Hot in Belize

Holidays in Canada, Winnipeg Folk Festival

2008-07-20T04:05:00.000-07:00

The above picture (that is Brahma Blue, the biggest building just across the water from the little round Island, with San Pedro at the very top of the photo) was taken from the Sessna that carried me from San Pedro to Corazal (bleow). I'm on my way to Canada, leaving San Pedro on Monday, July 7th and spending a day in Mexico. Then landing in Winnipeg at about 4 in the afternoon on Tuesday.
Another shot of Corazol. We landed outside town because the airstrip is being serviced and a van shuttled us to the main airport site where I caught a taxi to Chetamul. The driver assisted me in crossing the border, good thing because I speak hardly any Spanish and took me right to the bus depot for a four hour ride to Playa Del Carmen. Then another hour or so to Cancun to wait for my flight to Houston.
As the plane carried me over the Southern United States, I noticed an incredible cloud display but I just don't think these pictures capture what my eyes were seeing.

Larissa and her friend Chloe met me at the Winnipeg airport, they had to wait again because, once more, my luggage didn't make it until the next day. At least my luggage made it, I lost two bottles of booze, a 40 year old rum and a bottle of Baily's Irish Cream got smashed, but no real problem and it was easy to clean up.

We got to Linda's house just in time for a gathering of my family, two brothers were still in Winnipeg after attending a family reunion the weekend before so I got to hang with them for one evening as well. Below is my best friend Rick, he just had surgery on his right rotator cuff and he played guitar and sang for about 4 hours and hurt himself. I gave him a two hour massage the other day and I'll likely be doing that again soon, and again, and again, until I go back to Belize.

I took a bunch of pictures of the kids playing in the grass but most of them didn't turn out so good. Here is Larissa, she's my favorite kid in the whold wide world, don't you know?!?

My bros, Wayne and Doug, Wayne is the youngest of 6 boys and 1 girl, he's also the biggest! Doug is behind Wayne's camera and they are both taking pictures of Gail and her family.

Below my sister Gail and her family, Jaz is holding Kaylee and the dark skinned wrestling contender is Arnold, aka Batman, Kaylee's dad, his family is from the West Indies and Kaylee (I may have mispelled her name) is so cute! When Gail had Jaz I got to be her labor coach and witness my first birth. I stayed awake for 54 hours, Gail got to sleep a bit once the epidural took affect. It was so emotional when they told us it was a girl, because Gail was the only girl in our family with six brothers. Ok so Dave had two girls but they lived in Alberta so for me and Gail, and my mom, it was awesome to have a girl in the family! Dallas came along about 4 years later, she is on the right, she is an incredible artist and she works at Giselles doing original paintings,,,,,,on fingernails. Temporary art, but hey, its a living and she is so good at it. We are all so proud of her.

Wednesday we loaded up Dance's car with tents and sleeping gear and went to set up in the campground. That is Dance between her tent and mind. She is sleeping with her four kids and a friend for her 14 year old. I am sleeping with Larissa in Linda's blue Eureka tent.

On Friday night the wind and rain destroyed Dance's tent so she piled her bedding and clothing into my tent and went to the city to buy a new tent, can you say "Eureka!"
The campground is huge and it sold out, the next day there were many more tents but I din't take anymore pictures.
Below is the start of a panoramic spin of the campgrounds that can be seen from the highest point around. Starting with the RV area at the furthest end away from the Festival grounds. Most of us bring bikes to go back and forth between our campsites and the festival grounds.
Other people are smarter and they set up closer to the festival area so they don't have to walk so far, but I like being near this big open field where the craziest stuff goes on during the night after the stages are all closed. The party is right here, all manner of nonesense, from Poi spinning and fire eating to florescent costumes and fun with glow sticks, juggling and drum jams everywhere.

There is at least two more huge fields full of tents on the other side of the distant tree line.
The fence marks the outer boundary of the camping area.

Here we are at the festival site in front of the main stage, we set up on the far side of the ditch where the kids can play safely and we can wander back and forth without fearing for losing our children in the crowd or freaking them out when they can't find us. Linda created and carried a tarp marker that is a 7 foot long copper pipe with a happy face and flowers on it so we can see it from a distance.

Fun on the tarp while the music plays as the sun sets behind us.

This shot shows the crowd in front of the main stage, Linda has been setting up her tarp this far back where there is a drainage ditch that Larissa and all the kids love to play in and terrorize the frogs. As you can see, parents bring all manner of wagons, carriages and contraptions to be able to have all the stuff they will need for daytime and nightime along so they can care for thier kids. Hey that is Marlow and Kelly with Kelly's nearly new baby in the bottom right corner.
Dobet Gnahore' from the Ivory Coast provided a breathtaking outpouring of African Song. A traditional African dancer and multilingual vocalist created a show as physical as it was passionate celebrating her debut album, Na Afriki. She only played the one show on Thursday night at 8:15 while it was still light and I had to run up to the front of the stage to watch her dance.
Her musicians were incredible, two white guys on guitar and base and a black drummer who was amazing.

Then she sat and played a djembe trading solo's and matching riffs with the drummer while the crowd went wild. The folks who come to this festival love a good djember player and they jump to thier feet and dance like crazy.

Below, Linda, Marlow (I've known her since she was about 5 years old, she is getting married in September and it looks like I'm going to stay in Canada long enough to attend her wedding. She is getting married on the same property that Linda and I got married on. Angel and Darrel live just West of Selkirk on a twenty five acre hobby farm and we all helped renovate the barn and garage for parties with a stage and room for dining and a bar. There is a campfire closer to the house for acoustic jam sessions and we all set up tents and campers every year for the summer solstice barbecue. Another mini Woodstock type event. I missed it for the last two years and next year is the 30th annual, but I'll likely miss it again. Sacrifices must be made!
Beside Marlow is Amanda, Lori's daughter who baby sat Larrisa a few times, and now she is a grown woman herself. Four Winnipeg beauties who grew up with the folk festival. Larissa was born 7 days after the festival in 1998 at 7 minutes to 7 Pm on the 19th day of the 7th month. There are 7 letters in her name and she weighed 7 pounds. There must be a 7th 7 in this equation somewhere but I just don't recall.

Above, we joined a throng of dancers and boogied to the 1960's funk band, The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker but we gave way to watch this woman (below) dancing with a hula hoop, she was very good, just someone in the crowd expressing herself.
Larissa crashed before the concert was over but she was all ready for the walk to our bikes and long ride back to our campsite. She even carried her own blanket with her and a pillow in her back pack. That's my girl, getting all independant. That's her mom giving her a hug goodnite!

Thursday night after the concert, Larissa and I went for a walk to "Pope's Hill" to watch the insanity. They call it Pope's Hill because the City of Winnipeg acutally had a hill constructed when the Pope visited so he could be higher than the audience so everyone could see him as he addressed the Winnipeg Catholic Community. The hill is right beside but just outside the campgrounds and it used to be off limits but about 10 years ago, when drums were not allowed in the campground for noise restrictions, the young drummers rebelled and went to Pope's Hill and drummed anyway. When ever the cops came to shut them down, they dispersed into the campgrounds and after the cops drove away, they simply returned and started drumming and dancing and whooping again. After two years of this, the Festival Organizers met with the Park Officials and now Pope's Hill is part of the campground (hey, its not like the Pope is coming back anytime soon!) and drums are allowed, in fact they provided a stage for the Poi spinners and ran electricity so they can feature bands some nights as well. Power to the People, Right On!

On our walk I took Larissa to see what kind of structures were built this year. There is a team of campers who come a day early with a load of lumber and other materials and they construct a temporary shelter party house with a different theme every year. This year is was a saloon with a bell tower (below). The round yellow part just above Larissa's head is a fake clock face.

This is the Saloon they built, I meant to take a daytime picture but it didn't happen. This place was huge with a 14 foot high ceiling (made of two by four spruce and covered with plastic) and full of tables, it had a stage and a piano, my God, someone brought in an upright piano and left it in there and took it home at the end of the festival, such dedication! One night I walked by and two guys dressed in cow boy duds with holsters and belts faced each other for a shoot out. One guy yelled "draw" and the other guy stepped up to an easel (that I hadn't even noticed) and started drawing. As far as I could tell, I was the only one watching this so it wasn't even a performance, just two drunken nut bars amusing themselves. What a hoot!
After wandering around the grounds I made my way towards "Pope's Hill" to catch the last number of a wonderful Poi group. Three drummers, a guitar player, four Poi spinners and two Belly dancers, what a show. I found them again the next night but I couldn't take any more pictures because the drummers were friends of mine and I had my drum with me so they invited me to play, I had a blast!
I found these really cool visors in Mexico for the kids to wear but it was so cold that they left them in the tent, I tried! It would have been so cool if they walked around the festival wearing them.

