Our Video Debut

Fruits in Belize from Heidi King on Vimeo.

There are many more fruiting trees we have discovered since thanks to our great guide, Wilson! Hope you enjoyed! - Heidi, Addie, Ryland

Not So Anonymous

We are approaching three months in and this life is starting to feel less like someone else's and more like my own.

• The produce man, David, has started to know me and always offers me a free taste of some sort of fruit that I am unfamiliar with.  
• We have become casual friends with many of the business owners like the wonderful French and Italian owners of Tutti Fruitti, a serious addiction of ours, and are warmly greeted with a smile and a familiar nod or wave.  
• We know many of the children's names that run around town and several have just shown up on our porch from time to time anxious to play with the kids.  
• We have scoped out the local only spots to buy fish (still a feat though...I feel compelled to do an exposé "where did all the fishermen go?").  
• We have been invited over for dinner, taken on a lovely sailing excursion, and been given a lesson or two on how to fish without a pole.  
• We feel extremely comfortable being nearly the only white people that come to the local fútbol games in town at night.  
• It's still a joy to ride our bikes everywhere and makes me feel less like an outsider (though this is far from the real reason we would or wouldn't be considered one).
• We finally scouted out where to get $.25bz (12 cents US) "ideal" or "milky way" (frozen milk, sugar, and flavor...I think) in a little baggie that you bite off the corner of, another nice cool treat and easy on the envelope budget!!  
• I know where in town to go to borrow tweezers to pull out the barbs of a sea urchin when needed.  
• The kids have scouted out, with the help of some friends, many of the edible fruiting trees (stay tuned for a fun video tutorial from them).  
• We know which local crazy guys to keep our distance from when they haven't had their meds.  
• We have several people we would call if we are in a pinch or need a favor...and would be honored if we were on their list as well. 
• More than once people have let us come back to pay for something when we didn't end up having the cash on us...always an indication of some familiarity and trust.  
• We know not to touch the green caterpillars, that mango sap is like poison ivy, that there is a good dentist in town that can fix a chipped tooth, that banana tree sap/milk from the trunk will cleanse and heal a wound in a hurry, and that scorpions like damp dark places.  
• We have seen a form of bioilluminesence in what we think were glowing jellyfish off of our dock, a spotted eagle ray, a manatee (only Addie saw that one), a blood moon, many tropical fish and coral, lots of iguana, and we haven't even gone on any excursions yet. We are waiting for YOU to come visit for a good excuse for us to go together! 

doing school on the pier

iguanas aren't so bad

best bread in town only BZ$2

best gelato you've ever had - Tutti Fruiti

fresh ingredients - Tutti Fruiti

Lorenzo, one of the nicest people around

All this to say that it's nice to know our way around this little piece of earth.  It's nice to not be so anonymous anymore.
-Heidi

Sailing by Addie

I'm so sorry I have not posted a blog in a long time. It's been really busy here, especially when we were sailing. The sailing has been really fun and interesting!! I love it!! If you keep reading then you can find out more!

Sailing The Optimist

So you know we started sailing. It's been great and we really love it!  We use these boats called optimists. To use them you steer with the tiller which is attached to the rudder. Plus, you have to keep pulling in the main sheet to go faster or slower. You are supposed to put the dagger board down in deep water and put it up in shallow water so it does not hit the ground. This diagram will help you.

                                                                                 

The Regatta

  In the sailing club you have a regatta. It's when all of the sailing clubs in Belize get together and have a big race called the regatta. It is really cool!! I really like it!! Anyways, the coaches can pick as many people as they want from their team to be in the regatta. The kids have to get a boat out in the morning at 7:30 and sail it to the beach to get ready for the race. First they have a meeting and see what the course is. Then they get breakfast and get their boats ready. This year my friend Olivia is sailing in it and a lot of other kids that their names would be too long to list right now. So the regatta is really long.  It is two days long. The first day takes 5 hours and 5 races.  Then on the second day it was 2 hours long and there were 2 races. After the regatta there were the award ceremonies and of course San Pedro wins because they practice every day and have pro coach. Well maybe some day I will be in the regatta and I will write about it!!!!

  

The Big Boat

That is me steering

So about 3 days ago Mr. Paul, the sailing coach, asked us if we would want to go on his big boat with him and we said yes. We were supposed to go on Friday but it rained :( ... ok, thats all.  We did not get to go...bye.

I'm just kidding.  If you fell for that I'm sorry but this is more interesting. So we decided to go on monday instead. It was a long weekend because I was so excited. Anyways, I woke up really early this morning even if we didn't have to. We packed up a lot of food and left the house. When we got to the boat it was really big and had really big sails. It was called a trimaran which is like a catamaran.  The boat had a little cabin and it had two seats in the back and that was where you steer.   It also had two little bench like things in the front of the boat.  We set sail and headed for an island.  While we were heading there Mr. Paul asked if I wanted to steer, so I steered the boat about half of the way.  It was way cooler than sailing one of the optys.  When we got to the Caye we got out and started to snorkel.  We saw lots of star fish and big angel fish.  There were lots of coral where we were and I really loved snorkeling there.

After that we swam to the island and looked around.  I saw a humungous iguana and saw an old man who lived on the island canoeing in an old row boat up to his island. We said hi and talked to him for awhile. He was really interesting and said he has lived on the island for 55 years and raised 3 children there. After, we swam back to the boat and had lunch and I got to sail back home. I had a really great time and maybe will go again some day!!

- Addie

The Cool Experiment by Ryland

Last week we did this awesome experiment...we made a plastic bag explode!  It was really cool. You should have seen it.  I'm going to show you how it's done.

What you need:  

Sandwich-size bag, Paper towel, Measuring spoon, 2 Tablespoons baking soda, Measuring cup, 1/2 cup white vinegar, 1/4 cup of warm water

First, fill the bag with warm water. Next, make sure it has no leaks in it. Then add vinegar. Once your done get a paper towel and fold it in a envelope and add baking soda in it.  Once your done with that fold it into a tinier square.  Go outside and put it in.  Then seal it quickly. Then shake it up and throw it on the ground to watch it explode! I hope you get to do it.  It's really fun to watch this chemical reaction.

The first time we did it outside.  This time we did it in the sink.

- Ryland