I've had lots of people ask about the cost of living here so I've made a list of basic life-essentials.  Of course, the list is topped by beer!

Beer - $1.04 per bottle
Rum - $13 for 1.75L bottle
Vodka - $8.00 for 26oz bottle
Milk - $1.75 for 1L box.  It's cheaper for fresh milk but fresh doesn't last that long in the fridge
Margarine - $1.00 for 425g
Dog food - $1.25 for 375g can
Hot sauce - $2.10 for 296ml bottle
Cheese Whiz - $4.25 for 425g jar.  This is expensive but most processed and imported foods are.
Cheerios - $3.65 for 397g box
Pop - $.50 for a single bottle
Peanut butter - $2.50 for 510g
Tea - $4.00 for 50 bags
Sugar - $1.00 for 2lbs
Rice - $1.00 for 2lbs
Honey roasted peanuts - $2.10 for 283g
....here's where things get really good...
Bananas - $.50 for 8.  And probably not much more than a day off the tree!
Lime - $.10 each
Watermelon - about $6.00 ea for a large one.  I'm told these will get cheaper but they are out of season right now.

We can fill a large shopping bag at the market with really fresh fruits and veggies for about $4.00.  It really is amazing!  

Eating out is a great deal if you pick the right places.  We have a favorite restaurant called RD's.  We ate there yesterday for a total of $8.50.  That's two full plates and drinks.  

Gas - $5.00 for imp gallon.  It's expensive...very close to Fort Nelson price. But when you consider what people earn here it's pretty crazy!

Rent - $500/month.  We have a very nice and new little house with all utilities included.  It has one bedroom and is about 500sq/ft.


All prices are listed in Canadian dollars.

A pretty quiet week around the little hacienda for us.  We must still be recovering from the vacation with the Moulds!  Yah...pretty lame!  

We toured out to a small village called Sarteneja yesterday.  It's across the bay from Corozal.  Only a few miles by boat but almost 40 miles by truck.  Very pretty and tidy little town.  We found an isolated spot on the water and enjoyed the spectacular view for a while.  We saw a huge pink bird.  Sounds like a flamingo, I know, but the shape was wrong.  I have to do a bit of research to figure that one out.  And I didn't get a picture!  

I went to church with Jeannie this morning.  All the kids and the upbeat, happy music just make a person feel good.  The Catholic Church is huge here.  It's good to see the churches full of families.  A far cry from the empty pews in a lot of North American churches!  

I'm starting the search for our next rental house.  We've pretty much decided on the Cayo district.  We looking for a small house with a bit of land.  I've got a couple of prospects so it looks like we'll be making a trip in the next week or so to check things out.  Not a big rush, though.  We are happily settled here until the end of March.

We drove down the Hummingbird highway and to the coast to the tiny town of Hopkins.  Hopkins has the look of a backpackers paradise from about 40 years ago.  Not much for big hotels and restaurants.  Lots of hostels and cabanas right on the beach.  This is a picture of our little home for the night.  It wasn't bad.  We figured that having electricity and indoor plumbing made this at least a three star!  What it lacked in luxury, it made up for in view.  Right on the beautiful white beach.  After a night of drinking on the deck, we got up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise.  It was cloudy!  Oh well, we got an early start on the road!

We spent the day driving back to Corozal.  The plan was to hang out here and make a trip out to the Cerros Maya ruins.  But the weather didn't cooperate.  It rained most of the time that we were away so the roads were pretty crappy.  The 'trail' into Cerros would have been pretty ugly so we cancelled that plan.  We hung around town, shopped, ate and enjoyed the company of really good friends.  It was so nice to have Judi and Duane here.  

But the visit came to an end.  Yesterday morning we headed to Belize City to take Judi and Duane to the airport.  The last two weeks have been awesome but I'm feeling a little sad today.  We'll miss you guys!!!

We took to the road with Judi and Duane and headed to the Cayo district.  That's in the central/western part of the country.  This area is a lot more mountainous and jungle like.  So beautiful!  We looked at a couple of pieces of property for sale.  Fairly promising but we'll check up on it again later.  This was time to be tourists!  

