Victoria Peak beauty in Belize

* Oh to be young again!


VICTORIA PEAK of BELIZE, Central America

If you look very carefully you can see Victoria Peak of the Belize Alps, Maya Mountains in the background from the sandy beach of Hopkins village.

CARICOM at war on three FRONTS!

CARICOM which includes Belize, IS AT WAR ON THREE FRONTS!

Caricom which includes our country of Belize is at WAR on THREE fronts. Unfortunately the leaders of CARICOM countries, what is left of them, as the size of CARICOM membership shrinks, are at heart, country folks, provincial in outlook and nature. For the most part, country Prime Minister’s are not even aware that they are at WAR on three fronts. They have vague conceptions of something going awry with their desires and ambitions, but haven’t really put it into some sort of focus. CARICOM countries for the most part are always on the edge of the struggle for SURVIVAL. That SURVIVAL is intrinsically wound up with the three FRONT WAR, they only vaguely are uneasy about, but can only see by the individual guerrilla actions and small scale battles. Most of which we are losing.

The FIRST WAR FRONT is being waged by the G 7 countries, against CARICOM, through the G 20 group. This is the stripping away of the right to be sovereign in financial matters and compete on a fair level playing field with the G 7 countries for a market share in the financial services industry. The TAX HAVEN status of most of the Caricom countries is pretty much stripped away now and the advantages of offering competitive financial services will ultimately DESTROY the financial services TAX HAVEN status of CARICOM countries. We are losing an industry and revenue income stream. This WAR is commercial in nature, in the cutthroat competitive world of business. G 7 governments are running this war over market share. It is not even that the allegations are true, that they make and their treaties and obligations have any modicum of fairness. There is no fairness in WAR. Only winning and destroying your enemy who is competing with you for commercial business. The fact that all the things they slur and claim CARICOM TAX HAVENS of doing, they themselves do in their own countries, but just under different names and jargon does not matter. The problem for CARICOM is that the weapons in this particular war are the banking system, the need for us to go through their clearing centers, use their financial exchanges, use their wire transfer systems and so on. The answer is to use some other financial center system. Bigger and more richer countries than the small CARICOM countries are struggling with this world wide war.

It is probably time that CARICOM put up their own telecommunications satellite. The Chinese built and put up one for Venezuela. Even Central America should put up their own satellite.



The SECOND FRONT WAR for CARICOM is with the European Union. This war on the part of the European Union does not involve armies, tanks and soldiers. The war uses as weapons, treaties, contracts, memorandum of understandings. The weapons and battles are fought with paper. Essentially the European Union wishes to keep small ex-colonial countries as MARKETS for their finished products. They also wish to keep small countries of CARICOM as suppliers of bulk commodities. The raw materials they need to process for value added products THEY can export to us. Ultimately the WAR is about tax revenues and jobs for growing populations. The war is fought with carrot and stick approach. We get some GRANTS for needed improvements in our struggle for SURVIVAL as populations, which will be taken away if we do not sign on the dotted line by the EU.

We must diversify our marketing and make more export products in competition with the EU, to win this war on our small one country scale for ourselves.



The THIRD FRONT WAR for CARICOM is ALBA, the socialist promised paradise of the CUBAN system of the totalitarian state. This is more the traditional war, more reminiscent of the COLD WAR of recent history. Here we have an egomaniac who lusts for ABSOLUTE POWER in the leader of Venezuela . In the countries currently belonging to ALBA, are subsidiary KINGS who are in charge of their own little fiefdom. Their small kingdoms of which they in turn, lust for ABSOLUTE POWER in their small kingdoms. On the surface, the battle is with WORDS, and CONCEPTS. The jargon keeps changing. We do not call it communism any more, it is now called SOCIALISM and NEO-LIBERALISM. The fight against POVERTY. If one studies history, serving the POOR and DOWNTRODDEN has always been the battle cry of olden Feudal Kings who enjoyed ABSOLUTE POWER. It doesn’t matter whether the title EMPEROR, or senior KING, or an absolute ruler had the title of PASHA, AMIR, AYATOLLAH, Prime Minister for Life, or President for Life. Absolute Power is about absolute power. Certain people are born TYRANTS. This war is being waged by EMPEROR Hugo Chavez of Venezuela with the oil billions available to him. He is also winning this war in the Americas . STALIN, MAO, the CASTRO brothers all killed massive amounts of their opponents and sacrificed the poverty stricken in the domination requirements of ABSOLUTE POWER. We are talking HUNDREDS of millions of people murdered and sacrificed over the fight on poverty allegedly. Again right now, the WAR is like that being waged by the EU and is using the CARROT and the STICK approach. In a time of this new century in which energy sources are changing. The world oil production peaked scientists say in 2008. The USA transportation trucking fleet will be mostly NATURAL GAS driven in fifteen years, substituting for oil imports due to a new BILL now in the USA SENATE. For example Belize is in dire straits and many of the other CARICOM smaller island countries worse off. The price of gasoline in Belize is almost the same as a year ago when oil was $120 a barrel, but right now is in the mid $70 a barrel range. ENERGY is the big weapon in this war. Replacing a nucleur arsenal and aircraft carriers to fight idealogical battles over supremacy. While this WAR on this front with ALBA is using the poverty fighting jargon, of the past, no one should ever mistake the SOCIALIST TOTALITARIAN STATE for freedom. It is SLAVERY in a new disguise. This WAR will ultimately involve secret police, torture, killings, jailing perceived opposition, exile and the real cruelties of WAR, which we can understand and see and feel. Even as I write; the internet chatter says the EMPEROR IN HIS STRONGHOLD OF VENEZEULA is building up his army and acquiring military planes and new weapons to enforce control in his new dominion of the AMERICAS .

Already ALBA now counts 11 controlled votes for the United Nations, the OAS and other conferences and meetings, versus the shrinking CARICOM number of votes which at last count was only 10. This is alarming because most CARICOM countries are mismanaged and many are simply supplying labor and brain drain workers for the G 7 countries. This is a form of island country population control. Nearly all CARICOM countries have perpetual DEBT. Even our own Belizean Prime Minister of Belize believes in perpetual DEBT as an operating system. DEBT of course is lost revenues for development and self sufficiency requirements. You also lose the freedom to make choices and choose the courses you wish are best for Belize . This latter sentence is more profound in performance and implication, than all the various philosophical arguments about whether government debt is good or bad.

