Fri, 29 Jan

Fri, 29 Jan i arrived here with medicines for most possible ailments. but did i ever in a million years think that i would get a COLD?????????? i had a sore throat yesterday and i have a headache this morning and a head full of snot. i have no cold medicine, and i am not happy about this! after taking excedrin for my headache, i got up. Madi tells me that her mother isn't feeling well and she has to take her to Belize City this morning to see the Dr. ok, i guess my cold isn't so bad after all. this is the day i needed to go to San Pedro to get a 30 day extension on my visit. so i wanted to get there early. as with most bureaucratic organizations it was destined not to go smoothly. i mentioned that i went there several days ago to make sure i arrived prepared and at the correct time... coz they do different things on different days. The 8:20 water taxi was late and left at 9am ... later than i should have arrived in San Pedro .... note to self: don't use this water tax service again, even though you will be going to the competition :) i found my way to the immigration office, across from the airport. there was a sign on the door, call Camillle at whatever #. another woman arrived and she called and was told it would be another hour or so :) the good news is: i was first in line! the bad news is: i had to pee! by the time i returned i was 7th in line :( there was the usual squabbling about people cutting in line, but no one took a punch. the woman at the desk, recognized me from a few days ago, so she was pretty nice to me. it just was crazy: you had to go to her; and she gave you a piece of paper that you had to take to the end of the building to another office where you waited in line again to pay your B$50=USD25 and got another piece of paper that you took back to the first girl, where you waited in line again :) i had other errands to run: check on prices for airline tickets from Belize City down to Dangriga . the other option is a 5 hr bus ride on one of those old American BlueBird school buses. it stops for anyone along the road. i'm splurging for a plane! i can get there for B$67 one way. sounds good.. i spent the rest of the day Belizian style ... sitting on the dock overlooking the reef :) life on an island ..... the plan was to return to San Pedro tomorrow to dive. well that was the plan. when i returned home to Caye Caulker, Madi asked me if i would stay here Sat until she returned from Mexico. her mother has a pain in her stomach and they need to go to Mexico for a scan and a second opinion. they'll have to spend the night and return on Sun. so the diving is off again :( i've decided it's time for me to leave Madi's place at Caye Caulker. Eddi is here now and has a pretty good idea of what's going on, and with the charts, duct tape signs, and procedure manual i made; she'll do fine without me. i've been here 3 weeks and i'd like to take a break from volunteering before i go out to Glovers and start my volunteer assignment out there. i'm going to San Pedro for a few days and just hang out; and hopefully dive. i told Madi that i'd be leaving in a day or so. chores were finished and now we are out of cat food, ....again! ....so Eddi and i went to the store, then came back here and i ate my left over pasta.

