Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Happy Birthday Blanca Lorena Campos!

We asked Loren what she wanted to do on her birthday.  She chose an adventure!  We ended up way out on Pine Ridge at Big Rock Falls and Rio Frio Pools.  We had a great day with Loren and Imelda.  Driving out there is a real adventure all by itself.  More than once I said, "Yahoo" and Loren said, "Oops!"  There is a reason our vehicle is called a Bronco.  It was like our own personal rodeo.  We laughed often at the ride but we had a great time anyway.

Big Rock Falls.  The falls were bigger than when we were
there last August.

Funny picture of Dennis and Loren trying to get Imelda
to jump.

But...

It was Dennis who went in first.  

Great picture of the girls.  Note that Imelda is not wet...she didn't jump in after all.

I look like such a gringa....wait, I am a gringa.

Imelda.   It is hard to tell how big the falls are.

Our Loren has a very sweet disposition.  She is loved by many in the village.

Water Fight!

I think it was a draw.

The Rio Frio Pools is  the Rio On River cascading down a mountain forming pools among huge granite boulders.

It is fun finding your way down the river on the rocks.


Dennis was laughing at us.  We all have our arms up in the air as we
jump over the water.

Resting on the rocks.  Enjoying God's handiwork.

It was a good way to spend the day!
The weather has been very cool for Belize.  This day was a great day to be out and about, even if it was a little cloudy and rainy.  We had a great day!!

Happy Birthday Loren!

Love you guys!


Thursday, March 19, 2015

Flora, Fauna, and Toby

Recently, Dennis and I were looking at some pictures on Facebook that included some spring time flowers in Tennessee.  This inspired Dennis to go explore Bridge the Gap here in Belize to get some colorful flower shots.  He was especially anxious to try out a new lens that was given to him by Roger and Jane Custer.  Thanks guys we really appreciate it!!!!

This little guy joined us for morning coffee.  All I can say is wow!

This is one of Beate's orchids.  Actually, all these flowers
are a result of  Beate's hard work here at BTG.


For those who don't know, most orchids don't use soil to grow in.


O.K. this one I put in.







Another orchid, they are all over Belize, and apparently very easy to grow here.



I have been watching this little trumpety-plant.  It is next to our
drive way.  I thought for sure it was dead a few months ago.
 Beate will walk around with a stick from a tree and poke it in the
ground and a few months later a tree or flower appears.  Some of the people here will create fence lines using this technique of planting.  It makes for some really neat looking fences!

We think that these are just some leaves coming in.

This cool shrub is just outside the women's dorm.

I like the bug.

Hibiscus are in many yards, all different colors.

This is a flowering tree...with a bug.

Orchid


Lots of ferns here.  They will grow in the direct sun.

Weeds in the grass are even pretty.

I guess you get the bad with the good.  There are some pretty
astonishing insects in this part of the world.  Makes you a little
worried to leave the cat outside.


And then there is Toby.  When we first moved here we had quite a few cute little lizard/iguana
pictures to show you.  Now we have Toby.  He is the guy/gal who lives about ten feet from my
kitchen window.  At first he was a little timid and would always run back in his/her cave
whenever we went out back.  Now he/she just stands there and stares us down.  Check out the
spikes on the tail!  I am told it is an iguana.  It is about three feet long now.
We don't really mess with Toby!

We had a visitor last night at around 12:30.  I heard some shuffling sounds under the house.  So, I laid there a while hoping that it would stop, but of course it didn't. Then I did the wife thing and nudged Dennis until he woke up.  We both laid there listening to something scootching things around under the house.  He got up and started looking out the windows with his flashlight.  Then the sound started coming from above us.  Dennis turned his flashlight up to where the house fan is.  Then he saw two little beady eyes staring at him, reflecting the light.  He laughed and said it was an opossum.  How it was able to get up there is a mystery.  It took about an hour to get back to sleep...I just hope it doesn't decide to come back tonight.  (I was just imagining this epic battle between the opossum and Toby!  I think Toby would take him.)

Just wanted to share some of the beauty here in Belize.
Love you guys!





Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Caves Branch Outpost Day!!

One morning, while waiting for the Immigration Office to open in Belmopan, Dennis and I met a nice lady and her children while eating fry jacks down by the bus station.  Her name is Janice and before we left she got our phone number so she could call us later to arrange a complimentary visit to where she worked.  As it ends up she did contact us and gave us a free Cave Tubing and Zip Line package at Caves Branch Outpost.  She was great, and she actually remembered us when we arrived. 


She got us set up right away with some inner tubes and a tour guide named Israel.  That is him in the picture with the red tube and I have the orange one.  First we had to hike into the bush for about twenty minutes.



Parts of the hike in were a little interesting, but all of it was beautiful.


The whole trip is on the Caves Branch River.  This is looking down stream from the shore.  Later on we will be floating down here as we head back to the start.



The opening to the underground.  As you stand on the shore, this is looking into the caves on the right.


This is looking to the left from the starting point.  If you look closely you will see the gringa woman swimming under the cliffs.  That was me!


I had to get out so that Dennis could be in a photo also.  He had a great time and was really living on the wild side by bringing his camera on the trip in the inner tube.  The water really is as clear as it looks.

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This is the view going into the entrance.


This is turning around and looking back to where we started.


From a long way back in the dark, you can hear this water fall.   I almost felt like the opening scene to Land of the Lost.  You can imagine a huge water fall up ahead and then you find out it is only this little thing.  But it was still pretty.


This is me as we exit the cave.


It is amazing to see where we came out.  Kind of scary looking.  We spent about 45 minutes in the cave and saw a lot of beautiful rock formations.


So we just continued floating down the river back to where we started.


It was a perfect day for being on the water.  I think Israel had a peaceful time with us.  He is used to dealing with larger groups of tourists.




After we got back we were treated to a free lunch upstairs in the Tree House Restaurant.  We could see all around the area from where we were sitting.  That is Israel in the tube.


The whole parking lot area is surrounded by other tour companies.  Dennis liked this shot.


Up in the restaurant.  Not sure what the freaky looking blue man/monkey thing is, but the jaguar was pretty cool.



After a delicious lunch we were off to go zipping!  We look very adventurous and almost cool.


They start you out on shorter lines that aren't very far off the ground.  I guess they need to weed out anyone who may just freak out later.


This one was much higher up and 600 feet long.  It got really fast really quick.


The leather glove has a piece of heavier leather sewn into the palm.  When you need to slow down you just pull down on the hand in the back.  Yea, I had slow down quickly on the last line,  It was 1,000 feet long, and we were flying!  I think I actually said Woo Hoo!  Our guides were very nice and made sure everyone had a great time.

So, that was our day at Caves Branch Outpost!  We were so blessed to be able to just spend some fun time together.  The people who worked there were all very good at their jobs and very nice to us, including the guys at the front gate and the restaurant people.  We would recommend Caves Branch Outpost to everyone.  Thank you Janice and the staff!!!

Just as a little side note...We have never seen so much white skin as we did this day.  Israel told us that they get cruise ship excursions there all the time.  We spend all of our time in the village and it was really weird to see so many gringos in bathing suits.  Let's just leave it at that...

Love you guys, hope it is looking more like spring in Tennessee and in Washington!