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Today was the school easter party. I went up early to help get the prizes ready and hide eggs.

We had all kinds of cool prizes, fancy pencils, spinning tops, super balls, rings, barrettes, bubbles, plastic bugs and more. All the donations people keep sending / bringing are such a help for us to be able to hold parties like this for the kids. We could not do it without your help.

Off we all went across the bridge to hide the eggs. Some were plastic and the rest were hard boiled and decorated with glitter. Cullen, Kath, Francis and I started out then another couple joined us and Paul came shortly after.

The kids came in groups to make it easier, so that we were not totally ambushed and this way they all got to find more eggs. They had baskets that they made with thicker paper and pipe cleaner for the handles. Most of the supplies (and prizes) that the baskets were made of came from the Ambergris message board crew. Thanks again for all your generous donations.

The special ed kids came first they were so happy to do the egg hunt and claim their prizes. Then we were off to hide the eggs for the next group.

Paul was on kite detail and the kids were all excited to take a turn flying it.

We had 3 groups in all. The kids got counting practice as they handed in their eggs to claim prizes. By the time we were done, those hard boiled eggs were a bit worse for ware.

All in all it was a great party and I got my exercise in to boot. Going to the school and back and doing the party, I walked 2.55 miles today or 8993 steps and got 27 minutes of aerobic activity in which = 3120 steps.


If a picture says 1000 words these kids could fill a few books. They are just so bright cute and happy to have some Easter fun.

Sitting on the boat to Belize city. It is 7:23 am. I sure could use a johnny cake from Ruby's and a second cup of coffee from Island Perk right about now.

I counted around 70 people on the boat, every seat is taken even the steps and a bucket is being used as a make shift seat. Mostly it is kids from R.C. school at the foot of our street, they must be going on a field trip. We are about half way there now and I can no longer see our island. The water is really blue today and the boat ride is smooth. So glad we are on a covered boat. When we did this trip 4 years ago it was not and the ride was very windy.

Boats at the Swing Bridge in Belize City

Had to take a picture of the wood glue for sale at Simon Quan that is just too funny.


I am excited to meet up with Elizabeth and Rod, they are coming into town for the day from a cruise ship. We will arrive in the city ahead of them so that gives us a chance to check a few places we wanted to shop. Feels like being a kid in a candy store compared to shopping in San Pedro.

We found Elizabeth and Rod pretty easily as soon as we were walking towards gate 1 we spotted Elizabeth. It was a good thing that one of the guides tipped us off to the time difference for cruise ships. He said that if they told us to meet them at 10:30 it is likely 9:30 our time we should look for them. After hooking up Rod got talking to an nice guy Mike outside Mirab who was doing tours so we decided to tour the city and go to Altun Ha Ruins.

We are on our way, Mike driver is great conversation and lot's of fun. We are driving on a one lane road that is shared by vehicles and the odd cow for both directions. At the ruins I noticed there was a Banana stall across the road So I walked over to get one but the man told me I had to buy a bunch so I got 5 banana's for $1 that is cheaper than Ambergris Caye.

Archaeologists believe Altun Ha, was first settled somewhere around 250 BC, and construction of the buildings beginning in 100 AD continuing throughout the period that ended in the 10th century. Some 10,000 Maya lived in and around Altun Ha. It was a significant trading center, seen by the large amounts of jade and obsidian excavated here in the early sixties and seventies. Rockstone Pond is the literal translation for Altun Ha

Above is largest of Altun Ha's temple-pyramids, the Temple of the Masonry Altars. It is is 54 feet (16 m) high. The Temple of the Masonry Altars is thought to have been the focal point of the community's religious activities. A single stairway climbs the temple to an altar perched at the peak. Inside, several tombs were discovered that are believed to have kept the bodies of Altun Ha's high priests. One of these digs yielded a priceless piece of history in the form of a 15-centimeter high, jade head of the Maya Sun God, Kinich Ahau.
The Runes were great. It is always so amazing to see these sites in person and learn about the Mayan Culture.
We stopped in Sand Hill for Lunch at a really nice place called Gardens. The food was excellent, we all ordered something different. Mike our guide had stewed beef, Rod had Lobster, Elizabeth a Belikin, Paul had stewed chicken and I had conch. Our meals came with rice and beans and coleslaw. I tried a sip of Paul's pineapple juice it was really tasty.



