The rainy season has arrived

Everyone told us: the rains come at the end of May. And they were right. Exactly on time, it started raining - huge torrents of water, day and night.

It rains for several hours, then you get maybe an hour or so dry, and then it starts again. When it's really going strong, it's impossible to drive in it. You just pull to the side of the road and wait for it to stop - if you can find the side of the road that is, as the edge disappears under the swirling water!

Fortunately, when you are warned about something, you can prepare. And we prepared by having a glorious two days of sun and sea and sand on one of the offshore islands. Caye (pronounced "key") Caulker was recommended to us, and so we left on Sunday after Church, spent our day off there on Monday, and came back Tuesday morning. It was wonderful - and definitely on the schedule now as a place to take visitors.

We are very glad of our mini break. It means we don't mind the rain so much. It's very much like a British summer storm. The sky suddenly goes dark, and it seems as though the clouds want to drop their entire contents on the ground all at once. And afterwards there is a mini dawn chorus as it brightens up again, and the birds reappear.

When we aren't looking at the weather, work fills a lot of the rest of the time. Both of us have been spending more time than we expected in Anglican and State schools. Ruth is on the School Board of Belmopan Comprehensive, and has been asked to teach religious instruction in two local primary schools. Malcolm has been asked to do school services with three Anglican primary schools. So we thought at least one school photo was in order.

To go with it, here is a baptism photo from a service Malcolm took in Ruth's little church in Unitedville.

And finally, for this instalment, two things we see most days here. The lorries full of oranges rumble along all the highways, taking the oranges to the main citrus juicing plant an hour south of us.


And by the side of the road, we pass the trees - called locally "flamboyant trees" or sometimes "flame trees". They flower in wonderful shades of red and orange, and look incredible.

Xunantunich (pronounced shoo-nan-too - nich, we think!)

Our first Mayan site. Last Mon was a day off, so we decided to go see some sights. First thoughts were the mountain pine ridge nature reserve. But 10 miles west you turn off the paved western highway and ... well, the roads weren't good. No, not at all good.

After about half an hour, the mileometer said we'd done about two miles of the 18 miles to the reserve (that's about 5mph.) So we turned back. Cowards really.

People we spoke to on Wednesday said: "oh yes, not a good road that. Typically takes a couple of hours with a 4x4." That means they must drive at a spinejuddering 10mph or even more!

Must be braver, next time.

So instead we went to Xunantunich. Head west thro St Ignacio towards the Guatamala border; when you reach the ferry (hand cranked no less: it's basically a raft attached to a chain across the river) you cross and then it's about a mile drive to the site.

We were impressed. Really impressed. Not the oldest thing you'll ever see: about 900 - 1000 ad, but this is a big site, with lots to see.

Of course it was a warm day (up in the high 30s C) so we had to take it fairly slow. And that meant climbing up to the top of "el castillo" - the "castle" or biggest building - was definitely a bit wearing. But well worth it. Definitely somewhere to add to the "must see" list when you visit Belize.

The castillo has two large friezes on the W and E sides. No idea what they mean - but I'm not sure anyone else is really sure either. You don't actually see the original: it's been reburied in the monument, and they've made a fibreglass facsimile and mounted it on the outside, basically half a metre in front of the original. But it looked good to me - and protects the original from people with chisels who want a souvenir to take home.

And the site was beautifully kept: grass mown, leaves swept, paths cleared. And this being Belize, hardly anyone else there - I think two small groups plus us while we were there.


Enjoy the photies.

Mother's Day and Belmopan agricultural and trade fair

We have already mentioned Mother's Day, I think. It's a big deal in Belize - advertised for weeks ahead, with special events both in the town and in the Churches. The Mother's Union at St Ann's church hosted a mother's day tea party: tea, cakes and sandwiches.

It was held in the the "Bishop Desmond Smith Memorial Centre" - ie the teaching centre near our house and the church.

So as well as showing the Mother's Union, these photos give you an idea of what the inside of the centre is like. (If any Mother's Union groups in the UK want to make contact with a group in Belize, please email Ruth).

Then last weekend the annual trade fair / agricultural show in Belmopan - the biggest event of the year. About 40,000 people (three times the town population of about 14,000) attended between Friday and Sunday.

We were advised to go and have a look at the exhibits on Friday evening, while it was cooler and with free entry. Lots of trade stalls, lots of food stalls, a fairground and pens for animals for sale - brahmin bulls, friesian cows, and horses, mainly.

Then on saturday and sunday, Ruth's church decided to run a stall selling food, with a big banner advertising the church, and giving out flyers to all and sundry. They've not done this before, but decided it would be a good fundraiser.

So 50 lbs of rice and beans, hundreds of pieces of bbq chicken and endless bottles of water and soft drinks later, they successfully sold all the food. It was a success - but oh was it hot (surprise!)

