Spring

Hi Hi!

Well it has been three months of horrible snow and cold. Mom and dad have been busy they opened a new shop and I have been busy making sure they know every time someone comes in. I am not fond of all those smelly, noisy, loud people that are always coming in and disturbing my space. I am not going to quit barking at them, so there. I don't like them. I do love to go to the shop and to come home though. Exciting!

Well it is spring here, it is a bit of a sad day today because today is the day we would have been coming home from Belize if we had not left early. I miss the warm sun and the no snow. I miss my daily walk about. Now they are issuing another snow fall warning here for tomorrow. YUCK YUCK YUCK. I know mom and dad hate snow. I often wonder why there is snow in the world to begin with and why the heck I had to be born in a snowy country. How unfair is that! It is kind of stupid if you ask me.

The only up side I can see to a snowy country is that people are a bit.... ok ok .....very ambitious. Well they really have no choice if they are not they will Freeze to Death in the cold snowy months. Also you do not see the poverty as much here because it is to COLD, everyone is indoors somewhere you can not live outside.

So the snow is melting and the sun is shining and it is going to freaking snow tomorrow again! Now is the time I want mom and dad to get back on a plane and fly me the heck out of here. If we were rich I am sure they would! We however are not. As much as they wish they would win the lottery hahaha. So they work really hard and we survive, just like most of the people in the world. I get a couple treats and sometimes I even get food I like, I am really really picky. And if I lay in the sun and close my eyes I can pretend there is NO SNOW

So back to mom and dads new shop. It is doing good, been pretty steady for clients. They are looking forward to summer to make some extra so maybe we can go away for a couple months this winter. Thinking of spending time in Hawaii, mom LOVES Hawaii and is always asking why she was not born in a beautiful place like that. I can not imagine anyone saying, why oh why was I not born in a great country like Canada but I know they are out there. Lots of people immigrate here, I guess we do have a great country for jobs and working in. Like I say not a lazy country, we are too cold here! We have to keep moving or we will freeze to death in the winter. When summer actually comes for the 3 months we have nice weather it is so beautiful. I just do not get why it has to snow! And of course Canada does not have any beautiful tropical hot areas. We have the West coast where it rarely snows but it is far from tropical and because it is the only part of the country that does not get snow it is over populated and over priced to live there because everyone who can not get out of the country wants to live there. Well except for the fact it rains 80% of the time there. Lots of people can not handle that. I am not sure if I could or not, but at this point I do not foresee having to figure it out as we are once again stuck in the snowbound land we are in.  The one upside to it is looking forward to summer and then be fortunate enough to make enough money to go somewhere warm for awhile in the winter.

So I am excitedly waiting for spring, and just when we get a little tease and the snow starts to melt it freaking snows again! GRRRRRRRR. I am getting very very annoyed with it. But hey what can I do? Mother Nature can sure be a bitch and there is absolutely NOTHING anyone can do to stop her. Maybe next year will be a better year and we will get almost no snow!!! I love those kinds of winters, okay I don't 'love' them but I sure like them a lot better.

 I know what mom and dad would love is to be able to pick up their whole life here and move it to a country with palm trees, sunshine and oceans. Business and all.

Oh well got to get back under my blanket and nap. It is still a bit chilly here.

Bark at you later.
Jasper

Long time away

So I have not written in awhile. Moms laptop died from the humidity and we just got it fixed!

I am a bit sad. Mom and Dad decided to bring me home to Canada. I miss the nice warm weather. Now I have to wear a sweater and booties and still I freeze.

So many things happened in the last days we were in Belize. First my mom's laptop died. Here is a tip do not bring expensive laptops to Belize the moisture builds up in them and will wreck them.

The tiny little cottage we rented to stay in for the first three months was WAY to small and the bed felt like a rock. We might as well have been laying on the floor! Also the fridge was teeny tiny and the freezer did not work because it was so small. Plus it cost way to much for such a small place and the lady kept our deposit (which was half the astronomical rent $1100 a month) for the extra month we were going to stay but changed our mind even though we gave her 30 days notice we were not staying for December. For the amount we paid you would think toilet paper and cleaning service would be included in the price (the cleaning service was supposed to be included but the maid quit so nothing ever got cleaned we had to do it ourselves and had to ask for a mop and bucket to do it because there was none in the cottage and we were not buying it to leave there!!) but nothing was included! Not Toilet paper, not cleaning service or supplies, not water for the water cooler! We had to buy the bottled water for the cooler at $10 a bottle, you do not realize how much water you actually drink in a hot climate until you have to buy it yourself! Butane for the stove was not even included , if you ran out you had to get the bottle filled yourself! Plus they build the cottages like european or american houses that want to conserve heat, there were only big windows on one wall and so you got no cross breeze to cool the cottage and it was like a sauna most of the time unless you used the AC and we like the breeze so it was really annoying. None of these things were mentioned in and correspondence with the lady when we booked the cottage. I guess it does not matter where in the world you go people will take advantage of you if they can. The lady who owned the corner store said no one ever stayed long there because it was so expensive! These people had moved from Ambergis Caye and it is very pricey to stay there so I guess they thought they can still charge the same prices in Corozal. I think they might go out of business as no one stays long and no one will go back to such an expensive place where nothing is included I know my mom will not recommend it to anyone.

The place we were going to rent for the winter was big and beautiful but expensive we could rent for the same amount back home in Canada and did not include anything except a bed a kitchen table a couple chairs and a couch (and if the quality of bed we slept on in the cottage was any indication of the bed we would have had it would have been horrible to sleep on). So we would have had to buy everything else (dishes, bedding, small appliances, towels, EVERYTHING) and that seemed silly when we were going to be leaving it all behind in six months. Plus we found out the man who owned it had been shot there and that was a bit disconcerting.  This was told to us by the lady we were renting the cottage from AFTER she recommended we go see him for a rental! So it turned out even though we changed our mind and moved a full month before we were going to move in the man still kept our first and last month deposit. Considering he was the kind of guy that someone felt they had to shoot, mom and dad just walked away from it.

Yes there were cheaper places but I was a little afraid to go out into some of the yards as they were pretty over grown, who knows what is lurking the tall dark grass in the corners that could jump out and bite me, and the houses were pretty dirty even for me and I am a dog!

Mom and dad did not like the fact that there were no sandy beaches. The places we swam was either where the boats docked or where the storm drain emptied into the bay, and the area had garbage and broken glass in the water. The water was not clear either most of the time because it is a bay and brackish water not salt water and the wind would always be churning up the silty sand and making the water murky.

I hated the ants that were always crawling up my legs! And the teeny tiny ones swarming any crumbs or drips on counters and floor it was yucky. I know we deal with mice and stuff at home sometimes but at least you can kill them! You can not kill those tiny ants it is impossible!

The quality of goods was very substandard and pretty expensive considering how poor the quality was if you could even find what you wanted at all. There is very little if any selection of many things including bedding, towels and some dishes. And if you do not have a car to drive to Belize city or Mexico you are stuck with what is in town. Of course if you drive to Mexico you have to pay the 30% tax on goods purchased when you come back plus there is a $17 exit fee and another $17 re-entry fee to leave and get back in the country. A blender for example will cost you a minimum of $40 US which is a lot considering you can buy the same on in Canada for $20. The sheets we bought for $30 US (better quality would cost about $20 at home) were very thin low quality and got little balls all over them within the first two weeks of using them. There is a huge tax on anything brought into the country so the quality has to be really low and cheap so that once the tax it tacked on it is still reasonable enough for people to buy it. Oh and here is a tip the queen size sheets only fit a double bed! The dog food sucked! Okay I am spoiled I admit it but it was icky I refused to eat it.

I also did not enjoy the constant karaoke singing from all the neighbours! Very loud and almost every day, as there is really nothing to do in Corozal but cook, clean, do yard work, walk to the market, watch TV and when you do not want to do that, drink and sing I guess. It sucked listening to drunk people sing in a foreign language for hours on end. And there were rude barking dogs everywhere! Every yard almost had rude barking dogs, I guess they are not like me and not part of the family just working dogs and there job is to bark at everything that moves!

Always the weather and the people were really nice! I wish we had gotten to see more of the country but car rentals were too expensive mom said. So it was a bit boring after awhile to be stuck in a small town with nothing to do. We are used to having a car and being able to go and do stuff.

I know it would have been way different if we had been able to buy a house and have a car and work. Mom says she is to young to just sit around and do nothing all day except clean and cook.

So we are back home again. Missing the warmth but not the boredom. Mom says after her foray into trying to live in a tropical country she thinks she is more of an all-inclusive girl for now.  There have been three or four murders in the 6 weeks we have been home in Corozal and area one washed up just down from the place we used to swim! That makes me glad we are home.

Belize is a country for people who have A LOT of money not for someone wanting to go live on a budget, unless of course your okay living in a dirty little shack and eating rice and beans. I will put up with the cold. Well actually it is not even too bad yesterday and today as far as northern weather goes we were warmer than New Mexico and Arizona! LOL

Sorry for the delay in writing like I said we just got back the laptop that got wrecked in Belize from the humidity.

Stay tuned I will for sure share many other adventures even though they are not in Belize anymore!!

Bark at you later.
Jasper

A Day Off

Hey everyone

Well we have been here for three weeks now. I am actually used to the heat and the smells and loving my daily walks in NO SNOW! Not to sure of the food though besides the chicken bits I get occasionally, I am running low on my Little Caesar's and mom and dad have been supplementing a locally made dog food. I don't think I like it very much. It has funny things in it like fruit and stuff ewww. But I guess I will get used to it if I have too.  Who said I was a spoiled dog???

It rained a bit yesterday, made it really humid outside. Like it is not humid all the time LOL.

Most things are closed on a Sunday in Belize, kind of like it used to be back home years ago I am told. People actually have a life here and whole day to spend it with there families even the ones with less money. Not like home where it is usually the poorer people that have to work weekends and holidays. Although more and more businesses are opening 7 days a week back home, a person is hard pressed to find a business that is closed on a Sunday or holiday. The society we live in back home is so commercially oriented that family is an after thought. Oh My God what would people do if they could not go shopping every day and all night to spend all there money and fill the big gaping empty holes in there emotional lives! How would they be happy? How would they survive? I think that if all the things that are bought and thrown away still good every year in Canada could supply the people here with houses so full of things they would never have to worry about shopping for anything again.

People live such a simpler life here. You buy your dishes, from a choice of three different patterns and types if your lucky and you keep them forever, you do not go out and buy a new pattern and style every time you turn around. Where at home we have towels and blankets to supply an army here you are lucky to have one blanket for each bed and one towel each. No cupboards full of things you never use. No garage sales to get rid of all the stuff you thought was great deal and could not pass up and never used, only used once, put away and forgot about it . . . . . . No second had stores to sell new-used stuff that people don't want once they bought it. People are not drowning in stuff here and that gives them time for family. Family is very important here. People are less stressed, healthier, more relaxed and more friendly.   They are not madly running around looking for more stuff to buy. There is none! You can walk into the clinic and see the doctor as soon as you walk in because people are not as sick from the stress of working there butts off to buy stuff.

It is so nice to relax and enjoy life for a change.

Well off to get ready for my walk
Bark at you later

Got pillows

Well I am happy to report we found pillows. After searching high and low through it seemed every store in town, we went into two stores yesterday that we had not been in and low and behold they had bed pillows! Lots and lots of bed pillows! This is very good as I was beginning to despair as I love pillows. Ya I am a bit of a lazy spoiled dog and I like to lay on pillows and under pillows, what can I say? I like big fluffy blankets and quilts too, that we have found but in short supply and very expensive. So we continue to search for a quilt.

There are lots and lots of dogs here. Most of them are pretty well looked after from what I see, a few without homes though. There is one that lives two houses down from us someone said it is only 5 months old. It is a pit bull and it is locked in a 3ft. x 3ft box 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We saw the man who owns it take it out twice tie it on a short chain to a piece of cement and poke it with a stick :-O poor puppy. Where does it go to the bathroom? I would not like to be locked up like that all the time. Mom and dad think it is being trained to be a fighting dog, poor dog :-(
Sadly there seems to be no stopping the cruelty of the world and peoples hunger for it that feeds it.

Mom keeps laughing at me for trying to eat the pigeon feathers on the deck. I say if you can't have the pigeon. . . . .

The weather sure does change fast here. When we got here in mid October the weather was plus 30 felt like plus 40 and not much cooler at night so hot! Now it is a lot cooler around plus 30 and feels like plus 32 and it even goes down to 20 or less at night. That is so much easier to sleep it is a lot like summer back home now. Thank goodness we are not back home mom says she read it is snowing like crazy and cold. I am so appreciating coming her now it we were back in Canada my daily walks would have stopped by now!

I am off to get ready for the day, the maid comes today to clean its nice. Everything gets very dusty here! Only problem is she comes in the morning so I have to wait until after lunch to go for my walk. Oh well the sacrifices I make so we can have dust free house and a clean toilet, not that I use the toilet, but the gardener does pick up my poopies so it is the same thing I guess haha!

Check ya later!

Bacon anyone??

Well even though I am not allowed to eat much bacon I do love the smell of bacon. Okay I love the smell of all meat :-)

Funny thing here in Belize there is very little smoked meat. Ham, bacon anything like that is more expensive and hard to come by. There is bologna and hotdogs, both which taste really good, mom always shares with me! The liver if you are a liver fan is to die for!

Something else I miss is the doggy treats. Coming from a country that has whole stores dedicated to spoiling me (and others like me) it is a bit of a culture shock to come to a country that has no dog treats. Not a milk bone, dental bone, beggin strip or snausage to be had. :-( So I miss the treats! Thats okay though mom and dad are missing there favorite treats too. There are Pringles here but mom has not bought any yet says it is healthier not too, but I think she really is feeling sorry for me that I have no treats so she is abstaining from treats for herself to make me feel better.

There is a little thing you can buy here that when you deep fry it, it puffs up and makes a crispy rice type treat. They sell them in bags in the stores back home but we do not remember the name. Luckily for us mom actually knew what it was when we saw them in bulk bags in the store and knew if she fried them they would turn into a treat. Who knew? Glad she knew this too, she said a friend showed her them when she was in college and so lucky us it is one of those strange things that do not confuse us here! Dad did not believe her she had to prove it.

Everyone is so friendly, and I think we are starting to slow down like the local Belizeans. Learning to relax and enjoy the sun and breeze. I love my daily walk! So do mom and dad I think. It is funny we walk at least a mile sometimes two miles a day and we are enjoying it! Imagine that mom and dad enjoying walking. I think it is easier to do when everyone does it and you fit in, your not the only person walking down the road for miles around. Something funny that we noticed was a lot of people riding there peddle bikes listening to there music, like playing the radio in the car. Makes us chuckle. 

Something we saw when we were on our walk was a home that had 'plywood for rent' it was funny. Not really unreasonable though as nothing we have seen was built with plywood. Slats and boards and bricks and cement. But no plywood.

A lot of people use corrugated steal for fencing. It think it is old roofing material and must be easy to come by. 

Although most people have cement and ironwork fences. They are very beautiful.

There is so much too see, (and smell) on our walks everyday.

Well off to see what the neighbour dogs are up too.
Bark at you later.

Sugar Ants

Wow it has been two weeks. I am settling in pretty good. Enjoying our daily walks and being able to sleep in the bed with mom and dad. It is a bit of a learning experience. Everyone is so less strict here! I can even go into the restaurants so I guess no health code to speak of :-)


We are combating sugar ants in the kitchen. They are persistent little buggers. Mom read that if you mix Borax and sugar and peanut butter it will kill the nest. But we have not found any Borax yet. Also corn meal kills them if you leave it out for them to eat and powdered sugar and baking soda. We are going to go get baking soda today.  Wiping the counters with vinegar or bleach constantly is supposes to help and seems to keep them down but we learned you have to have a special rag only for that if you use the dish rag it does not work because the dish rag becomes contaminated with sugars from the dirty dishes so all your doing is spreading around sugar when you wipe with a dirty dish rag. It sure inspires one to keep the kitchen clean anyway!

Other than that there really seems to be less bugs than there are back home that come into the house. A rare fly and I saw a little dead beetle once. I think that the lizards that live in the house maybe eat them all. They certainly are fun to watch, the lizards that is!


So as for people being less strict, there are so many things here that are different. I do not know if there is any electrical, building or plumbing code here at all. I don't think so. We were told that people leave there homes unfinished so they do not have to pay taxes because you do not have to pay taxes until your home is finished, so there are a lot of what look like unfinished homes here.

The neighbors house has the sink and shower water draining right on to the ground outside the house. Everything is just kind of hap hazard here. There are some really nice homes but there are also a lot of what we would consider shacks. Broken down and patched up with whatever is available. We can only imagine the plumbing and electrical in these homes.