We are on our way back to Belize City, and will take a tour of the south side then get dropped off at Mirab to do our shopping. Mike made a stop so we could see St John's Anglican Cathedral, the oldest Anglican Church in Belize city. Paul noticed a picture on the wall of Bishop Wright, we had the pleasure to have lunch with him on the island here when he did the Blessing for Holy Cross School. He is a great guy with a strong sense of humor.

After we got dropped off we took a Stroll though tourist village then stopped at to Wet Lizard for a drink, then had just enough time to go to Mirab and two other places to get a few things we had seen earlier. We made it back it back to the water taxi dock right on time.

From the time we got off the boat in Belize City till the time we got back on the boat to go home, we walked a total of 3.28 miles or 11569 steps Surprisingly, that was only only 13 minutes of aerobic activity and 1275 aerobic steps. To be counted as aerobic activity on my pedometer you have to be walking more than 10 minutes straight, and since we kept stopping and looking at things we were not getting a cardio work out.

The boat ride home was nice, not nearly as crowded as the morning was. We had lots of room to spread out and get comfortable. As we got closer to home the sky was giving us a show, that cloud looks like a lobster with big claws to me.

This is what we got in Belize City...

2 big jars of peanut butter from Florida courtesy of Elizabeth and Rod many thanks for that
a wedding present for Carole and Dick
4 small champagne bottles of bubbles for their wedding
corningware butter dish
a tv table so I can use my lap top on the veranda. Outdoor office hooray
snoopy coloring book
Nemo and Dory notebook
Memory card game where you have to remember where the pairs are
Spongebob and Patrick kite


Elizabeth and Rod thanks for a great day, we will be happy to show you around San Pedro next time we meet (hint hint)

Mike we had a great time on your tour and will highly recommend your services.

We have been living on Ambergris Caye, an island off the coast of Belize for just over 1 year now and it has been wonderful. Met so many cool people and seen so many interesting things. Best of all we followed a dream made our great escape from Canadian winters.

Ambergris Caye is the largest of some 200 cayes along the coast of Belize. It is about 25 miles long and a little over a mile wide in some places and 4 miles at the widest point. Ambergris Caye is located on the Caribbean Sea just off the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Being on the barrier reef makes the island a popular spot for divers. It is 190 miles long and the second largest living coral reef in the world. If you continued to the left in the picture you above would cross the cut area and headed to the north end of the island and towards the The channel between Ambergris and Mexico.

Ambergris Caye was a trading post in Mayan times and the narrow channel that separates Mexico and Belize was dug by the Maya to provide a trade route from the bay of Chetumal to the Caribbean. Following the Maya were whalers, pirates and the ancestors of present day residents many were fishermen and worked in the coconut plantations.

There are many different areas on the island and one main town. The one we live in is San Pedro town. It is about one and a half-miles long and in some places about a mile wide. Walking through town at many cross streets you can look to one side and see the turquoise waters of the Caribbean sea and to the other the lagoon where we sometimes go to get fresh fish. The picture above shows the south end of town which is where we live. We are walking distance from the airstrip which is handy when company comes. The planes mostly fly south so we do not get a lot of air traffic passing over us.


The shot above is front street also known as barrier reef drive. This street is mainly tourist shops, real estate agents, banks, a couple restaurants and a few of hotels and some houses up above the shops. One of the nice things about town is that there is a building cap of 3 stories. All along the left side are beach access points. As you walk north up the road you will reach central park right on the water and the immigration office a bit further up to the left, which right above is our favorite coffee place Island perk. Keep going north and you get some local shops the self serve laundry mat and Transylvania Tech our video store.

Last picture is middle street also known as pescador drive. This is the street we live on and this picture was taken just north of our building. The building to the right is vacant right now so people set up shop outside and sell fruit. On the left the white building with the archways is our local convenience store Rocks. When we do not go along the beach, we walk this way to go to the school we volunteer at which is about 20 min up the road (usually we take the beach there and the road home). If you were to the other direction you would hit Tarpon street and either make a left which would put you at front street, the beach and the library or right which would take you to the lagoon and the direction of the airport which we pass by on the way to Pedro's our local hang out.

