This Is Moxie

This is Moxie

Moxie is Bill's dog. She comes along to Belize to live for three months of the year with Bill.

Moxie is an AKC Canine Good Citizen and a trained therapy dog. She goes to hospitals and other places to give comfort to people who are ill or anxious.

She's good at her job.   In fact, Bill says she seems to have a knack for knowing which person in the room needs her help and will usually go right to them. Pretty cool right??

That being said....

EVERY time I sit down in the condo, Moxie sits at my feet.

Most times sitting ON my feet.

If I go lay on my kitchen cot, she comes over and lays by me.

Sit on the porch, she sits on my foot.

Moxie......what are you trying to tell me? Is my stress and anxiety showing?  Do I need this much therapy??

Moxie the therapy dog. Freely giving therapy.  
Sometimes she looks at me as only my Dog Therapist would, and I wait for her to ask, “Tell me, Lorry... how does that make you feel?”

When Bill takes Moxie out in town, she always wears her orange Therapy Dog jacket - mostly to keep the sun off her skin, but also for visibility in the evenings.

The other night we went to the bar at the resort next door. Bill got up to play banjo with the band, so I held Moxie's leash while she sat quietly along the wall. 

 The room was noisy with talking and drinking -  a mix of boat people, tourists and locals. While Bill was playing his song a woman from the table nearest me hopped off her stool and came wobbling toward me. Looking like she'd had a drink or two, she smiled kindly and pointed to Moxie and said, “Is that a service dog?”

Without thinking, partly because it's hard for me to hear in places like that and partly because I get a lot of social anxiety about knowing what to say to people when they talk to me, I just blurted out, “Yes, she is.” 

"Wait...Service Dog??", I thought to myself, "She's not a Service Dog, she's a THERAPY Dog."  Ugh....now I AM stressed.

The look on the woman's face turned quickly from curiosity about Moxie, to sympathy....for ME!  "Awwwww", she said and smiled knowingly at me.

I had just given her the impression I needed to take a dog with me everywhere for some hidden medical or psychological reason.  Now...I felt guilt about taking unwarranted sympathy from her.  
(Great....stress, anxiety, now guilt, too!)

I thought I needed to say something quickly to fix this, but the first thing out of my mouth was, “Oh no.....this is HIS dog!” Pointing toward Bill up at the mic playing and singing. 

 Of course that only caused the woman's sympathetic stare to turn immediately Bill's way. I could guess she was trying to figure out why he needed a service dog as she watched him performing on stage

Ugh, I've done it again.  ARRRRRGH!!

I figured I needed to make this right and grabbed the woman as she turned to get back to her friends.

“Excuse me", tapping her arm, "she's not a Service Dog.... a Therapy Dog. Moxie is a Therapy Dog.  She goes to hospitals and places like that to give comfort to people who are sick, or sad …...OR have stress and social anxiety (like me?).“ At that, the woman smiled again and said, “Oh, ok”, not seeming to care much anymore as she was already heading over to order another rum drink. 

Taking a deep breath, shaking my head and feeling like my usual socially awkward self, I looked down at the pup.   Moxie got up, turned a circle and sat down on my foot.

Yeah, good girl, Moxie...

No Place Like Home!

No Place Like Home!

I'm staying at a lovely, beachfront resort. A luxury resort by Placencia standards. AC, Cable (several channels!), "two" bedrooms and a kitchen, dining area, living room and full bath.

When I got back with Bill, he told me he rearranged the place a little.

A view from my "room"

Turns out, the second 'bedroom' is really more the size of a smallish walk-in closet. So.....

I sleep in the kitchen. 

That's my bed next to the fridge.   

I added the orange scarf to, you know....make it more homey.

 Technically, I guess it's the dining area.

 The resort brought up a cot that sits about 10 inches off the ground and it's sitting in the place of the dining table – which Bill moved to his bedroom to do work (a lot of hummus nutrition labels this week, it would seem....). The cot actually is pretty comfortable. That's it there under that interrogation...I mean, 'kitchen' lamp.

Of course, it's no Fluff Cloud like I have at home... 

The Fluff Cloud - Thank You, Shannon!

As cots go, it's really not bad, except for that second half of a deep knee bend I have to do first thing every morning (my morning workout!) just to get out of it.  It's quite accommodating.   And......it's on a beachfront in Belize, so...

