Retired life in Western Belize, 2011.

Ray on vacation in Coban, Guatemala



Ray on left, another retired Englishman Bob at Pacz Tours in Twin towns as well, a Marmite sharing buddy of Ray.




ALL QUIET IN WESTERN BELIZE TWIN TOWNS

Just been scrolling through Marty Casado´s, Ambergris Caye list of BELIZE BLOGS. Just noticed that this BLOG - Western Belize Happenings - is not on there. Probably too quiet out here in the WEST of Belize. We don´t seem to have all the cocktail places, or night life, they have on the Barrier Reef Cayes.

Life for retirees like us is very quiet. I support my local library and donate books, as many as I can, plus newspapers. That said, I read an average of 5 books a week and our local librarian can´t really keep up with my varocious reading addiction. Do watch TV occasionally. ALJAZEERA TV out of Washington has turned out to be my favorite CABLE TV news, though 6:30 p.m. most evenings, I take the time to scroll through the local news channels for an hour.

I keep busy with trading options 5 days a week, on the Chicago Options Exchange via internet. Otherwise I´m supervising a contractor, who does casual work, three days a week for us on building projects. We are always looking for young guys as casual labor, to cut three yards we have and do some odd jobs and a bit of landscaping, once or so a month. More in rainy season. The wife is into weaving things, by the Guatemalan Back Strap Loom. She produces a lot of shawls, pocket change zippered pounches, belts for the pants with fancy designs and that sort of thing. She´s been at that hobby for several years now and seems happy at it. She also spends a lot of hours on the internet reading up on world news, which doesn´t interest me a bit. I get the highlights from her during meal times mostly. I´ve tried a bit of art and got good at pencil drawings and framed them. We both, the wife and I have art project stuff, at the current art show displayed at the House of Culture in the TWIN TOWNS. I got pretty good at pencil drawings and frame them for the wall. Proud of that hobby. One of these days if I can muster the interest, must teach myself to mix paints. I have a handy man build us furniture as we need it most of the time. Built our beds, bookcases and all that sort of stuff.

I think from reading BLOGS from Ambergris Caye on the Barrier Reef and at Caye Caulker, we must live a fairly quiet life out West here. Most people have hobbies like building and flyng ultra light airplanes, or training and riding horses. There are a few bars around the TWIN TOWNS area, but not enough social life to keep them happy. They seem to change every year or two, as new players try their hand at bar keeping. Unlike Ambergris Caye, which caters to a higher spending, high turnover tourist crowd. We do have lots of restaurants though, from India, France, Italy, Central American, etc. Good dining around here. Except most of my bought restaurant meals tend to be about $1.50 USA, as we don´t eat big meals being old retirees. We have a steady volume of tourists out Western Belize, but they are into Mayan ruins, canoeing, caving and other outdoor type sports. Partying doesn´t seem to fit their agendas. Mostly they eat out in one of our many fabulous international restaurants. Big day for me, is when a really big couple of flocks of Green Parrots come circling our house on the hillside. Then I like watching the hawks circling in the thermals and just wish I had a sailplane to join them. If you have ever heard those fancy CD´s with jungle sounds, which are supposed to be therepeutic, we have that at our house every evening and morning. Some types of birds I recognize by their chatter and singing. But yesterday and today, had some really loud, bird I never heard before singing it´s head off outside my trading room. Couldn´t locate it with binoculars. The garbage truck coming is probably the most exciting eventful event of the week. Can never be sure what day it is, so always surprised when I hear the garbage truck motor grinding noisily through the streets of our village. Then it is a mad rush to get our garbage can out to the street side. Thats the biggest excitemet for the week for us as a family here in this village. We shop every Saturday morning at the Macal River open air market for weekly groceries. Only once in a while do we go to town during the week, to do any needed shopping, dentist or things like that. Not much desire to go to town. We are self sufficient for most everything around here.
Yes, retired life in Hillview here is very quiet. Busy enough if you want it. The days quickly run into weeks, which run into months and then into years, faster than I can keep track. I mostly know what month it is by the trading calendar, earnings reports and the hours of when the Exchange is open on the internet, or cable TV, following the ticker tape. Trying to figure out what day, or month it is, can be very hard sometimes, when asked by somebody. Most of the time, we don´t even know what TIME of day it is. I like an afternoon nap and often work on my computer around 2 a.m. in the morning through to daylight. Find I only sleep about 5 hours a night.
I´m a prolific poster on blogs and chat forums in subjects that interest me technically. I´d say, thanks to the internet, our social life is very active, but it is all by internet. My wife is big into communicating with weavers in BOLIVIA high in the Andes and has evolved some very close internet friendships. I get the same thing, in technical subjects and people drop in several times a month here in Hillview passing through, with whom I´ve chatted on the internet. Always nice to meet new people in person for a short time.
All in all, I´d say our life in retirement is very sweet and content. Nothing like what you see on TV, of the so called industrialized hectic world in the Northern Hemisphere.