To my personal view, Belize at least inside CARICOM has to get rid of the debt to be truly FREE and INDEPENDENT without obligations to anyone outside. Leaving our choices open to choose. We have to also provide ourselves with everything possible we can need. This is easier in Belize and Guyana than other countries of CARICOM. Commercially our future is more with Central America , Mexico and the USA in Belize . Though putting all your eggs in one basket is wrong. We do need more economic diversification. The world right now is our market, not just traditional places. We must be able to shift markets with changing times, to remain fluid in our small niche, brand name way. We need to slide under the G 7 world radar in our small scale, like Marie Sharpe Products, or Grace Kennedy Ltd.

I could probably go on writing for a long time, but you get the essence of this article. Which is that CARICOM leaders and our Belizean Prime Ministers of the present and future, need to think differently, less selfishly and be more self sufficient in attitudes and policies. The system or one political party wins the government attitude has to change and adapt to think more about being a sovereign independent, self sufficient state. That is our REAL CHALLENGE for Belize . We need Prime Ministers with a wider vision, less bureaucratic minds, less regulation and more innovation and experimentation. This is a tough balancing act, when revenues are shrinking currently, oil prices rising and we wait for the next world BULL MARKET. When things get tough, the tough get going should be our attitude in Belize .

PRIME MINISTER OF BELIZE, Dean BARROW HOODWINKED BY OAS SECRETARY GENERAL

* Suspected Leftist Block, Fifth Column leader in the OAS.
* Prime Minister Dean Barrow from Belize, BIG FISH in a little pond. Got eaten alive as CARICOM Chair, by OAS Insulza Secretary General, the puppet big SHARK, representing interests of ALBA Block in recent HONDURAS fracas.



Prime Minister, Dean Barrow of Belize got hoodwinked by Secretary General of the OAS.

REPORT FROM BELIZE, JUNE 10TH, 2009

Turns out our DEAN BARROW our lawyer/Prime Minister and big fish in a little pond, thought he was a big fish in a big pond, when he was Chairman of CARICOM. Seems INSULZA, Chairman of the OAS, had his own agenda when he went charging into Honduras like a dictator demanding his terms. Chavez threatening military invasion, except it is too early in the WAR GAME yet for Empire, as his military weren’t ready yet. The whole bunch of country bumpkins in CARICOM got taken for a ride on the vote by the OAS.
Unfortunately, our CARICOM members are naïve Provincial country bumpkins and not a single government among them have a SECRET FOREIGN SERVICE, or are aware of the backgrounds of the members of the OAS. Nor is their any National Interest foreign policy department in the Foreign Affairs of Belize keeping any tabs, or historical profile files on the OAS representatives. The general public knows OAS members are dumped by their countries to keep them from making trouble at home. Turns out on the internet, that research shows SECRETARY General of the OAS, INSULZA is a member of the Chilean Socialist Party and a member of the SAO PAULO Forum, so it says on the internet. An alternative organization to the OAS, which was formed by FIDEL CASTRO. Tyrant of the prison island of CUBA, designed to counter the USA democratic system. INSULZA works for Emperor Chavez and the rest of our wanna-be TYRANTS, –President for Life CLUB all indicators say. If you don’t recognize and smell EVIL when you meet it, you probably are the wrong generation. Too bad! I’ll repeat, this is a copy cat of STALIN of Russia take over, of EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES during and after World War 11. The only missing ingredient is the military force. Though the internet chatter says EMPEROR CHAVEZ is building up a mobile rapid reaction military force in Venezuela for just that purpose, with new weapons and planes, etc.
Wheels within wheels and our Prime Minister Barrow of Belize got suckered real bad over Honduras by the OAS. We don’t have communists anymore, today the labels have been changed. They call themselves SOCIALISTS and NEO LIBERALS. Same animal different name. We call them SHARKS! Barrow is but a minnow, food for the SHARKS, even though he got his photo taken with BUSH and OBAMA.
The interesting thing about this TYRANTS CLUB are the multiple levels they are playing serious games at. The OAS, it is now obvious, has been penetrated by a FIFTH COLUMN of saboteurs, or agent provocateurs. There are at least seven and maybe more. The problem with such a fifth column is the blasé indifference of the other country Ambassadors to the OAS, who think the debates and actions they are deciding on in committee and conferences, are from a free democratic debate. Nothing can be further from the truth. In CARICOM, we have lost four International votes to ALBA and Emperor Chavez. The thing is; if the four small island nations get used to free oil, food and other goodies, pretty soon they will not be able to live without them. There is the old saying. HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER CALLS THE TUNE! Those four ex-CARICOM leaders cannot vote on CARICOM issues anymore, it is a conflict of interest ! They have SOLD their voting rights over to EMPEROR CHAVEZ when they signed on to ALBA. From now on they are in the SOCIALIST BLOC and have sold their freedom for slavery. They are not slaves yet, but it is coming fast. Done with their eyes wide open and not realizing it. The COLD WAR is getting really serious in the AMERICAS. OBAMA is not an action type President, he is a negotiator and talker. Unfortunately that is a weakness, when dealing with the new socialism coming from the TYRANTS CLUB. Lying and deceit and charades and front organizations are par for the course, right out of STALIN’s era. CARICOM leaders need to wake up and face reality. They are in a WAR with both the European Union and the ALBA group in the Americas. Hard to tell who is more dangerous? Though I would say the ALBA group. This ALBA group is not what it proclaims. That’s all camouflage. Trouble with the Caribbean island nations, they have never been in a war so close up and personal. They don’t even know they are being targeted for Empire building. With Empire come troops and fifth columnists, spies and soldiers with guns, secret police and block captains. Exile, disappearances, torture, murder and imprisonment included. Nobody in CARICOM have any experience with this. STALIN KILLED TENS OF MILLIONS, MAO KILLED TENS OF MILLIONS, CASTRO BROTHERS AND CHE’ KILLED OR EXILED, IF NOT A MILLION, CERTAINLY OVER A HUNDRED THOUSAND. The middle and upper business classes already fled Venezuela. Bright people that!

Brazil offers agriculture assistance to Belize

Favorite breakfast food for rural people. Re-fried red kidney beans, fried egg, and fry jacks.
Toledo Mayan Quiche farmers grow corn and beans as staples.