Waking up in the middle of the night to see this guy staring at me doesn't even really scare me....too much

In fact, it doesn't scare me nearly as much as the giant parrot on the porch. That dude startles me every time I walk out the door. He's almost as tall as I am!

My first night here I got settled in.  Bill left to go play banjo at a beach bar - he sits in with different bands in bars up and down the peninsula.   I was tired from traveling and kind of hungry so within my first couple of hours here, I broke a rule I had kept almost my entire month here the last time......I went out after dark.

During the golf cart ride in from the airport, Bill told me about how much has changed in the village in the 4 years since my last visit.    There's almost no loose, wild dogs any more.

(I guess there are still loose dogs, but most of them wear collars now and belong to people)

Also, there are Police Officers now that walk up and down the road and a lot less of the "aggressively friendly'' dudes hanging out to greet you. I figured for a quick walk to the closest place to grab something I'd be fine. Up the beach, over a little bridge, past the pool hall I made my way, got some dinner and went right back.   No problems.  

The next morning I went for a walk on the same route only to find this possible crime scene.

Right at the foot of the little bridge I crossed in the dark last night - a beach stabbing, if you will.

Don't know what the circumstances of this could have been...maybe da beach had it comin'. 

The knife was gone later that morning.   A clumsy chef on his way to a resort?  I don't know.

It's very quiet here at South Waters, otherwise.   The village is a 4 or 5 minute walk, so there's little foot traffic except for other resort folk and there are few of those.

I sat on the porch the other morning watching this guy cut coconuts out of the palms, then use a machete to slice them open and get the water out.  It took 11 coconuts to make about a gallon - seems like a lot to me.  Think about that the next time you drink coconut water!

My first day and a half was mostly restful.   I went for a ride with Bill to return the golf cart.   Turned out it needed gas so the ride took us up the peninsula about 5 minutes past the airport, a great way to sight-see without having to walk!

Later, I saw this sign in town and felt very far from home.   But it's good to know Friends are only 3 steps away!

Come on Down!

Come on Down!

Four years and three days ago I left a little village in Belize having had a wonderful month-long vacation, but doubting I'd ever return. I'd taken that trip newly single, 50 years old and wanting to feel like I could still have adventure, even on my own.

Things happened on that trip, not the least of which were the Zumba, Yoga,Clog vs Eat, Pray, Love comparison, the epic adventure LOTR (no, not Lord Of The Rings....Lorry On The Road) and that time I stole a smoothie (which I paid for).

If you missed all that, you're welcome to go to the right side of this page and check it out. Start at the bottom-most post (January 10, 2012) and work your way up so there's no spoilers.

I met a few people during that 2012 trip – Nancy who adventured with me the first week, Bill my upstairs neighbor, Lee our landlady and local spa owner, Yoli the Zumba instructor, Amy the clogging teacher, and several others. Some of them are mentioned in the blog, others are not. And many of them, like Bill, I keep in touch via Facebook, even if that's sporadic at best.

Bill is a Food Scientist who runs his own business developing nutrition labels for food companies. If you are a carb counter or calorie watcher, chances are you've read his work. His is one of the largest companies in his field and he runs it off his laptop, which sits in places like Maine, Florida, the Caribbean Islands and for several months of the year, Belize. My guess is Bill read that book The4-Hour Work Week, and took notes.

When I met Bill in 2012, the conversation went something like this:

Bill - Hi, I'm Bill. I live in the apartment above you.

Lorry – Hi, I'm Lorry

B- How long are you staying in Placencia?

L – A month

B – Listen, I'm leaving tomorrow for Honduras for a couple of weeks, but I just bought this motorcycle. You're welcome to use it while I'm gone.

L – WOW, thanks! But... I've seen people drive here. It's probably not the best place to learn to ride a motorcycle, as much as I really appreciate the offer!

There may have been more to it than that, but that's the gist of the interaction.

After he got back from Honduras, I saw Bill and chatted a few more times, including my last morning in Belize where we exchanged email and wished each other safe travels.

I kept in touch with Bill about as much as I had with any of the others I'd met here - the occasional Facebook 'Like' or 'Comment'.

Two Decembers ago he sent a PM, saying, “I'll be in Belize January through March. Condo on the beach. You're welcome to the second bedroom, only have to pay to get yourself here and to eat. Let me know”.

Two Decembers ago the 'get yourself here' part was running $800-900 and as a struggling (martial) artist, I couldn't justify spending that much. So I regretfully declined. This year when I got the same PM from Bill, getting there was half the price.