The Winnipeg Folk Festival has the greatest tents and they rent them out the rest of the summer, but for this one four day weekend, there are six stages like this one below that run at the same time from 11 am to 6 pm, the children's stage and a small, intimate setting they call Folk School where you can actually learn about folk music, history of Gospel, how to play folk instruments and write songs from some of the world's best performers in thier field. You simply buy a program, see who is playing where, check out the map to find out where that stage is located and wonder over there and set down your lawn chair and enjoy. Then you move to the next stage, all within short walking distance and the people watching on the way is awesome. This year the crowds were small because the weather wasn't so nice but when its hot, the insanity heats up as well and all manor of lunacy is expressed, Woodstock is revisited and peace, love and music fills the air.

This Friday workshop at the Bur Oak stage was titled Fretting About the World and it featured Abigail Washburn, Bela Fleck, Shtreiml and Harry Manx. They were all set up at once and after each act did a solo song or two, they started to jam along and things got fuzzy and things got blurry and then everything was gone! No really, it was mind blowing, so much talent, Shtreiml's virtuoso Oud player started to sing in a totally ethnic way and Abigail and he traded solo's while the bands mixed Klesmer, East Indian Blues and Banjo picking quietly to let the vocalists go crazy for a while. Harry Manx studied the 20-stringed Mohan Veena with its inventor Vishwa Mohan Bhatt for five years in India. It sounds like a sitar but looks like a guitar and Manx is a blues player from British Columbia, mixing in Strrieml's Oud and harmonica with Turkish and Hasidic melodies with Bela's Banjo picking was insanly great!
Below, I looked around for Linda because I knew she wanted to see this performer as well and she was sitting just over my shoulder, I found her when I saw Tannis Slimmon walk up and squat down to say hello. Linda is one of the finest unknown vocalists in the world and Tannis has recently released her second solo CD called Lucky Blue and Tannis should have been a featured artist on Main Stage, her music is incredible, look for it at www.tannis.ca Its true that she is a dear friend and I'm totally biased because I love her but her two solo albums should be and have been winning awards and she should be world famous, she blows me away, my favorite lyric of hers comes from her first solos CD, Oak Lake (which is a town near Brandon, Manitoba where she grew up), "why can't you read my mind and hear the things I mean to say!"

Above and Below is Forro in the Dark from Brazil, free your mind and the rest will Forro! Notice the big drum second from the end. He strikes the bass with a mallet from above and gets a snare sound from a long stick played on the bottom skin. This was some crazy dance music, yeehaa!
Below is a picture of Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet Featuring Bela Fleck, with Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee, how is that for handle! Virtuoso Banjo, cello, fiddle and voice of a bird playing the best of Old time Americana with a wink and a smile.

I wandered the camp grounds after the main stage ended looking for a drum jam to join and I wanted to take pictures of the insanity but you just can't capture what is going on. Below is a structure in the shape of a pyramid that had some very cool lighting effects that just don't show up with a flash. The point is that these campers go way over the top to make the festival an experience, camping there is part of the event like no other. There was a village of TP's that I wanted to get a photo of but I didn't get back in the daylight. A buddy of mine builds a shower stall out of pvc pipe and if you bring your own bottle of water you can shower in privacy. There are guitars and double bases, banjos and mandolins, but mostly, drums, everywhere and they never stop. The Family area boasts a huge tent called the Chickadee Big Top with a stage, room to sit and tables full of crafts with volunteers who help the kids do the crafts and there is face painting and all kinds of activities for the kids outside the tent as well as clowns and costumed stilt walkers and a tight rope about one foot off the ground, a tug'o'war rope, a parachute to run under and much more. At Larissa's age we can now leave her there and go see the pe we want to hear knowing she is safe. We tell her which stage we will be at and where we will meet should things get crazy and everyone has a great time.
Nanci Griffith, grammy award winner in 1993, one of the finest voices in country and folk performing since the age of 14, decades of music, 20 albums, several famous compositions and she played her guitar on a few songs in spite of recent surgery and her hand still in bandages. If you don't know her music and you like folk songs, check her out, incredible writing and so sweet.
It rained Friday during the night with winds that destroyed Dance's tent and in the morning she went back to the city to buy a new one. I bundled up to take in some music but by the evening I was cold and damp. The winds were still blowing the rain right onto the mainstage so hard that they couldn't use it and had to use one of the smaller stages that faced a different direction to keep the musicians and equipment dry. Here I am watching Nany Griffith from Texas sing From a Distance, we went home for the night after her show, I am just not used to the cold anymore and couldn't stop shivering. Larissa was ready to warm up as well and Linda offered to take her home for the night and since Dance hadn't returned and I didn't think she would, I went home for a hot shower and a good nights sleep. No point in huddling in my tent listening to the wind blow. The sides of the tent were bending in and tapping me on the shoulder, that is what woke me the morning before and it was still howling at 7:30 pm, no thanks!

Chic Gamine, a local Winnipeg group of A'cappella singers with a kit drummer who also sang a bit, incredible voices and interesting percussion. Gorgeous harmonies exploring folk, soul, samba and everything in between.

I went back to the Children's tent often to touch base with Larissa, on this occasion I didn't find her but I snapped some shots of Winnipeg's wackiest and most inventive children's performer, this guy has won a Juno award and is currently nominated for another prestigous award, I think he said it was "the best Manitoban" award, but he made so many jokes about it, I'm not even sure if he was serious. Al Simmons, a very funny man. He works with a sound track and he is an actor/singer who builds his own props and works them into his show with such style and pinache, he is a one man show, except you could call many of his props, band members the way he uses them. Fascinating for all ages, I laughed till I stopped!

Here Al changed his costume as he told jokes, first he removed his coat, which was a set of tails, then he released some clips and the skirt dropped down, he pulled some cords on his chest and they pulled his pant legs up revealing his socks and put on the hat. Then he blew up the balloon, with much ado and jesting and attached it to his harmonica so as the balloon deflated it played a drone while he played an old Irish melody and it sounded like bag pipes, amazing!

This horn he is holding is another invention, he named it in four languages with names that were long sentences, but in Spanish he called it, El Trumpeta loco! It has about horns, twelve valves, three whistles and a bell. Most all of the sounds are triggered by holding down the right valves and blowing into the one mouthpiece but his hands are moving like crazy while he plays a familiar classic overture and he squirts water fountains, blows up balloons, sends ribbons and glitter into the audience, and finally squirts out a ping pong ball which lands in the net he is standing beside.
Above you can just make out the net, before he introduced his horn, he asks for a hand for his next assistant, Annette, Annette is a wooden cut out of a woman holding a net, then he introduces his other assistant, Mike and he brings the mic on stage so we can hear his horn.

Below ou see the New Yeas Eve party favor coming up out of the horn, in time and playing a note that seemed to fit in the 0verture, what a guy! What a clown! What a genius!

These next few shots show the tents that artisans can rent to sell thier crafts. All the products have to be hand made, you can't buy stuff from someone and sell it here, it has to be hand made locally.

It was time for Larissa to pick something to purchase, she chose one juggling ball, not three, but one. I don't know why, but she assured me she only wanted one, I saved ten bucks, but I think I should have bought the other two anyway, oh well, too late!

Back to the mainstage for Sunday night's concert. Nice to have warmer weather for the last day of the festival.
This shot is taken from the front of the mainstage area looking out at the throngs of people, you'll notice the tarps on the ground, this is a Winnipeg Folk Festival tradition. Folks actually line up before the grounds open to get a ticket to be in the line up to lay down thier tarps in front of the mainstage and then leave them on the ground all day until the evening concerts start. If it rains you have to wait until 5 o'clock to put your tarp down so the grounds have time to dry in the heat of the day, otherwise most of us put our tarps down and then go back to our campsites for another two hours of sleep before the daytime stages start. You will notice the "markers" stuck in the ground to help folks find thier tarps. These too are home made and many of them are real works of art, another unique tradition created by the group mind of the dedicated fans of this festival.
So that is about it for now. The festival was dampened by the wind and the rain but we endured and there was still some great music and great moments. I classic experience and I think, one of the best festivals in the world. Not a lot of super famous bands, but an interesting array of cultural folk music from around the world each year, about 95 acts and it takes over 1000 volunteers to keep this place running smoothly and safe for nearly 40,000 attendees over the course of the four day weekend.

