the power of fleetwood mac

so there we were driving along in the little pt cruiser (also known as pt loser, though i like it, much easier to drive than those big manly trucks they like out here). we were listening to rumours, the cool guitar bit at the beginning of never going back again. i was still trying to figure out what fleetwood mean by 'lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my thing' from the 1st song. anyway i was watching the side of the road go by, wondering how long til the next bit of rain and there it was, a trek road bike standing at the side of the road, all alone. i thought it must be a mirage. then i thought it must be just a bike and there must be a rider somewhere that owns it. then i saw a little sign on it saying for sale. stop! i said. what! said bert. a bike a bike, i said. for sale!!! a bike for sale! turn the car round! so we did, and we bought it, and now i have a bike again. it's nothing particularly fancy, but it's in good condition and was a good deal. the owner had ridden it not very far, but had got sore hands and couldn't use it anymore. me and robert had recently earned some commission money on tree wrap sales (see blog 1), so it was good timing to find it. i had been calling around people we know that are bike-related to see what's out there, and there had been nothing yet. i took it riding with mick up in cayo which is where we were headed, and it's pretty nice, we did 20 miles up and down hills, the route we used to do when we used to live out there - to the guatemalan border then to town.

so this is what's known as good luck i guess. previous to this positive sign, the only other strong sign i had received was when a dog walked over to our house in belize city and lay down and died. roberto said possibly he'd been poisoned. this i took as a negative sign - why had he chosen our house? it was a bit like the lamb's blood/king herod story i thought. anyway nothing bad came of it, and the wheel of fortune has turned again and brought a bike. the dog was taken away by the council within 24 hours, which super impressed me. and reminds me of a cat that died outside our house in putney once (actually technically it was wandsworth, but you know how it is). i covered the dead cat in a tea towel and called the council who said it's pest control's domain. so while they figured out their bureaucracy, the poor little cat lay there for a few days getting flies on him. someone knocked on the door to tell me there was a dead cat on my doorstep, i said i know, i'm waiting to have him picked up.

which reminds me of the joke about the man with a banana in his ear and a man tries to tell him he's got a banana in his ear, but he can't hear him as he has a banana in his ear. i think this was one of dad's favourite jokes once. then it was surpassed by the one about beckham and his new thermos flask with a choc ice and a coffee in it.

anyway - it turns out they're prospecting for gold in the maya mountains, down south here in belize. we met with rafael and derek from the a conservation group who monitor and protect the chiquibul forest reserve, which is a huge forest/park system here. it includes the chalillo dam, the controversial dam that flooded one of the remaining scarlet macaw nesting grounds, and which the book 'the last flight of the scarlet macaw' is about. there are now 3 dams up and running, the mollejon, and the vaca being the other 2. they provide most of the power for belize, other than at peak times, when they have to buy extra power from mexico - which they don't like due to bad relations between the 2 countries, as always. rafael was a mine of information about lots of environmental things (including the gold mine). we were meeting with them because robert had had an idea to fly our resort guests up to the chalillo, where they could put a dock in, and then go kayaking up the rivers, and see amazing wildlife. they seemed to like the idea. they struggle to do enough work up there to protect it and monitor it, due to lack of resources and money, as is always the case. rafael knew the school where i'd done 2 weeks of spanish in guatemala, bio-itza, opposite flores on the peten lake. him and derek were really nice and interesting, i noticed that derek took his key lime pie home and didn't eat it at the table, perhaps he wanted to share it with someone.

on the subject of guatemala, there is currently a huge tropical storm pummelling guatemala city, along with volcano pacaya erupting, just 30k away from it. this is making a not very nice combination of volcanic ash plus rain = a sticky gooey cement like substance. that was the volcano we'd climbed last year, it's always active, and i'm surprised they hadn't anticipated the eruption, it seems like they have the capability to do that. anyway, as always, it's the worst off and most incapable to cope with it places that seem to get hit by these disasters, and i hope it doesn't wreck things completely over there. it's affecting salvador and honduras apparently too.

this morning there were 2 doves sitting on our fence, which i took as a good sign. the other day when we stayed up at chaa creek, a gecko poo narrowly missed my hand and landed on the bed. i took this as a good sign too.

hopefully we should be down in placencia this weekend, as work should be finished on the house here. this will make life nicer, as it's not so nice in this area. it's actually ladyville, which is where the british army have their base, alongside the belize defence force. they are further up the road so we haven't seen them. ladyville has a post office, and a mexican food place, a gas station, and a bank. and some random hardware shops. it's nothing to write home about other than to say that it's not very nice. it's where the international airport is. our house here is on the water, and last night there were some huge fish splashing around. when the lightning lit up the sky and sea i thought it must be a person doing some night time swimming, but it was a huge fish. a tarpon i think. you can hear the crabs during the night, they come out of their holes in the back yard, and click their claws together and scuttle around.

ps have just started reading cloud atlas by david mitchell. i like.


hope you enjoyed the pictures on the last 2 blogs. bye for today. x