So, I decided to do it. I'm not exactly fiscally fit, but a week in Belize for $500.... hard to turn down. I'll figure out the money part when I get back!

To get here cheaply, I had to fly out of LaGuardia. Snow and ice overnight on departure day made for an interesting start to the journey.

The ice on the sidewalk made getting to the car treacherous. Once in and on my way, the driving wasn't much better. As my car struggled to make it up the first icy hill and failed (had to turn around and go a different route just to get out of my development), the radio played Ship To Wreck by Florence and the Machine. Not exactly instilling confidence.

“To wreck, to wreck, to wreck,
Did I build this ship to wreck? “

She sang as I muddled through icy roads and a foggy 3am morning, trying my best to keep the car ON the road.   Florence, you're killing me. DID I build this ship to wreck??

As if the radio knew I needed encouragement the next song was the group Fun, singing Carry On.

“If you're lost and all alone

Or you're sinking like a stone,

Carry O-o-o-o-on”

That's more like it. Carry O-o-o-o-on!!

That song stuck with me all day. Carry O-o-o-o-on.....the car ride to the bus, bus to NYC, shuttle to the airport, plane to Dallas, plane to Belize City, itty bitty plane to Placencia, and a golf cart ride to the South Waters resort.

Every connection was tight, but I made it. And everything went smoothly, except they did make me check my Carry O-o-o-o-on bag at the gate at LaGuardia, which I was really happy to see show up at baggage claim in Belize City. I spent half my flights that day wondering what to do if the bag didn't make it. Maybe I should stop worrying about things before they don't happen any way...? Hmm.

So a long day's journey ends with Bill picking me up at Placencia Airport and bring me to South Waters by golf cart. And here I am – back in Belize.

One year ago today, I left on an adventure. 
A month in Belize.  

Exciting things happened everyday.  I wrote about them in this blog.

In reality, mundane things happened everyday. But I still wrote about them.  Go ahead, back up a few posts and read it, if you like. Or I can just give you a quick review:

Let's see... I walked around a village a lot, did laundry, went on bike rides, took yoga, Zumba and dance classes, went out to eat a lot. Pretty dull.

Oh....there was that one time I stole a smoothie.  True, I had a sighting of Flava Flav on the first day.  And I did go to the beach a lot.  But for the most part it was day to day, life as usual - in a tropical setting.

What set it apart - and what I liked about writing the blog - was that doing everyday things started me thinking about what might be blog-worthy.  I began seeing my time there as an adventure waiting to be written.   I knew a wise man who used to say (often) that you "find what you look for".  I spent my days "looking for" something to write about.  Looking for adventure.  And I found it.

In the eleven months since my return a lot has happened in my life, but I haven't written about any of it.

Difficult things:
> My kids' Dad nearly died after infections from surgery
> I lost a dear friend, mentor and teacher after several months of complications from heart surgery.
> My wonderful Aunt Mary passed away

Fun things:
> Great times with my kids
>  Whale watching
> Horse riding

New things:
> I took up running and ran a 5k 
> Took part in a Kung Fu class
> Taught a board breaking seminar 
> Helped out at a Karate tournament

Adventurous things:
> Went to Colorado to see my brother and his wife
> Drove a scary canyon pass out there by MYSELF!
> Experienced a hurricane and 5 days without power.
> Left my job and trained for a new career as a Martial Arts teacher.

AND...
> I went to 4 Springsteen shows.   In one year!  With a friend.  With my kids.  Twice by myself!!
 I made new friends and had a great time.  BY MYSELF!  (maybe Belize did teach me something!)

That's a lot of stuff, sad stuff, happy stuff, even some adventurous stuff.   And I didn't write about any of it!  I wish I had.  There were some REALLY good stories in there! 

And so...
I'm not going to let this year go undocumented.  I don't have to be 1700 miles away from home, living alone on a beach to have an adventure.  Everyday is an adventure.  In your life, too!  I encourage you to look for it.

You find what you look for.  If we look for adventure in everyday life, the story will find us. 

 I'm going to write about mine.  You can read along if you like.  Or not.  

  

Day 28

My last full day in Belize felt like the perfect wrap up/review scene in a movie.   Placencia was having an all day party with it's Sidewalk Arts Festival.   It's famous sidewalk was lined with vendors selling art and food. There were stages set up for music and dancing and different events going on all day.