It was great and now I'm going to have to get to work to cover my costs, fortunately I'm getting a real good response for massage work from many of my former clients, I may even extend my stay. Larissa goes to camp next week and she has holidays until September 8th so I may stay until she goes back to school.

Many blessings to all my friends back in San Pedro, I promised you pictures of the festival so there you are, I'll bring the festival program home with me if you want to read through it, it really is more of a book than a program with write ups of the festival and each performer.

Namaste, Master Zac, Not in Belize

Trees, flowers and Iguana

2008-07-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings, this posting could also be called, Flora and Fauna, Iguana Wanna, Bwanna!
Ha ha! Ok, now I'm having way too much fun! First I'll show you some Flora.

This palm tree has managed to keep growing inspite of the new tenants setting up housekeeping in it so even though you can't see the critters, this is an example of what can happen when Flora meets Fauna!

Above and below are Almond trees, I wanted to show their growing habits, see how the branches spread out in layers.
Below is a sugar cane plant in my back yard, these shoots sprang out almost as soon as I put the stock in soil and both Basil and Molly like to eat the leaves. My buddy Charlie brought me an 18 inch stock of a sugar cane plant and told me to simply stick it in the ground as is, I'm going to get to taste sugar cane in the near future, sweet!

I love these blossoms (below) as they open as well as when they are opened, such intricate delicate flowers and the unfolding is as appealing as the full blooms, perhaps there is something to the anticipation as well.

There are flowers everywhere I go in San Pedro, these are all growing on the adjacent properties where I live. I bought a book about Belize plants and wanted to name them all for you but I borrowed it to Charlie, he brings me plants and coconut water and he is using the book to sell more plants to someone and I try to help him when I can so I didn't get to look these up. The pictures will have to speak for themselves.

Above is a double Hibiscus and below is a single with another single below that.

These flowers are all growing on the adjacent properties to my San Pedro Home, I'm blessed by all this beauty every day.

Most of the trees in the above pictures are growing on or near the property of a Resort called Banyan Bay where I have also been practicing Massage.

Cindy, who lives above me in the same building, works at Banyan Bay and she has been calling me to come on site and provide massage services for her clientele. Banyan Bay is a lovely resort on the beach front just a short bike ride from my home so I take a taxi over with my table and often I do the massages right on the balconies of the suites facing the beach. These are the views I get while I work. Life is grand!

The inner yard where the pool and bar are situated is beautifully landscaped and deck chairs line the beach.

Above is the main office building as seen from inside the center yard and below is a shot of a rose bush blooming along the walkway.

And now for the Fauna, Iguana, you wanna see this! Below, a three foot long Iguana suns itself on my Bob's boat which he keeps docked just off the deck in our back yard.

I awoke one Morning and began to set up my table to give Cindy a massage but the commotion outside interrupted my preparations. It seems Molly and Basil, Cindy's dog and cat had cornered some wildlife on Bob's boat. As I stuck my head out the door, Cindy called me to bring my camera and these are the shots she got of this incredible creature.

Cindy was certain that if it came to a fight, this creature would tear both her cat and dog to shreds. No doubt, look at those claws, and these guys are fast and powerful.

As I tried to move the chair that was blocking our view, the critter jumped into the water, I knew this might happen so I suggested that Cindy have the camera ready to snap as it jumped, as you can see below, it worked, she caught it in flight!

Hope you liked the pictures, bye for now, Namaste! Master Zac.

Orchids in Bloom

2008-06-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome back. I've got a few minutes while waiting at Costa Maya for food to digest and a massage client to arrive so I'm setting up a theme to post another blog. I have lots of pictures to post that I took before I was blogging and I want to show you some shots of the Lobster Festival that I performed at with Tanya, our first official gig together. It was fun, but first some of my favorite pics of this country. Out on the ocean one evening with an incredible sunset (above and below), just minutes from my home. We live on a man made channel of the lagoon on the back side of Ambergris Caye. It is still the ocean but here we have the beach front where the waves crash on the reef and the other side of the Island is considered the lagoon where the rain water mixes with the ocean, but that happens on both sides so I don't quite get it, and its thirty five miles of ocean water all the way to the mainland with thousands of Islands along the way.

(above) My neighbor Bob, from the East Coast of Canada, he's the big guy in the white shirt, came home early from work and invited us to go fishing with him. That is Paul, from the UK and his partner Cindy showing him how big his fish was while Paul tries to convince Cindy's mom, Cheri, who was visiting them from England for four or five months, but that is a story for them to tell, ha ha!
It was such a lovely sunset we stayed out and kept fishing, we didn't catch a single fish, but we all caught crabs,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I should have taken a picture of that, each of us had to shake off at least 2 or 6 crabs that tried to take our bait as we reeled in. They hand on and one even landed in the boat and had to be scooped up and thrown back into the sea, it was so funny catching nothing but crabs. What a line!It was a wonderful evening on the ocean and it was so dark after the sun dropped that we couldn't see our way back home and had to go super slow. The ocean floor inside the reef is from four to sixteen feet deep all the way to the mainland and it rises to form Islands and there are many places where its too shallow to take your boat so you have to know where its safe to go. We made it home but it was fun listening to Paul, Cindy and Bob trying to make out the landmarks in the dark. We all had a great time and now Bob knows what landmarks to watch and he can get home quickly even in the dark. Ha ha!

Here is a new series, my back yard gardening projects, this next shot was taken some time ago. The big tree whose branches are at the top of the photo is now lying on its side after a big storm pushed it over and we stood it up but couldn't get it to stand up straight so we cut the top off and let the side branches become the new leaders. I have two orchid bunches tied to the new main limbs and I'll show you the other plantings I'm nurturing here, starting with my aloe vera planting, which has already been a blessing through two serious sunburns. Never leave home without sunscreen, never! I also have a crown of thorns slip and on the right side of the pot you see that long slender succulent. In the middle is a candlelabra cactus, I may have posted some of these pictures already, I think. Oh well, let me elaborate more this time, bear with me as I get the hang of managing a blog.

Well, Bob's partner at Coral Beach Realty, Fred asked me a few months ago how I get my orchids to bloom, as if I know anything about orchids, but I told him that I water them daily, so he tried it and now his are blooming as well. I've since been told that I can also dissolve some grow fertilizers in a spray bottle and spray the roots with it once in a while as well. It takes a while after the first bloom stock appears before yous see flowers but mine opened a few weeks ago, see below.Absolutely lovely, but quite small... see my hand for a size reference below.

Below is a shot from the mother plant, I got it already rooted onto a skinny branch of wood which I fastened to the tree in my yard with fishing line. Here we are looking out from the plant, along the flowering stem to the blossom on the end.

Below, the same plant with two blossoms opened.

Next I have a photo of two other kinds of Orchids which I purchased already in bloom. I'm trying to root the one in front onto an interesting piece of driftwood and behind it are two more of the same variety that I set into an opened and halved coconut shell. Charlie, my local plant guy, said they would root right into the shell and I could hang the shells on strings. I sold those two to Sunny to hang at Brahma Blue and will have to deliver them to him soon.

At the left of the photo is another variety that I like a lot, it had nearly no roots so Charlie suggested I root it in soil for now and it already had a bloom stem which was damaged somehow and now it is sending another leader out of the same bloom stem (its hard to see in the photo but if you follow the stem from the bell shaped plant on the left growing out and behind the two orchids on the ground, its there.), amazing for a plant with little or no root. I'll have to ask Cindy to take pictures of the flowers if it blooms while I'm in Canada for the month of July.

Speaking of Cindy, below you see her back as she and I take pictures of the full moon rising from our back yard. The following is a sequence of that full moon over a few days.

This night there was some cloud cover and I love the effect so I'll show lots of shots.

