Kind Kids, Karaoke and Costa Maya (and ponies)

"Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony"
Lou Reed
























We live life to the fullest and sometimes, we must admit, that doesn't include blogging regularly enough. In our defense, we would argue that we have to spend time indulging in life to the fullest to make sure we have blog content worthy of our esteemed readers. So, our advice to you is to get a drink, get comfortable and get ready for the ride - cause this blog is gonna be a doozy. There will be a bit of 'nice' and a bit of 'naughty' as we also believe in a definite life balance. To break you in gently, we'll start with the nice. So, here is a pony. Not just any pony, but a pink pony. You'll be seeing her throughout this blog journey. We think she is very nice. She belongs to Colette. If at any point you feel overwhelmed by the children in this blog, please note that there are party pictures and beautiful women in bikinis towards the end.

That sets us up nicely for Colette's Be Kind Belize Kind Kids Adventure. Colette, being a true rebel, always finds a way to work with animals and children, so this summer she rustled up sponsorship amongst friends and Belizean businesses to take a group of kids on a two day field trip to mainland Belize. We'll start with that story first.

Colette's biggest worry in the planning of this whole trip was that the kids wouldn't turn up on time. The adventure was starting on a Saturday morning and all of the children needed to be at the dock at 6:45am for the 7:00am express boat. The San Pedro - Belize Express Water Taxi Company
had generously provided free tickets for the whole group of six children, two adults (teachers) and Colette (who probably doesn't really count as a real adult). Everyone Colette had spoken to had laughed when she told them she had told the kids to be there at 6:45am. The normal response, given with a snort was 'You should have told them to be there at 6:00am. No way they'll be there on time'.




















At 6:30am Colette arrived at the dock to find three children already there. By 6:45am all of the children had arrived and as far as Colette was concerned, the worst part of the trip was over. We should back pedal a bit here and explain that Colette has been organising this adventure for over six months and everyone who knows her, knows she plans things in detail. So, every child received a backpack filled with goodies upon their arrival. The backpacks were embroidered with the Be Kind Belize logo and had been donated by a lovely woman called Deborah Gagnon from Denny's in Canada. Inside the backpacks were all sorts of goodies donated by a wonderful animal loving couple, Lori and Jim Prediger and huge supporters of Be Kind Belize, Charlene and Ted Jordan. They also contained a Be Kind Belize t-shirt, which had been printed and provided for free by Gecko Graphics in San Pedro.

The kids were kitted out and ready to go. The boat trip over was uneventful with lots of nodding off and yawning going on. No one said much and the children all looked a bit worried to be leaving their island and their parents. As soon as we arrived, Karen Turner Cruz from Belize Jungle Dome was there to greet us and get us started on our journey to the Cayo District. The Jungle Dome people had been wonderful and provided all of the transportation for the Kind Kids Adventure. For those of you who have never seen the Jungle Dome or even heard of the Jungle Dome, here is a picture. It is, in fact, a dome in the jungle (and a lovely bed & breakfast).





















We stuffed ourselves into the van with all of our luggage and hit the road for the first stage of our adventure. Everything seemed to be going well. Colette could hear the teachers, Daniel Jones from Holy Cross Anglican School and Tara McGregor from Island Academy, in the back entertaining the kids and she was carefully reviewing her itinerary with Karen. Suddenly, she heard a groan. It was Teacher Tara. Then there was a group 'ewwwww'. Colette turned around to see that one of the children had puked and, being of a particularly sensitive disposition, covered her own mouth to prevent a further eruption and asked Karen to pull over. All of her meticulous planning came crashing down when she discovered that she hadn't packed any napkins, paper towels or toilet paper. While children fell out of the van and everyone stood around trying not to vomit themselves, Colette thought she would make herself useful and trudged across the road to a closed restaurant, which seemed to serve as a mechanics shop during the day. She returned triumphantly 10 minutes later with a roll of toilet paper in her hands. What she had forgotten was that she was traveling with two experienced teachers, who are excellent at resolving these little problems quickly and simply and so by the time she returned, feeling heroic, the mess had been cleaned up and the children were being packed back into the van. It seemed that this would be a good time to get a proper breakfast into the kids and even though Colette wasn't the best at solving pukey problems quickly, she did have money, which had been donated by some quite marvelous people to ensure that food and travel costs were covered. Those generous people were Charlene and Ted Jordan, Bill and Becky McGhee and Marty Casado, who runs Ambergriscaye.com.






















They ended up in Amigos restaurant along the highway. You can see the children here anxiously awaiting their beans, eggs and tortillas and wait we did. The group debated whether or not the kitchen staff were growing the beans, catching the chickens or had to start a fire to cook on as the power had just gone out. While waiting, the children enjoyed the bumper stickers and signs all over the wall. As one the children started reading one of the signs to the group, teacher Tara suddenly realised that they were all very 'adult' and extremely rude. Everyone then spent the rest of the time trying to distract the children from the signs until the food arrived. Things were running behind schedule and Colette, having planned this like a military operation, hurried everyone up so that they could get on to their first destination, which was Belize Bird Rescue.

Upon our arrival Alyson Coye, one of the top cowboys in Belize and Champion bull rider, was waiting for the children with two horses. One was a four month old foal, whose mother had died from a snake bite. No one had wanted to care for the little mite and so Nikki and Jerry at Belize Bird Rescue, took him in. Alyson, also a skilled farrier, explained and demonstrated proper foot care and then showed the children a 'gentle' approach to gaining a horses trust by lying them down and stroking them.


















The children also got a chance to meet one eyed Jack, who had been abandoned by the side of the road - another unwanted animal being cared for at the bird rescue. They all got a chance to handle the horses and groom them. Colette noticed that just being near the horses, touching them and interacting with them calmed them down and focused their attention.






