I wandered into the main tent in the morning and laughed to myself because the music playing was one of the songs we did at Zumba.  Oddly, the next song was as well.  Walking further in, I could see Yoli, the Zumba teacher and Nicole one of the other students up on stage dancing (and I knew all the moves they were doing)!   They were doing a Zumba demonstration!    I didn't make the last class this week, but I'm betting when Yoli asked, Nicole was the only student brave enough to join in.

It was great to see them one last time and I was able to thank Yoli once again for letting me join in.

  While I was standing there enjoying their performance, a woman tapped me on the shoulder.  It was Amy, the Clogging teacher.   We exchanged last goodbyes and thank you's.  So nice to see her, too.

The next event was a dog show - of course I had to stay for that!  There was categories for costumes, style and unusual looking dogs.

 This is Lee, who owns The Secret Garden - where I stayed - and her dog Bruno.  Two third places, good job, Bruno!

 A Chihuahua dressed as a panda.

This little guy took two first places

I walked up and down the sidewalk, bought a few things, stopped at a coffee shop.  Walking through the festival I recognized different people from here and there during the last weeks.  It made me feel a tiny part of things in the village.

Later in the afternoon, I took a walk through the rest of town, thinking about all the things I've done while I was here.  I walked past the different places I've stopped to eat, different beaches I liked.  I went down by the docks where I had met Nancy and Jay and stopped near a certain palm tree under which I've spent a lot of time reading.  It was good to remember all the things I'd been able to do.  These four weeks have been a blessing, I'm so grateful for the experience.  But, there's one more thing I think I need to do before I say goodbye....

When I started telling people at home about taking this trip I invariably got asked one of two questions.  Well, three if you count the people who'd look at me oddly and say, "By your self?!!?".

But mostly, there were two questions - 1)Where's Belize? and  2)Why Belize?

'Where's Belize?' has an easy answer.
'Why Belize?' always left me trying to think of a good response.  Truth is I don't really know why I chose it.
> I have always had an affinity for tropical escapism (?)
> Belize comes up on Craigslist postings when you search for places to stay in the Caribbean.  (??) (Even though it's in Central America)
> I've always liked the song 'Come Away To Belize With Me'.  (???)

I don't know.  Let's just blame it on one too many Jimmy Buffet songs and novels.
So, If I'm going to blame this all on Jimmy, it only seems right....

That's right.  I ate a cheese burger. 

I have not voluntarily eaten a cheeseburger since I was 5, but this seemed the right time to do it.  I walked down to The Paradise Resort (....get it??)  and ordered myself a Cheeseburger and fries.

"I like mine with lettuce and tomatoes...."

The random person at the bar, who I asked to take this picture, unwittingly did a splendid job getting the 'Welcome to Paradise' sign in the background!  LOL

When I first started thinking about going away this winter I looked at cruises or all-inclusive resorts.  As my search went on, I started to realize I wasn't looking for a neatly packaged Caribbean experience.  There's nothing wrong with that, maybe I'll do that next year.  But this time, I wanted to experience living somewhere else - to know for myself that I could do it if I wanted to .

Placencia lived up to everything I expected and then some.  I had great experiences, some ups and downs, met wonderful people and learned a lot about myself.  I'm thankful for my family and friends who were so helpful and encouraging.  For those of you who've been reading along on this blog, I thank you too - I hope you enjoyed the trip!

Scarlet Macaws are not Spotted, Either

For my last excursion in Belize, I called Shal and booked a ride to the town of Red Bank (the one in Belize, not the one in New Jersey, right next to Asbury Park...although I like going there, too.)

Just outside Red Bank is jungle known to be a Scarlet Macaw nesting area.  January and February is peak time to see the birds.  Of course there's no guarantee you'll see them.  Best you can do is hire a guide, go to the jungle and have a look.

So, that's what I did.

Red Bank is a little less than an hour from Placencia.   It's a nice ride and a beautiful morning.  

                                   On the way we passed this boy walking his bike, his horse and a dog.

 Every time we turned onto a new road, it became a little less 'road like'.  Paved road becomes dirt road, dirt road becomes a tractor road and that becomes a muddy, bumpy path.  Shal's van slipped and slid but did a great job getting through.  We parked it in an orange grove and set off on our hike.