I love the look of it with the clouds crossing in front, especially when the moon's surface formations show up in the picture as well. These next shots are with less zoom so the clouds are all lit up.
Well I guess that is enough for this posting, Namaste to all my good friends and many blessings to all special guests. My daughter and I have a special connection with the moon, as a todler she used to say, "that is my moon" and so it is. Now we both look at the full moon and ask it to deliver our love to each other across the many miles from Belize to Winnipeg, heres looking at the same moon.

Much Love Larissa, from Daddy! Good night my dearest, I'll be in your arms in nine sleeps.

Pelican Hangout in Belize

2008-06-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

Belize seems to be a major Pelican Hangout! They are everywhere so I thought I'd share some pictures. I really need a tripod with me all the time but so far I've only used it from my home. I'll think about that and it too shall come to pass, in Belize time, which is a saying here, that I think is used in every village, town and city in the world. Here it usually means "within a half hour or so on either side of" when referring to the time of day, it can also mean, "within a few months, perhaps after" when referring to getting a job done, depending on the size of job and material requirments. Materials are difficult to predict, everything comes from off the Island and most things come from out of the country. Belize needs to build more manufacturing plants and grow its export business, I think! Its a small country, in Winnipeg where I was born and raised there were at least 600,000 and up to 700,000 people my whole life and Belize has less than 300,000 even now and they are spread out over an area the size of Southern Manitoba, not even!!!

Here they are on the beach side at 8:30 in the morning the day I went for my first day at my first official work day. Yes, I now have my work permit. I flew to Belize Municipal Airport and was picked up and taken to Belmopan and walked through the process by a kind gentleman from Belize City who shall remain nameless, and I am now legal and I no longer am required to get my passport stamped for another month visitor visa and that saves me fifty bucks Bz a month as well.
Emily teaches Yoga at a few resorts, her partner John is the Didgeridoo player I love to jam with and I joined them in a yoga session and later when I shared my news about my work permit coming soon, she suggested I call Costa Maya Reef Resort and apply as Massage Therapist and I did and here I am on my way there.
Ok, that is not me, I'm taking the picture from another Island Ferry Boat, but that looks like me at the back of the boat facing the camera, head and shoulders above the Belizeans. Sorry about the clarity, its hard to shoot on a moving boat. This next shot reminds me of the movie Apocolypse Now! I shot it because there are no buildings, so you can see there is still some beach front property that has not yet been developed.

But it won't be long, the barges are constantly bringing in more concrete, sand and cinder blocks.

One barge arriving full (above) and one leaving empty (below) during the same forty-five minute boat ride.

Of course you also see Sail boats every day as well, sailing along the reef and loving the coast lined with coconut trees. Stopping to drop anchor and snorkel the many incredibly lovely spots where anchors sites are more easily accessible without damaging the reef.

(above) We arrived at Costa Maya Reef Resort.

(below) I am walking up the dock looking at the main offices and restaurant of Costa Maya.

Lovely Maya stylized Totem poles all over the Island, and and incredible amount of good carvers here.

A few days after starting at Costa May, I got a call from Pelican Reef Villas to come and provide massage service. She asked me for my information months ago and this was her first time using me. This resort is south of where I live so I go by taxi and its much quicker and cheaper and more convenient because I don't have to wait for the water taxi schedule, but I love the boat ride so its all good. Look at the pool at Pelican Reef, that rock pile at the back is the bar which serves from both the water side and the court yard beyond.

Lovely landscaping as I walked to my massage station.

(bleow) Looking up the beach to the North.

(above) looking down the beach to the south.

Pelican Reef's mascot.
Its so good to be working. I am also getting more local business from friends I've met here and Cindy, who loves in the suite above me now works at Banyan Bay and she has called me to provide massage services for her clients as well. So far just for emergency service but she is going to apply to put me on the regular use list. Thanks Cindy, if you g to Taco Girls blog you can find a link to Cindy's blog as well. I am going to learn how to put link on and I'll get those on this site for you soon.

Thanks for visiting, hope you like the picutres, come and vsit, ts a lovely part of the planet.

Master Zac, Hot in Belize

Tropical Storm Arthur

2008-06-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Below:
Permanent driftwood on the shores of Ambergris Caye at Boca Del Rio, a park by the cut between the town of San Pedro and the Northern part of the Island. This boat is approaching the cut. There is a bridge now but just a year ago they still used a ferry to cross this cut for travel between these two distinct communities.

Well its been a while since my last post. Sorry about that but my internet connection has been unreliable. We finally got our complainst heard but they said we were cut off because we have not paid our bill. The reason we didn't pay is because our connection was so bad it wasn't worth paying for but they cut us off instead of fixing it. I spoke to others on the Island and many are getting fairly reliable service from the same company and others say they wouldn't use them at all. Anyway, I'm still waiting to change companies, its not in my hands because I share a signal with my friends here and split the costs. I'm at work with time between clients to post another blog so here it is. Below is a shot of the Palms blowing in the wind at Toca Del Rio.

I've been getting emails from concerned friends asking about tropical storm Arthur. It was a seven day adventure here and we are still not getting full sunny skies yet. We had three days of rain and then a calm cloudy day while we sat in the eye but unbeknownst to us things were changing while we were in that calm and when we came out the other side, Arthur had grown and it began to rain again, and by nightfall, we had ourselves a good storm. Many were unprepared and I'm told a lot of boats were sunk and one good sized sailboat even washed up onto the shore. I don't have a lot of pictures but I'm including the photos I took last year before and after Hurricane Dean instead.

I had only just gotten my camera and started taking pictures without really knowing how to use it. I'm quite sure this next picture is sunset from my second floor balcony when I still lived at Doyle's place with Sunny. This is kind of the calm before the storm!

I went to visit Paul and Cindy because they were all going a bit nuts making arrangements to survive the oncoming storm. Many who had no place safe to wait it out were gathering at their home and it proved to be the promise of a great party, if you like booze and cards. What it certainly was, was community building and it was wonderful how folks come together to face a crises. Paul and Laurie, the taco's, were sheduled to spend the night and the guest list kept building during that day. I took this next picutre because I thought it looked a bit like a bald headed Eagle cloud. Ha ha! I asked Paul to stand there to reference the size of the tree. It didn't survive the storm, the fronds got so twisted and when we lifted it, we found that there were no new roots and it wouldn't have lived anyway.

This shot shows the cloud without the tree and it looks the eagle is perched upon an opened heart!
I took this shot to show how calm the water is in the channel as the clouds began to form on the horizon. By this time, the waves were starting out to sea, but all was quiet in San Pedro.
It was only a few hours later that the sky was full of clouds, this shot was taken from my balcony back at Doyle's place.

There was a lot of notice that Dean was headed our way. No panic but lots of preperation, it was the first huricane threat of the season and folks were boarding up windows all over the Island and hauling their boats up out of the water. Below is a boat sitting on land behind the old church across the street from where I lived. This yard was the view I came to on the leeward side of the storm during the night to stand on the balcony and listen to the wind. At midnight while the winds howled around my condo, I could still hear the frogs and crickets singing in the grasses, they were louder than the storm, it was quite amazing.
Sunny sent me out to gather provisions for the possibility that we might not be able to purchase food and water for a few days and after we were sure we were all set we went out for a walk to see what was going on and to enjoy it while we could. Below is the path to the Beach from front street between Marina's Grocery store and Zanadu Resort. Sunny and Gill are walking ahead while I take this photo. I love the way the trees form a closed canopy overhead. I ride this path to the sea often and then ride or walk the beach instead of taking the roads because its in my neighborhood and I shop at Marina's a lot.

This next shot shows the Beach front with the waves crashing on the reef in the distance. The sky is overcast but the day is still quite calm.
These two local Rasta men were passing by and they recognized me because I play with Barrington and the Islanders from time to time and the guy on the left is Barrington's brother. He noticed my camera and insisted I take their picture. Notice the sea grass washed up on shore, this makes excellent compost but here it is mostly used as landfill. Bicylcles are the main transportation for many of the locals, myself included.

As we walked towards Crazy Canuks, we saw these guys struggling to haul this huge boat (above) up onto the shore and lended our hands, legs and backs. They had a four wheeler pulling in front and they used coconut trees and PVC pipes to roll the boat along the sand and it was still hard work even with all this help.

I was hoping to take shots of the storm itself but it didn't hit until dark and there wasn't much point. The next day I went out to see the damage, mostly signs down, below...

trees bent over (above)...and many broken branches that had to be pruned and hauled away (below).Then there were still all the boats that had to be emptied of water and placed back in the water (below).