Amazing how easy it is to get side-tracked some days.

I had planned on doing tai chi after my morning iced coffee, however I got busy while doing so. Now it is 1:42 pm and I have not exercised yet nor did I get the project finished that I had started working on.

I have been feeling chi energy. I notice it in my palms most during the warm up, I think that could be because I also practice reiki. Since I have not found a teacher here I have been using a dvd and card set that I got from eBay. It is not the full 24 set but it is a place to start and the warm up exercises are really good. I can't wait to start seeing the effects they have on helping tone my body.

My net friend in Luxembourg mailed me a copy of the karate kid last week. I am looking forward to watching it with fresh to see what get from it. John Lash says in his books on tai chi about it being more than an exercise but a way of life. I am working on stepping into that kind of awareness. I know it will take more practice as this is an area I have struggled with (keeping focused on one thing at a time). While sweeping the dust off our front window yesterday, I was there and paying attention to the movements I was making with my brush strokes, sometimes it is so easy to drift off.

(After doing some couch surfing, I ended up practicing just the warm up later that evening)

I got my new omron hj-112 premium pedometer in the mail yesterday and it is great. It counts your aerobic steps (number of continuous steps taken over ten minutes) throughout the day, giving you an end-of-day total. It has seven-day memory to track your progress. Also displays time, distance in miles, calories burned, regular step count and continuous step count. Comes with 2 different clip options and the the cool thing is you do not need to use them it works if you put it in your pocket or bag (have not tested the bag option yet)

I put it to the test today walking to the School with Paul to drop off donations. On the way there we had to make 2 stops so it was not a direct route. On the way home we walked along middle street and did not make any stops. It was .77 of a mile (the way there was about 1.06) 2712 regular steps and 2674 aerobic steps coming in at 24 min of aerobic activity on the walk home. So I probably got in close to 2 miles and 50 minutes of aerobic activity.

Since we live in an island and walk everywhere this is a fun thing to play with, and it helps me know how much aerobic exercise I am getting.

January 31, 2007

Island life

We have some relatively last minute company coming tomorrow and needed to find something to make our cot a bit more comfortable.

That is easier said than done when you live on an island.

We measured the size we needed for our cot 30 across x 71 inches long.

The first solution that came to mind was to check a local store that makes nice covers for beach chairs. I knew they could make something decent. I called them up Monday and yes she could do something in time but it would cost us $200. Now I know they use good foam and special sun resistant fabric and so it would last long, but that price was more than we wanted to spend.

So today we go off to check a few stores. War Paint had blow up mats but the sizing was a bit too big though the price was decent. Next stop Harmouche hardware. They had a better size blow up mattress even cheaper and we were set to buy it only they had no pump. We were going to buy a piece of foam from them but they would not cut it for us. Said they had never done that and did not know how.

By this point I new Paul had enough, so I told him to go on home with the laundry and I would figure it out.

Onto Castillo’s I go. They had 3 inch foam there and were willing to cut it for me.

So guy helping me gets a ladder climbs up to top of racking to get my foam. He puts it on the floor right in the front area of the store and measures it nicely then he proceeds to start cutting it with his pocketknife. The first part cut off to make the length right was ok but a bit choppy.

Then he proceeded to measure the width and start cutting. A few guys came around offering suggestions and a smaller exacto knife which did not work. So back to the pocket knife and someone else started cutting (hacking) it.

Needless to say the foam looks like it was chewed by a dog.

Another guy that worked there came along and told them they should have been using a big size exacto knife.

They seemed to feel bad about it (or were trying to avoid trouble) and offered to take it home for me in their truck. The original guy who was helping me rushed it out the door before I had even paid for it.

So off I go walking home thinking the foam will beat me there and Simon stops to give me a ride to pampered paws, which is 2 doors away from me.

Well Castillo’s truck pulls up in front of us by our place and bunch of guys on back hooting and hollering having a good old time.

So I get out of Simon's cart and walk around their truck and there is guy who cut my foam with his pocket knife standing there holding my 2 pieces.

I thanked him and brought it upstairs. I had to laugh, and the whole experience cost me only $80 bzd.