Though a straight line appears to be the shortest distance between 2 points, life has a way of confounding geography. Often it is the dalliances and the detours that define us. There are no maps to guide our most important searches; we must rely on hope, chance, intuition and a willingness to be surprised.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

It’s just another week for Hugh, Hugh and me in Paradise


Since Caye Caulker, I’ve been desperate to get back out to the Belizian islands. San Pedro on Ambergris Caye was another special place. Ambergris Caye is the island that Madonna sings about in La Isla Bonita, but otherwise I couldn’t find anything wrong with the place. I did some fantastic scuba diving at the reef off San Pedro, getting to 100 feet below the surface at one point. Will say more about the diving later.


The atmosphere in the Cayes is completely addictive. I’m already wondering how I can wangle a mid-week visit without missing work.


Having now been to both Caye Caulker and San Pedro, I’d say that Caye Caulker pulls me back more… but maybe that’s without reckoning on Palaba Bar. This is a little bar perched over the water on the end of one of San Pedro’s piers. It’s just a few yards from where I took the photos at the top and bottom of this post. A beer or five there as the sun goes down is just heaven…

Does anyone

have a spare

2.8 million

US dollars?



I’ve also been to Belize Zoo. Since growing out of short trousers, I’ve only ever been to one zoo that hasn’t made me feel uncomfortable. Belize is pretty close to being another. Here the animals are kept in something like their natural habitat, though I was still a bit concerned by the pacing of the big cats. All the animals at the zoo are indigenous to Belize, so it’s a great way of getting to know the fauna of the country.

This guy may look stuffed, but he is very much alive and well and a very important bird to Belize. The zoo does it’s best to educate Belizians about the importance of living in harmony with the wildlife, a lot of which is unique to their small country.



And this is my friend Hugh. Hugh Jass has been a resident at Belize Zoo since the 1980s…


Plenty of wildlife can be found without even having to go to the zoo. This is my neighbour, Emiliano, with the sort of intruder that can regularly be found in the garden between our houses. Mr Torres is a teacher at one of the local schools and his wife, Gloriacela is the head-teacher.

Work has been good in the last week. I’ve started to put together a financial model that looks at BCVI’s finances in a different way. This will hopefully help with the charity’s management/strategic decision making. I also gave a presentation this week to some of the staff of CARE Belize about budget management. CARE Belize (Community Agency for Rehabilitation and Education) is a charity for children with disabilities.

Taking great photos here is like shooting fish in a barrel.