Naturally Sunny was concerned to see the damage at Brahma Blue, here he stands on the San Pedro side of the lagoon taking pictures of Brahma Blue as we board the boat to go across. It turns out the damage was minimal, more of a problem was the week of preperation and another week of clean up and then another week waiting for the construction crews to return to the Island.

There was lots of clean up and many of the boarded windows stayed boarded up until the last threat of Hurricanes ended for the year but it really wasn't very serious. Many piers were broken up and the repairs went on for months as money and time became available. Some beach front structures were lifted off the foundations but no one was hurt and no real serious damage except for the loss of income. Hurricane Felix came a few weeks later and many folk were now gun shy and they left the Island well in advance even and even though Feliz never made it to Belize, not even a rain storm, the damage was done. Papers reported that Belize was hit and the tourists stayed away and so much potential income was lost even though, here on Ambergris Caye the weather turned nice again and the bad weather stayed away until this years first Tropical Storm Arthur hit, just a few days ago. I wrote a story about my experience of Hurricane Dean and sent it to many friends and now here are the pictures to accompany it. I'll end with an attempt at a full moon shot with the palms of the coconut trees on the beach framing the moon, it sort of worked, but I didn't use a tripod so its a bit shaky. So, I was so sure I had more pictures that reflect some of what is going on right now, before and after Tropical Storm Arthur but I'll have to go home and see if they are still on my camera because I can't find them on file in my computer.

Blessings and Namaste, thanks for visiting,
Master Zac, Hot in Belize

About Ambergris Caye

2008-05-07T12:04:00.001-07:00

Coconut Palms are on the beaches everywhere on Ambergris Caye

Hi and welcome. My name is Henry A. Zacharias, I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and since my child hood I have been interested in health, and healthy lifestyles. In the multicultural tradition of Canada, I have mixed philosophies and cultural practices along with metaphysics, music and extensive studies and practice in the healing arts working under the banner of Massage Therapist. This work got me an offer from a massage client to move with him to Belize and manage a health spa on a resort he was building. Interestingly enough, Belize is the one tropical location I have been interested in since my girl friend visited Central America in 1990 and told me about swimming in a fresh water pool in the middle of the jungle.

My life was and had been ready for a change and many synchronistic events converged in my last year in Winnipeg to bring me here that makes it all feel like it was meant to be. This helps me with the conviction to stay even when I'm feeling lonely for my family and friends back home. Especially for my Daughter, Larissa. She sent me this picture of her from Canada Day, July 1st/07.

and I'll have been here now for a year as of April 2/08, walking up and down this beach.

past this massage hut
dive shops,

more dive shops

beach bars and art studios and resorts

Belize is a common wealth country so its English Speaking with a British Parliamentary System, although its still in its infancy and any government is only as good as the leadership. Here are some facts about this country that I took from some web sites I googled:

Belize was the site of several Mayan city states until their decline at the end of the first millennium A.D. The British and Spanish disputed the region in the 17th and 18th centuries; it formally became the colony of British Honduras in 1854. Territorial disputes between the UK and Guatemala delayed the independence of Belize until 1981. Guatemala refused to recognize the new nation until 1992. Tourism has become the mainstay of the economy.

Ambergris Caye is the largest of Belize’s cayes, which number in the hundreds. The island's soft white beaches, delicious dining, world-class accommodations, and friendly residents have made Ambergris Caye the most popular travel destination in Belize.

Ambergris Caye is thirty-six miles long, stretching along Belize’s northernmost waters. The island is separated from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by a narrow channel, dug by the ancient Mayans about 1500 years ago.

The largest settlement on Ambergris Caye is San Pedro Town, this is a shot of it from the Pier by the Sunset Grill on the back side which they call the lagoon side,

San Pedro is a Caribbean metropolis with a population of nearly 11,000, distinguished by its bright-colored wooden houses

(now being replaced by concrete to withstand Hurricanes) and relaxed Caribbean ambiance.

The rest of the island is a patchwork of sandy bays, lagoons, mangrove swamps, and tropical savannah.

What to do:

The world’s second largest barrier reef is visible from many of Ambergris’s beaches—it looks like a tiny strip of white, due to the waves continually breaking against it.

The Scuba diving and snorkeling around the caye is exceptional, as well as sailing, fishing, windsurfing, kayaking, and even skydiving.

Divers can book dive tours to sites as near as the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, or as far as the famous Great Blue Hole, sixty miles offshore. The best snorkeling spot is Shark-Ray Alley, where you can swim among throngs of fierce-looking yet docile nurse sharks and stingrays!

I believe the above picture was taken by Taco Girl, Laurie lives here and has her own blog, you can visit her at tacogirlblog.blogspot.com

The name Ambergris refers to the piles of whale excrement—called ambergris—that washed ashore back in the 1600s. It is said that British pirates collected it and sent it back to Europe, where it was highly valued in perfume-making! Really, you can look it up, whale excrement is used to make perfume, ha ha, although its not really excrement. Ambergris is an intestinal excretion that envelopes what they eat to protect the lining of the digestive tract as it moves through and out because they are rather indiscriminate eaters. It only becomes Ambergris after floating on the surface of the ocean surface until it is baked hard by the Caribbean Sun.

Here are two maps of Ambergris Caye

I'm learning about life here and how to manage in an underdeveloped nation. Life is so different here, much slower and more relaxed which is very nice and while it is hard to get things that we take for granted back home, life is great here and every day is a beautiful day in Belize. This next photo I took as a wicked storm was brewing in the western sky as the sun was setting over the Brahma Blue Resort.

This next shot on the right I took on the East side of Ambergris Caye from a home of a friend who has since moved back to France to go to University, I hope things are going well for Pierre now that he is back home.

And finally, as Larissa says above, Peace to you and many blessings

Namaste, Master Zac

Trip to the mainland

2008-05-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

I love watching the sky here in Belize, of course, the changing landscape of the Western Sly was a delight in Winnipeg as well, always a new vista and sometimes spectacular, here I've included the the wake off the back of the boat, is that in contrast or does it balance the shot? I like it!

In Sseptember 07, Sunny sent me to the mainland with Charlie, my plant guy here on the Island to purchase some six foot plus trees. Charlie assured us he knows where to go and he has contacts for a truck and a boat to get the trees to San Pedro.

Well, we made it work with hardly any thanks to Charlie's contacts but we found a truck and a boat, at a higher price than Charlie quoted, but we made it and we stayed at two of his sister's homes along the way and I got to see how these folks live. Happy people living in abject poverty with far too many people in very small homes with limited accessories and barely enough money for rice and beans and tortilla flat breads.

Sail boats anchored offshore between the reef and Ambergris Caye as we leave in the water taxi for a stop at Caye Caulker and then Belize City.

I love the clouds gathering over Ambergris Caye as the water taxi carries us South between the Island and the reef. These are homes and resorts on the beach front, but right now I'm not remembering if this is Ambergris or Caye Caulker, still love those clouds eh!

The next shot was taken through the window on the bus, the sun is setting behind those clouds as we approach Belmopan, or possibly its after Belmopan but before we turn south as we near those mountains,,,,,I think! Hey, it was getting late and it was a long day, and it was last September (07). Love the mountains in the distance.

This next series is of the Julie's home where she lives with her Father, her sister with two kids and her own kids, three at least and the sister was pregnant. They all live on Grandpa's pension which is likely less than %200/mth. There is one bedroom, a living room and the kitchen on the top floor and they don't use the mainfloor because it is in no shape for human habitation, but Charlie and I spent one night down there, hey, its their guest house, and Julie fed us her last eggs and tortillas. I gave her money to go shopping in the morning.

Below is the room we slept in, that's Charlie's foot, I woke up first and took this picture. My mattress wasn't a mattress, there were some cushions from an old couch down the center with blankets or some such beside it to fill in the space. I stayed in the center, there were holes in the walls, dirt floors and the smell of age and dirt, mold and decay. I slept well just the same and was grateful for their hospitality. They were genuine and kind, they gave of what little they had and were happy for the company. Before the kids went to bed, I sat on the floor and started to do some yoga to stretch out after the baot and bus rides. The eldest asked me if I was doing yoga because her sister loves yoga. In thirty seconds all the kids found a space on the floor and they all joined me in my routine. Great kids, so polite and bright. Sorry I didn't get pictures, I was in the moment.