After this Nikki and Jerry took everyone for a walk down to Roaring Creek, a beautiful clear creek that runs through their property. They have built the most incredible non mechanised water wheel there that provides an incredible amount of fresh water for free. The children were fascinated and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to take off their shoes and dip their toes into the cool, fast flowing water.


























They were thrilled when little fish appeared and started nibbling their toes and everyone felt refreshed and happy as they headed back up to visit the Bird Rescue aviaries where the children got to meet some of the resident birds, who were being rehabilitated for return to the wild.
























These included Red Lored Parrots, most of whom had been terribly abused, stolen from the rain forest as babies and then kept as pets by people who didn't care for them properly.






















A Crested Guan, seized from people who had cut its wings in an awful manner.























A Little Tinamou, which are rather plain but rarely seen as they are such shy birds.




























We also got to see a blue - headed (Mealy) Amazon Parrot, who had been released by the rescue and was living free in the surrounding forest, as he popped in for a visit.

























After our visit to the aviaries, it was time for lunch, followed by a chance for the kids to show off their creative skills by making toys for the parrots.























One of the highlights of this visit was when the children were able to take the toys and put them in trees for the parrots to play with. The kids were so excited when the parrots immediately climbed down the trees to investigate.























It was onward and forward for the Kind Kids Adventure and though everyone was sad to say goodbye to Alyson, Nikki and Jerry they were looking forward to their next stop with Dr. Orlando Baptist a Belizean veterinary surgeon, who told them all about why he became a vet, what he had to achieve academically and the sort of work he does on a day to day basis. The children asked him all sorts of questions and hopefully will be inspired as Belize really does need more vets.






















By this time everyone was a bit weary, but we still had one more experience for the day and Colette knew that this would most definitely wake everyone up. We headed out to see Tony Garel at the Belize Herpatorium and Aquarium Park. Tony has been working on this project for five years now and is one of the leading experts on reptiles in Belize.




















Be Kind Belize got a behind the scenes tour. The children were able to see the animals that are bred for feeding reptiles, saw the herpetological collection of Belize's most deadly snakes, learned a bit about crocodiles and then were able to visit Tony's ponds, where he keeps problem crocodiles that have had to be removed from dangerous situations. These he uses for educational purposes to help people understand how important crocodiles are to the Belizean ecosystem and why they are threatened. He also gave the children a very scary demonstration of what happens when crocodiles loose their fear of humans. While feeding the crocs, one of them continually tried to attack Tony and it was only is speed and understanding of crocodile behaviour that kept him safe. If that croc was loose it would be a great danger to people.






















It was time to wind down after such a fun filled first day for the Kind Kids Adventure and head off for the jungle lodge that was hosting us for the night.


























Everyone was looking forward to a swim in the pool at Ian Anderson's Caves Branch and were wondering what was in store for us there. Mr. Anderson was hugely supportive of the Kind Kids Adventure and it would be impossible to express how overwhelmed everyone was by his wonderful hospitality. One of the funniest things that evening was that one of the boys had saved $5 so that he could have a virgin pina colada. He ordered and sat at the bar and drank it. It made us all giggle.






















Teacher Tara and Teacher Daniel both needed a rest after the fun filled day.






















..and we got to rest in style. We got absolutely brilliant rooms at the jungle lodge, called the Tree House Suites. We were given three suites, each of which had a beautiful bed (Teacher Tara's was a two bedroom suite. She was the posh one.) and a set of bunk beds for two kids. We all thought we would be roughing it in the bunk rooms but got a wonderful surprise.






















Colette's roomies and their bunks, which were literally in the trees.




















We had a delicious dinner and were joined by Mr. Ian Anderson and his lovely wife Ella. They told us about the amazing Belize National Youth Chess Foundation that they have founded and why they had wanted to support the work we were doing with Be Kind Belize. They were great dinner companions and very interesting people. The children really enjoyed meeting them and felt very special.

After dinner the adults felt it was the responsible thing to hold true to tradition and tell the children ghost stories. So after scaring them all half to death we headed off for a much needed and very comfortable nights sleep.























Colette snuck up on the boys in her room and caught them fast asleep during the beginning of a massive rain storm early in the morning. It wasn't long before everyone was up and ready to start the next day.




























Before breakfast everyone headed out to the river that flowed below our tree houses and then it was off for our cave tubing adventure. Colette had always thought of cave tubing as a gentle float down a slow moving river as you passed through caves and went 'ooh' and 'ahh' and that is what she expected. So, as they set off, fitting the children up with hiking boots......whoa....hiking boots. Wait a minute. This is supposed to be a gentle float isn't it?

Unfortunately there are no pictures as no one had a camera with waterproof housing, so we'll just have to tell you about it here. We all got in one of those big old USA school buses. Colette and Tara were still wearing swim suits. Tara was actually wearing a bikini with a t- shirt as she had also anticipated a gentle float in cool water. After an absolutely glorious long and very bumpy ride through the Maya Mountains with a group of increasingly excited children, we were relieved to pull over in an orange orchard. Very strange. Never mind. Our guides, Alex and Edgar proceeded to empty the back of the bus of large black inner tubes and we all set off on a hike. Eventually we could hear water running and knew it was close.

We clambered down a steep bank - actually Colette, with her immense grace and good balance, sort of slipped and fell down the bank - and were relieved to see what looked like a gently flowing river. Very shallow, but gentle.

After instruction about the correct way to use our tubes and making sure all of the children were present, accounted for and wearing their life jackets and everyone was comfortable with their head lamps, we got in the water. That is when the penny dropped. This was not going to be a gentle float down stream. No- oh no. We were paddling, with our hands, against the current, upstream.