BELIZE FISHES FOR FOREIGN TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FROM BRAZIL

Belize like many small countries below the ability of being able to support a government properly, because of populations being too small, received this week, a technical assistance visit from BRAZIL. You can no longer rely in the third world, on older countries like the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom for technical assistance, training programs, and other foreign assistance. So countries like Belize are fishing all over the world for good minded people and nations who can help us, with expertise beyond our own capabilities. Sort of assistance to give us and new generations of youngsters, a chance to lift themselves up by their bootstraps.
This visit was by technical experts from Brazil. The Brazilian experts did a field visitation and consultations trip around the small country we have, then signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a Technical Cooperation Program ( TCP ), with the Ministry of Agriculture. Some assistance was initiated by the USA on papaya and habenero pepper exporting programs in the last decade and the Taiwanese Vegetable mission along with some other small assistance programs have been going on for over a decade with vegetable variety research. Without such assistance, we would truly be in worse shape than we are. The Brazilians checked us out on grain production like rice, beans, and corn and also citrus. We haven’t been able to successfully grow LENTIL beans yet in Belize, in experiments conducted by my own NGO ( Belize Development Trust ), or by the Taiwanese Vegetable mission. We still import LENTILS as an example and like them better than the old locally mainstay or red kidney beans grown here. We think it is a soil problem?

Freedom of speech and democracy very much alive in BELIZE

Location of Belize in Central America and Caribbean



DEMOCRACY AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS VERY MUCH ALIVE AND WELL IN THE COUNTRY OF BELIZE

Ray Auxillou, June 11th, 2009

Just watching the television news on cable tv in rural Belize ( we can get cable tv, but not reliable telephone service, internet service ( none in my town ) and electrical service, from the half dozen newspapers and sometimes more each weekend. ( Belize has no daily newspapers, except those imported from Guatemala. ) From the media you can be thankful that Belize is such a vibrant, robust and lively discussion place on all kinds of issues and disagreements on how the country is being managed, by who, corruption and every other subject under the sun. Belize is definitely not like CUBA under the murderous CASTRO tyrants, or Venezuela under President for Life, Emperor Chavez, or Ecuador under wanna be President for Life, Correa with their growing totalitarian societies and governments.
We should be thankful for our tolerant small, but lively country. People are very patriotic and debate the court cases continuously, as people try to settle their differences in a peaceful logical manner. In one newspaper alone this weekend, you can find lawsuits by Indigenous Mayan Indians suing the government over land rights, people with hearing disabilities contesting the government over the right for deaf people to have a drivers license, labor issues are frequent, immigration and citizenship programs constantly debated, civil organizations suing about hydro electric dams electricity rates and compliance issues, supposedly mandated by law, but not enforced by the government in some kind of preferential treatment. You name it, you can find it in the media of Belize. There is even an article and photo this week in the newspapers of a vetinarian dentist doing an annual treatment of captured problem Jaguars, turned over to the care of the small Belize Zoo, of which every Belizean is VERY PROUD. These problem wild jaguars are even getting root canals for broken teeth. I myself regularly criticize the politicians in charge and government performance. No politician in Belize can survive if he or she has a thin skin. For all the problems one has in living in a frontier society; that is multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, that is very much a pioneering sort of place, and with the usual incompetent, financially bankrupt political management process, riddled by corruption ( sometimes I think only crooks run for political office ), Belize is a very open and free wheeling society of the majority of people trying sincerely to do the best thing and listen to all sides of an argument and be fair and helpful to one another. Yup! It is hard to find a better place to live! There is a lot of satisfaction in trying to build a new nation from scratch, in which a single voice can be heard and make a difference. Plus we don’t have any winter weather either. With 300,000 people scattered over 6800 square miles, most of which is preserves of jungle in the mountains, we certainly have our problems. They are however, good problems and Belize is a place for those immigrant pioneers who love challenges.

Belize comparative electricity rates for region. Highest of all!

Chalillo hydro dam has backed up a beautiful lake.


ELECTRICITY RATES IN BELIZE AND COMPARISONS

A recurring problem in Belize is the high rates for electricity. We have two hydro electrical dams and also a third one soon to come online. Private sector financing will supply all the electricity the country needs in private ventures. Lacking are the legislated incentives in some sort of guaranteed purchasing agreements for private sector electrical power producing investments. The REPORTER NEWSPAPER this week published the comparative costs of electricity around our region.

Mexico .12 cents a kw
Honduras .18 cents a kw
Guatemala .40 cents a kw
Costa Rica .16 cents a kw
Nicaragua .28 cents a kw
Belize .42 cents a kw

As you can see by the table, Belize has the highest electrical rates in our region of Central America and Mexico.
The management company for electricity in Belize and the distribution system is FORTIS a Canadian company and while they do a good job in supplying electrical service, are widely believed by the general public, to be cheating on the way they charge and make their profits. The Public Utilities Commission in this UDP government finally made them cough up for some (hic! ) accounting errors, last year. They squealed like a pig going to slaughter.
What is believed generally, is that the electricity produced from HYDRO power is over priced and that the system of separate entities, allows hydro power to be overcharged from BECOL to BEL the distribution company. Both controlled and run by the Canadian company of FORTIS, of Canada. What we have is a climate of proven mistrust between the public of Belize and the company of FORTIS.
Under the past PUP administration, again it was widely believed that a CABAL of senior political party members in the previous CABINET were on the TAKE from FORTIS in some manner of form. When the current UDP won the election, they promised to rectify the past ROBBER BARON mentality of the corruption under the PUP administration. This they have failed to do across the board. Nobody has gone to jail from the big ROBBER BARONS for smuggling out foreign exchange in the millions from Belize. Nobody from the previous administration has even been prosecuted, other than to do with some banking and GRANT money disbursements from foreign countries in foreign aid. It is all very disappointing and generally speaking the public is sick to death of the sanctimonious utterances of politicians in Belize.
Generally speaking, BECOL the hydro dam electricity produced here, is believed to be valued at .08 cents a kilowatt, to BEL the distribution system for electricity and the FORTIS managers. BEL however, are charging the consumer .42 cents a kilowatt. A differential of .32 cents a kilowatt. The PUC does not seem to have the technical expertise, or accounting skills to decipher the real costs involved with loans for the dams and production and operating costs. Nor for the differences in costs once it reaches the distribution system of BEL, the company next layer up in the system.
BECONGO, a local NGO is protesting and demanding that our UDP government and Public Service Commission present facts on the costs of electricity between BECOL at the hydro dam and BEL and give us the public, the break downs and justifications for such a high cost of electricity in Belize. The PUC are not doing their job.
The closest high price of electricity to us in our region is that of Guatemala, but that nation is a heck of a mountainous region with many mountain ranges, volcanoes, steep valleys and many remote towns and villages with a population of 7 million people. Guatemala could swallow Belize two dozen times over and more, inside their geographic area, yet while Guatemala rates are high, they are lower than ours. While our small country has the highest rates of electricity in the region.
Something smells here BACONGO keep saying, like dead fish in the bilge water under the floor boards of a fishing skiff after being out in the sun for a day or two. Where do we find politicians that would do something about transparency and accountability in Belize?