Below we see that many of the homes are in similar states of disrepair, the economy near this village and Dangriga is quite depressed and there are not many jobs even though this is gorgeous country and good agricultural land. There is lots of land for sale for anyone that would like to learn to farm here, its a good life if you can be self sufficient and a good barterer. Remember the weather so you don't need heat except for water, which you don't use nearly as much as in Canada. Fans and A/C are the big expense and you can get Solar Power equipment here, but you don't need windows unless you want to use A/C and nobody uses dual pane windows here. It is better to build with concrete, the wealthier folk all build with concrete, which seems to stay cooler. All houses are elevated on stilts with storage sheds and work shops on the ground level. Stoves are usually gas, they use butane mostly here. Julie's gas tank was hung on the wall, just outside the kitchen with a hole in the wall for the hose, I met a family in town here that has the tank just under the stove, one well placed spark, and they could all take flight, very scary!

This highway shot is looking North, back the way we just came, from Belmopan, this little village is close to Dangriga, we will go there in the morning to see if I can purchase a new skin for my djembe. I put a hole in the skin as I squeezed between a golf cart and the fence with my bike to go to a gig with Will and Dale, the hole in the skin grew so that I couln't really play anymore by the end of the night. I did get a new skin, but the best I could do was sheep skin, which is really too thick, but perhaps it will last longer, and its a drum that I typically let my students play. Now that I have my work permit, which I just got today, but that story will come in another posting, soon. anyway, now I can advertise to get some students and the high school wants to hire me next year and have the class as an option, hey, its music, and they will get a load of rudiments.

This shot shows the yard where Charlie's sister Julie lives, its clean and they do grow some food, but personally, I felt that they should have had a much larger garden. They have running water but no water heater and they shower outside in a makeshift structure for some sense of privacy. It is a simple life but it works.

Below is a shot of the county side showing the hills in the distance. Most of htte land I saw on my journey was flat but the road to Dangriga showed some hilly country, it was a delight for my eyes, sorry I didn't take more pictures.

On the bus ride to Dangriga, the river crisscrossed on its winding way to the sea and this is a typical narrowing of the road for a one lane bridge across the river.

Here is Charlie and his older sister with her four youngest kids, the older girl had already left for school, but the night before she let me read a play that she was going to narrate for a school project. It was written in the Kriol language and it was the first time I got to see that language in print. It really is broken English with some Spanish verbs but folks here consider it their own language.

I liked reading the Kriol so I bought a book called Creole Proverbs of Belize. This is the first time I found the word Kriol spelled Creole. Here are a few quotes so you can sample this interesting and musical language. 1, Di olda di violin, di sweta di music, quoted in support of lod and experienced sexual partners. 2, Di water tas(te) sweetes(t) at di head a di stream, meaning for best results, deal with the person at the top. 3, Do-so no like do-so, meaning the bad we do to others is resented when it's done to us. 4, Everyady know weh de(m) own roof leak, meaning People often know thier shortcomings. 5, Finger neva say "look ya", e say "look deh" meaning we are readier to blame others than ourselves. 6, Hag ax e ma, "Weh mek you mout' so long?" E ma tell a(m), "Wen you get lee bigga, you wa(n) know." Literally: Hog asks its mother, "What makes your mouth so long?" It's mother tells it, "When you get a little begger you will know." Meaning that wise people are not as quick to criticize as inexperienced people. 7, If crab no waak, e no get fat; if e waak too much, e lose e claw, meaning that new experiences are necessary but can be dangerous. 8, If you kyaa(n't) ketch harry, ketch e shirt, meaning take what you can get. 9, Wen fish co(me) fram riva-batam an'tell you haligetta gat pain-a-belly, believe a(m). Literally: When the fish comes from teh river-bottom and tells you the alligator has a belly-ache, believe it. Meaning that information obtained from someone in a position to know is likely to be true.

And this is their home where we stayed the night. The kids all shared one bed so Charlie and I could each have one of the bunk beds. I showered in an makeshift enclousure outside with rain water out of a plastic five gallon bucket, it was good to wash off the travel sweat.

I took this shot looking down the hill from Charlie's sister's house, they live in a lovely community and I'm guessing that most of these people make a living in Agriculture, the Central Farm is a government operated Experiemental Agricultural station where they work to keep the industry growing. It is where we are going to purchase trees for Brahma Blue's landscaping.

We bought a full truck load of trees, they dig the root ball out with the coconut shell still there, the stem rising out at the same end the roots bo down but the roots are much smaller than the expected. Charlie says its best to cut off the roots and plant the shell with the eye facing East and it will grow new roots that will be stronger than the originals and the tree will mature faster than if the old roots have to sustain the tree. It rained as we drove back to Belize City and loaded the tress onto a boat and by the time we got on the boat, it was too dark to take pictures.

However, I have some shots of ride home from Belize City on another occasion when I met these two darling kids who loved having their picture taken.

I like this shot taken off the back of the boat with the silhouette of a Belizean man wearing his Rasta Dreads in a cap

This is my favorite shot of this sunset, it shows the wake from the boat and the last of the sunlight shining on the underside of the clouds which kind of look alive and in flight.

On another occasion, Pierre invited us to a barbecue at the home he was staying at just south of the busy resort section of the beach front of this Island. We had all taken Pierre under our wings when he and Andi Lee broke up. Pierre had already decided to return to France and continue his education and his hosts encouraged him to bring his friends over for a party before leaving.

I forget the hosts names, Joanne and her husband, I don't know what they do, but I think he is a real estate agent here. They have a lovely home and we had a great day on the beach.

This picture was taken from the end of their Pier looking back at the home, nearly totally covered by the coconut trees.

This is looking up the beach to the North, very serene. Its so nice on the beach front, but so expensive that most of us can't afford to live there so its nice to get to spend a day at a private home on the beach.
This is the North side of the beach front on their property.
As the sun began to set, we all got out our cameras and went nuts taking pics until it got dark.

Then we lit a fire, my first beach front bonfire. It was great but coconut fronds burn really fast and there isn't much else to burn on this Island. Ha ha!

Spending Time in San Pedro

2008-04-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

So, what have I been doing in San Pedro while waiting for Brahma Blue to open? Well the obvious was to take walks on the beach, past rows of Coconut trees that line the beach.Many of which are loaded with Coconuts, I have learned to harvest coconuts for the meat and I love drinking coconut water, it makes the best mix for fruity drinks like pina coladas.Meeting new friends is easy here,Ok, so I only met one of these ladies, two counting the Mayor in the white top at the head of the table, I've had my magic hands on her shoulders. She was also at another Beauty Pagent I attended here. It was held at Ramones, and I had an invite to sit in with Will and Dale playing Caribean music. Will on keyboards, with a drum track and Dale is the best acoustic guitar picker and grinner on the Island, they both sing and its dinner music, nice songs that can be danced to by the older folks who want to take each other in their arms on the beach. Not even Will and Dale knew what was to happen that night. Nobody thought to tell the band they were going to be interupted by a Fashion Show featuring Miss Belize and Miss Top Model, Belize.

I have posters but I don't have pictures of the event to post, sorry, you can check out the web sites, www.belizeanpride.com or www.belizefashionmodels.com and http://www.voy.com/210776/ but both women, Maria Jeffery and Tracey Robateau walked the boardwalk past the head table, down to the bandstand and back in four different outfits. Some one screwed up and they only had one song on a CD by Micheal Jackson to walk to, so they played it every time they walked. I had the inspiration to make the song a bit different by jamming with it on my Djembe. The models smiled at me so I was encouraged to play along differently every pass and the girls strutted up to me where I was playing and I'd build my solo up as they approached me where I was leaning on the guardrail at the end of the runway.

I was just making it interesting for me while waiting for the band to be allowed to start again, but I must say, it is intoxicating to be in the company of such Beautiful women. If you ever want to understand the hype about a beauty pageant, I suggest you attend one first.

As for the above setting, I was walking home along the beach and I could hear this steel drum band so I followed the sound and found this show at Crazy Canuk's. I talked to the musicians and they are all government employees from the mainland who meet every Wednesday to learn to play the steel drums. If I ever go to Belize City on the mainland on a Wednesday, I could join in.

