Spring

Hi Hi!

Well it has been three months of horrible snow and cold. Mom and dad have been busy they opened a new shop and I have been busy making sure they know every time someone comes in. I am not fond of all those smelly, noisy, loud people that are always coming in and disturbing my space. I am not going to quit barking at them, so there. I don't like them. I do love to go to the shop and to come home though. Exciting!

Well it is spring here, it is a bit of a sad day today because today is the day we would have been coming home from Belize if we had not left early. I miss the warm sun and the no snow. I miss my daily walk about. Now they are issuing another snow fall warning here for tomorrow. YUCK YUCK YUCK. I know mom and dad hate snow. I often wonder why there is snow in the world to begin with and why the heck I had to be born in a snowy country. How unfair is that! It is kind of stupid if you ask me.

The only up side I can see to a snowy country is that people are a bit.... ok ok .....very ambitious. Well they really have no choice if they are not they will Freeze to Death in the cold snowy months. Also you do not see the poverty as much here because it is to COLD, everyone is indoors somewhere you can not live outside.

So the snow is melting and the sun is shining and it is going to freaking snow tomorrow again! Now is the time I want mom and dad to get back on a plane and fly me the heck out of here. If we were rich I am sure they would! We however are not. As much as they wish they would win the lottery hahaha. So they work really hard and we survive, just like most of the people in the world. I get a couple treats and sometimes I even get food I like, I am really really picky. And if I lay in the sun and close my eyes I can pretend there is NO SNOW

So back to mom and dads new shop. It is doing good, been pretty steady for clients. They are looking forward to summer to make some extra so maybe we can go away for a couple months this winter. Thinking of spending time in Hawaii, mom LOVES Hawaii and is always asking why she was not born in a beautiful place like that. I can not imagine anyone saying, why oh why was I not born in a great country like Canada but I know they are out there. Lots of people immigrate here, I guess we do have a great country for jobs and working in. Like I say not a lazy country, we are too cold here! We have to keep moving or we will freeze to death in the winter. When summer actually comes for the 3 months we have nice weather it is so beautiful. I just do not get why it has to snow! And of course Canada does not have any beautiful tropical hot areas. We have the West coast where it rarely snows but it is far from tropical and because it is the only part of the country that does not get snow it is over populated and over priced to live there because everyone who can not get out of the country wants to live there. Well except for the fact it rains 80% of the time there. Lots of people can not handle that. I am not sure if I could or not, but at this point I do not foresee having to figure it out as we are once again stuck in the snowbound land we are in.  The one upside to it is looking forward to summer and then be fortunate enough to make enough money to go somewhere warm for awhile in the winter.

So I am excitedly waiting for spring, and just when we get a little tease and the snow starts to melt it freaking snows again! GRRRRRRRR. I am getting very very annoyed with it. But hey what can I do? Mother Nature can sure be a bitch and there is absolutely NOTHING anyone can do to stop her. Maybe next year will be a better year and we will get almost no snow!!! I love those kinds of winters, okay I don't 'love' them but I sure like them a lot better.

 I know what mom and dad would love is to be able to pick up their whole life here and move it to a country with palm trees, sunshine and oceans. Business and all.

Oh well got to get back under my blanket and nap. It is still a bit chilly here.

Bark at you later.
Jasper

Long time away

So I have not written in awhile. Moms laptop died from the humidity and we just got it fixed!

I am a bit sad. Mom and Dad decided to bring me home to Canada. I miss the nice warm weather. Now I have to wear a sweater and booties and still I freeze.

So many things happened in the last days we were in Belize. First my mom's laptop died. Here is a tip do not bring expensive laptops to Belize the moisture builds up in them and will wreck them.

The tiny little cottage we rented to stay in for the first three months was WAY to small and the bed felt like a rock. We might as well have been laying on the floor! Also the fridge was teeny tiny and the freezer did not work because it was so small. Plus it cost way to much for such a small place and the lady kept our deposit (which was half the astronomical rent $1100 a month) for the extra month we were going to stay but changed our mind even though we gave her 30 days notice we were not staying for December. For the amount we paid you would think toilet paper and cleaning service would be included in the price (the cleaning service was supposed to be included but the maid quit so nothing ever got cleaned we had to do it ourselves and had to ask for a mop and bucket to do it because there was none in the cottage and we were not buying it to leave there!!) but nothing was included! Not Toilet paper, not cleaning service or supplies, not water for the water cooler! We had to buy the bottled water for the cooler at $10 a bottle, you do not realize how much water you actually drink in a hot climate until you have to buy it yourself! Butane for the stove was not even included , if you ran out you had to get the bottle filled yourself! Plus they build the cottages like european or american houses that want to conserve heat, there were only big windows on one wall and so you got no cross breeze to cool the cottage and it was like a sauna most of the time unless you used the AC and we like the breeze so it was really annoying. None of these things were mentioned in and correspondence with the lady when we booked the cottage. I guess it does not matter where in the world you go people will take advantage of you if they can. The lady who owned the corner store said no one ever stayed long there because it was so expensive! These people had moved from Ambergis Caye and it is very pricey to stay there so I guess they thought they can still charge the same prices in Corozal. I think they might go out of business as no one stays long and no one will go back to such an expensive place where nothing is included I know my mom will not recommend it to anyone.