Of course the guides, being wonderful gentlemen, assisted the weaker children but left the grown ups to fend for themselves. Eventually we arrived at the cave and turned on our lamps. It was cold, damp and quite ominous. We also had to keep paddling. Then we would get out for a while and carry our tubes while the guides would tell everyone about the geology of the caves, which were 24 million years old, made of limestone and 7 km deep (most of that has water up to the roof so is in accessible except to cave divers). It was Footprint cave, so named because explorers had found footprints of the ancient Maya in the cave. The cave had been used for Maya rituals and we were told we would soon be seeing evidence of this.

It was pretty fun, there were a few instances of panic when people fell off their tubes and then much relieved giggling when they discovered they could actually just walk as the water was so shallow. The cave was beautiful and full of crystalised formations.

We reached a point where we left our tubes and did the rest of the cave by foot. We went about 1km into the cave. Eventually we had to climb up onto a platform. There was much hilarity when Colette and Tara both balked at the possibility that in their swimsuits and feeble condition that they could possibly climb up onto the platform but everyone ignored them and they managed just fine.

This platform was the site of a stunning Maya carving of a fertility god or monkey mask. The guides told us about the way the area had been used for rituals and rites in the past, gave everyone the chance to have a really good look at some of the stone pits and carvings and then we had to get down from the platform. It took us all a second to understand what he meant when one of the guides told us to maintain five points of contact as we descended and then we realised that he meant we had to slide down on our bottoms. Certainly not very dainty when wearing a swim suit, especially a bikini. Thankfully it was dark.

We floated back out of the cave into the daylight. We had been in there a couple of hours and had lost all sense of time. One of the guides disappeared and suddenly jumped off a cliff next to the river and scared us all to death as he splashed into the water. It was an amazing trip and highly recommended. It was somewhat physically tiring, but well worth it.

The kids were in for a treat when we arrived back at the jungle lodge for lunch as they were just in time to hear a troupe of howler monkeys. If you have never heard howler monkeys, there is no way to describe the sound. The children loved it.






















Karen was there to meet us and we all piled back into the Jungle Dome van to visit Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. It is an environmental education centre based in 1000 acres of forest reserve. The children were intrigued to see the bio gas unit there and learn that human waste (poop) was turned into a gas for cooking - all their cooking gas is made this way at Monkey Bay - and that the rest of the waste is turned into compost. Kids love hearing about poop. They were also told about the Green Iguana conservation programme at Monkey Bay but a bit disappointed that there were no iguanas there at the time.






















Of course, children can be terribly lucky at times. Just as we were leaving, a green iguana ran out from in front of them and while Colette couldn't get the iguana in a picture, she did manage to capture the childrens' faces as they watched it run up a tree. Priceless.

We're now onto the last stretch of the journey. Glad that you are still with us. The next stop is the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Centre. What a treat. Hilario, one of the keepers, took the children on a special highlight tour of the Zoo and here you'll get a chance to see what we did.



























They got to feed White Tailed Deer, which are becoming rare in Belize because of over hunting.






















They got to feed the Tapir, but were told to run away quickly as the Tapir often would turn around and pee on visitors.

















They got the chance to meet Junior, a young jaguar who was born at the zoo when his very sick mother was rescued.























Because Junior had to be hand reared, he can never be returned to the wild, so the Belize Zoo use him to educate people about the plight of the jaguar and have trained him to interact with visitors. The children were also lucky enough to see Sharon Matola interacting with the very rare Harpy Eagles that are being bred at the Zoo but unfortunately we were so excited, no one thought to take a picture.
























They also got to feed the incredibly rare Scarlet Macaws that are part of the Zoo's breeding programme. The Belize Zoo is a truly unique conservation and education effort and we can't recommend it highly enough. They were great with the kids and the visit was extremely educational as well as exciting and interesting.























We piled everyone back into the van and Karen made sure we got to the water taxi on time to make it back to San Pedro on the very last express. The kids were thrilled that the Captain gave them permission to sit on the top deck and even had his picture taken with them.






















The journey home was full of happy smiles even though everyone was tired. The children knew there was one more treat in store for them. Kakaw Artisan Chocolate, hand made in San Pedro, had donated a bag of chocolate for every child on the Kind Kids Adventure. What a journey, what an adventure, what a trip. Teacher Daniel and teacher Tara were wonderful inspirations and role models to the children. The whole event was way beyond anything Colette had planned for and she is eternally grateful to the schools, teachers, children, community members, businesses and other individuals who made the whole thing possible. The lives of these children will be touched by this experience forever.




























Oh, there is that pesky pink pony again. That must indicate that we are in for a change of pace in this blog. It can't be all earnest and do gooding all the time. We need to let our hair down and have some fun every so often and that exactly what we have been doing. Oh no, but just before that - one more small piece of earnest do gooding.






















As part of her work with Be Kind Belize, Colette presented a paper at the first national Belize Wildlife Conservation Network Conference at Galen University in Belmopan.






















She had a great time hanging out with lots of like minded folks and she learned tons.






















Don't think she didn't have fun though - she hates to say that having a group of very sweet children perform the Belize National Anthem on recorders first thing in the morning after excessive amounts of wine drinking the night before was somewhat painful.

Now, onto the real fun. We'll keep this fairly pictoral.




























Maya enjoying Shaz's birthday at Lime.






















Colette and Helda have fun with balloons at Shaz's birthday.




























Maya is feeling lucky at the Roadkill karaoke fundraiser for a young boy who had a sudden brain aneurysm one morning while he was getting ready for school and desperately needed help with medical costs. He is doing well now.

Just so you know it isn't all play and no work, here are our favourite shots from the Costa Maya beauty pageant we were lucky enough to be able to photograph.




























Miss Nicaragua was the winner and you can see why here. Cutie Patootie.




















Here is a colourful group shot of some of the girls dressed for the cultural part of the evening.




























Did we mention we also had to spend a day on a catamaran with the girls on a bikini shoot? Maya got a bit over excited in this shot of Miss Panama posing with a local journalist from the San Pedro Sun.




