Victoria Peak, highest mountain in Belize

Victoria Peak in clouds.
Victoria Peak photographed from Hopkins village on the Caribbean coast of Belize.
Victoria Peak of Belize


There are mountain climbers that go through every country in the American continent and climb the highest mountain for merit badges.

In Belize this is Victoria Peak. Accessible by rugged jungle trail from the Jaguar Preserve. Usually a two day, one night hike.

Annual dentistry for problem wildlife Jaguars in Belize

Wild jaguars get root canals at Belize Zoo re-hab annual program.


THE RE-HAB CENTER IN BELIZE FOR PROBLEM WILD JAGUARS

What can you say about a country that cares so much about wildlife, that we even have a re-hab program for trapped, wild jaguars, that are serviced at our tiny, tiny, but really tiny Belize Zoo, of which Belizeans are so proud. Small as it is.
Mostly with Jaguars, they are supposed to live off hunting paca, deer, and peccary and other jungle small animals. Belize jungles have no large animals like in Africa, or the USA and Canada. Anyway, when Jaguars break their teeth, they tend to prey on farm livestock, like dogs, sheep, chickens and cattle. They get trapped and sent to the re-hab center at the Belize Zoo. Dr. Ed takes time once a year to do dental operations on captured Jaguar and does fillings and root canals.

Belize Government Mayan land case uses SOPHISTRY. Government performance rating drops from 48% to 46% on issue.

Archeologist Dr. Awe, a reputed dual citizen of Canada and Belize, argues Mayan Indian language group are not indigenous indians of Southern Belize from the Mayan Empire with ancient land rights.


BELIZE GOVERNMENT USES ‘SOPHISTRY’ IN INDIGENOUS MAYAN COURT ARGUMENT

In Belize , we live in the old Mayan Empire and in today’s world there are 22 Mayan distinct languages. In a court case in Belize City , the government lawyer Louis Young and government salaried archeologist Dr. Awe, are using the argument that the Mayan Indians are not indigenous to the Toledo District area.

The height of this sophistry is argued on the part of the Government of Belize; that the current inhabitants of the Toledo District, going back a few hundred years to the 1600’s we know of, from historical records of the Spanish are not indigenous Indians. Such SOPHISTRY is used, because this particular language dominant strain are Queche language groupings. Whereas it is argued, but no evidence has been shown, or proved, that the Toledo District was inhabited once by CHOL speaking Maya.

The sophistry of the legal argument by the government of Belize, that Mayan Indians are not of one species, and do not have a record of ten thousand years of inhabiting this ancient Mayan Empire area, at least as any sort of cohesive empire, or trading economic/political bloc. We can understand Dr. Awe the Mayan archeologist for prostituting himself for the government legal opinion, as I’m sure he wants to reach government retirement with his pension rights intact. There is no way you could make this hombre ( me ) understand that ALL the different language Maya groupings are not one people. To me, Mayan Indians are Mayan Indians and they have lived here for 10,000 years.

It is a bit like saying SAXONS, UTES, JUTES, BRITISH, SCOTCH and WELSH are not Englishmen of the United Kingdom . Or their descendants thereof.

UDP GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE RATING IS SEE-SAWING THIS WEEK. Earlier in the week, the report card and approval rating had jumped to 48%. By close of Friday the work week, the UDP approval rating dropped to 46% based on the actions in this sophistry.

OAS in shambles over Honduras! Insulza a dictator.

Insulza, incompetent diplomat turned dictator heads faulty OAS idiots.


CONTRIBUTED POST ARTICLE COPY



Where is the OAS going?
By Julio Alvear Téllez (free translation from Spanish)


Where is the Organization of American States going?
There is a question that Mr. Jose Miguel Insulza has been leaving without answering in his latest performances as General Secretary of the OAS and which is starting to motivate uncertainty among diverse analysts at the international level. Does a democratic election protect any type of abuse of presidential functions? What is democracy for the OAS?
These are not trivial questions. The present directorate of the OAS has persistently ignored all accusations of democratic “deficit” of the political, social and economic process that is imposed by Presidents (some of them military) to their countries of the so called Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela). It seems like whatever they do in regard to concentration of power those who subscribe to this anomalous populist alternative –including Zelaya—have a lucky immunity. There is no other way, in my view, to interpret Chavez’s threat to attack Honduras militarily, and received by the OAS with such beatific silence if not scandalous.
International press analysts of different tendencies have started to notice Insulza’s, till now so reasonable, lack of equanimity. “El Universal” a newspaper from Caracas has published a very strong article entitled “On hypocrisy and other coups that the OAS doesn’t see” (5-7-09). The newspaper “El Pais” from Spain, of a known leftist tendency, publishes “idiots against hypocrites” and says: “the Hondurans clumsiness is only exceeded by the explosion of hypocrisy that has been unleashed.” It says hypocrisy because the ALBA presidents, admirers of the Cuban dictatorship, and some of them “golpistas” (in favor of a coup), who before despised the OAS, now are asking for its help: “they treat their general secretary, the Chilean Jose Miguel Insulza, as their maximum warrantor of the Latin-American democracies (…) Therefore it’s comforting to see that Honduras has made Chavez think twice and that now he works in association with Insulza to protect democracy (!)” (5-7-09).
Madrid’s “ABC” (6-7-09) shows how the OAS with its intervention is sending to the world the following message: “there is only one power, the President’s (Zelaya), which can do and undo as it pleases, without taking into account in any way the other State powers.” But democracy belongs to the Hondurans as well as its judicial-political constitutionality, not to Chavez and his minions. “If the OAS, which by the way just invited Cuba to join it, wants to really help resolve the Honduras crisis, the first thing it needs to do is not to take sides beforehand in the dispute. Then, to insist that the Hondurans are the ones who have to arrive at a compromise without external interference. And lastly, remember that, although a bit old but still valid, democratic legitimacy is based on three state powers, not on street mobs.”
Such lack of independence in the OAS General Secretary is extremely strange. That’s why it’s not excessive to ask: where is the OAS going?
(Translator’s Note: When Mr. Insulza was asked about the Honduras’ claim that Zelaya had violated the Constitution, he answered: “that is not important.” The interview was broadcasted by CNN in Spanish).

