Thinking like a dolphin in Belize

                                              Palm-lined beach at Placencia, Belize

   
        We dropped Espiritu's anchor here more than a week ago and are just now getting settled in here at Placencia, Belize.

                                                                       Twisty tree


          The weather has been sunny and hot, without a cloud in the sky. After 9 months of horrifying lightning strikes and daily torrential rain in the equatorial regions, we're really basking in it.

              One Belizian family refuses to give up on their home...it's kind of poignant, really.


         We've been exploring the greater Placencia area on our bicycles. Unlike Roatan, whose one main road was untenable to bikes, Belize actually has little bike lanes built into the roads.

                                    We had a bike tire repaired at the "Road Kill Tire Shop."

                                                         Little pink beach house

                                             Our funky little dinghy dock

                                          ...another view...

            Need I point out the obvious: there IS no street named "Ol Husband" in the town of Placencia.

          This sign is above the door of the only pharmacy in town. For real. What to make of it?

                                                A humble Sein Bight Village dwelling


          I hate using the word "poor" to describe some of these Central American villages we have seen. Even "poverty stricken" doesn't seem quite right. Yes, there is much poverty. But for the most part, the people make do. They live simply, they care for each other, and their basic needs are met. And for the most part, they seem happy.

                                                        Sein Bight barber shop

                                              Mother and son on a Sein Bight beach

                   The girls here have lovely school uniforms -- prettier than any I've seen.

                                                   "Get UP here, girl!"

                                          Best friends, together. (It's Ash Wednesday)

                   The anchorage here is lovely. Good holding in 20 feet of clear, blue water. We swim and bathe in it daily, usually at the end of a long, hot, sweaty day. It's a beautiful reward. :-)   

     The other afternoon I was gently bobbing in the warm still sea next to Espiritu, when I saw and heard two dolphins break the surface not 10 feet away from me. 

          I became very still. I had never swam with dolphins. My plan was to gently swim over and maybe give them a little rub. But first, I needed a plan. Dolphins are notoriously elusive when it comes to humans. It's not that they're afraid of us -- it's more like they have better things to do with their time. They take one look at us and go: "Oh. One of THOSE." And then they turn and run.

   Native Americans say that to catch a fish, you need to THINK like a fish. So I decided that to attract the dolphins to me, I would THINK like a dolphin. 

 After a few moments thought, I tried to become: "Smart yet playful, agile yet graceful." These four words, I determined, are my best guess for what it means to be a dolphin. 

  So I tried with every fiber of my being to become smart yet playful, agile yet graceful. I swam towards them. Gently. 

  And of course, they took one look at me, gave me what I interpreted as a compassionate shrug, and promptly swam off.

 Ah, well.  :-)

And finally -- it's Valentine's Day. 

As I've alluded to previously, life has not been easy for Chris and I out here. I've spared you the gory details, but I'll just say that the fur has flown. We haven't always dealt with the stress well (understatement of the day). 

As we all know, divorce, break-ups, and just plain "single-ness" is all the rage in the states these days. Yes, we still romanticize love, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of maintaining long term relationships, society seems to be telling us that it's OK to always put your own wants FIRST. Words like "sacrifice" and "compromise" seem to be looked upon increasingly with a sniff and a lift of an eyebrow. 

After all, with the internet and cable TV, who wants to give up control, to compromise on anything these days when we can, for the most part, create our own cyber-reality with ourselves as the single monarch of our own little king(or queen)-dom.

Taking complete control back can be pretty tempting. All that compromise and sacrifice can wear you down sometimes. And yet...and yet...

A cruising couple we love says it best:

"We CHOOSE each other. Every day."  

Yes. It is a choice.  But in spite of the very tough days, we still love each other. And we still DO for each other, and laugh together. And enjoy each other's company. So the sacrifice is worth it -- although we understand the temptation to throw in the towel. We really, really do. 

                                                      Love is our cross to bear. 

And aiming to think and live like a dolphin, going for "smart yet playful, agile yet graceful" in our daily lives couldn't hurt either. 

        So whether you are in a couple or flying solo -- on this Valentines Day I hope you find the opportunity to give love today. 

   

                       These Sein Bight kids were little love sponges. They soaked it up! 

  

         Love is everywhere. And in the end, for each of us, love is a choice.   XOXOXOXOXOXO

GET OFF THIS BOAT!!!!!!!

The dinghy of our friends on Beez Neez hangs lifeless after being intentionally punctured and slashed by an unknown vandal.

      First, the good news. Espiritu enjoyed an uneventful one night passage from Roatan, Honduras to Belize, and is now anchored happily at Placencia, Belize. For the first time in many, many passages, there was not a single storm or engine failure. What a blessed relief.

 Honduras, statistically speaking, is one of the most dangerous countries on the planet. They have the highest murder rate in the world. Higher than Somalia, people. While most of that murdering happens on the Honduran mainland and is drug related, the island of Roatan is not an unviolent place.

