enough to keep out sand flies and a duffel bag. I looked around for Bryan and dropped them in the marina office. With 70 pounds of gear in two packs I set off down the road. A quarter of a mile later it occurred to me that I had left my padlock and keyring with two USB drives on it. I walked back to the marina, grabbed the aforementioned items and seeing Bryan said goodbye.

A mile later I was at the "bus stop", the corner at which the bus stops. There is no shelter from the rain or sun or a place to sit. Eight people were grilling and listening to extraordinarily loud music. I walked up to the restaurant and tried started to open the door. Some guy started yelling at me. I walked over to him and yelled "WHAT TIME IS THE NEXT BUS?" He yelled to a woman ten feet away and in creole yelled "WHAT TIME IS THE NEXT BUS?" "WHAT?" "WHAT TIME IS THE NEXT BUS?" "WHAT TIME IS IT NOW?" "TWO SEVENTEEN!" "TWO THIRTY!"

Excellent! Only a thirteen minute wait... the bus showed at nine minutes before four. I grabbed a bag of seasoned tortillas and two bottles of water at the store while I was waiting. On the bus I continued reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and snacked on my chips. I offered some chips to the old man next to me. He ate half of what was left and then graciously handed the bag to the six year old next to him and told him to keep it. What a generous guy. He then eyed my water and told me he was thirsty. My open water bottle had dropped to the floor and rolled to an unknown location. I have the guy with twenty teeth my unopened bottle and now had none. No good deed goes unpunished. A woman boarded the bus and stood in the aisle; the old man gave her his seat and went to the rear of the bus to sleep on my backpack.

At a quarter to seven we arrived in Belmopan. The bus to San Ignacio was scheduled to leave at seven. I bought a cold hamburger; they weren't allowed to use a microwave. The bus came on time. People squeezed past me in a very subtle manner such that it happened but I couldn't call them out on it without looking like an asshole. So was at the end of the line and eight people who exited the terminal behind me were ahead of me in line. The conductor told me I had to put my backpack in the rear of the bus. He opened the rear, I through in my backpack and boarded from the rear, taking the rearmost seat so that I could keep an eye on my bag.

I got out in San Ignacio and sought out a place to stay. It was still Independence Day and ironically many places were closed; I would have expected an influx into the provincial capital. A tall lanky guy called out from his plastic seat, "Hey buddy, looking for a room?" It wasn't much of a room but it had a bed and a fan and I could get rid of all of my stuff so that I could head down to the park to check out the festivities. The room was the only room that hadn't been refinished, it had probably been a storage closet and the door was secured with a hasp. This suited me fine as I had my own padlock and I knew that nobody would be rifling through my belongings. I wandered around the fairgrounds for a while came home and went to sleep within a few minutes.

Splash Dive Shop
Placencia Village, Belize
Telephone: 011-501-523-30548 / 523-3080 / 620-6649

email: patricia@splashbelize.com

www.splashbelize.com

Back in Independence

After 11 days of fiascoes we packed up our stuff and headed back from Caye Caulker to Independence.

1 boat ride, 4 bus segments, 1 walk. When we arrived we found a boat in the marina under water. Now if we only had some tools and a winch maybe we could do something about it.

Snapper

Winding our way through the labyrinth of mangroves we stopped at a spot with not obviously different than any other. Bryan declared this to be "the spot", he had been shown the location by another fisherman. Soon we were pulling in pretty good sized snapper. After an hour we had enough for dinner for the three guys staying at the marina and headed back. I walked into town and bought some potatoes. Phil smiled when he saw that dinner had been caught and went about his usual, deep frying.

With everything packed and ready to go, I set my alarm for 6:00 in the morning allowing plenty of time to get to town for the 7:15 express bus. I read a couple of more chapters in my book, rolled over and went to sleep.

Boat Repair

A spectacular orange and red sunrise started the day followed by a couple of fried egg sandwiches.

When I entered this country I only expected to be here for a week. Unfortunately, that is the amount of time I was afforded. So I had to visit immigration, file for an extension and pay a fee of $50 Bz for the privilege. The whole process took about five minutes.

Bryan and I walked the length of town visiting every hardware store, gas station and chino (the grocery stores are usually owned and operated by the Chinese). One store had some metric tools but nobody had a 5 mm socket. We walked down to the airport and inquired as to the cost of visiting other parts of this country. I assure you, Independence is not a place to hang out. We stocked up on fixings for spaghetti at the final store and came back to the Marina.

Bryan phoned around and Steve agreed to deliver his socket set. The carbs on the motor were worked on and the engine roared to life with the first pull. We were hoping to get our hands on some Sea Foam, an amazing product that clears injectors, valves and carbon deposits. Philip thought he had some at the shop but was unable to locate the can. More puttering around and reading; another hot, boring day in the tropics. A man could quickly learn to loathe this place.

Fishing

We woke up yesterday morning, Bryan smoked cigarettes and posted on Facebook for hours. Finally we headed out to town bought some groceries and walked back. It was pretty damn hot for being only 9:30 in the morning. I read while he facebooked until late in the afternoon.

After six pulls the engine still would not start. An investigation revealed that the new fuel line was shedding a silicone liner, clogging the primer bulb. This may well have been the cause of problem a couple of days prior.

We trolled for snook, without success, the center carb was leaking at any speed lower than a fast cruise. I suspect the seal on the float was inadequate, the carbs have never been rebuilt, just taken apart and reassembled, the gaskets and seals are not available down here. At the end of the mangroves within site of Placencia we attempted a little snapper fishing with shrimp, I caught one, less than eight inches. We headed back to the house and Bryan put on jeans to fight off the sand fleas, I grabbed a book and we headed out again. Within a minute he caught a tuba but failed to catch another keeper in the next half hour. Disgusted, he drove us back to the marina with no food for dinner.

After a couple of hours we walked into town, grabbed a couple of chicken chow meins and water, I shouted the order over the counter 5 times before the idiot behind the cash register could hear me. Bryan and I were the only two paying customers in the place, the guy might have turned the stereo down enough that a conversation could be had but that was contrary to the spirit of Independence. We saw Philip driving by, I threw the cashier a twenty, we hopped in his truck, came back to the marina and retired to the house and air conditioning.