The place we were going to rent for the winter was big and beautiful but expensive we could rent for the same amount back home in Canada and did not include anything except a bed a kitchen table a couple chairs and a couch (and if the quality of bed we slept on in the cottage was any indication of the bed we would have had it would have been horrible to sleep on). So we would have had to buy everything else (dishes, bedding, small appliances, towels, EVERYTHING) and that seemed silly when we were going to be leaving it all behind in six months. Plus we found out the man who owned it had been shot there and that was a bit disconcerting.  This was told to us by the lady we were renting the cottage from AFTER she recommended we go see him for a rental! So it turned out even though we changed our mind and moved a full month before we were going to move in the man still kept our first and last month deposit. Considering he was the kind of guy that someone felt they had to shoot, mom and dad just walked away from it.

Yes there were cheaper places but I was a little afraid to go out into some of the yards as they were pretty over grown, who knows what is lurking the tall dark grass in the corners that could jump out and bite me, and the houses were pretty dirty even for me and I am a dog!

Mom and dad did not like the fact that there were no sandy beaches. The places we swam was either where the boats docked or where the storm drain emptied into the bay, and the area had garbage and broken glass in the water. The water was not clear either most of the time because it is a bay and brackish water not salt water and the wind would always be churning up the silty sand and making the water murky.

I hated the ants that were always crawling up my legs! And the teeny tiny ones swarming any crumbs or drips on counters and floor it was yucky. I know we deal with mice and stuff at home sometimes but at least you can kill them! You can not kill those tiny ants it is impossible!

The quality of goods was very substandard and pretty expensive considering how poor the quality was if you could even find what you wanted at all. There is very little if any selection of many things including bedding, towels and some dishes. And if you do not have a car to drive to Belize city or Mexico you are stuck with what is in town. Of course if you drive to Mexico you have to pay the 30% tax on goods purchased when you come back plus there is a $17 exit fee and another $17 re-entry fee to leave and get back in the country. A blender for example will cost you a minimum of $40 US which is a lot considering you can buy the same on in Canada for $20. The sheets we bought for $30 US (better quality would cost about $20 at home) were very thin low quality and got little balls all over them within the first two weeks of using them. There is a huge tax on anything brought into the country so the quality has to be really low and cheap so that once the tax it tacked on it is still reasonable enough for people to buy it. Oh and here is a tip the queen size sheets only fit a double bed! The dog food sucked! Okay I am spoiled I admit it but it was icky I refused to eat it.

I also did not enjoy the constant karaoke singing from all the neighbours! Very loud and almost every day, as there is really nothing to do in Corozal but cook, clean, do yard work, walk to the market, watch TV and when you do not want to do that, drink and sing I guess. It sucked listening to drunk people sing in a foreign language for hours on end. And there were rude barking dogs everywhere! Every yard almost had rude barking dogs, I guess they are not like me and not part of the family just working dogs and there job is to bark at everything that moves!

Always the weather and the people were really nice! I wish we had gotten to see more of the country but car rentals were too expensive mom said. So it was a bit boring after awhile to be stuck in a small town with nothing to do. We are used to having a car and being able to go and do stuff.

I know it would have been way different if we had been able to buy a house and have a car and work. Mom says she is to young to just sit around and do nothing all day except clean and cook.

So we are back home again. Missing the warmth but not the boredom. Mom says after her foray into trying to live in a tropical country she thinks she is more of an all-inclusive girl for now.  There have been three or four murders in the 6 weeks we have been home in Corozal and area one washed up just down from the place we used to swim! That makes me glad we are home.

Belize is a country for people who have A LOT of money not for someone wanting to go live on a budget, unless of course your okay living in a dirty little shack and eating rice and beans. I will put up with the cold. Well actually it is not even too bad yesterday and today as far as northern weather goes we were warmer than New Mexico and Arizona! LOL

Sorry for the delay in writing like I said we just got back the laptop that got wrecked in Belize from the humidity.

Stay tuned I will for sure share many other adventures even though they are not in Belize anymore!!

Bark at you later.
Jasper