Three Days in Mexico

Oops! I never did write about Chetumal, did I? I turned a year older there and didn’t feel a day over 20. Even the rain didn’t put a damper (pun intended) on our fun. The only problem was we didn’t stop at customs. We meant to but we couldn’t find the immigration office and everyone we asked pointed in a different direction. Finally, soaked and frustrated, we said “the heck with it” and just drove on.
We ate, we swam, we drank and we shopped ‘til we were too tired for anything else. Fortunately the evening activity was not too strenuous. Television! You might not know this, but if you want to watch television in the jungle you have to buy and install a big ol’ satellite dish which I do not have. So I got my TV. fix for a couple of evenings while sipping on cerveza.
Mexico makes the best beer in the world. It’s called Modelo Especial and I decided I wanted to take some back with me. I bought a six pack and Ellen picked up a bottle of Baileys and headed off to the border and back to Belize.
“Where is your visitor pass?” asked the stern looking official at the immigration booth. In our flustered, eye batting innocence we explained about the trip across. The official was neither flattered nor amused. We were told it would cost hundreds of pesos as a fine. We pooled out pesos and come up with an amount a little short of what was asked for. I guess they were tired of us so they accepted it and let us go back home.
We hadn’t bought much besides the clothes we were wearing so we declared everything we had at the Belize customs desk knowing it wouldn’t be over the amount allowed.
“You are Belizean residents,” the officer said. “You cannot bring beer and alcohol into the country.”
“Why”, I asked. “Is it dangerous?”
This did not get the smile I was hoping for so we professed we did not know this or we certainly would not have bought it and then been so honest about declaring it etc. etc…
They decided we weren’t going to open a liquor store and ruin the Belizean economy and let us keep it.
I repacked my small suitcase quickly and hurried out to the car with half the contents spilling out the unzip-able container. Ellen brought the car around and we both breathed a big sigh of relief!

Catch up!

I haven’t writing anything for a while so I’m going to try and catch up on a few things today. My excuse is… I don’t really have an excuse but this picture might give you a clue as to what I’ve been up to in my spare time. Hey, can I help it if I’m lured to the call of the hammock? I think not.
Gertie is still sitting on her egg and Beatrice is now Bernie. Yes, he’s turned out to be a rooster. So I have one hen not laying eggs and two roosters. Big surprise, Randy and Bernie do not get along! They do a little chicken dance, then face off and fly up and down about 5 feet in air. Fortunately there have been no cock fights but one of them is going to have to go. Miguel has taken a liking to Ralph and has offered to trade a hen for him. “Amen” I say, Ralph is the one who starts crowing at 4:30 in the morning and doesn’t stop until about 8:00. I’ve made Miguel promise not to make tamales out of him. Am I a great egg farmer or what? Don’t answer that, okay.
Hobo is getting bigger every time I see him. I finally got him to run along side of me. Of course I gave him a big ripe mommy apple for this amazing feat and he gave me a big orange kiss after eating it. Yuck, time for a bath for both of us!

Gertie sits on one egg

Gertie has been laying an egg every day now since she started and I’ve been enjoying them fried, scrambled and hard boiled. Miguel told me that I should leave one in the nest so that she didn’t decide to go into the bush to lay her eggs. Apparently a chicken will not keep laying in the same place if all her eggs disappear. Makes sense to me. I had been taking them out of the nest each day so I figured I’d better put one back. I got one out of the fridge and marked it with a felt pen so I’d know I was getting the fresh one and put it back in.
Okay, so now Gertie has laid about 20 eggs since she started and has two left in her nest. She has decided that it’s time to hatch them. Oh boy… I wasn’t counting on that! I looked up all my notes (they’re filed under chicken shit) and found that if you put ice cubes into the clutch, the hen will stop sitting on them. I placed a dozen cubes in the nest while Gertie was out to get a drink of water. She came back and turned them all along with her eggs and sat on them. I tried again the next day with the same result. Well this is the tropics and ice doesn’t last too long so what did I expect? I gave up. Now she’s going to spend three weeks sitting on one egg that may or may not hatch since the one from the fridge will definitely not. Tune in at the end of the month to find out if Gertie becomes a mom!

Our mangos are bigger than yours are!

I found this one in the market today and just had to compare it to a banana to show you how big it is. It’s not ripe yet, but my mouth is watering already.

Hobo - The best little horse in Belize

I was checking out my previously blogs and I see that I haven’t mentioned Hobo yet. Hobo is an almost 2 year old horse and is quite possibly the smartest horse in the world. He can’t do much except eat but I know he has great potential and will one day be a champion! He cost me $25.00 Belize which is about $12.50 U.S. and I guess he’s not the prettiest colt but we all know about how swans start out so I’m sure he’ll grow into his beauty. Being a Belizean horse, his favourite treats are Mommy apples, corn husks and oranges. Yes, oranges! No one was more surprised than I was when he stopped in the orchard to devour an orange; skin, pits and all! I guess I don’t have to worry about him getting enough vitamin C, or is it D? What-Ever… I will keep you posted as Hobo learns all the horsy things he needs to know to become the champ.

Tarantulas – The frequent visitor

These poor guys always get a bad rap. Even down here I hear people say “
Watch out for them, their bite is deadly.” “They bite your horse’s feet and leave poison,” or “they’ll jump up on your face like the thing in Alien.” The actual people who do know something about this particular species disagree with all of the above. Especially about the jumping on your face cause I just made that up. In reality (although I don’t know this first-hand either) their bite is comparable to a bee sting and I do know first-hand that they will run away if you get close to them. I’ve seen the ‘brave at heart’ pick them up and let them walk all over them. They tell me if you don’t hurt them they won’t bite and are not the least bit aggressive. I’ll take their word on that. I’m also very glad because I found a baby hiding in my laundry the other day. It puts a whole new slant on ‘ants in your pants.’ They are very pretty for a big hairy spider, and the red body at the back seems to be exclusive to Belizean tarantulas.
Randy is driving me crazy with his crowing! He starts at 4:30 in the morning and won’t stop until I feed him. I’m thinking tamales!