Here are all the girls and we are just posting this as a tease because our next blog will contain some fabulous photographs from the bikini shoot. Watch this space.























Finally, we wanted to post this amazing picture, given to us by our friend Tamara, of her mother's house in our neighbourhood 15 years ago. For those of you who know the area, that is where Banana Beach Hotel is now. Wow.




























Our favourite pink pony wishes you a funtastic and fabulous time until we meet again.

Caye Caulker Lobster Fest - Feel the Rock!

Lobster Season is Officially Open!

Be Kind Belize

Humane Education Ain't Just for the Birds You Know

This gorgeous shot of a Harpy Eagle was taken by Maya

Where have we been? Why haven't we blogged? How can we be living in tropical paradise and be so busy? Oh the questions.

We like to keep our blog supporters updated but we also want to make sure we have really interesting stuff to share. Of course we could rub it in constantly and report back on our wonderful friends, the sparkling Caribbean Sea where we walk our dogs and swim regularly. We could brag about the great fishing and how amazing it is to eat fish that we have caught ourselves, straight from the salt water onto our grill. We could talk about hanging out at beach bars with our feet in the sand, the breeze in our hair, a cold beer in our hand tapping our feet to stomping good blues music. We could revel in the barefoot beach lifestyle that we have grown to love, treasure and embrace. We could drone on and on about the interesting people we know who are doing all sorts of heart stopping, enthralling and magical things. We could, but we won't.

What we will do is tell you a little bit about why we are so busy. Here are some of the things we've been up to. We've been taking photographs for a fund raising calendar for the local humane society. Sounds easy eh? Well, first we have to coordinate times with everyone, which isn't so easy when there is something called 'Belize time', which seems to mean that appointments don't constitute any sort of commitment. A good example of Belize time is the recent announcement that the Belikin Calendar has been released for 2009. Um hello guys, it is June already. But for those of you who don't know Belize time, there it is for you. For those of you who don't know the Belikin Calendar, have a click and look. You'll realise that most of the guys who buy the calendar aren't making the purchase to check what date it is. (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

Then there is getting the weather to cooperate. These pictures involve people and their pets. As anyone knows, who has worked in this field, trying to get an owner and pet both looking fabulous in the same shot is a miracle in itself if you are attempting anything resembling a posed picture. Then there is the tactful and time consuming task of making everyone look extra beautiful without looking unnatural. Fortunately Maya is a genius. We want to get this calendar out on time - not on Belize time and we want to make the local humane society a lot of money. Watch this space and wish us luck. The good news is that we have gorgeous pets and stunning owners and there will be a fair mix of boys and girls - so everyone should be happy.

In the midst of all of this we realised that we had better start earning some real money and so we set off on the task of writing a business plan and getting ourselves all excited about a new business. Then the economy sort of collapsed and we started to feel it in Belize. Not the right time to start the business we were planning and we have been disappointed to have to shelve the idea temporarily. Those that were involved are disappointed too, but such is life. We are moving forward with our next plan of action and things are going very well. We will be updating you all when we are ready to launch Conch Creative formally, but that is a hint. That is the name of our business.


















Of course, you all know that Maya has been gardening and that combined with finishing our house has been a humongous task. Enjoyable and frustrating all at the same time.

Colette has been particularly busy. Everyone who knows her, knows that she is always up to something, she does a bit of writing, a bit of music a bit of this and a bit of that, but her main focus recently has been her humane education programme, Be Kind Belize. (website was designed and provided by the amazing and wonderful people at Belize Bird Rescue) After living here for sometime and trying to work out what she could do to give something back to this wonderful country that has been so welcoming to us, she decided to use her lifetime of
experience in animal welfare to develop Be Kind Belize.

Some of you might be asking, 'what on earth is humane education?'. Well, Colette sums it up by saying that it is the teaching of kindness in all of its forms.

A more complicated but detailed definition is provided by the all knowing Wikipedia.

"Humane education makes the acquisition of relevant knowledge, skills, and commitment to living ethically, sustainably, and peaceably on this planet the very purpose of education. It does this by infusing the curricula at all levels of education with meaningful information, inspiration, and tools for creating a safe and humane world for all.

Humane education examines the challenges facing our planet, from human oppression and animal exploitation to materialism and ecological degradation. It explores how we might live with compassion and respect for everyone: not just our friends and neighbors, but all people; not just our own dogs and cats, but all animals; not just our own homes, but also the earth itself, our ultimate home.

Humane education helps raise a generation that cares, that realizes that what we do matters, not just to ourselves but also to everyone our lives touch; a generation that understands the connections between both our personal and cultural choices and the fate of other people, other species, and the Earth, and takes responsibility for creating a better world. Humane education achieves these goals by inspiring people to identify the values that will guide them through life and by teaching them the process of embodying these values in the face of complex problems and needs.

Humane education promotes empathy and compassion towards all other species.

The birth of humane education as a national effort dates back to 1915. In that year, “Be Kind to Animals Week” was inspired Dr. William O’Stillman, leader of the American Humane Association. AHA’s primary goals were: visiting local schools to promote the development of humane education and publicizing the good works of the nation’s humane societies."

So, overall, it is a pretty good thing. Colette started designing this programme over a year ago and studied hard to ensure that her lessons tied in closely with the Belize National Curriculum. She then approached schools and was delighted to be invited to work with two - Holy Cross Anglican School and Island Academy - very different schools but both full of delightful children, who seem to love Colette's Be Kind Belize lessons and rather unconventional teaching methods.

The children have put on plays click here to see play. And they have written songs click here to hear them sing .