No technical data available in Belize on Tilapia Fish Farming.

Edmund Castro, the UDP politician promoting fish farming all over the country to poor farmers as an income maker.



FISH FARM POND INVESTOR CUSSES THE VERY NAME OF EDMUND CASTRO in BELIZE.

This story is second hand, but I met a farmer the other day on the Spanish Lookout side, that has a friend that took his life savings and borrowed against his assets from the bank to go into fish farming Tilapia. I was told the name, but didn’t know the person and forgot the name, but the story brought a sad chuckle, from my own experiences of life in Belize.
Seems like he believed the bureaucrats propoganda and the politician Edmund Castro bombast and went into fish farming ponds of Tilapia. He was now bankrupt. Said he never could get sufficient production of Tilapia to take care of overhead operational costs and diseases kept interfering with his pond Tilapia. He curses the very ground that Edmund Castro, the politician promoting Tilapia pond fish farming all over the country stands and walks over. Wished he had never listened to his spiel.
There goes an example of what can happen to the unwary, and the inexperienced young naïve person, among the 5000 graduates this year, that think they have a good thing to invest in. First thing do your feasibility study. Next thing if you have a hard nosed salesman like Edmund Castro selling you something, take the time to ask him how many Tilapia fish farm ponds he has and some technical details. If you are going to try it, get some scientific and technical data from somebody in the business who has been successful. Bottom line, you have to show a healthy profit in any entrepreneurial endeavor, before you ever get out of the trial and experimental small scale, backyard, pilot project scale. NEVER borrow loan money to go into an experimental unproved new enterprise. You must use risk capital, perhaps some few shares sold to family and friends. Be prepared to lose it all. Take your time and do it right until you figure out the glitches that nobody ever talks about.
The secret is to scale up, bit by bit in increments. This takes a lot of your time and you also have to have a day job in the mean time, to live off. Any enterprise should be a part time endeavor while you start, test and experiment and learn what is possible. Life in the tropics and in Belize has lots of unexpected glitches you must overcome. I’ve been waiting to go into Tilipia fish farming myself for over eight years, but I have never seen anybody make any money at it so far. Until they do, I shall wait on the sidelines and keep my savings in the bank. Even my enquiries and test models on paper have shown me, that so far I cannot get enough production of fish filet per cubic yard of water, to make it worthwhile yet. I have no doubt it can be done, but so far never been able to figure out the technical details of HOW?

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TAIWAN, HONG KONG AND CHINA AS MARKET FOR BELIZE SUGAR

Orange Walk Tower Hill Sugar Factory



TAIWAN, HONG KONG AND MAINLAND CHINA AS A MARKET FOR BELIZEAN SUGAR

By Ray Auxillou, June 19, 2009

With the return of our first batch of Taiwanese University graduates to Belize, one can only hope with their exposure to Taiwan, the culture, business savvy and language exposure to Mandarin, will help us develop some sort of exports to these three places.
The Sugar Company in Orange Walk would be remiss in their duty to their shareholders, if they did not utilize one of these Belizean graduates of Taiwan Universities, to arrange exports of their sugar to any of these three countries.
At the moment, under the newly elected President of Taiwan, the island of Taiwan and mainland China have instigated a One Country – Two Systems inter- government policy. Direct trade has opened up between Taiwan, and Mainland China. Before this, all Taiwanese trade with mainland China had to go in a roundabout way, through either Japan, or Hong Kong. Under the new Taiwanese government, direct traffic is the rule and tourism and trade between mainland China and Taiwan has blossomed to gigantic proportions. Ships and aircraft are making dozens if not hundreds of daily flights between the mainland and Taiwan. The future for Taiwan is trade with mainland China. That said; mainland China, Taiwan itself, and Hong Kong, represent a significant opportunity for Belizean for exports and imports. Of immediate need in Belize is finding export markets for our sugar, a very ailing industry. We need desperately to diversify our economy and our markets for raw material staples in Belize.
We need to diversify and we need to get more experience in dealing with the Chinese markets for future exports. Even if the Orange Walk, Sugar Company is lethargic and unwilling to pay consultant fees to one of our Belizean graduates to open up the Chinese markets for our sugar, there is an alternate opportunity for any of these fourteen returning graduates to set themselves up in business. Processing, or bagging sugar on arrangement with the Sugar Factory in Orange Walk, to special order requirements, would provide a business of itself, for an innovative business entrepreneur. Finding the correct buyers and making deals as a middle man, to tack on a 15% margin for business earnings, dealing with Letters of Credit through a local bank and providing a sugar product, or several sugar products for sale and export, C.I.F Orange Walk, should be a very good business opportunity. Sugar exports are in the millions of dollars, and 15% of that would ensure a viable export sugar business. All any entrepreneur has to do is work with the banks and the sugar factory and place orders. You need a small home office and an inventive enquiring dynamic mind as your capital.
TAIWAN TRADE is the import/export website for Taiwan. I do not know the equivalent of this web site for either Hong Kong, or mainland China?

BELIZE IS ECONOMICALLY BOOMING!

* Rural Belize School
Workers making Marie Sharpes hot sauce, one bottle at a time. Marie is the most famous lady and reputable entrepreneur in Belize.
* Variety of hot sauces Marie Sharpe exports from remote Stann Creek valley.
* Beware hot sauce is measured by the DROP.
* Standard hot sauce for gringo palates.





BELIZE IS ECONOMICALLY BOOMING!

