17 Jan, Tues

Tues, 17 Jan well that's the last chicken i'm having! i woke up with stomach cramps and you know what followed. a whole day lost. i had no energy, but managed to do a small project, then back to the room, rest, then up again, then back, and down again. plus Madi informed me that Veronica who was supposed to help out in her absence isn't going to be able to help ... so, it's up to Alex and i. :( so i also tried to learn the 'routine' in between trips back to my room. later in the afternoon, i walked to the store and bought some chicken soup ... with no chicken :) in the evening i searched 3 stores and finally found some yogurt. and drank a Coke with fresh lime juice ... guaranteed by Alex and Madi to be the cure ! i hope tomorrow is a better day !

16 Jan, Mon

Mon, 16 Jan more rain this morning, but it cleared off early. Madi's cousin, Alex, arrived to help Madi out in the catteries. Madi has been organizing Spay and Neuter Clinics in Chetumal, Mexico. there is a Clinic later this week, and she will be going there for most of a week. Alex is here to take care of the cats, with the help of another cousin, Veronica; while i continue with my maintenance projects; and help out when i can. i wanted to add more sand to one of the enclosed areas. while it was raining, i noticed that it is low and really floods. Alex offered to help. at the same time, Nicholas and Emilie, from Canada, who arrived yesterday, also offered to help. WoW ! 3 helpers ... actually they made quick work of the project, while i supervised. and then they wanted to know if there was anything else. they shouldn't ask unless they are serious ... i have lots of projects. so i showed them one of the enclosures that we divided into 2 last year. Madi needs to move some of the cats around, so this year, i want to separate one of those again. Nicholas took right to the project and before i knew it, we had a plan and were on our way to the lumber yard to get a few new boards. the 3 of us worked for a few hours and we finished it. it has the nicest door/gate of any in the cattery! we got cleaned up and went to dinner at Las Arcas. i had grilled chicken ... not lobster ...how about that? it was good for a change .. but i'll be back to lobster tomorrow.

15 Jan, Sun

Sun, 15 Jan i awoke around 6am to a noise that i realized was pouring rain. i rolled over, .... and then thought that i should get up to see what kind of water problems we had in the catteries. and to see if any of the cats were using any of the 9 totes that i 'toted' all the way from Kalamazoo. WoW, it was raining hard and everything was wet and flooding; but the cats were all safe and dry, except for Cookie. i put him in a tote, but he wasn't having any part of it. we need to start putting their food inside the totes to get them used to going in there. i was happy to see that the changes i had made were working and mostly dry. but there are still lots of areas to be dealt with. it stopped raining around 11am, cleared up and was sunny and humid. luckily the sandy soil drains well, and the floods had subsided. Wilbur came over and cleaned the fish we caught ... all 20 of them. and here is the crate of our Conch Catch ... say that 20 times fast :) i worked on a few small projects and around 4pm, Madi came running in saying another storm was on the way. ....and rain, rain, rain it did; and flooded everything once again. it stopped around 7pm and i headed out to find a different restaurant with internet service. i did find one; but it took 47min to upload 2 photos. sitting next to me were a young couple i overhead talking to another girl. they are from Chelsea, Michigan. we talked for awhile and he told me we are in for rain through Thursday :( ...... not what i wanted to hear ... but it's a good opportunity to see where and how the rain is coming in; .... and ... it's not snow :)