One of the most exciting things that Colette has done through her programme is the Kind Kids Adventure. Through the generous help and sponsorship of all sorts of individuals and businesses, she has set up an overnight field trip to the Belize mainland for a group of children from these two schools. Field trips aren't always particularly unusual but this one is different for a number of reasons. Firstly, the children are choosing which of their classmates get to go on this trip - only two from Island Academy and four from Holy Cross will be able to go as this trip is actually a prize for the kindest child. All of the children in each class get to use Kind Kid Coupons to identify and reward kind behaviour by their classmates. Through this system, which the children have to support by drawing a picture of the act of kindness along with a written description, which is then verified by the teacher, children will actually 'vote' for the kindest child in the class.

The children who are lucky enough to come on this trip will get the chance to visit a wild bird rehabiliation centre, Belize Bird Rescue, where they will learn about wild and domestic birds and see conservation in action. They will meet a real Belizean cowboy, who specialises in training horses with kindness and see him work with horses. They will visit a reptile conservation programme, the national Audobon society, get to learn about environmental technology, find out how to become a veterinarian in Belize and, on top of all of this, they will get a half day of cave tubing at Caves Branch . There are so many people to thank and Colette will be doing all of that properly and hugely after the trip, but the kids (don't tell them if you are reading this and you know one of them) will be receiving t-shirts, knapsacks, chocolate and all sorts of other amazing goodies donated by people from all over the world, who have heard about Be Kind Belize and want to help.

Fortunately, Colette has been in animal welfare a long time and knows how to do things on a shoe string. She also doesn't want to get into fundraising and the whole having to be on a committee, be terribly diplomatic (although she's never been known to have been diplomatic in her life really), do fundraising and all that malarkey, so she has kept costs down to a minimum while gratefully accepting practical donations.

But Colette isn't stupid either and printing costs a fortune down here, so she has set up a little Be Kind Belize Cafe Press Shop online, where you can purchase Be Kind Belize products and help out with the costs. You can also be incredibly fashionable, hip and rather sexy (there are even t-shirts for dogs). Or you can be a really a wonderful friend and buy items as presents for others. Either way, check it out as the logo is adorable and once you see it, you'll want one. The logo, was in fact, created by the talented and mysterious Maya.

For your viewing pleasure, here is a stolen shot of the now famous 'Flyin Mayan'. Taken by Ruth Verrals from the gorgeous Caribbean Villas

And another one which could only be titled (for those of you familiar with British Panto) 'She's behind you!' Or Maya's caption which is 'Jazz Hands'. Taken by Ruth Verrals from the gorgeous Caribbean Villas.

One little aside. We don't normally review local restaurants here because we are fussy buggers and we don't want to insult anyone, but in this case we'll make a little teensy exception. True to form, no review, just a comment. 'F'ing brilliant food!' Hummingbird Cafe.

To sum it all up boys and girls - We are busy. We are creating. We are doing. We are going to be launching soon. When we do, we will make sure you guys are definitely going to hear about it. We love you all. Colette & Maya

ps. This blog was supposed to be an interview with the great Drummer Dan and his talented friend Derrek. Unfortunately, the boys are rather slow at answering interview questions. So, if you see Derek, could you please give him a kick up the arse from us.

We will never forget you Mama Faye

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of Mrs. Faye Johnson, affectionately known as Mama Faye.

Mama Faye was Colette's grandmother by marriage. She was beautiful, fiercely intelligent, feisty and an inspiration to all. She will be greatly missed and never forgotten. Her loss is a loss shared my many and we share our sadness with her family, her community and everyone whose heart she touched.

Bats, Birds, Books ....oh and one little Agouti called Ben

"Bats have no bankers and they do not drink and cannot be arrested and pay no tax and, in general, bats have it made."

John Berryman (1917 - 1972)

These adorable, but slightly menacing creatures are Pygmy Fruit Eating Bats. They have a condo in a palmetto tree outside our window. They don't live there full time, but hang around (ha ha) every two or three days. Maya has been standing on a pile of crates to get photos when we can. Catching them with their eyes open is difficult. Catching them with their mouth open is even more difficult if they don't happen to be eating at the time. The little grey ones are babies and we've been watching them grow. As mammals, they nurse and we have caught this happening and it is absolutely fascinating. Welcome to our world. We're bats about Belize.

























This is Chilli. Chilli is a Red Lored Parrot who found his way from the rain forest near the Macal River, to San Pedro and then back to mainland Belize. He currently resides at Belize Bird Rescue. His wings had been cut back badly but after their expert care he is now free flying and they are hoping he will soon find a mate.

Belize Bird Rescue does more than rescue and rehabilitate birds, their kindness and hospitality attract all sorts of stray people and animals.























This is the rather inappropriately named, Hunter (the dog), with Ben (actually Benjamina) the Agouti. Ben was brought home as a newborn, with umbilical cord still attached, by one of their other gentle but giant dogs. Agouti are eaten as bush meat in Belize. Luckily no one has told Hunter that.





















This is Colette helping with early morning feeding. Ben may look very cute and truly is scrumptious, but she is a wild animal. Having spent time at Belize Bird Rescue that might be difficult to believe, since Benjamina has full run of the house, which can be somewhat disconcerting as she has a habit of rearranging things, but she is free to come and go as she pleases and will hopefully mature and attract a mate herself.





















Ben is becoming less dependent on her milk feeds and seems to enjoy solids, such as this juicy piece of mango. It is so nice to live in a place where you can pick mangoes off the tree. Have we mentioned that Belize truly is paradise on earth?





















We need to get back to the bird bit though. Somehow the cuteness of Benjamina overwhelmed us and she got in on this blog much too early. Belize Bird Rescue has hundreds of birds, many of them chickens. This chicken and her little baby seem to understand that a chicken's place is in the hen house.



