By Ray Auxillou, June, 2009

While watching Caribbean News summary on our local Cable TV, Channel 5 Tuesday night. I was struck by the differences between Belize, a CARICOM and CENTRAL AMERICAN country here on the Western rim of the Caribbean Basin and the rest of the island nations comprising CARICOM. The news cast was full of complaints and excuses by politicians of the Central and Eastern Caribbean nations. Alibi’s for inadequate political policies that are bearing spoiled fruit, during a slight tic in the world economic situation came from; Golding of Jamaica and other island nations were also making excuses on the news cast, putting the blame for cash shortages for their governments and economies on the old tried and trued excuses. Finger pointing and claiming the problems were from exterior economic disasters outside their control. What a lot of nonsense! Pure lies! Such things don’t happen if you plan right.
Here in Western Belize I can only compare our own situation. There are so many economic business opportunities to start new export businesses in Belize, I just wish I could know what I know now, and be 40 years younger. I’m a small self builder, but even so, have had to put my building plans on hold. Can’t get the cement blocks any more the past two weeks. Construction has always been good in Belize, steady growth in that industry segment. Sitting down with the wife to figure out how we can find some different kind of work for our casual independent contractor, until the three or four block making companies can catch up with demand for four inch cement blocks again. Can’t finish my septic tank. Some big construction jobs locally have absorbed all the block making capacity in Cayo West. There are no blocks available for us backyard tinkerers and probably will not be for another month. Start a block making company, any high school graduate? Demand is strong. New hardware stores opening almost every new quarter.
In Belize, our education system have entrepreneurial courses to teach youngsters how to go into business for themselves. Only this past weekend in the Belize Times newspaper, was a very good article on FAMOUS Marie Sharpe. That old lady of the Stan Creek district has been experimenting, learning on the job, innovating and tackling swindling foreign partners and overcoming all obstacles to produce famous Belizean foods for export to different countries. Nothing we do in Belize is mega scale. We are not talking producing millions of anything per day here. We are talking small cottage industry scale. Marie Sharpe has been inventing and trial and error learning for umpteen years. She is successful. Makes hot sauce for export. Had one brand name stolen from her and distribution business in the USA, part of the business learning process. Has packaged roasted peanuts, corn chips, plantain chips, cassava chips, and many other food types with her unique gourmet famous BRAND NAME. The thing is, anybody with stubbornness, drive, goals, ambitions, and the desire to make money, can become a millionaire in Belize. The game is wide open with our small population for such a large land area. Read her story in the Belize Times newspaper, Sunday, June 14, 2009 edition, page 21.
If only Belizean youngsters could understand it is so easy to become a millionaire. Do you need a fancy education? Nope! What you need is an enquiring mind, the ability to experiment, innovate, research markets, learn how to process and package and to innovate. Probably the biggest secret to becoming a millionaire is learning how to make a small but steady amount of money. After that it is pure boring repetition. Plain stubbornness of doing the same old thing, over and over again. As the saying goes; if you can figure out how to make a $1000 a day, then all you have to do is repeat that lesson 1000 times.
Belize does have problems though. Mostly we can’t find business managers, or honest steady working youngsters with the ability to work on their own without supervision. Finding entrepreneur types is difficult too. Not everyone has a curious mind and is a self starter. Right now the country is wondering and debating if we should invite about 5000 immigrants to come to Belize as entrepreneurs for industrial light manufacturing from Taiwan. The 5000 Mennonites that came fifty years ago from Mexico are now our INDUSTRIAL and AGRICULTURAL HEARTLAND OF BELIZE. The world is full of markets, for which our business entrepreneurial population is too small right now to realize. Right now, India, Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, the USA, the UK, European Union, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba are all big markets for our goods. World population is projected to boom from 7 billion to 9 ½ billion over the next 15 years. All those people are markets and consumers. With the era of the internet, the ability to become a quick millionaire in Belize has never been greater. I think every High School in the Districts of Belize, should make a FIELD TRIP to Marie Sharpe and she should be paid to explain how she got to be so successful in such a small scale cottage industry EXPORT occupation as an entrepreneur. No Ph’d, here, only stubbornness and determination to learn how to do it, on her own. Anybody can do it, but so few do!
Sure we have government cash shortages just like the rest of the Caribbean. Mostly caused by past governments investing all their energy in bananas, sugar and tourism development, when they should have been diversifying our economic base. Nothing stays the same in business. You have got to keep moving with the times and spread your risk. Diversification is King of economic security. Current cash government shortages are from poor planning with a bunch of new politicians. Just like other CARICOM countries, our Prime Minister blames external problems. Not a reality check to show he and his Cabinet are not planning properly. They have some stupid idea, from my point of view, that borrowing foreign loans is a success story. What they need to do is learn to budget, scrimp and save, to prioritize and innovate. The Belize Government has a cash flow problem, but the economy is going full blast without them. What we are short of in Belize is entrepreneurial types. Due to a small population, there is a new generation of youngsters graduating school, but most of them are being spoiled with nonsense talk about getting higher academic education, instead of learning to innovate, experiment and try their hand at the thousands of business opportunities in Belize. Give me a Ph’d and I’ll show you some poor person, content to work at poverty level for a salary. They want job security, and lack the fire and determination and plain stubbornness and bit of sacrifice it takes to become a millionaire. If only sweet phrases and jargon by wrongly educated academic intellectuals were money. Too much education can spoil you for business. What you need is an enquiring mind and a generalistic view. They don’t teach you in College how to do business. When last did you experiment using an FOB Letter of Credit at a bank? Do you even know what I’m talking about? Do you know the websites for importers of different countries that will buy a product made from Belize, as a unique niche brand name exotic product? An example: CARDAMOM spice can grow in Belize, but the unique, narrow, land climate environment required, is a Forest Reserve. Hence this spice with a world demand greater than the supply is cut off by political policies and can never be developed here. Never mind that the spice is a jungle shaded crop by nature and does not take out any forest.
Belize for the next few generations is truly, the LAND OF OPPORTUNITY and entrepreneurial immigrant types are welcomed with open arms. Our economy is booming and changing all the time. We have a shortage of young people willing to give private sector business a go. Our population is still too small, for the percentage of youngsters willing to give it a go. It is just our politicians are so old fashioned, in the British Empire system and looking for bribes and corrupt deals, permits and licenses are used by them to steal successful businesses, these attitudes cannot lead our new generations, or develop our nation of Belize. The latest media news has it for example, that the dozen and a half established experienced seasonal vegetable importers that fill out our food seasonal shortages, have had their businesses ruined by politics and permits denied, and given to one person politically connected. Implied is that either incompetence or bribes were involved. At least that is the perception we get from the news stories in our local papers. In that sense, comparing governments, I would guess we are on a par with other CARICOM countries. Bunch of leaders with sweet words, hot air and bombast, plus lots of finger pointing and excuses for their problems, but our country itself is doing okay without them.
No way is Belize economically in trouble mon! Our country has been built by IMMIGRANTS and is economically strong. What our major problem is, we have poor political managers of our government services.
We are desperately short of dirty working hands managerial types, workaholics, self starters. Every local businessman who is successful faces the same problem. There are not enough honest people to hire to run new businesses, he or she would like to start up and expand. We have no shortage of local investment availability, simply shortage of reliable managerial type, self starters, given equipment by an investor and the funding to start new businesses by local investors. It doesn’t help that we are wasting most of our population talent. With a 70 % population of next generation students not even finishing PRIMARY SCHOOL, we are shooting ourselves in the foot educationally in Belize, and losing a lot of good potential entrepreneurs among that bunch of students not finishing primary school. They lack the mathematics and problem solving skills they would otherwise get if they had gone on to High School for a couple of years and be useful for building our economy and making themselves middle class wealthy. Without graduating primary school, they become just grunt labor, a problem to themselves and to our nation. Yet untold talents and future entrepreneurs are buried like gold in that early primary school leaving statistic here in Belize. At least 20% of those 70% early leaving statistics would have made good middle class entrepreneurs, but simply lack the knowledge base to read, write, articulate and research business opportunities, of which our country has so many.
Here is an invitation to foreigners who would like to retire early to the tropics. Come to Belize, start a PRIMARY SCHOOL, educate some teachers. With a small amount of capital, you can buy a piece of land, build a school building, and after three years qualification, get 80% of your operating costs paid for by our government. We have a massive shortage of primary schools, classrooms and qualified teachers. There are ways to do good in this world, here in Belize, leaving planet Earth a better place. The shortage of schools and classrooms and for teachers is a constant demand. Our population is small, but growing exponentially. You don’t have to be a church, or a missionary. There are many private schools, in fact most of our schools are private and overcrowded.

FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL

* adventurous Swiss couple going all the way to Brazil by motorcyle with side car from San Francisco.
* Yacht owner guests coming from Rio Dulce in Guatemala to renew their 90 day visas.
* upper apartment, third floor next to hydoponic nursery
Pickup transportation system with casita and seats
hammock room
* guests camping with tent
* eating area in hostel
annex building of Hostel



FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL

Falconview moves into it's third year in Western Belize, providing overnight accommodations for University age travelers, usually in their 20's and 30's. Set in a rural suburb of Santa Elena Town, one side of the TWIN TOWNS of Western Belize, the three story hostel is located on the slope of Green Parrot Valley, and also overlooks the Belize River Valley to the Yalbac Hills ranging along, about 8 miles away.
Falconview Hostel, accommodates 18 persons, using two dormitories. One dormitory has eight beds ( bunk beds ) and the annex second floor dormitory has 4 beds. The Hostel also has two furnished apartments, with bathroom, hot water, micro wave kitchen and verandahs overlooking the two valleys. Rates run $11 usa plus accomodations tax for single bunk beds and $45 usa per night, plus tax, for the furnished apartments. The HOSTEL enjoys a steady trickle of clientele, either going further Westward into Guatemala, or coming from Guatemala and going to the Barrier Reef Island of Caye Caulker, where the Auxillou Family ( owners ) have another hostel on the beach out there. ( Tina's Backpackers Hostel ) There is a hammock room and television, a kitchen area and dining area. Plenty of bathrooms. Designed from the beginning as an ADVENTURE Hostel to fit the lot in this Hillview suburb of a hundred houses running up and down and across the hillside, it is sort of very rural. With dogs barking at night, kids riding horses on the street and kids playing by the local grocery shop, either football, or racing their bicycles.
The Hostel is run by Ray and Silvia, a retired couple, who do this more for the fun of it and a little small income to offset their retirement years living expenses. They know all the local tour guides and will arrange you an adventure real quick. The tour guide situation changes frequently, so they stay on top of prices and which one has a workable vehicle that is not broken down.

FUEL PRICES CLOSE TO $9 A GALLON IN BELIZE, BUTANE CONVERSIONS WORKING WELL.

Truck with BUTANE FUEL TANK to run the engine.

GASOLINE FUEL PRICES GONE UP AGAIN, REACHING NEARLY $9 BZ A GALLON, OR $4.50 USA

The sudden quick rise in fuel prices for vehicles is playing havoc again with food cost inflation and I passed this truck with a BUTANE CONVERSION this afternoon outside of Western Hardware. With this big a tank, presumably he could go all the way to Chetumal and back on the Northern border? BUTANE as fuel for vehicles reduces costs about a 1/3. You can find a couple of articles we wrote a month or so ago, on this blog earlier down the list about Belizeans in Western Belize converting to BUTANE, versus gasoline.

BELIZE STUDENTS GRADUATE IN TAIWAN - OUR ENTREPENEURS OF THE FUTURE WE HOPE?

BELIZE STUDENTS IN TAIWAN MAKE US PROUD!

THE QUESTION IS – HOW DO WE USE THEM ?

I don’t know where I saw it? I just ran through my weekend newspapers for the third time, but cannot find an article and photograph I recollect, on the graduation of a bunch of foreign students in the TAIWANESE SCHOLARSHIP program. Not having the statistic properly to hand, I’m going to guess and believe the number of Belizean TAIWANESE UNIVERSITY graduates to be 14 Belizeans?

That said, I wanted to write an opinion piece on this asset of the nation of Belize and how it should be used.

One has to reflect that these students have a unique perspective on Taiwan and mainland China . They speak rudimentary Mandarin, they are educated ( which may actually be a drawback ) and can provide our Nation of Belize with an expeditionary force into doing business with the new world powers of Asia . World population is projected to expand from 7 billion to 9 ½ billion in 15 years. Making for growing export markets for Belizeans.

The advantages are; that these Belizeans understand the language, understand the culture and can think and plan. It would be shameful if they came back home, to seek employment in Government jobs. What the nation of Belize needs, is for these 14 graduates to come back as entrepreneurs. They understand the web site of TAIWAN TRADE. They can at least get by in Mandarin. If Ambassador Shih of Taiwan can arrange for them to meet and tour industrial small plants, on the cottage industry level scale, they can bring back ideas to go into business, exporting stuff from Belize to Taiwan , China , Hong Kong and make themselves very rich in the process. Far more potential, for not only themselves, but also a wedge into getting our future foot in the door of ASIAN trade as a nation. They would not be limited to just exporting from Belize , but have all of Central America as product sources. Road and communications are excellent these days for Belizeans to do this.

We do not need them coming back as salaried employees. We need them to come back as ENTREPRENEURS, particularly with the ability to export things to Taiwan and mainland China . It is understanding the procedures necessary for business dealings and buyers from TAIWAN , buying processed food products, or manufacturing locally industrial stuff that may have markets in South America , that they can best serve themselves and our nation. We would like them to get rich in the process. We as a nation will also give them first choice of any Development Finance Loan funding should they need it, to set up a business.