Thurs, 28 Jan

Thur, 28 Jan: where is the time going? i need to be in Dangriga on 4 Feb to meet Alex, the manager of Glovers Reef Research Station .... that's next week ! today was a pretty normal day, except that another cold front has come in .... 3 days they say ... and it was very windy today ... unpleasantly so ... and mostly cloudy. Eddi and i went to The Split. she got in the water in an attempt to soothe her sunburn and heal all her bug bites ... she is worse than i was! i stayed out of the water and opted for hanging in the hammock instead. pic of Hammock at The Split we stopped on the way home for "2 for 1" Panty Rippers, a local drink, usually pineapple juice, and of course rum. After chores, we ate at a small real italian restaurant, with a real italian man cooking. we had blue cheese and garlic carbonara, with awesome garlic bread. a great meal. i get emails from people asking me things ... i like that .. some things i don't think to mention .. coz i know :) the room i live in is part of the main house. Madi and her mom live upstairs, my room is on ground level with an outside entrance, and also an entrance to the room adjacent to mine, which has a kitchenette. my room does not have anything but a bed, chair, bathroom/shower. Since there has been no one in the 'kitchenette room', Madi has allowed me to use the frig in there ..... that's is nice of her! it nice to have relatively cool water to drink! there is another room with a outside entrance attached to the house, that was initially intended to be an apartment ... but ,.... she needed a place for more kitties ... so now they live in the unfinished room. It is called The Pounce Inn the cats love to sit in that window it has 15 younger cats and kittens. this is the room that has become the most problematic because the unneutered cats are really ... well, how should i put it ... out of control ? Madi desperately needs to get them neutered. but i'll be gone by that time This is Yonnis, about 4mo old ... he is not the cutest kitten, but he'll steal your heart away, when he puts his little paws on your legs and just looks up at you, ...please can't i come up? you can't help but pick him up, and he'd stay in your arms all day. cats/kittens like this one need a home and someone to love them all day every day! , this is one of the kittens, De-l-la. She is blind in one eye, with the other one soon to follow. she gets around fine, and let's the bigger cats know not to mess with her, with a little growl. she is sweet and needs a good loving home. This is Angel, looking out, wishing he had a 'real' home This is Picolo, a typical kitten, a wild child, but sweet as can be the 3 little unneutered females that have to take their 'turn' in a cage until they are neutered. a few of the older cats in here: Spirit, white; Karma, black; and Babe, tiger with white

Wed, 27 Jan

Wed, 27 Jan i set up a possible dive for this morning with Belize Diving Adventures. i took the 8:20am water taxi to San Pedro. it was a nice morning ... when we left, ... 10min into the ride, it started pouring rain :( it was still sprinkling in San Pedro when i got there, so i walked along the beach to the dive shop. no one else had signed up to dive that day, and they need a minimum of 2 people, so i hung around the dive shop in case someone came in and wanted to dive. but no one ever did. i was 'entertained' by Darrel, from the dive shop. he took a fishing pole and we went out to the pier. he caught a small red snapper ... it's a pretty fish, as well as a great tasting one! he caught another small fish and was pulling it in, when out from under the pier shoots a big barracuda and grabbed the fish. it was pretty exciting for awhile; it even broke the surface of the water! but the barracuda kept biting the fish and never got the hook in it's mouth .... so he got away. for while it was looking like i was going to have another chance to taste barracuda, but not this time :( after the barracuda left, the 'clean-up-crew' arrived to finish off any bits and pieces of fish that were left in the water. clean-up-crew translates to 2 large stingrays. they swam around for 15min or so, then left. this is a picture of the stingrays ... kind of hard to see

Tues, 26 Jan

Tues, 26 Jan: Connie and Bob left and i went to work to finish up several things i had on my list: 1) put screening on the main gate, since a couple of the smaller cats were able to crawl through the gate and get in when they are supposed to be out; 2) put screening on another area of fence that the same 2 cats have been using to get in when they should be out; 3) replace a support for the cupboard in the Meow-tel; and 4) make a door for Swiper's cage, so we could get rid of the board and concrete block we've been using. of course, that entailed a trip to 'Meijer's hardware store ... make that 2 hardware stores, the first one didn't have the hinge i wanted. amazingly there are actually 2 'Meijers' stores here .... about 4 blocks apart ... remember, everyone is walking here, ... so it's equivalent to being about 10 miles apart :) the second hardware store had my hinge, although they didn't know where they were in the store -- i finally found them. it took me most of the rest of the day, in between Play Time shifts; to get it all done.... but i got them all finished. At about 2:30 i headed to The Split for a swim. Photo of the Lazy Lizard at The Split: Photo of the pier at The Split before the hurricane. now used by sunbathers and partiers. but, again, it was windy on that side of the island, so i didn't need to swim; i just sat and watched the guys who were 'kite-surfing' ... i'm not sure if that's what you call it, .... getting about 20 feet high and travelling as far, turning flips ... they were having a great time out there ! Photo of one of the guys doing a flip kite-surfing. i have a great video of this, but uploading a video is entirely out of the question ... maybe sometime on You Tube ... Here are a few pics of the "tourist" streets in Caye Caulker and the "Pie Lady" she had awesome key lime with merangue topping. come to find out, she is Madi's sister. returned home for evening feeding schedule. in the evening i went to Oceanside ... it's a combination Chinese restaurant and bar in the evening, and they have wireless, so i worked on my blog downloading photos for several hours ... and, ate Chinese food. you don't get veggies around here much, so it was really nice having them ! i left about the time it started getting really loud --- obnoxious tourists! :)