This is the only shot I have of Will and Dale and I, my camera was still new and Stacy took the shot

I've also been getting close to the wild life,

I caught this kitty sleeping so I sneaked up on it,

then I tried the same thing with this crock, but it swam away, ha ha!

Cormorants waiting for fish, I'm guessing! What else would they be hanging around for?

This huge Iguana (below) is about 3 feet long from nose to tip of its tail, it lives near my home, here it is sunning itself on the Seawall in my back yard. If you look closely you can see that it is shedding its skin on its tail.

My neighbor and his partner Fred, own Coral Beach Realty and they have a boat and we sometimes get invites to join them, here Fred's dog, Coco perches on the bow as we pass under
the bridge at the cut, the other side of this bridge is Boca del Rio, the public park on the beach which I'll refer to again later on.

These Black Birds are all over the Island year round. They make all kinds of noises, they have several unique whistles and a rather strange throaty chuckle sound and some clicking sounds as well. Very trippy and the most noisy birds in
Belize.

Name this bird if you can????

Blowing Conch (below), now don't get silly, I purchased two polished Conch Trumpets and Rick was a natural on one and I prefered the other, it seems its all about the size after all, the size of the hole the artist made for the mouthpeice, that is! The sound of the conch shell trumpet is used in many coastal traditions around the world and considered sacred. The sound is rich and full so the whole room seems to vibrate with it. It travels for great distances outside.

I've also done a lot of walking up and down the beach watching the sailboats go by just inside the reef, you can see the waves breaking on the reef in the background.

I've fished more in my first year here than my whole life back home. Here we are with my second landlord, Doyle, we hired him to take us out on his boat with Mario, a local musician (Mario and the Punta Boys) and fisherman as our guide.

Casting for sardines in the shallows among the mangrove roots, Mario is an expert with the net.

Hauling in the Barracuda, they love live sardines. I had one on the line and got it close enough to see it jump just before it took my line and swam away.

Here we are, Rick and Leona and her daughter, Emily, from Winnipeg, getting ready to go snorkeling along the reef.

Below you can see the coral heads just below sea level, the water here was from 3 to 5 feet deep and we often had to swim carefully maintaining a horizontal posture over the coral making sure not to kick it or drag our bellies over it.

I've also been checking out the vegetation, this is a Blue Agave, these produce a fruiting body that can be refined into a very healthy sweetener. Anna stand nearby to give a size perspective.

These cacti (left) never bloomed in my window back home! Here the green houses are shaded to lessen the power of the sun! Below is my garden in my backyard, I live on a man made channel of the lagoon. Its three blocks East to the beach front.

This is my garden in my back yard.

It seems that food is tricky to grow here. Tomatoes give one round of fruit and then you have to start a new plant even though the plant is still alive.

This pictures centers on a Pineapple plant I planted, I'm told it should begin to fruit in about nine months from planting. I doubt it, it took two months to establish itself. I planted four so far and they are all still alive. I just cut off the top and rooted it in water for a few weeks and stuck it in the sand, no soil. I water them often because the sun is so hot it bakes the soil dry.

Below is my succulent planting. Aloe Vera with a slip of Crown Of Thorns on the upper left corner of the pot and Candlelabra Cacti in the center, with a long, skinny succulent on the inside edge at the upper right corner. I've had all of these in my collection in Winnipeg over the years, all indoors of course, I'm tripping about this, its so fun, I don't have any indoor plants, I leave the windows opened all the time, ok, I close the big one for security reasons and twice I felt cold and instead of a blanket, all I did was close the window in my bedroom.

I've been learning to play Garifuna Drums, this one (below) is a Primero, the shell is made from a single peice of wood and the hides are usually deer skin, the rope is neoprene, I find it interesting that the rings are made of wood instead of metal as in Africa even though lots of re bar is used in construction here and you can pick up pieces at any construction site.

jammin with local band, Barrington and the Islanders, here we are at the Festival Die de San Pedro.
Here we are again with the Lyrical King, a local solo artist, on maraccas, local musicians all know each other and Barrington lets them walk up and join in whenever they show up at one of his gigs, just like me. I learned to play a Reggae beat, Soka, Kumbia and Punta by jammin with these guys, but I'm not playing traditional beats, neither are they, Barrington says they play Belize style.

Here we are playing on the beach at the trophy presentation of the Fishing Derby, Lyrical King joined us again and got the beach rockin'Well, he got the dogs jumping at least!That is Molly, she is a local "pot licker" who lives with Paul and Cindy who are now my upstairs neighbors since I moved in below them in September 07.

Beach Parties are great fun, this is at Boca del Rio, a public park on the beach front by the cut at the North end of town, by the bridge over the cut that connects the water on the beach side, to the lagoon on the back side. Beach is East, Lagoon is West.

Laurie, aka Taco Girl and her husband Paul, aka Taco Boy volunteer at the new RC School and they invited me and John, a very accomplished didgeridoo player to perform at the closing ceremonies , summer 2007. You can guess how hot is was in the school by the sweat stains.

Laurie made a bunch of shakers and drums out of cans and passed them around so the kids could jam with us. What a noise, I could hardly hear my drum and was forced to do something to get control of the situation so I called out for them to repeat after me and we made some vocal noises to get their attention, then I tried to synchronize them but it didn't work and we ran out of time.

At one point it got so out of control that John stood up on his chair to play because they crowded in on us, I'm still playing in the picture below but the kids are pressing in against me and some even tried to hit my drum with sticks and I had to block them with my hands while still trying to play. That is when the teachers intervened and ended the show and began serving snacks, whew! These kids are from poverty homes and this school's mission is to provide an education for these kids that would otherwise not be able to afford one, they have had no training of how to behave during a presentation and for many, this was more excitement than they have ever had in a closed room such as this.

This is a Tai Chi Class learning White Crane Spreads Wings at the Tennis Club and Fitness Center.Mike on the left owns the Tennis club, that is Paul in the white top, Laurie in the red (taco boy and taco girl) and Cindy on the right, they are all facing me just out of the picture.
Above, Cindy, Laurie and Paul learning Brush Knee, not bad form, but Cindy needs to shift more weight into her forward foot, you can see that most of her weight is in her back foot, but her back is straight and her pelvis is tilted forward, she is suspended from above and her spine is plum erect. Tai Chi is all about how you carry your weight so your body can be relaxed on the skeletal frame.

Checking out the clubs, I love the entrance to Jaguars, this place opens at midnight and often just gets going at 4 Am. I've danced there, its all techno and techno reggae.

Tackle Box is where I jammed with the Islanders on Friday nights. Its a great open air bar on a Pier on the beach front.

Sharing Jager shots with Herb at Pedro's Inn, Pedros makes the best Pizza, Walter is the head cook and does most everything to keep the place operating, Cindy works the bar on Fridays, and Laurie often throws B-day parties here. This is Walter's birthday party (in the chef hat beside Cindy).

Check out Walter's dreads that he keeps under his chef hat (below left)

the kids always love the drum, this is at a private party at the Tackle Box during a break with the Islanders.

This is Walter with Beth, she brought three cameras here in her luggage, one for Cindy, one for Laurie and one for me, yay!

Dancing at Canuck's Beach Bar with Stacy.

Here we are in my home playing cards with Pierre, he moved back to France, and Paul who is laughing because he just made me pick up a mitt full of cards.

And below we are having a barbeque on our deck last winter. Mia is sheilding her eyes, Paul is flashing the camera, they are Brits and Dick in the top right corner is Canadian, he lived near Winnipeg for a while in his younger days. That is Laurie in the center, she and her Paul are from Toronto.

And that is night time so I'll say g'nite from San Pedro Town, Belize.

I hope you enjoyed this blog.
Master Zac, Hot in Belize

Second look and New Years Eve, 07

2008-03-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome, this posting is dedicated to showing a few more before and after images
of the development of Brahma Blue Resort and some pics of our
New Years Eve Celebration at the Blue Lotus Restaurant.

First we have the Palapa on the Pier that will soon become the Blue Lotus Restaurant, notice the town of San Pedro, a two minute boat ride across the waters.

Below we see that same Palapa ready for business and receiving guests for lunch.

The above and below images show the interior on Blue Lotus with guests at our first celebration that took place New Years Eve, 07/08

Below is the Restaurant Manager, also from Winnipeg, Herb, guitar and vocals and his band, Rawhide with James on drums, Adam on Bass and Master Zac sitting in on Percussion for the New Years Eve Celebration

We also had a fire show, below you can see Paul spinning Poi while I drum for him. Paul's incredible, he spent nine years learning Poi in Thailand, I started learning to spin last November, its fun!