14 Jan, Sat

Sat, 14 Jan so, i've been here 10 days already ! Wilbur was here in the morning. we were going to start at 8am .. but i guess that means 9 Belizan time. it sprinkled last night and was kinda cloudy this morning. i had planned on a really hot day; so i ran back in my room and grabbed a jacket and my dive jacket and we took off north towards Ambergris Caye. the day Wilber collected those 35 Conch, it was really calm; today it was not; but it wasn't too bad, just a little choppy. first we had to get some bait. here is Wilbur casting his net to collect sardines. he's really good at it. i have a video, and again, i will let you know when i can get it uploaded. the net is huge and has weights at the bottom and weighs about 20 pounds. we ... well, he got a lot of sardines, and they were larger than the ones in the can :) then we headed out again and stopped at our first fishing spot. Wilbur has been navigating these waters all his life; but i still cannot comprehend how he can know a precise spot where he wants to fish. it all looks the same to me you all know, i am not a fisher-person ... but I CAUGHT THE FIRST FISH ! it was a Mutton Snapper, distinquished by that black spot on it's back just below the dorsel fin. after fishing a bit, we got in the water and snorkeled the area looking for conch. right out of the boat i spotted this almost buried Southern Stingray. (it reminded me of my month at Glovers 2 years ago when i tracked and recorded their behavior.) he took me to a catamaran that had sunk during one of the hurricanes many years ago. we investigated and there were 2 HUGE Nurse Sharks inside. i've seen a lot of Nurse Sharks, but these guys were very very fat and large! also spotted this Cushion Sea Star during my journey. and i found my first Conch the rest of the day we alternated between fishing and jumping in the water snorkeling and looking for conch; then back in the boat and off to another of Wilbur's secret spots. while snorkeling we saw lots of fish. there were quite a few Gray Angelfish swimming together at several of our stops i don't know what the next two photos are of, but i liked them. unfortunately internet service is expensive here, so i can't do much research to find out what they are. while we were Conch searching, Wilbur had his spear gun with him. and speared several fish. one of them was this Hog Fish one particular area we were searching in had lots of Cushion Sea Stars. a couple of them were huge. here they are compared to me and my hand. even Wilbur said these were huge; and they were so fat too. i also spotted these Christmas Tree Worms. they look just like Christmas trees; but if you get too close to them, they vanish into the coral. if you wait a little while, they will come back out again ... and the game goes on this is what a lobster trap looks like; and Wilbur checking it. the lobster goes in there, and it can't get out. there was no lobster in this one. i found lots of smaller Conch, and put them in a pile. but decided to leave them to get bigger because i started to feel a bit 'greedy' since we already had quite a few.... this is a larger one that was so covered with plant life, i almost didn't see it. Wilbur pointed out this Green Moray Eel that i never would have seen and another Gray Angelfish passed close enough to me to get this photo. i dove down to take a photo of a HogFish; but when i got down there, i CowFish was right in front of me. you can't tell very well from this photo, but they have little horns over their eyes, like cows ... they are really cute, and i have only seen one other one 2 years ago out at Glovers; and it wasn't this pretty green color. we continued to fish; but only Wilbur was catching fish. i just don't seem to have the touch. Mostly he was catching Mutton Snapper, but this was a Spanish Mackerel. he is amazing. he hooked it several times but it kept getting away. he would bring in the line, rebait it, and throw it back. he told me it was a Mackerel before he even caught it. he knew just by the way it was taking the bait. it was getting late in the afternoon, and a big black cloud was covering the sun; and i was getting cold. i put on my dive jacket and tried not to whine. we tried several more spots with no luck. he asked me if i wanted to get back in the water to see a school of Spade fish that he knew were down there. i really would have like to see them, but i couldn't get back in the water at that point. we finally headed for home. ... well, i thought we were, but instead we went West to another secret spot. i tried fishing again; but when i lost my hook, again, on something on the bottom, i told him i was finished. i also told him a story about my sister fishing in the Rocky Mountains that i won't go into here. (Pammy, you know the one). Anyway, the fish started really biting. he literally was tossing his bait in the water, pulling a fish out, putting more bait on, tossing it again, and pulling in another one. i feared we would be there for hours; until he yelled and his line took off. something BIG had hit it and was taking all the line off his reel .... honest, he was down to holding the end of the line ! he said it was a Stingray. i had visions of this Stingray in our boat, and us trying to get the hook out of it's mouth, with that barb on it's tail flying around; and eventually having to kill it. i prayed and prayed that the line would break, i really didn't want that experience! finally, the line did break... thankfully! .... and that was the end of our day ! we got back just before dark, put the fish on ice in the cooler, the conch in a trap in the water and called it a night. i took a shower and realized i should have used more sunscreen. my back was sunburned a bit, an unusual experience for me. the day was partly cloudy and windy, and i should have known i was getting more sun than i thought :( i went to the Happy Lobster for dinner and had the grilled barracuda since we didn't get one of those today. a great day on the island of Caye Caulker !

13 Jan, Fri

Fri the 13th ahhhhhh, it's Friday the 13th ! i noticed it on my PC at about 10 tonight. guess nothing bad happened to me :) i fixed some boards on the landing to the stairs on Madi's Mom's porch today; which lead to shoring up some of the stair steps as well. and worked on another problem area where one of the cats escaped a few days ago. he won't get through that hole again :) the no-see-ums were horrible today. even Madi was complaining! late in the afternoon 2 women showed up on bicycles. they had emailed Madi a few months ago and stopped in to say hi and play with the cats. they were from Canada and have several cats and a dog of their own. they even brought some nice grilled grouper with them to feed to the cats. lucky cats, ... i would have eaten it; it looked delicious! i worked on a few more projects until it got dark; showered and headed out to find something to eat. i had recommended The Enjoy Bar to the visitors, so i decided to go there and have lobster again tonight ... ho hummm :) ...and they were in there, so i had company for dinner. nothing much else to report for today. but Wilbur, Madi's brother, has invited me to join him tomorrow when he goes out looking for more Conch and some fishing. should be fun !