Mon, 25 Jan

Mon 25 Jan: After chores and visiting with Connie and Bob, and showing Bob some projects Madi needed help with; i took off for San Pedro. San Pedro is the 'city' on the island of Ambergris Caye; the larger more populated island just 20 min from Caye Caulker by water taxi. i had to go to the ATM to get some money, and then make my deposit into the bank account of the Wildlife Conservation Society for my volunteer experience at Glovers Reef. i also wanted to find out where the Immigration Office was. My 30 day visa is almost up and i wanted to find out what days/times they were open and exactly what i was supposed to do. i also wanted to set up a dive before i left and i wanted to use the same dive shop, Belize Diving Adventures, that we used when we were in San Pedro in December. we went out snorkeling/diving with them a several times and it was great fun; and also met up with them on the beach in the evening a couple of times. i found my way to the Dive Shop first, and Darrel, one of the Dive Masters from our December trip, 'escorted' me to all the above places. without his help, this may have taken me 2 trips; but i am learning my way around San Pedro. having accomplished all of that, i returned to Caye Caulker in time for chores, then out to dinner. we ate at Jolly Rodgers, another on-the-street-at-night cafe. kind of the same deal, except you got a whole grilled lobster AND grilled snapper; garlic mashed potatos, coleslaw, garlic bread, 2 drinks (and they gave us another one coz we said the first 2 weren't strong enough), and dessert .... B$25=US$12.50. grilled lobster is a big thing down here, ...and it is good! the guy in the red shirt is the Chef ... Roger, of Jolly Rogers:

Sun, 24 Jan

Sun 24 Jan: ..... ok this was a day to be remembered ... normal late morning weekend chores, then Eddi and i went for the same breakfast as yesterday. i'm happy with this place. we sat next to a couple that were meeting with the 'wedding planner' ... well, it was a guy who was setting up arrangements for their wedding. then we stopped at the hardware store to buy some more screws to finish my door. Madi was still cleaning when i decided i needed to snorkel at The Split ... i haven't done that yet, and i've been here 2weeks ... just as i was leaving, ..... a couple arrived at the gate. Bonnie and Mike, they were from Canada and with a group that was doing kayaking and rafting in Belize. before they left Canada, Bonnie had just joined a volunteer group in Canada that Madi had here last March to do neutering. the group had told Bonnie about their work in Caye Caulker, since she coincidentally was going to be vacationing in Caye Caulker, she stopped by to say hi and see how Madi was doing. of course, i asked her ... are you a vet? ... she said yes !!!! hummmm.... fatal mistake for her! .... long story short, she agreed to neuter 3 of our males that are giving us the most problems. As she and Madi were setting up surgery, another couple arrived; Connie and Bob, they are from Nebraska. Connie works with a animal foster program there and Bob is a handyman that Madi was looking forward to having him here to build another enclosure. they had been here before, and were expected ... some time ... but not particularly today! so she joined us in the 'operating room' ... this is 'third world' ..... it did not go smoothly. for our first attempt, we chose Andy, whom i've named '#1 Sex Offender'; because he is always on top of George and has him by the neck. George is also a male, a bit younger, and the sweetest little cat. it's so pathetic ... here is Andy on top of him, biting his neck, and he just looks up at me with this innocent little face and his little pink nose, like ... 'help me?' i can't resist a photo of George here: anyway, they attempted to put Andy 'under' ...but he wouldn't go down. they had a chart, left by another vet, with the dosage on it, but it wasn't specific enough; and without getting technical, he didn't get enough. so the decision was made to leave him alone, and try to do Angel, the other male. he took the anesthetic and the procedure began ... but it wasn't enough, and he started to come out of it just as she was finishing 'one nut' :) caution: not for the faint of heart ... especially if you are a 'male' :) so they switched gears and needed to give him more sedative. at this point, there were too many people in there, it was hot, sweaty and you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. it was getting late and it was time for the other cats to be fed. so, i took it upon myself to enlist the help of Eddi, and we stepped up to the challenge of doing the feeding ... alone! single-handedly ... well, double-handedly, we feed all the cats ourselves. there were a few dropped bowls and it wasn't pretty, but we got it done ... correctly ... that's our story and we're sticking with it. back in the 'operating room', they got Angel 'done', and decided to call it quits for the day. he is coming around now. everyone is very happy, ... with the exception of maybe Angel ..... Andy, of course, lives another couple weeks as the 'sex offender', and is feeling quite smug. then Madi and i went out with Connie and Bob, ... back to my favorite place, ....Rose's ! Connie and Bob split the biggest lobster i have ever seen ! i had Grouper, it was good; but i wanted lobster, but we were late, and they only had huges ones left for $$$$$