 Did I say hike?  It was more of a mountain climb.   Occasionally, Shal would stop to listen for the macaws,  then decide which direction to go. We got to a spot where the path split.  Shal turned to me and said, "We'll go this way, but it's going to be uphill"
"Going to be uphill?", I thought.  It's already been uphill!
At the next fork, Shal said, "We'll go this way, but it's going to get steep"
"GOING to get steep??"
And then he said, it's only about 40 more minutes.  Really?  For the first few minutes I kept telling myself I misunderstood him.  Surely he must have said fourteen minutes, not forty.  But, no.  It was a tough hike.  Steep parts.  Slippery parts.  I could feel my heart pounding in my teeth.  Quite a workout..

At first, I thought we were going to have to cross on this tree trunk, but the path went around the ravine.

                                   This was the view from almost the top.  It was very beautiful.

 We sat and stared out this vista for over an hour looking for macaws, but saw none.  I needed nearly every minute of that time to recover from the climb!
 Heading back down the mountain, while not as heart-pounding as ascending, was slippery and difficult.  I only fell once...which I thought was pretty good!

We tried three more areas where Shal thought we might find macaw, including along this river.  It was a very beautiful spot, but no macaws.  Actually at this point, after that cardio-workout jungle hike up the mountain and back, I'd have been kind of mad at the birds to show up here - on flat land, half a mile from the car!

On the way back there were bananas on the path.   Maybe it was the hiking endorphins making me a little giddy, but it cracked me up, so I took a picture.   I guess it's not that funny - there were banana trees everywhere along the trail.  But, still...

It was a nice day, even without seeing the macaws. We did see woodpeckers, parrots, parakeets, a laughing falcon, at least 10 types of butterfly and many beautiful plants and flowers.  It was a great trip!

When I got back home, in the evening I decided to take a walk down the main street.  I ran into my Rasta friend Antonio.  He was full of questions - "Where's you bike?", "Do you want to get a beer?", "Do you want to buy a CD, necklace...?", "Where are you staying?", "Will you come back to Belize?"

I chatted with him for a moment and went on my way.  Later when I returned up the street a woman sitting in front of a shop called me over.  She was very exotic looking - dark like many Belizeans, but with bright blue eyes.  She was stringing beads to make a necklace.  I half expected a jewelry sales pitch when she said, "Dat man?  Dat man you talk to before.  He baaad news.  Very bad.  He jus want you money.  Dat's all he like is himself, money and da ladies.  Very bad news."

I said, "Oh I know.  I've been warned, I've run into him before."

She responded saying, "Yeah, He very bad.  He break doors if he think you have money."

!!!!

I reached down to pet her dog.

"And he hit my dog once.  He only like himself and money.  Da ladies he like, but he don't like animals"

Well...don't like animals? - that's the final straw.  Good bye, Antonio.

I went home and checked my multi-layer security system.  That system consists of:

A screen door with a latch.

 A door lock

Guard dogs. 

A nail in the wall that keeps the window shutters from opening

 Battery-powered window alarms that beep, beep beep if the window opens.

 Rock, paper, scissors.

And me in my zebra pajamas.

(My willingness to post unflattering pictures has been the bravest thing I've done!  LOL)

The first day I got here, Lee showed me around.  I learned how to close the window shutters.  She pointed out that there were nail holes in the walls and nails on the window sills to keep the shutters closed.  She also told me how to work the little window alarms.

Then she said, "You should probably close the shutters when you are out or when you are sleeping...and don't leave valuables, like your laptop in view, they'll cut the screens. reach right in and take stuff."

"Really?"

So that night a I sat wondering what on earth had I done in coming here, alone, for a month.  Before going to bed I latched the hook, locked the door, pet the dogs,  put the nails in the wall, turned on the alarms and looked through my stuff for anything that might serve as a weapon.  Best I could come up with was a pair of scissors.  I also found a rock on the kitchen counter (the previous tenant must have been weapon-minded as well...), and placed them on the shelf next to my bed.

The fact that they were sitting on paper was a happy coincidence that I didn't realize until some days later....rock, paper, scissors!  lol

If you get past all that you have me to deal with.  If my zebra pjs don't scare you, at the very least you'll have a fight on your hands.  (The image of zebra-me in the dark yelling "I have a rock and scissors and I'm not afraid to use 'em!", sends me into giggle fits)

Everything's been fine - no problems.  I dutifully tuck away my laptop every time I go out and take reasonable safety precautions that you would traveling anywhere.  Well, except for a couple of mornings where I woke up and realized I totally forgot to lock the door.  LOL   Ooops.