12 Jan, Thurs

Thurs, 12 Jan yes, it was another HOT day today. every night when i get in the shower, the water, ...cold water, runs brown. how can i get so dirty???? Wilber, Madi's brother, was in the water by the dock this morning. i noticed he was cleaning Conch shells. he had been out in the boat yesterday and picked up 35 Conchs !!!!!!!! he sold the meat for B$10/pound and was cleaning up the shells to sell in Belize City for B$5 each. they were absolutely beautiful with their pink pearl lining. Wilbur cleaning the conch shells i worked through the morning, shoring up one of the catteries. it is absolutely amazing that it is still standing, rotting boards, and no support beams are everywhere, or should i say no-where, ...but less of them after today. i want to put a roof over this area, but need to get it supported before i go crawling up there! and, i've sent an email to my brother to find out how to do it! so ... 1pm, and Madi and i met and actually began our 'art project'. of course, there is going to be a learning curve. i am not using the same materials that i used when i took my workshop. those compounds need to be steamed and dry-cleaned ... not an option here, so we are using something different ... and, it is acting different :( but we'll figure it out eventually. at any rate, we had fun today. Madi wants to thank everyone who donated to this project. she said she couldn't believe how much fun she was having; and didn't realize how she missed this kind of 'distraction' from her everyday life and chores. here is Madi at work. you probably won't be surprised to find out she is painting 'cats' on her scarf. i went to the Sports Bar tonight to eat and use their internet. they don't have any seafood here, only 'bar food'. i had quesadillas with chicken and jalapenos. i think they were the best quesadillas i've ever had! and they play 'my' kind of music, i ate outside right by the water, and the internet was pretty fast ... a good night! you all can be really happy you are not here .... well at least when it comes to the no-see-ums ... i am wearing my bug outfit around Madi's, but obviously my feet aren't very well protected. they ITCH !!!!

11 Jan, Wed

Wed, 11 Jan i got up to say goodbye to Nicole. i am happy she decided to go to Tikal; it's a big step for her to travel by herself. i wadded out in the water first thing, hoping i would have a better chance for some photos of the SeaHorses. the weather was changing. Madi said that it will either be cooler or hotter. now, see, she could work for the weather service here too! at any rate, the water was choppy and i couldn't hold the camera steady... i'm going to keep trying; but here are some from today. Madi had told me that there were some black and white SeaHorses, but i didn't see them yesteday. today i saw 3 black and white and 3 yellow SeaHorses. if you look carefully you can see the 3 black and white ones to the left of the yellow one. the yellow one with black stripes. and this one is pretty cool ! while walking out of the water this little Yellow Stingray caught my eye. i got some price quotes on roofing and other supplies at the hardware store. it was almost lunch time, so i stopped at my favorite Belizean-Mexican place for my favorite Salbutas. the man came out and shook my hand and said "welcome back, good to see you again". ...like i said, it's like being 'home'. it was really hot again today, has been hot for several days (since it rained on Nicole and i at The Split). here is a picture of Masky high up in his coconut tree, keeping cool and taking his afternoon nap. i worked a long hard day today, tackling a job that i've put off for 3 years; ...tearing out and replacing a litter box that was back in a dark corner and rotting. i finished it after the sun had set, with the help of my headlamp. i told Madi i expected time and a half. you might notice that i haven't complained about the mosquitos nor the no-see-ums. i didn't want to jinz myself. but .. they have arrived, or returned, i don't know which. but they were everywhere today ... including my room. so, it was time to put up my 'safety net' over my bed before i went to sleep. i went to The Enjoy Bar for dinner tonight. last time my lobster was $25, tonight it was $20 and included ceviche appetizer, 3 sides, garlic bread, rum punch, and fruit dessert. it was so good. i like this place except for the loud music they play :( ...can i eat lobster every night ??????? every day Madi and i plan to start our art project; but it seems every day gets away from us. tomorrow, tomorrow we will start !