 During our two months there, we heard stories. Like the one from our friend Al, an American expat with a beautiful waterfront home in Sandy Bay. When he had us over for dinner, he took us on a tour of the grounds. Pointing to his neighbor's high end home, he shared in passing:

"Yeah. He was murdered last night. They slashed his throat."

Sure enough, there was police tape around the area and a policeman guarded the area to prevent the evidence from being tampered with.

We were stunned at his lazze-fare reporting of this news. Just another day in Honduras.

 Mike and his pregnant wife Lilo, the owners of the Brooksy Point Yacht Club where we stayed in Roatan, live on the grounds in a lovely yellow house with their 3 children, Jean Pierre, Stephanie and Maria.

Maria and me. She speaks English and French, but Spanish is her native tongue.

Mike's house and grounds are surrounded by a high fence, but he's also got 12 German Shepherds roaming and protecting the property. TWELVE.

One of the 12 German Shepherds that guard Brooksy Point. The heart shaped water bowl is a nice touch. :-)

      So, security is a big thing here, clearly.

    Our friends aboard Beez Neez awoke one morning to find their inflatable dinghy slashed and partially sunken. No explanation was ever found.

     I thought I would wait until we've safely left Honduran waters before I shared the following story.

While in French Harbor, Roatan (Honduras) Espiritu was boarded one morning at 4AM.

   This is basically every cruisers worst nightmare, I think -- or anyway, it's right up there with storms, broken impellers and empty margarita pitchers.

  So, here's how it went down: We were sleeping soundly in the v-berth, when I heard Chris suddenly rouse and then sit perfectly still, like a hound, seeking and listening for it's prey. Then he yelled:

GET OFF THIS BOAT!!!!!!!!!!!

 We both bounded our of bed, scrambling in the pitch blackness. Chris had seen a shadowy figure in the cockpit. While Chris stormed towards the intruder, I headed straight for the nav station. I had long ago decided that if we were ever boarded at night, MY job would be to flood the boat with light. In the middle of a crowded anchorage, this is our best ally.

GET OFF THIS BOAT!!!!!!!!!

Chris's actions made me think of a heroic Harrison Ford character, firm yet non-violent. 

Chris proclaimed the command again as he stormed into the cockpit. Since Chris sounded every inch the captain that he is, the intruder promptly aborted the mission, obeyed the command, jumped off of Espiritu and back into his carved out canoe and quickly paddled off into the blackness.

 The old Texan aboard the boat next to Espiritu's called out loudly "You want me to shoot 'im?" from across the water.

 The intruder, fearful now, cried in a thick Caribbean accent: "Hey, mon, I only wanted some water!"

 Well. He may have wanted a bit more than that. Anyway, now that the spreader lights bathed Espiritu's deck with light, I was able to catch a glimpse of the guy as he rowed quickly away. He did not look or sound dangerous. He looked kind of poor, sad and scared.

 Chris and I hugged each other in relief. A quick check of the deck confirmed that nothing had been stolen.

This is a good time to share our secret weapon which, in my opinion, is the main reason this story had a happy ending: our burglar alarm.

But it's not officially a burglar alarm. It's a bug screen, which we made to cover the companionway hatch at night while we sleep.

The piece-de-resistance?   It's connected to the boat on all four edges with velcro, with it's tell-tale RRRRRIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPP! sound.

Our burglar alarm. It performed it's job well.

  Any intruder, fumbling in the darkness, would not see the velcro, and would unintentionally fire up the burglar alarm upon trying to enter the cockpit. It was this sound that roused Chris and put the crew into action.

  Well, as you can imagine, the next morning we were the talk of the anchorage. Everyone wanted to know how we felt. Did we feel angry?  Violated?

 Nope. I only had one emotion the next morning: gratitude. And relief.  Nothing was stolen. Nobody was hurt. In my opinion, this was a very good boarding. One where everything went right.

  Petty theft is everywhere, because there are unemployment and poor people everywhere. This guy -- while I did not want him on our boat, and I did not want to give him our things -- did not seem dangerous or violent.  I don't think he wanted to rape me or kill anybody.

  If you go to the movies or watch TV these days, all you see is uber-violent, sadistic murderers, killers and rapists.

Hey, kids! Let's go to the movies! 

           Call me naive (and many have), but I believe that the majority of crimes are not done by the guys you see in the movies.

The classic Saw II. While the film is rightly acknowledged for it's sparkling and intelligent script, it lacked the playful whimsy of Saw I. And as everyone knows, the nuance, script progression and deeply-wrought characterizations made Saw III the brilliant and unsurpassed cinematic achievement that it is. Well done, boys.  :-/

Ahem. (In case my sarcasm was a bit too subtle above, let me make it plain. Saw II? Never saw it. Never WILL see it. Or any of the other Saws.  I would rather have a root canal, AND an appendectomy at the same time without anesthesia before seeing or watching, or financially supporting anything in the slasher-porn genre. The ways in which these films are bad for society are too many to mention here.)

