A few pictures from a weekend trip out to Tobacco Caye

Sunrise at Placencia


A free taxi ride to the caye

Can't decide.... snorkling or hammock time?

Beer O'clock

The belize equivalent of 'nice sky Macintyre, well done'.....(from Local Hero)

A few more pictures from Pook's

the only picture missing is one of the bar....!

the view from my cabana

Pooks Hill

My standard line when one of the guests asks me how long I've been here is 'I came to visit for the weekend and that was three weeks ago'. Which is pretty much true. Pooks Hill really is an idyllic location, and I seem to have clicked with Vicki the owner, and the managers Cat and Dave. So I have been doing odd jobs, I look after the phone while the others are out (don't panic!) and obviously am a permanent fixture behind the bar come the evening. And the clientele are by and large good company and I've made some pretty strong casual connections if thats not a contradictory statement. I'm good at that sort of thing. And I've been able to sit down and have a good look at the photos I took while I was in the forest, and unbelieveably a reasonable number have actually been in focus, which is a relief. Some interesting pictures are starting to emerge and there is a growing possibility that I may be able to exhibit some stuff while I'm here. We shall see. I'm almost certain that I will extend my departure date to the beginning of April, so I'll have a few weeks to pull something together. It seems very easy to network here, its a small country and everyone is pretty welcoming and interested in what your doing....

http://www.pookshilllodge.com/

Oh, and I thought you probably didn't want to know that after giving what I think is due diligence to the project over the last month I did find time to escape for a couple of days on the coast. It was quite cool and raining when I arrived on Saturday morning but by Monday it was scorching hot. I went out to an island called Tobacco Caye and had a very relaxing day snorkling and doing whatever you do on the beach...I even got a free ride out there by some fluke, which I can safely say is the first time I've 'beaten Belize' while I've been out here.

Hopefully back to Las Cuevas this week, the road is much drier and I have a clearer idea of the photos I need to complete the first series of pictures....more snapshots to follow

Vague Productivity

Seem to have made some progress with sorting out the pictures this week and actually getting excited about the small possibilty of exhibiting some artwork while I'm here in Belize....Life is treating me well here at the jungle lodge and really am plotting to stay as long as possible...hopefully through March all being well....

ideas about the final picture compositions enclosed, oh and a funky picture of some rare bat we found at the back of the cave..and a flukey picture of a Bird of Paradise

Snapshots of Las Cuevas

http://www.lascuevas.org/

Aerial view of the Chiquibul Forest Photo Credit: Alistair Rogers

The research station in a rare bit of sunshine

The entrance to the cave at 'Las Cuevas'

Daily Life

View from the bird tower

Sunset over the forest

The journey back to San Ignacio

Jumping Ship

A lot of good intentions of following up my first entry before now have come to nought but here we are at last.....

Been in Belize over a month now and really starting to feel quite at home. This is mainly because I have somehow ended up staying at an exclusive low key jungle retreat, forsaking the forest for a bit of unadulterated but unstuffy luxury. One of the (not exactly) profound things I'm realising on this trip that I'm not as young as used to be, and although I'm certainly still what would be defined by the clientele here as, 'an independent traveller', the days of long bumpy bus rides and cheap guesthouses don't seem to be as high on the priority list as they used to be.

So where were we? Ah yes Las Cuevas.
In the end I've so far only spent ten days at the research station, but that is not to say that I have lost focus on the main objective of the trip. Unfortunately my timing was not very fortuitous, as the project has suffered, like so many things in the current economic crisis, from a lack of short term funding. After arriving brimming with enthusiasm, in the first few days of my stay, three US institutions cancelled their bookings for February and March, and the project manager effectively resigned from his post and went off to look for another job. This obviously had some knock on effects for the day to day running of the station, and as part of the ensuing cost cutting measures the camp cooks were sent home, the plush 4 by4 Toyota I arrived in was sent back to the rental firm, and the generator was turned on barely four hours a day, from 5 til 9 in the evening. This meant that we had light and the precious internet (yes wi-fi in the forest... u can't escape the unrelenting tentacles of the outside world these days), though it seriously stretched the desirabilty of eating the chicken and pork lost in the bottom of the freezer.

And on top of all it rained, and it rained....not in a depressing way mind, and I was still able to get out into the forest and take a lot pictures, but it did have quite an effect on the state of the track back out to the highway. The last stretch of 12 miles closest to camp is the least well maintained, and we had fun and games trying to get back out to civilisation. On the first occasion I went out, (to get my stitched removed) we actually had to prearrange to meet up with a vehicle on the other side of the worst spots, some one and a half hours walking distance from the station, and when I came to head out at the end of my stay, we quite predictabily got stuck for half an hour in one particularly deep mud hole. Fortunately to save myself (and you) from any more long winded descriptions I have a little video which basically sums its all up... Jimmy (the young dude driving the vehicle) is quite a character, but to big him up any more would ove inflate his already bulging ego...oh and i'll throw in some tree cutting ants in too, could watch them all day

must fly guests arriving more later
(hopefully not too much later)
Geoff

funnily enough videos in error will try later