Blog Boom, Renovation Updates, No Cart For Us, and My First Published Article for LIOS!
Nothing like a polarizing election to boost blog readership!
If you are new here, welcome! My name is Sharon, and I'll be your tour guide on how to escape the U.S., regardless of your motivation. Politics and division were strong factors in our decision to expatriate.
Increased website activity wasn't on my radar Wednesday morning until a dear friend texted me: I'm sensing your expat blog will get an uptick this week. She was so right!
Views up 1,900% and events up 1,528.6%!
On Wednesday morning Alex's crew went to work on exterior paint. While I was gone last week, they did roof repairs (yes, concrete roofs can and do leak!) and paint prep - grinding out cracks and filling them with silicone-based sealers, and they had to rebuild one of the columns by our bodega, the cracks had essentially toppled the surface. Nathan had strong concerns that the tone of blue I chose was too light and the white accents (railings, doors) would not have any contrast. The blue body color is lighter than I expected, but does match the swatch. And anything is better than the stark teal-and-white castle-combo we currently have.
I wanted to go with white paint and navy accents, but our beach house will be white, and the raccoons dirty up everything here...
Thursday I stopped at the town council to inquire on our golf cart permit application, submitted on August 16th. Unless you are a permanent resident, here on the QRP Retirement Program, or own a business (we have an Ltd. filed for the ownership of our villa, which counts as a business), you cannot own a cart on the island to "alleviate traffic congestion in town." I was informed that we were denied for not meeting the criteria, although they could not say specifically which ones we failed to meet. We have to wait three months to reapply, which is stacks of paperwork, copies of passports and tax bills, and $100. There are two endlessly frustrating factors to this ruling for us:
1. We see dozens of brand-new golf carts show up on the island every week for golf cart rental companies, yet homeowners cannot obtain permits for their own vehicle.
2. We've had no less than ten different people tell us they can get us a permit fast, for a "nominal fee". A bribe.
It's no secret that an extended Lebanese family owns and/or runs essentially all of the rental companies on the island. Rumor is, they have roughly 20,000 permits tied up and not currently used, so they "sell" those off. We're unclear if the bribes go to the family, the Mayor, or elsewhere...either way, the carts are coming. Why not raise the cost to receive a permit, and have those fees go towards improving roads and other community needs...? Keep things above-board?
Before moving here, we were aware of the local corruption and rampant bribery. It just hits different when you're knee-deep in it, and we had hoped that being honest and doing things the right way would be rewarded - asking for a permit before purchasing a vehicle, rather than buying one then asking for foregiveness. Or paying a bribe.
We moved to escape politics in the U.S. Guess what? They are still here, still frustrating, just for different reasons.
To bolster my spirits, I had lunch at The FryJack House on Front Street. When the boys are here, they would have breakfast every day (except Wednesdays, when TFJH is closed) if we let them. Consistently excellent food, and very affordable! I have always wanted to try the Garlic Butter Lobster FryJack, but it sounds a tad heavy at 9 AM. At lunch? Why not! $12 U.S. and I could only finish three-quarters of it - although I cherry-picked all the lobster off!
My next stop was the Water Taxi to pick up 4 of 5 boxes shipped from the U.S. via Belizean Queen, the freight-forwarder I use. Belizean Queen let me know in advance that 1 of the boxes will arrive next week, which turns out to be the third of three new ceiling fans, and a big bag of cat food. It was like Christmas morning opening the boxes, finding things I ordered a month ago! Snacks, personal care items, some clothes, household products...things that are tough to get here, or if here, are low quality and/or incredibly expensive. It took everything I had not to open a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese immediately! 3 boxes for $7.47 U.S. on Amazon, or 1 box for $6-8 U.S. here. Some items' boxes were a bit munched (Stovetop Stuffing), but nothing like my exploding cat food cans/maggots episode. I did ship a five-pound bag of flour ($3.99 on Amazon; $7-9 here and at times, impossible to find) and that DID burst, leaving contents in that box dusty.
Later that evening, I recieved a text from Tropic Air Cargo - my order from Tender Buff had landed! Tender Buff is a ranch in Orange Walk on the mainland - the only Water Buffalo ranch in Belize! The meat is supposed to be leaner than beef, rich in nutrients, and free from antibiotics and hormones. We're excited to try a steak for "Try It Tuesday" next week!
Most exciting (to me, anyway): Thursday, my first article for Live and Invest Overseas published! You can read it here: In Photos: Our San Pedro Rental Renovation
I have more coming, as well as my large feature project on Ambergris Caye, stay tuned!
The weather has finally dried out, we're hopeful that "wet season" has concluded. The forecast isn't calling for rain this weekend, so we plan to get out and explore a bit, and see what's new on the west side! I also need to take a lot of photos and videos for the Ambergris Caye feature.
Enjoy your weekend!