I hate to break it to you, but guys like the ones portrayed in these movies -- while they may actually exist, are very, very rare. I honestly believe most people (and even most petty criminals) are basically good, just trying to get through the day and feed their families. They don't want to hurt anybody. I certainly believe this of our "boarder."

They rationalize their petty theft with a shrug: "They're rich. If we steal their iPod, camera and computer, they'll just go out and buy a new one."

The problem with that statement above?

They're RIGHT.  Well, we're not rich, but...we would have found a way, eventually, to buy a new iPod, camera and computer.

:-/

 So we don't pack heat on Espiritu. And it's a good thing, too, because if we had, things might have ended differently.

 This was a very good boarding.

So now that we are Belize, it does feel like a different world. Placencia seems very, very safe. It's filled with gringos -- which many people would say is a good thing, but I kinda miss the real Central America. Ah, well.







     
 
   

New photo round-up: Roatan, Honduras

                           The sun slips over the rim of the earth in French Key Harbor


   Well, our stay in Roatan is winding to a close.  After watching the Super Bowl tomorrow here with our friends at Brooksy Point (go, Niners!), Espiritu will finally pull anchor from this lovely place and head north for the one night sail to Placencia, Belize.

                             Here's a round-up of new photos of this magical Caribbean island:

                                                 You know we had to follow THIS sign...

                                       OK. I'm really going to miss the rain forest...

                       Clearly, the iguana population is thriving here in Roatan...

   ...REALLY thriving. Chris bravely ignores his "lizard-brain" instinct to get the hell out of there, remembering these guys don't kill humans. They might eat you after you're DEAD, but they won't KILL you.

          These guys have been around for millions of years, so they must be doing something right.

                             Check out the hands. And the face, which looks exactly
        like a mini T-rex (without the teeth, thankfully).  He's really a magnificent creature.

              And speaking of animals, everyone knows wild dogs are part of the scenery throughout Central America. As Chris and I ate our lunch at this small, outdoor eatery, several feral dogs strode up and sat, waiting for scraps. This happens every time. It's actually pretty sad.

                                                                   ...dog's eye view...

                        Espiritu is anchored right next to idyllic Little French Key.

                                          You can practically feel the silken-soft breeze...

                   And here are a few more scenes from around the island of Roatan:

                                                        The funky West End

                   A young Hondurano says: "Say Hello to my Little Friend..."

                                                   Sandy Bay dock

                     A patriotic youngster enthusiastically shares the colors of the Honduran flag

                                   A family lives in and runs this mountain banana farm

                                                               A rural Roatan home

         In a country where 99% of the children have dark hair and skin, it really saddens me that THIS is the toy they display in the window. Really?  It embarrasses me, and it kind of makes me mad. How hard is it to make dolls that look like the kids who will be playing with them?

             A backyard basketball net and white picket fence are subtle reminders of home

 A sign outside the Roatan Ace Hardware says "No Weapons." With the stockpiling of weapons that is apparently going on in the states, will signs like this be popping up across the U.S.A.?

                                          A banana tree blooms next to the main highway

              Cows graze on the soccer field when the kids aren't playing. No lawnmowers needed!

                 It continues to amaze me how quickly the rainforest engulfs telephone wires, etc.

             We ate at a restaurant that featured "Fried Conch." You don't see THAT in the states.
  The restaurant encourages tourists and locals to write messages on the walls, floors and ceilings of the eatery. It is covered in them, most of which are people writing their names, or saying "Great Food," etc.  But there were a couple of messages on the walls that were, to say the least, distinctive:

                                  (Yikes)

           A little boy stares wistfully at the sports field, too young to play. Gotta wait...

                                                                        Tranquil scene

                  The sign at the "Hospital Roatan" has seen better days...

               Typical beachfront home. The main reason for the stilts is to keep
                               sandflies out of the home, and to keep things cool.
                                   Hurricanes are actually rare here in Roatan.

        This very sweet local lady gracefully posed for me in her "Life is Better Cruising" t-shirt. Naturally, she doesn't speak English. She bought it used for 50 cents and has no idea what it says.
                   But I have a feeling she wouldn't have a problem with the message.   :-)

                    This was written in spray-paint, graffiti-style, on a wall in a rundown
              part of Coxen Hole. What does it mean? Is there a rogue, Jewish gang from
                                    New York running amok here in Roatan?           (LOL)

 Yes, poverty is everywhere in Central America. But there is also ingenuity. I love this pieced together fence. Ya gotta admit, there's a touching, "can-do" spirit at work here. An acknowledgement that, yes, they may not have much, but dammit -- they make do. They do the best they can with what they have.

                I loved this brother and sister ambling down the street. Her hand was placed so lightly, gracefully, protectively on her little brother's shoulder as they walked through a dicey part of town.

                                               Grace. It's everywhere if you look for it.

                   Roatan, Honduras -- you are permanently imbedded in my brain and heart.

                                                          We will never forget you.