Below we see the path from the resort walking to the East side of Caribbean Cove and the Pier leading to the Blue Lotus Restaurant, the landscaping is quite minimal here to date.

and below we see the same path looking to the West, showing the acreage yet to be developed between the Restaurant and the first Condo building.

There is still much to do and this pathway will remain like this for some time. The next phase of construction is to build my health spa and two more condo buildings on the West Beach at the far end of this walkway.

The above image shows a small palapa which is located on a Peninsula on the Northwestern extreme edge of our property and it is a multi use area for group sessions, conferences and meetings as well as providing a shaded area for Tai Chi, Chi Gong, Yoga and meditation.

As you can see this peninsula provides some isolation away from the rest of the resort for a sense of privacy, I will be able to offer massage sessions here as well as in your room.

The above image shows the amount of shade that will be available under this palapa for comfort during the heat of the day.
As you can see below, when these plants grow in size, this area will be a lovely tropical garden.

Next I want to show you the two stations at pool side where we will be offering
Massage Services and Aesthetics.

Setting up for the fist time.

Shelter from the sun with the option of dropping the blinds for more privacy

Leave your partner or kids playing in the pool while you enjoy a relaxing massage

As Ganesh watches over us, clearing obstacles in our path with one sweep of It's mighty trunk

I couldn't have come to Belize without the support of my daughter Larissa and her mother Linda who had to stay behind, they just got all dolled up to go to a concert, "Love your nails!"

They are my two biggest supporters back home, before leaving Winnipeg
I gave them a web cam so we could stay in touch

Yes, and I love you too Larissa, now please join me is saying Namaste

Blessings, Peace and Light to all!

Above: Taco Girl took this shot at Christmas Eve off the front Beach.

Below: Alan took this sunset at Brahma Blue, can you say tranquility?
Thanks for visiting

First look

2008-03-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

This posting is about the development of Brahma Blue Resorts and Health Spa and my involvement with the project on a totally romantic Caribbean Paradise Island.

Hi friends, my name is Henry A. Zacharias. On April 2nd, 2007, I arrived in San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize in Central America.

I came here with long hair but had to cut it due to the heat and, even more of a problem for my wispy hair, the wind!

Coming in for a landing over Belize, no we are not going to land on that river!

Approaching Belize City

Flying over Ambergris Caye

coming into San Pedro Town

Disembarking in San Pedro Town

These little planes fly back and forth between Belize City and San Pedro in just over 1/2 hr.

I came here from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where I was a Massage Therapist and a Musician and the Music Director at the Center for Conscious Living where I had been studying to become a Minister of the Science of Mind. My plan was to become a Minister and write books about Spirituality and travel around the world teaching in New Thought Churches. As part of my education I focused on Spiritual Mind Treatment and developed a workshop to teach others the techniques of manifesting as taught by Ernest Holmes and the Science of Mind.

Here I am on stage at the Center For Conscious Living, sitting in with their band

This is with Joy Stadnichuk, the last time she and I played together, Oct/07

In my ten years of fellowship with this New Thought Community I learned a lot because after my second year I became an active volunteer, on the board and as music director, and I was getting pretty good at making changes in my life using the techniques and changing the way I think. Then, during my third year course, we had to read eight books and do book reports and write weekly Spiritual Mind Treatments. I was already doing it for friends and clients so I was very earnest about learning to be effective. I wanted a more prosperous life so I began treating that I already had the right and perfect job. Meanwhile, one of my massage clients of several years, asked me if I wanted to go with him to India and open a Massage School there. I was interested because I love to teach, but I didn't really want to live in India. Too many people, Winnipeg is a small City with around 700,000 people and I've visited bigger cities like Denver and Vancouver and while they were nice to visit, I didn't want to live there, so I hesitated and kept treating for my right and perfect job.

One day, that same client, Sunny Sidhu, came for another massage and reported that he had just returned from India and he didn't want to live there either, so he purchased ten acres on an Island off the coast of Belize instead. His plan was to build a resort with a health spa and he wondered if I would be interested in joining him there to manage the health spa. The entire country of Belize has a population of only around 200,000, and growing. Tourism in Belize is taking over as the largest industry over bananas and sugar cane. Most of the attention is on the Islands near the reef that extends for some 357 miles along the coast of Belize with Ambergris Caye being the largest of the Cayes, where I now live and San Pedro Town is the central hub of all that activity with a population near 10,000 that swells to near double some years during the busier seasons, with the peak around Spring Break. The population here is steadily growing due to investment and land development. Many Canadians, American and Brits are building resorts, bars and restaurants and becoming permanent residents while they operate their businesses here, just like me.

Shopping on Middle St. Downtown San Pedro

However, everything happens in Belize time here, I've been here nearly a year and our resort is still not opened for business. It is now Easter, 2008. I'm told we are ready to receive guests now and things could kick off any time, soon. Now let me show you some pictures before and after to show you what we have done to our ten acres and a bit of the Town of San Pedro where I now live.

This is a bunch of interested business folks and I taking a boat across to Caribbean Cove where we have our ten acre spread. That is San Pedro Town behind us.

This is the first view of our property, the Palapa on the Pier will become our Restaurant, fine dining and San Pedro's only place for East Indian Cuisine

Looking down the Pier towards our first Condominium, four stories of concrete block with re bar drilled into the bedrock to withstand any Hurricane, just stay home and ride it out. I've done that, but that is another story for another day.

Our first phase of advertising, sings on our own beach front, its nearly time to start landscaping.

At the Health Spa, I am going to offer my skills as a Tai Chi/Chi Gong instructor, I am also qualified to teach meditation, breath work, yoga and remedial exercise programs as well as African Drumming and Massage. I have investigated many of the worlds Ancient Spiritual Traditions and I practice a rather unique blend of energy work that includes Reiki, CranioSacral, Therapuetic Touch, Polarity Therapy, Chakra Balancing, Laying on of Stones, Chi Gong, a lot of trusting Intuition, Guided Visualizations and Sonic Vibrational Healing. In time I intend to develop workshop events, my favorite involves the use of Drums, Voice and Dance and I have developed a wonderful event called Healing Harmonics that involves chanting specific songs that are sung in English so the meaning of the lyrics can be carried deeper into the consciousness of the participant.

This was my first look at the Condo building when I first arrived, this shows the spiral staircase in the center. This is the main entrance and these windows face East to catch the prevailing winds which will blow through each suite and keep you comfortable with very little need for A/C. Each balcony gets a view of the sunrise.

The above photo may have been taken by Allen or Taco Girl, I stole it from one of them, its a good shot of a Sunrise off the front beach of Ambergris Caye.
Below is the view looking out of a fourth floor window to the East

Below is the same building on the same day showing the side that faces West for a view of the sunsets

and below is the view looking out of a balcony to where the sun will set

And below is a shot of a Sunset across the Pier on the west side, you can see a slip of the the same deck above before the landscaping and the same small Island just off shore.

I'm pretty sure Alan took the above and below sunset shots

Now I'm going to show you some photos of how things look today.
The landscaping is nearly done and most of the apartments are fully furnished and ready for occupancy.

Alan, a buddy here who unfortunately is planning to leave the country soon, took these shots and here is a panoramic view he took from the Pier on the West side of the property showing the Palapa group session site on the Peninsula on the left across the West side of the Property to the edge of the Pier.

I've never had any nick names stick and all my life my four older brothers commanded the obvious family nick name of Zac, which is derived from the first three letters of our last name, but none of them were going to be in Belize so it was my turn, and Master Zac sounds pretty cool! So I have adopted that name and title for my new life here as I will be doing more teaching here and I'm told I'm the most educated and skilled Massage Therapist in the Caribbean. As part of a going away party for me, before I left Canada, Joy Stadnichuk, a wonderful singer/songwriter and dear friend coined the phrase Hot in Belize and that is where I got my Title for this Blog. I landed here in April and rarely stopped sweating until September.

This shows some of the grounds between the pool, where I will have two workstations and the Palapa out on the Peninsula where I have more space for teaching classes in the shade. You can just see the brown thatch of the Palapa roof way beyond the fan palm on the edge of the pool deck.