Sat, 23 Jan

Sat 23 Jan: since it was Sat, and Madi 'sleeps in'; i.e. 7am :) ....by the time the chores were done, it was after 10am and i was hungry. Eddi and i went for breakfast. only my second breakfast out ... and i was not going to repeat the experience of overpaying like i had the first breakfast. we ate at The Agave, nice place i had passed by many times. my breakfast included eggs anyway i wanted them, 2 pancakes (with fake maple syrup); fresh fruit, bananas, papaya, pineapple, watermelon; AND fresh squeezed orange juice ... ALL for B$10, USD5 ! what a deal ! are you all aware how lucky we are that we get fresh REAL maple syrup? i didn't know this until my second visit to South Africa. i had pancakes and they served this clear syrup with them .... like white Karo syrup, yuck! i asked Jonathan where's the maple syrup? he was astonished and added, "we don't have maple syrup here, we have no maple trees; you are the only ones that have maple syrup!" wow, aren't we fortunate ! at least the syrup here kind of tastes like maple syrup, and it is maple color. the most memorable thing i did today is that i did NOT participate in 'chores' this evening. since Eddi was here, i gave myself the evening off. instead in went to The Split to have a few happy hour drinks and watch the sunset. this is a real treat, because we are usually deep into chores and do not see the sunset, nor do we make happy hour :) the sunset was pretty, not as colorful as the other one, but more picturesque because of the sailboat that coincidentally crossed in front of the sun, just as it was setting me, at sunset at the Lazy Lizard at The Split ... do i look happy ????????? i found a place at the bar next to a man that i started a conversation with. i don't usually do this, but i needed some 'different' conversation. Mike was another retired 'American' from San Diego area, who has been living here for 2.5 yrs ... and has not returned to the States since he got here. wow, huh? we had a great visit ... i think i missed being able to converse with someone! he was very nice,interesting and easy to talk with ... translate: he didn't tell me what a 'beuuteefuul booddy' i have and try to pick me up :) .... i was home by 7pm. Eddi and i went to dinner on the street. this seems to be the 'thing' here. someone puts up tables and a grill, right on the side of the 'street', and brings the food. it's a set menu, lobster or fish, 2 sides, 2 drinks, and dessert ... B$25 .. that's USD12.50 ... a good deal. we chose Fran's, cause she had cherry cheesecake. :) i had barracuda for the first time. i didn't like it. it was rubbery and had no flavor, other than whatever seasoning was on the outside. since then i've talked with others who say it is good, and that maybe mine was overcooked .... i MAY try it again sometime. Fran, the Chef, is on the right: