Belize Letter 14

New Project

I started a new project. There is a 150 to 200 foot wide strip of jungle between land that I have cleared and St. Margaret’s Creek. This creek forms the western boundary of our property. It is a very beautiful creek with rain forest on each side. I have two paths that allow viewing the creek for only a few feet in either direction. Since we can only hear the rushing of the water in the creek from our porch, I thought it would be good to have better access to the creek. I started clearing a trail that will run parallel to the entire length of creek on our property which is slightly over 1200 feet or 4 football fields. This path, when completed, will be an excellent trail not only to observe the creek but also to observe the many birds that are in that area. It will also be a good place to see the plant life in the rain forest. Maintaining this trail will add to the growing list of maintenance items but it will be worth it. As the cutting is well under way, it is nice to walk this path. I have taken some pictures and they are available here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jmadeira/CreekPath

I even have a video that provide a glimpse of the magnificent beauty and utter tranquility of the stream. (just picture of creek with sound - not much action)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1241187260682839739&hl=en

Dog issues

The main living area of our home is twelve feet above ground level. We are always going up and down these stairs. Our dog goes down in order to get to the yard and then back up to get to the main living area. A week ago he stopped going up the stairs. We tried pulling him up with a leash but he would not budge. We tried luring him up with cookies but he still would not climb the stairs and he remained on the lower level. So, for one whole week I carried the dog up the stairs. Carrying a squirming, sixty pound dog that sometimes is soaking wet, up the stairs is not a pleasant task! I decided to close in the stairs. Now he can’t see or fall through the stairs and he is back to making the round trip to the yard by himself.

Property speculation in Belize

There has been some talk on the local FM station about needing to do something about all the real estate speculation in Belize that is driving prices up. They state that this speculation may be good for land owners but some of the poor local people are now not able to afford land and houses. Nearly seventy percent of the land in Belize is set aside as reserves. Building is not allowed on reserves. What will happen is a definite question. However, one should note that all the law makers own property.

Problems

I have been having trouble sourcing a DW6000 satellite modem to replace the one that suffered an electrical surge during a thunder storm. This time it’s not a Belize problem, it’s an EBay or Pay pal problem. For some reason, after deciding on one of several DW6000’s available, I placed the order. The address on the final order that was sent to the seller was not the one intended; it was two address changes previous to my present address. This address was no longer in my personal data on EBay or Pay pal, so I have no idea how it ended up on the order.
My credit card worked ok because my credit card was charged. So apparently they don’t do address verification of credit cards. I will be ordering another one and hopefully it will ship correctly. I have gotten all types of programmed emails regarding what I need to do to solve the problem. I think this will take a long time to be resolved seeing as now my emails are scanned and a form email is sent back to me. Humans are not available. I guess they are busy creating more programmed responses. On my next trip to the internet Café, I will have to spend quite a bit of time with EBay and Pay pal, if I want to resolve it. I call the use of automated customer service messages customer disservice! It would be better to do nothing. Both of these companies are probably betting that I will give up due to total frustration.

Belize Independence Day

Tomorrow, 9/21/07 Belize will turn twenty six. It was only in 1981 that Belize obtained its independence from Great Britain. The people have been celebrating all week with parades, sport events, pageants, and the State of the Union address by the Prime Minister. These celebrations will continue throughout the weekend. Independence day is taken very seriously down here.