But many of the chickens don't understand that fact. This very handsome and rather large cock (sorry we couldn't help ourselves) practiced his crowing outside Colette's window every night. She claims it was reassuring but got back to San Pedro with big bags under her eyes. As she denies that she consumed far too much wine and stayed up far too late with her wonderful hostess Nikki, putting the world to rights, it must have been this very large cock that ruined her beauty sleep. (oh we really must stop with the childish innuendo)

Sometimes the situation became somewhat Hitchcockesque, as the chickens and the odd turkey settled for the evening. Trust us when we say that you didn’t want to be the first one walking down these stairs in the morning.

And the turkeys were definitely odd. This is the author Joan Fry (who incidentally should not really be mentioned in this part of the blog but she’s nearly as cute as Benjamina, so we’ll let her off) with her friend Lee and an odd, un named turkey.

Truly though, after this picture you might start to understand that there really are chickens everywhere at Belize Bird Rescue. And thank goodness for that.





















Without them we would have no eggs as we are very fussy about eggs and there really are none better than those grown on a healthy diet, free range and organic. Big kudos to Jerry and Nikki for ensuring that we do not have an eggless existence.

Oh deer. Oh deer indeed. Somehow they’ve ended up with a pair of deer as well. Bambi you would think, but these are trained attack deer and Colette saw exactly what they were capable of, when she bravely threw Nikki under the pounding hooves of one very pissed off young buck. Fortunately there was a hose nearby and Colette can certainly hose a deer down in self defence....is there a song coming on here? Hose a deer, a female deer...Actually it was the male deer who attacked and he is scary and strong.

For those of you who prefer views to animals, this is the view you wake up to at Belize Bird Rescue.

And if you are really lucky, this fantastic cowboy (and he is truly fantastic), Alyson, will take you out for a ride in the rain forest. Colette and Joan Fry joined him. Difference is, Joan is a horse expert and gets to ride regularly.

Colette loves horses but doesn’t get to ride very often and embarrassingly actually managed to find herself hanging from her bra from her saddle. Her horse was very patient with her.

Now before we get to the book section, we have a few more gratuitous photos to add.

Gratuitous and indulgent still life and a saddle similar to the one Colette dangled from by her bra.



























Gratuitous yet amusing picture of chicken in parrot cage.


















Gratuitous but somewhat heartwarming picture of Buddica and Maya.





















Completely gratuitous shot of three stunningly gorgeous people. Kathleen, Colette and Andre. Now onto bookish things.





















Joan's book signing in Belmopan sign with Joan and Jerry being propped up by a sign.





















Joan dressed in her riding gear for a horse adventure. We're not sure we've ever seen anyone in Belize get dressed up so fancy to ride a horse.





















Joan is interviewed on the Morning Show by Senator Aiden Salazar. Colette's behind the scenes version of the 'monkey dance' stopped them both from falling asleep. Early mornings are not Joan's forte'.






















San Pedro welcomes Joan with a banner. (with very tiny writing)





















Miss Tammy turns over her Hummingbird restaurant to cook some of the wonderful recipes from Joan's book, How to Cook a Tapir - A Memoir of Belize. Of course, the amazing Tapir is now an endangered species and we would never cook one, but the rest of the meal rocked.





















San Pedro's Mayor, Elsa Paz, meets Joan and receives her own signed copy of the book at Page's Bookshop.

We'd like to thank everyone who made Joan feel so welcome back in Belize and all of our wonderful friends who continue to supply us with chocolate and bring us the little things that make life a little bit easier. Much love.

How Does Our Garden Grow?

"Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh How Beautiful', and sitting in the shade"
Rudyard Kipling








Gardening keeps you busy. Especially if you are Maya. If you've been keeping up with our blog, you'll remember the pictures of our garden when we first moved in last year. The garden was barren, with huge crab holes everywhere. We picked up at least a quizillion nails and had to work out how to evict crabs, fill holes and level everything out. We had some really nice big Gumbo Limbo trees, Palmettos and some Tropical Almond trees but otherwise, the garden was a virtual desert. Things have come along since then and it is time to start sharing.



















These elephant ears were tiny little babies when they were planted. They now dwarf the dogs and make the garden look quite jungley.

Buddica, the brindle on the left was the newest addition to our family, when we found her on the beach last summer. As you can see, she has grown into a somewhat lopsided but very characterful part of our family.

Midas, the little black one, known for her love of whine, loves her new playmate - if only Buddica wasn't scared to jump off the docks. We're workin' on it. Watch this space.



















This picture of Colette is going in first, only because it suggests that she has some responsibility for the garden. The truth is, that while she doesn't mind weilding a power tool now and then, it has been Maya's blood, sweat and tears that has made our garden grow.

Oh, and what a beautiful garden it is becoming. Maya has discovered her amazing green fingers and has learned how to propogate Hibiscus.





















We now have 30 Hibiscus plants in a range of 5 different colours. Maya has grown these all from cuttings and they are absolutely beautiful. They are all managing to mature, despite a repeated onslaught by Ocky, who tramples them in his effort to protect us from the rubbish truck.

Ah, there is Ocky, otherwise known as Octavius. He quite likes Buddica too, though he hates to admit it. Before Buddica came along, he didn't really know how to play with other dogs. His idea of meeting another dog involved lots of shouting, swearing and teeth.


















Fortunately, Buddica is persistent, has a high tolerance for abuse and is always in a playful mood. She has slowly taught him that playing is more fun than fighting and he's been a much more relaxed and mellow dog ever since.

We love tomatoes. Maya, grew up in an Eastern European family and Colette grew up with a French mother. Both of us have a love for fresh tomatoes and we decided that they were going to be an essential part of our garden.

The first tomatoes were given to us as a gift by a lovely lady who cycles by our house. We've known her since we've lived here and she always stops for a chat. She gives massages on the beach and does hair braiding for tourists.


















When Colette mentioned to her that we wanted to start a garden, she stopped by one day with threelittle plants in black bags.