Admittedly they are educated in career specialties. There is nothing wrong in that, though such education usually only makes intelligent people go the salaried job route, craving poverty level financial security. These young Belizean graduates of TAIWAN though, are our national treasure. We need them as exploratory business people, to find joint partnerships with Taiwanese and go independent in their career specialties if necessary, but going into EXPORT businesses from a Belizean perspective. They are our SEARCH and RECONAISSANCE troops in military terms. Their job is to bring Belize into the world economy, admittedly in a small scale niche field. Hopefully Ambassador Shih of Taiwan can arrange some suitable buyer orientated and packaging, processing tours within Taiwan to give them ideas BEFORE they come back to BELIZE . Economic trade is where they need to specialize from a Belizean/Central American viewpoint.

FIREARM WEAPONS LAWS IN BELIZE

* Taking aim at the third floor rooftop to scare the pigeons away. They defecate all over the place up there if you let them
* Slingshot to scare off birds.

The laws in Belize on weapons are strange to say the least. About 20 years or more ago, my Daisy children's BB pistol got stolen on Caye Caulker. I used to try and scare off the flocks of crows that would pull up my watermelon plant transplants under the coconut trees. The crows were a darned nuisance. Could never hit one, but they would fly off for fifteen minutes. Since then new laws on weapons have been passed. Did you know that some lawyer was telling me, that to even have a Child's BB Daisy air pistol in your possession in Belize, would mean INSTANT incarceration in the primitive HATTIEVILLE prison cages. Probably for two months or more on remand, while you wait for a court date. Then you would be fined $10,000 not counting ammunition, like BB's. So much for each. Talk about ridiculous. That is what we get for letting lawyers run political parties in Belize.
Anyway, I wanted to buy a new replacement Daisy BB pistol, but after the warning and legal advice, decided to buy a $1 sling shot from the store instead. Both BB's from toy air guns and pebbles from sling shots travel too slow, too fool birds. At any rate, the white doves and many pigeons of my neighbor, who like to roost on the rafters of FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL in Western Belize, third top floor wooden apartment, see the pebbles coming and fly off long before they get any pebble even closer than 20 feet away from them. Cleaning up their shit is no joke!
Co-incidently this morning in looking at yesterday's TV news, the Forestry Officer and Belize Defense Unit patrol at a legal licensed XATE harvesting operation in a jungle bivouac, were showing on television, them confiscating a similar SLINGSHOT to mine, ( it had two extra surgical tube rubbers though ) from the Jungle XATE collector. Go figure! Is this UDP port townie run government nuts or what?

SWISS and GERMAN couple stay at Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel

* Patricia and Marcus - GOOD LUCK TO THEM!
* Swiss German Patricia Degen driving the side car German motorcycle
* Marcus Jacob German in the sidecar.

This couple have an interesting story. They have been on the road around the world exploring for 18 months. They had even helicoptered into the wild mountains last July of the Russian KAMCHATKA Peninsular. A notoriously forbidden terrain with wild Siberian climate and rugged mountains. They took 40 days to hike out to civilization. Recently they flew into San Francisco California from India. They had explored the Indian continent and climbed mountains in Nepal over 16,000 feet. It gets really hard to breathe up that high alone, never mind carrying backpacks. In California they bought this 2005 German sidecar motorcycle and are on their way through Central America and South America ending up they hope in Brazil eventually. I hadn't seen a motorcyle like this since World War 2. Here in Western Belize they went to the ATM cave trip and are now going to stay with some German speaking old style, survivalist type Mennonites in Barton Creek.

2009 BELIZE SUMMER TOURIST SEASON STARTS GOOD!

The deepest water crossing is in daylight at the entrance to the Actun Tunichil Mucknal ( ATM ) cave.
A mile underground at the XIBALBA entrance to the nine plaines of existence of the Mayan underworld theological myths. An adventure NEVER to be forgotten.
The ATM cave is not a European style trip. This is for adventurer explorers.




BELIZE SUMMER TOURIST SEASON STARTS VERY GOOD! ( 2009 )

Tourism seems back to normal after a bad winter due to the USA financial scare, followed by the fear campaign to do with the new flu virus. June 8th in Belize saw a flare up of tourism and by June 10th, the summer mini-tourist HIGH SEASON, which runs through the third week in August was statistically right on track with previous years. We do this by referring to Hostelbookers.com, internet statistical back office numbers for tourism visits and travelers in diverse countries around the world.
Here in Belize, the summer tourism flow peaked this week and we can judge this by two of our guests who returned yesterday from the ATM ( Actun Tunichil Muknal ) Cave trip. This is a unique visit to the underworld of the ancient Maya, for the sacrificial center, a mile under the ground, at what is known by the Maya as the Nine Planes of Existence they postulated of their Underworld theological myths, starting at XIBALBA.
Our guests reported that PACZ TOURS, who we always use for the ATM trip in the Western Twin Towns, because of their reputation and professional reliability, from our experiences, here at Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel in Western Belize Recreational Area, were running two groups that day for the ATM cave trip. Our two guests were in the first group of ten people and apparently Pacz Tours had a second group of seven in another van. The guests also reported that there were many tour groups going into the underground rugged wild, pitch black cave system, and their group at times had to wait until a previous group had forded, a stream, or climbed through some rocky terrain, before their own group could proceed. They said the place was full to capacity by many tour groups yesterday when they went, with headlamps shining all over the place in the pitch blackness of the Maya underworld. This archeological site has restricted entry and controls.
All indications are that tourism is back to normal after a deprived Winter and Easter season here in Belize
Our guests are usually low budget types, usually University age students, up to middle class family types in their early 30’s. We offer beds for eighteen persons and have two dormitories, with the lower dorm having eight beds and the upper second floor dorm with four beds. ( bunk beds ) We also have two furnished apartments, with kitchens, and verandahs overlooking the two valleys here, hot water showers and usual conveniences of a furnished overnight apartment. Our dormitory rates are $11 usa per night plus 9% government tax and $45 usa per night for the two furnished apartments each, plus 9% tax. Depending on length of stay, size of group, season of the year, we often negotiate the price to suit the clientele.
Our home website is: http://folkmusicfl.tripod.com/adventuresinbelize and our informative site on the Western Belize Recreational Area with news and photos of life around here constantly updated is: http://westernbelizehappenings.blogspot.com As I write this in the Falconview Hostel front office, it is 5:30 a.m. in the morning and the mountain mist has formed over Green Parrot Valley, which mist will probably burn off by 9 a.m. I can hear many different types of tropical birds waking up and chatting. The sun has not yet come over the hills, but daylight is here of low grey intensity and the most noisy birds are the green parrot flocks in the trees, deciding which farmers fruit orchard they are going to raid in the upper Belize River Valley today a hundred and fifty feet below us in elevation.