Beachfront Lot for Sale; Plumeria Update; Getting Ready For Guests...

Last week, we started the cleaning and preparing for Ethan and Lilly's trip - they arrive Friday afternoon!

Since we have essentially condensed two homes (our goods from Phoenix plus the items from when the villa was a rental) into one, we live in constant clutter. Plus, we have had a lot of projects going on, like coating the patios, and I painted some of our railings, too. We had some debris left over from when the crew performed the big maintenance on the villa last fall, so I went down to the dump to drop off the items that could not be reused. It seems like garbage isn't leaving the island, which is problematic - when I first journeyed down to the dump, I put refuse in the shed. When Nathan and I went in April or so, we dropped it in a pile outside. This trip, I dropped into a new pile, and the previous one was still there - and massive. It looks as though they are running out of land for piles - and garbage is rotting in the open.

The backhoe was unmanned/not in operation.

We've started gathering alllllll of the documents required to apply for Permanent Residency - I expect it will run me $50US or more in printing/copying - and we did our medical portion at San Pedro Urgent Care. $101US per person for general health questions answered on the form by a doctor, plus blood tests for HIV/AIDS, syphyllis, and TB. We had our negative results via email the next day! I continue to be impressed with that facility - it's affordable, clean, and they are always on time if not early! That's important, as we booked first-thing in the morning so Nathan could go before his work day started. 

The lots immediately south of our beach lot have hit the market! We were both expecting the list price to be higher - it's not that much more than the list price for 70' x 140' or so lots north of the bars, when these lots total 2.4 acres AND offer 200' of beachfront! My father-in-law was trying to convince us to buy them...ha! Then we truly would never be able to build our home. Here is the listing, if you are interested: Beachfront 2.4 acres for sale - Secret Beach Of note, the listing agent took some liberties - it is 0% reachable by golf cart currently, and the northern outline of the lot is easily 25' too far into our land - the fish trap plus another 10-15' beyond it are ours. 

Saturday was rainy, so we focused on catching up on laundry, cleaning the house, decluttering...Roxy was in the way, so we made "geckos" out of paper bags and stuck them to the walls. Suddenly, she was zero percent interested in what we were doing!

Sunday, the weather cleared, so we headed out to Secret Beach. The water isn't as hot as I expected, and still no sea lice! Hoping that cooler water temps mean fewer hurricanes this season, and no sea lice, ever. We walked way far south of our land, almost to Casa Brisas, which is being subdivided and sold. 

Our free tree (plumeria) dropped quite a few of her leaves, which we expected - but the ones that remain look healthy, and the flower bunches do, too! They don't like having wet feet, so with all of the rain, I was worried - but she seems to be doing well. I made a rooting agent concoction from water, brown sugar, and yeast to give her a lil boost.

Go, baby, go!

Tomorrow, we'll get up early to get our photos taken for the permanent residency applications before Nathan starts work. We were advised to turn our applications in at the Belmopan office, and have to weigh that out - turning them in at the capital makes it less likely (not impossible, just less likely) they are lost. But there isn't an airport in Belmopan, so we would have to travel by land and Nathan would miss another day of work....ugh. Nothing is easy here....

Meanwhile, we are both stoked to have Ethan and Lilly inbound - it means hemorrhaging cash, but on the flip side, Nathan will take off of work and we can actually get some enjoyment out of living in Belize! We're planning an overnight at the TEC/Belize Zoo, driving up past Tranquility Bay to snorkel (provided the sargasso isn't unbearable), and show them some of the cool things we have found in our time here.