We now have lovely and delicious tomatoes. We have about 10 plants going right now and believe it or not, we get what we call rogue tomatoes. They just sort of pop up all over the garden. We've got about 4 of them doing very well too.

We're not quite sure why this happens, but can only think that it is birds who are dropping the seeds. We dont' complain, we just water them and enjoy. We're also grateful for the seed care packages from our lovely friends Bill & Becky.


















Of course it isn't just tomatoes we are growing as you can see from the photo, we've been getting some lovely melons too.

We had a good crop of watermelons last year, but this year the melons are popping up. This came from a tiny little baby plant given to us by Cindy. Cindy is another transplanted Brit, who made her way to Belize.


















This is probably a good time to say that this sense of community is exactly what we were looking for when we came to Belize.

Maya has been very adventurous since she discovered her green thumb. The tree you see her with here is known as a Flamboyant Tree. For some reason, Colette insists on calling it a Fabulous Tree, but it is indeed Flamboyant and not Fabulous.


















What is fabulous is that Maya has grown this tree from seed and it is already taller than she is.

What has been strange is that we had a real winter. We realise that is laugable to many of you, but for us, a huge drop in temperature is as cold as it is for you, even though our starting point is much higher.

Colette spent several days wearing jeans and a jacket, not dissimilar to the way she dressed in London. The weather was gloomy and depressing. We actually had weeks with only a glimmer of sunshine and when the sun came out, so did the mosquitoes. We even considered expanding our garden to become a free-range, organic mosquito farm, but we didn't see it catching on.
























Colette doesn't honestly do too much in the garden except play with the dogs, weed a bit, pick up dog poops and complain about the ants, but she does make her own contribution by making Maya feel useful. Oh - and she deals with the serious creepy crawlies like snakes and scorpions. The most recent tarantula visitor escorted himself off the property before Colette had to intervene.

How does one do that, you may be asking. Cooking. Colette cooks and cooks and has to keep cooking.



















Maya burns off an extraordinary amount of calories working in the garden in the hot sun and she shrinks really rapidly if she isn't fed enough. Maya's previous job entailed her sitting in a studio for 8-12 hours a day and having a chef bring her food on demand. She still never got fat. But now, she is suddenly spending several hours a day in the garden with a machete and a hose and as fast as she grows it, Colette cooks it.

You can just about see one of her home made olive oil and sunflower seed loaves in the background.



















People are often curious as to what sort of plants we can grow on a piece of sand in the middle of the salty Caribbean. Well here is our trough, built by Maya and Bill. In this trough we have potatoes, cucumbers and radishes. We've just transplanted some lettuce into the trough and have some coriander (called cilantro here) growing at the other end that you can't see.

Of course, there are the plants you would expect, such as these bananas. We won't get any fruit off them til next year probably.
























These were grown from tiny little baby chutes and are really big now. The fence is six feet high, so you can get an idea of just how quickly everything grows with sun, water and tender loving care.

Some of our friends have complained that their gardens haven't been so successful. The secret to our garden is attention. Every day, Maya goes out into the garden, checks every single plant. She waters them twice a day and we are planning to start a compost pile soon.

This is a Papaya tree. This will take about 5 years to fruit, but we love Papaya. Did you know that the traditional way to tenderise meat in Belize is to wrap the meat in Papaya skin. It really works and it is super effective.
























This is the nursery at the moment. There are some orchids here, hibiscus an avacodo tree along with a few other plants. This is where they are hardened up enough to be planted in the ground.



















The orchids are a type of air plant and are absolutely beautiful when they bloom and very interesting looking while they grow.

This is a different kind of air plant. Colette bought it last year on the mainland and we put it up on tree. As you can see, we now have two Bromeliads and they seem very happy indeed.























And so it isn't really true that Colette doesn't do anything for the garden. She shops for it. This was one of her early contributions.

More recently she went to Belize City to visit the shop where everyone goes to buy anything to do with growing things - Prosser.



















This is Prosser Feterlizer and Agrochemicals. Somehow it doesn't feel that inviting from the outside, but the guys inside were more than happy to help by providing us with seeds that were tolerant to the local climate and coconut food.

Yes, we have about 10 coconut palms planted now although Buddica has done her best to reduce that number.

We really learn so much here every single day. Palm hearts are considered a delicacy by humans and are very expensive. Well, what do you think happens when a dog discovers a 'delicacy'?





















We have had a couple of disasters, but we are finding an equilibrium with Buddica and so she has limited her damage to days when she knows we will feel guilty enough not to be mad at her if she trashes the garden. Strangely enough, those days coincide with the days we don't get her out for a decent walk. Noticing a pattern here?

We don't just spend time in our garden. We have a spectacular roof. We can see the Caribbean Sea, the Barrier Reef, the Lagoon and, of course our neighbour's houses.





















I think we all spend time looking at our neighbour's homes. This is Miss Cathy's place, she lives sort of diagonal to us.

Well it seems that she watches us too!



















This picture was in an email we got from Miss Cathy. She'd snapped our 'guard' dogs hard at work.

Meanwhile, on the other porch, Midas and Maya take a break from gardening.



















Let's get back to spying on neighbours. This is our direct neighbour's house. His name is Wally. This is a woodpecker that lives in Wally's roof.



















We've named him Wally's Pecker.

And finally, just to prove that we do leave the confines of our home sometimes, this is Maya on her bike (RIP) as we cycle into town.



















This is the road that leads to our house, the lovely Mermaid Manor.

This blog would not be possible without the chocolates, seeds and other amazing gifts that our wonderful friends have been bringing us.

We're not going to name you all in case we embarrass ourselves by missing someone out, so please just know that we think you are wonderful.

How to Cook a Tapir
A Memoir of Belize
by Joan Fry

Interview with the author, by Colette Kase

Five years or so ago, I joined an online forum about Belize. This was in the early days, when Maya and I were doing research on starting a new life and we had set our sights on Belize. It was through this forum that I met Joan Fry.