We spent the night in the Belizean capital, Belmopan and then we drove down the Hummingbird Highway.  This is where you get into the real jungle.  We stopped at a national park that has a massive cave and a swimming hole.  The cave was great.  We paid a small entrance fee and rented some flashlights and off we went into the darkness.  We had the place all to ourselves and you don't even need to take a guide.  Inside the cave we saw piles of bird feathers.  After we got out, we asked the manager about them.  Turns out that a large (3 foot) vampire bat has moved into the cave recently.  He asked if we saw it!  We didn't but it's a good thing he didn't mention the bat before we went in!

After St. Herman's cave we walked into the Blue Hole.  This is the inland Blue Hole, not to be confused with the ocean Blue Hole.  Same idea though.  It's a collapsed cave that has an underground river running into it.  It's created a perfect swimming hole.  The water is crystal clear and we had the place to ourselves!  It was so refreshing after the cave hike.

The next day we visited the Belize Zoo.  This is such an amazing little place.  They call themselves the 'best little zoo in the world!"  It's pretty hard to argue.  Everything is small scale and the animals are kept in very natural habitats.  It's easy to have a very close encounter.  One of the handlers walked around with us and brought snacks for the animals.  So everywhere that we went the animals came to the fences.  This is a picture of Junior.  He's a young jag that was born in the zoo.  We saw him three years ago when he was just a cub.  I loved seeing him again.  Such a beautiful animal.  


The zoo is a rescue shelter.  They only take injured or problem animals that would otherwise be killed.  They don't take anything from the wild or other zoos.  It's a very worthwhile cause and a great way to educate people.  I love it!

Yesterday we headed to Orange Walk with Duane and Judi.  Just outside of the town there is a boat tour to a Mayan site called Lamanai (submerged crocodile).   I was really looking forward to this...I've heard really good reviews and it didn't disappoint! We took a boat trip up the New River for about an hour and a half.  We saw spider monkeys, all kinds of birds, and huuuuge fish...the guide told us they were tarpons.  Lots of great picture taking.  

We even saw a scorpion and a cockroach in a battle to the death...the scorpion won.  I've never seen anything like that before!  

The Mayan ruins are right on the shores of a lake.  The entire city covers an area of about eight square miles but only a small portion is actually excavated.  Adam climbed to the top of two temples.  Huge credit to him...it was about 90F.  We saw howler monkeys in the trees.  Unfortunately, they weren't making much noise...too hot.  Maybe they are smarter than Adam...they know when to relax!

Because we drove to the boat launch on our own, we were lucky enough to get our own boat and tour guide, Javier.  Other tours were showing up by the bus load so we felt pretty special!  They even made us a special lunch after the tour.  It was great!

Once we got home, we topped off the day with a visit with Donna and Jeannie. We caught up on the news for the week and played a few games of darts.  All good!

Wow!!  What a great week.  We took the water taxi from Corozal on Monday morning to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye.  It's a nice boat ride...about an hour and a half.  We went by two islands that Leonardo DiCaprio owns.  Pretty nice if you like that sort of thing...private tropical islands!  

We spent six nights at the Costa Maya Resort.  It's located about seven miles up the island...a little too far from town but it was very quiet and beautiful.  We rented a golf cart for the week.  It's the preferred method for getting around the island.  They are more 'sturdy' than an average golf cart.  Good thing, because the roads suck!!  Ambergris Caye lacks polish but that's exactly what we love about it!  

Adam booked a scuba dive (his first in three years) and Judi, Duane, and I went snorkelling.  It was great.  I don't think anything beats Belize for underwater life.  The barrier reef is incredible.  We swam with rays, sharks, turtles, eels, baracudas and more fish than I will ever know the names of.  It is such a treasure!  I can hardly believe that we live less than two hours away from it.  

Another morning, we swam off the end of the pier at the hotel.  Just after we got out of the water, four dolphins swam in and played around for a bit.  Wow!  

All and all a very good week.  We took the water taxi back to Corozal this afternoon.  After only a month, this has the distinct feeling of home.  That's nice.  Judi and Duane are here for another week.  So, we are planning to spend a bit of time in Corozal and then we are heading to Cayo and maybe Placencia.  Wherever the whim takes us!