Hazelnuts. They're expensive partially because they take eight months to grow and ripen.
What diet today? Ernie, Dayami and I ordered out Chinese food. It was glorious, and huge portions as well. Strange coincidence, the menu was an old photocopy that contained many phonetic words so I explained what some of them meant to Dayami. Gai means chicken. Chow means fried. Won ton means dumplings. Fawn means rice. Chow Fawn would mean fried rice, etc. Shelly speaks up. She was, I think, born in China, daughter of a military family. Not often you see two blonde blue-eyed gringos rapping about old times in Peking in an office full of Spanish speakers east of Miami. Oh, this does not amuse me. To again note the only people who have done anything like what I have in life have all done it at their parents expense.
A possible bottleneck removed. I’ve met someone who knows people who build those custom trailers for motorcycles. Harley’s weigh a lot, much more than toothpicks. I left her with a diagram. Also, I joined a Belize group on the internet. There is plenty of good and bad talk about Long Caye. Some say it’s a primitive unserviced swamp (like Miami Beach and Honolulu once?) and to others that is what makes in paradise. What I don’t like is this boardwalk all the brochures brag up. What kind of island needs a boardwalk? The kind that are underwater after every little storm. At any rate, no actually at a comparatively fast rate, information is now moving. The locals predicted the island development would be a total flop. But since it is still there, it must be doing okay. The progress has been really slow, from HeyJude, whose friend actually owns one of the lots, tho HeyJude has not been on the island herself.
On the mainland, she confirms what I suspected. Prices have quadrupled in the last four or five years, and the bargains are all gone. She also notes the lot sizes are very tiny, several per acre. There is also some backlash to foreign landowners and HeyJude mentions a few foreigners whose property got torched in the night. There is one hothead, Amos, in the group who hates Belizeans and did not enjoy his stay over there. “Belize sucks and it’s full of stupid Belizeans.” He thinks anyone who invests there should have a head examination. Others point out a lot of the places (hotels, restaurants and food shops) that caused the huge increase in rents and prices “since ‘96” are “owned by Canadians” who came in with tons of borrowed money, overpaid for property and now have to squeeze the locals to make a profit. These newcomers are also blamed for staying open on Sundays and national holidays because they have to pay the mortgages, but destroythe character of the towns they are in.
What about Guatemala and the Honduras? For openers, they don’t speak English, and I find I have to have a good convo in English at least once a week. Also, they are unstable and have local wars going on. I don’t make a good hostage. But I will keep open minded, and Ernie’s friend, Armando, owns a hotel in Belize, on the mainland. One common theme is all warn me about a change in Belizean character in the past few years. They beg for money, and lay the guilt trip on you, much like India. Several brochures advise not talking to the locals unless you are “buying something from them.” HeyJude says don’t ask anyone how they are or you get the whole sob story. I’m okay with my track record of getting along with locals everywhere, so I still intend to check things out.
[Author’s note: I’ll likely say again when it happens, but it turns out Frank and I could have bought a trailer for $550, rather than the $3,450 that got wasted.]
[Author's note: the money was not really wasted, but it was spent when it needn't be. However, I did not know that I would still own the Taurus six years later. A neat little car, that station wagon, with power everything. Blew a piston ring or something in Richardson, TX, and still ran great for the next 35,000 miles. I eventually sold it for $350, still running.]
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