Joan is an award winning author. She has written several books about horses and it was this shared interest in animals that sparked a fascinating, fun, stimulating and wonderful modern electronic pen pal relationship. Joan and I would discuss her book projects, my writing efforts, our animals, our shared irritations and gradually developed a strong friendship.

It was a surprise though, when Maya and I were standing in Belize International Airport, waiting for our flight back to England after one of our reconnaissance trips to San Pedro, when I heard someone shout my name. I turned to see a familiar, yet strangely unrecognisable face approaching me with a big smile. It turned out to be Joan Fry. Fortunately, I am somewhat more recognisable than she is. We were both very excited to get the chance to meet, totally unexpectedly, and this only proved to strengthen our friendship over the years.

Joan is an amazing writer and I was thrilled when she really dug in and started to work on her most recent book, How to Cook a Tapir, which is a memoir of her time living in Belize in the 1960's. She had tempted me with interesting snippets about her experiences but I couldn't wait for her to put it all into print. I probably encouraged her to the point for being a nag, but I am just absolutely delighted to be able to help introduce this wonderful new book.

How on earth did you end up in Belize in the first place?

I married an anthropologist who was interested in studying the Maya. Actually he was my high school sweetheart--two years older than I was, and did he ever use that fact to his advantage! The early 1960's were "the good old days" when fathers and husbands always knew best. But--I digress. My husband had spent the previous summer living with a Kekchi family in Crique Sarco and had met the local priest, Fr. John Paul Cull. Father Cull promised me a teaching job, even though I was only a sophomore in college and not Catholic.

What did you think when you first discovered that you were going to Belize? Had you even heard of it?

The country was called British Honduras in those days, and no, I'd never heard of it. Nobody in family had either, except my grandfather. He'd been a sailor in his younger days and remembered taking mahogany out of Stann Creek. It was fun for me when I actually saw Stann Creek, although I was violently seasick at the time and couldn't properly appreciate it.

What were some of your preconceptions about Belize?

I didn't have many, although there had been a spate of jungle movies when i was a kid, and they inevitably featured tarantulas the size of toy poodles. I've always been terrified of spiders. The first time I saw a real tarantula was when I was washing my hair in a stone "shower" underneath the cistern in our boarding house in Belize city. I thought some of the stones were covered with black moss until I splashed shampoo on one and it moved.

What was the biggest culture shock?

I was one of the first white women most of the women of Santa Elena had ever seen, and they gawked at me nonstop--I was their entertainment. Being a blue-eyed blond who was taller than most of them made them even more curious about me. I was never alone. At least one person was always in the house with me, and if my husband and I walked to the Rio Blanco pool for a swim, half a dozen kids would follow us. That went on for months. Actually it went on as long as I lived there, although by the time we left, the people who visited genuinely wanted to visit, not stare.

Who was your first real friend in Belize and when did you realise that you had become 'friends'?

Her name was Lucia Bah, and she was a neighbor who spoke fairly good English. Her daughter was one of my students. I realized we'd become friends one day when she confided that she didn't like another neighbor's husband because he beat his wife and kids so violently. Yes, it was gossip, but it was also the first time a woman trusted me enough, and was interested enough in hearing my thoughts about something, to initiate a conversation. Lucia also taught me to cook. I owe her a lot. I wish she'd lived long enough to see this book.

Did your husband (at the time) prepare you sufficiently for your experiences or did he mislead you at all about what life would be like?

He showed me photos but made everything sound very romantic--and there's really no way to convey the humidity, the smells, the feel of the jungle through photos alone. I had done virtually no traveling (except to Ontario, Canada, which was like traveling to upstate NY), and was in no way prepared for any of it--the open sewage canals in Belize City, the caste system (don't forget, BZ was an English colony then), and particularly the poverty of the Maya. They were subsistence farmers--very few of them even used money. They bartered for what they needed. My husband insisted that I wear skirts and blouses because that's what the Maya women wore and wouldn't allow me to smoke because the Maya women didn't. He was wrong on both counts. Most women didn't wear blouses at all, and they smoked home-rolled cigars.

What is your favourite Belizean recipe and why?

Escabeche. It has a unique taste (each cook arrives at a different balance between chile pepper and vinegar), and to me, believe it or not, it's a comfort food.

Do you still eat Belizean food? What foods do you miss from Belize?

I still make escabeche from time to time, and I still like making and eating soup of all kinds. Especially when the weather gets cold. I love chili but hold the beans. I do miss tamalitos--green corn tamales--but the food I miss most is corn tortillas. They don't taste authentic even in the Mexican restaurants that have a token Mexican woman in front making "fresh" ones. As for corn tortillas you buy in the store--have you ever taken a look at what's in them? I'm looking at a package right now, ant it lists nine ingredients! What the hell is amylase? All they should contain is corn treated with lime (the mineral, not the fruit), and water. The best are incredibly fragrant with a soft, moist texture. I'm drooling!

You clearly have had a lifelong love for Belize since coming here in the 60's, what is it about Belize that has kept you enthralled all these years?

"Enthralled" is a good word. I've asked myself that question, and I still can't give you a definitive answer. I'm sure the Maya continue to fascinate me because they had a lot to do with forming my values. I was an only child and a girl and had led a very sheltered life in the States. But in Belize, I was alone a lot--my husband was always off conducting ethnographic studies. So when I had a decision to make, I only had myself and the Maya to fall back on. I made some bad decisions but more often than not I made the right ones, probably because there was no authority around to tell me any different.

Did you really cook a Tapir?

Yes. And it was delicious!

How to Cook a Tapir - A Memoir of Belize, by Joan Fry will be released in April 2009. The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon, which happens to be offering a great pre-publication price. To order click here.

Happy Holidays from Colette, Maya, Buddica, Midas and Octavius.