The weather is still great we are getting used to the heat and it is actually quite cool at night and in the morning. It is still getting hot in the afternoon but not unbearable and we notice we are drinking way less water now than we were when we first came. I can actually see where once we have been here a few months we will need a jacket when it is chilly LOL 'chilly' hehe

We are off to the market again today. Have to get some fruit and some veggies for the chicken stew tonight. Plus we are out of rice so need to pick up some more rice.

Anyhoo off to get ready for the market!

Sniff ya later!

Shopping in Corozal

So I was up early with mom today and we played hide the frog squeaky, I love that game! It is good to play in the morning and later at night it gets hot during the day.

Shopping is an interesting experience here. We can find a lot of things but there are things you can't find. Everything is so readily available and plentiful in Canada. I can only imagine how exciting it is to come from here to a country like Canada and see so much stuff! Here when they say people live a simple life they sure do!

We are checking out prices and looking for things for our apartment that we move into in December. It's like a treasure hunt! There is no such thing as a department store here. The closest thing they have to one is called the A&R which carries, craft and school supplies, and household items like dishes and sheets. It is clean and modern and maybe the size of a dollar store back home. There is a pretty good variety of stuff but nothing like home. You have a choice of maybe two or three sets of pots (3 with lids) price ranging from $12 - $50 a set of dishes is running around $20 and a set of three frying pans can be from  $15 -$70 (that is our money) A queen size sheet set is going for $35-$60 a set, top and bottom sheet no pillow cases. No pillow cases, that's funny cause we have not found any bed pillows for sale anywhere in town yet either! We found some fancy Chinese pillows about the size of a bed pillow at one of the Chinese stores in town for $7. 50 each though. They are pretty too would not need a pillow case if you did not want one.  Lets see a set of cutlery ranges from $5-$15. Coffee cups and glasses are about $2 each.  Mixing bowls range from $3-$7 each and a juice jug can be had for $3-$5.

Small appliances like a coffee maker or a blender are running at about $40-$70 or more depending on where you look. We made a deal with our landlord who owns a furniture and appliance store to purchase these small appliances from him for half price when we move into our apartment. Our apartments is furnished but does not come with dishes and sheets and towels so we have to get some. When we leave we will ask our friend Carlos if we can store them at his house until we come back next year.

Mom found hangers at one store 10 for $1. 50 and clothes pins are around $1. 50 a package or 20-30 depending on the style. Face clothes and small hand towels are easy to find but larger bath towels seem to be non existent LOL. Good thing we brought two large towels with us when we came.

A lot of the local grocery stores are owned by the Chinese,  so there is a lot of Chinese themed items for sale. Personal items (everything from nail polish to hair ties) and clothing are very plentiful and not to expensive.

A broom and a mop are about $2.75 each one thing we have not found yet is a dust pan! I guess mom and dad just sweep the dirt out the door!

We can not find a digital clock anywhere there are some battery operated clocks but they do not last long in this weather I think cause there are 5 'dead' wall clocks hanging the the laundry room of our temporary apartment.

Sun screen and bug spray are very expensive here more than back in Canada for sure.  And brand names cost more money. Locally made products are cheaper.

We had to search for ground coffee, everyone drinks instant coffee here. There is no fresh cream to be had, but we heard the Mennonites sell it sometimes at the market. Refrigerated milk is rare mostly it comes in one of those square containers on the shelf. Mom wanted to make baked beans but no one has ever heard of molasses here.

As for frivolous things to decorate your house with you can pretty much forget it there are a few things but nothing like a good spoiled Canadian would expect to find. No huge store dedicated to kitchen, bedroom or living room decorating. We did notice a lot of Christmas decorations coming out at the A&R store though. Some of them are nice could be used year round!

We have not found any candles yet, for when the power goes out here which is quite often we hear. But we still have a few stores to look in. We have not even scratched the surface of a store in town called Cinty's! Imagine a hoarders house only no garbage! So much stuff to check out!  And we have not checked out the local hardwear stores yet. Who knows maybe they are the ones with pillows :=D

So there you have it shopping in Corozal! The one great thing for me is I get to go into every store mom and dad go into! Only one store has made me stay outside with dad, it was the local cell phone company when mom got the sim card for our phone!


Our friend Carlos and his wife are going to take us to the duty free zone so we can see what we can find there. Will let you know when we go!

Bark at you later gotta run!!