A little video experiment

It ought to be possible to put some video on here as well ..,. but the fact that we only have a slow internet connection means that so far we've only added still photos. Video files are bigger - and can be huge.

So this is an experiment. A short, low resolution film of our house. We will be interested to have comments: is video at this low quality worth doing? Or would people like very brief clips at a higher resolution? Or do we just stick with still photos? Do let us know what you think.

Belize Zoo

Those of you who use Facebook (another website) will already have seen some of these images. So this post if for everyone else.

We had a wonderful day at Belize Zoo - halfway down the Western Highway between Belmopan and Belize City. It gave us a chance to see all the wonderful creatures we are unlikely to see in the wild. Some are very shy; others only live in inaccessible places; some are just incredibly rare.

For me, the highlights were:

The jaguar. An iconic animal of central and south america


And some other big cats - red puma / mountain lion


and jaguarundi


The tapir - the national animal of Belize, but again, something we are unlikely to see in the wild.


And some birds. Especially the scarlet macaws. Stunningly beautiful birds, but hunted nearly to extinction. They think there are less than 200 of these left in Belize.



And our first Toucan. These aren't rare. One of our friends who lives just outside the city boundary of Belmopan, says she has these flying through her garden most evenings. But in the middle of town, we are yet to see them in the wild.

Guanacaste

(Don't forget: "Click" your mouse on any of the photos below to open a larger version.)


One of the wonderful things about being in Belize is that it still has lots of relatively pristine rain forest. Nobody is quite sure how long that will last. If the attempts to market Belize as an "eco tourism" destination attract more people to the unspoilt areas, those same areas will soon cease to be unspoilt. The development of a tourist industry on parts of the mainland coast already looks likely to create the same sort of "resort" you can find anywhere in the world.

The other big issue, long term, will be population growth - although it's not really seen as an issue here. Belize, at the moment, is relatively underpopulated. But families are very large indeed by UK standards, and the rate of population growth is staggering: it has more than doubled in the last 25 years.

One of the hopeful signs is the creation of a lot of national parks. Some are very small, but all of them are an attempt to signal the value of the environment.

These photos were taken in the very small (50 acre) Guanacaste National Park, on the outskirts of Belmopan. (The Guanacaste is a local tree).


It's a real privilege to be able to walk through this sort of forest. (A privilege you have to be willing to share with large numbers of small biting insects, alas, but I suppose they have to make a living as best they can).

As well as the greenery, there's lots of birdlife. (Photos on our other blog - "A bad birdwatcher in Belize"). We've also seen various rodents, including the Gibnut - a vegetarian creature much prized as a local food item! Apparently it was served to the Queen on a visit to Belize, and local lore says she was under-impressed. The good news for wild Gibnuts is that a development agency is sponsoring experimental small scale Gibnut farming in the south of Belize. Sadly, we don't have a photo of our own that shows more than a blur ... The Gibnut regularly features on the menu at one of the fast food stalls in Belmopan market. We haven't tried it yet, but I guess we might. We eat rabbit sometimes at home.

One of the other creatures that we are told sometimes graces the local tables is the Green Iguana. These are really striking creatures. They are relatively tame (one reason, I suppose, why they sometimes end up in the pot) and grow quite large. I would guess at over a metre in length. As well as seeing them in the undergrowth and in trees, I've also seen one dashing across the road ahead when driving along the Western Highway.

And a final note on the weather. (Well, we are English, and therefore have no other regular topic of conversation). It's now mid May, and the temperature continues to climb. This week it has reached between 36 and 38 C in the shade every day. We put the thermometer in direct sunlight, and it quickly read 42 C!

A glimpse of the river / riviera

This being the tropics, some days it gets quite warm. The average daytime temperature in April and May is over 30 degrees, falling to a cool 26/27 at night. And the Caribbean sea is about 1 1/2 hours away - too far to drive for a quick dip in the middle of the day. And you don't get cool swimming in the Caribbean - off the coast of Belize, the water temperature is like a warm bath.

So one of our questions has been: where do the locals go when they want to cool off? The answer is: the river - the 'Belmopan riviera'. That's a good answer - but the river doesn't actually go through the town, and we didn't understand anyone's directions. (You know where Junior lives? No? What about John's house? OK: you know the shop where people go to get ...) It seemed you had to know where it was already, in order to understand when people told you where it was.

Then, success! We found it by accident! And it's lovely. Very lovely. The route we found involved going through a local national park (with paid admission). But now we know where to go, I'm sure we can find another way to get there...

So here are some photos of the river. Clean water. Amazingly clean, clear water - despite having people wash their laundry / dog / self in it.

So we've found our local place to swim. Only problem: because we weren't out looking for it, we didn't take our swimming things with us. As a result, we haven't actually been swimming here yet :( although we did take our shoes off and let the fishes nibble our toes for a while ...