1 down, 8 to go

we came back from hatchet caye on sunday afternoon on the barge to placencia. we put 3 deckchairs out on deck and a crate of beer, and a fishing rod. i was in charge of the fishing as i'd done so badly last time. this time i got a bite but lost it, and was a bit scared i'd be pulled overboard by it so didn't try too hard to reel him in. after 10 minutes of our journey a speedboat appeared full of island workers, they had noticed we'd forgotten the keys to the little ponga we were towing behind us and sped out to throw them over to us. good they'd noticed, as we hadn't. the barge plodded along through the little waves (sea much calmer than outward journey), it took around 3 hours to get back (18 miles, i guess it went at 6mph, when it's loaded it does about 3mph). it was really nice to sit and not be splashed and all you can see around you is sea and the odd island and clouds above and the sun setting amongst them. it was getting dark as we got in sight of land - felt like returning to a huge metropolis after 2 days of island life.

doug told us that they have to put boundary lines up around the island so they know where the property ends. after that it's known as the queen's land. interesting. wonder what she plans on doing with all that water - putting all her swans in it maybe? she is still on the banknotes here too. i think it's a bit strange, but i guess we still have some kind of hold here, i'm just not sure what, or how much. doug also told us that under every island there is always a layer of freshwater. it's from when it rains, and the freshwater sits atop the saltwater due it's being less dense. there is a well on the island, the workers drink straight from that layer of fresh water apparently, but doug says it's fairly brackish and not great. the house on the island has quite severe earthquake damage. remember the quake from blog 1, well hatchet is only around 70k from what was the epicentre, off in honduras's bay islands. alex, an island worker, was on hatchet when it happened, and was petrified. there's huge chunks of walls that fell down, and cracks everywhere and a big roof leak.

i liked being out there and eating our dinner off concrete blocks for chairs, and a large wire spool for the table. the bugs and heat weren't bad due to the wind, but that wind seemed to be bad during the night. i awoke intermittently to listen to it and check whether it was changing pitch and whether that meant an incoming hurricane. i've picked up a hurricane leaflet from the bank which i will memorise cover to cover so i know what to do. from first reading it seems you're meant to stay calm and get in a corner of a room and read a book and wait for the eye to pass over you. i'm having trouble picturing myself in such a serene state of calmness but will work on it. it also said don't bother taping up your windows, and don't leave your pets outside, as it's a certain death trap. they'll be much happier curling up with a good book in the corner too i imagine.

i wondered whilst out there how it affects your state of mind to live on a remote island. all you can see is sea, and birds, and palm trees, a few other islands far away. when all the work is done and we're resident there, there'll be times when it's only us, and maybe a few other island caretakers. my mind went a bit bendy the couple of days we spent there, especially at night, as i imagined us 18 miles out in the sea, with just sea and darkness all around. robert said he's used to it as he lived on hawaii which is 2500 miles from land, for 15 years. i told him i'm a landlocked yorkshire person and am not used to it. england is an island so i do have that on my side. i think it will be an interesting philosophical experiment on myself to see what happens to my mentality. by the way i'm not allowed to call it a desert island, as it's not deserted.

we met matt, the cook who we buy all the groceries for, and went through some grocery logistics with him. he seems nice, and a good cook, though the meat on day 2 was a bit chewy, i had to give mine to robert,who ate it but it hurt his stomach. we had oats for breakfast, and chicken rice and beans for another dinner. we talked to jim, the architect. we got talking about solar power, i said the energy that comes from the sun is immense and must be able to power the world many times over. he said no it's not and no it can't. i said the problem is you can't store solar power. he said yes you can, in cells. i said i was going to investigate both those facts we'd disagreed on.

back in placencia we fixed our flat car tire at the road kill tire shop, and sorted out an internet connection to the house there that comes in via guatemala, thus bypassing the BTL monopoly and with no blocks on skype and other things. BTL was owned by lord ashcroft previously, now it's back to the government again. i see in a paper i read in the police station earlier that cameron has named hague foreign secretary, and hague is best buddies with ashcroft. ho hum said the paper, let's see how that affects anglo-belizean relations. there are quite a few newspapers here and i'm still determining which is my one of choice - the belize times is a massive anti-government paper. the government is the udp (united democratic), the previous was the pup (people's united). i don't know the differences, but last year it changed to udp as everyone was so sick of pup, but it's just as bad if not worse now it seems. according to the belize times the government are all criminals, pilfering funds, and giving land and money to their cronies etc etc. i guess they learnt a lot from british rule. it is pretty sad that a country lets it people live in this kind of state - roberto, one of our workers, has to pay a 500bzd parking fine, as he forgot to pay the original ticket, and how can your average belizean afford that kind of thing, and why should they when it's all about lining government workers' pockets. that's why i don't feel too bad doing all the customs duty dodging because why give more money than necessary to the government that doesn't know how to spend it sensibly and responsibly.

that reference to the police station by the way was nothing serious, we had to make an insurance claim on our car and it needed a police report. a nice officer took our info and asked for lots of other info, i suppose to try and catch us out and whack us in jail. he filled in a form for us and then told us to go belmopan and fill in the same form as that was the station that would deal with it. he had only done it there in ladyville to save us time. but they would probably need us to do it there in belmopan too. i don't see how that saves time in the end. he said they might be able to fax the form to belmopan so we don't have to fill it in again. i thought, i severely doubt that will happen. the room was green and grotty, electrical wires poking out, posters all wonky, one phone that rang off the hook - but whenever they answered it there was nobody there. robert spotted a grotty fingerprinting pad on the other desk with a little ink pot next to it. state of the art it was not.

this morning we had some breakfast down town whilst out doing errands, and met a man also having breakfast, who was from grassington in yorkshire. i said ooo mum and dad sometimes go to the grassington festival. he said yes i moved away when that started, it totally ruined the place, made it a tourist destination. i said sorry on mum and dad's behalf. he was in belize doing a medical trial about diarrhoea medication. he told us in great detail what he had to do, including bagging it up and taking it to the doctor here if it did occur, for further tests. he had answered an ad in the daily telegraph, and was being paid 1500 pounds for it, and expenses. not bad i guess, if a bit strange as a holiday activity choice.

it's been absolutely pouring with rain the last few days. it poured so hard last night it felt like being inside a speaker full of white noise. every so often it let up a bit and i'd go back to sleep. all of downtown is flooded streets, roberto's son roberto junior couldn't go to school because it was flooded. he hung out here with us, he's only 13. we put camelot the musical on for him, i think he liked it, but he may not quite have understood it. he fell asleep at one point. the other day he watched fly away home, about the ultralights teaching the ducks to fly, and he liked that one. i also got him to help me do some accounting sums - he had told me maths was his favourite subject so i thought i'd put this to the test.

tomorrow we're off to placencia with the groceries and a tumble dryer. i have been playing my guitar some more, have moved on to streets of london by ralph mctell, i like this one but find playing an f chord quite hard. i bet even eric clapton said that sometimes.

bye for now from pickles land x