Saturday 6th February
Yesterday evening I caught a snapper off our pier, our biggest catch so far, much to Nick’s exasperation! But we paid a price in that we got eaten alive by bugs just as the sun went down!
Today we decided to take a walk to Ak’Bol for a day out partaking in yoga, snorkelling and Belizian lunch. Our grand design did not quite work to plan….as the weather was much cloudier and cooler (not great for snorkelling) and the yoga class was not running! Still we enjoyed our walk!
Well it appears that our corporate funeral company in Canada, Arbor, are not going to seize the opportunity we offered them for the Canadian web site. This has fuelled us to go back to our previous design, which was to create a funeral services network using the directory site to drive traffic to the business. Nick is now at work designing the template for the site. In addition to this we have identified further web design work something we are told “you can make a fortune doing” here. The global recession is certainly taking its toll here, and therefore effective internet marketing is now fundamental to being successful in AC. Four Lebanese families own all the stores and a number of other businesses here, and by good fortune Nick has got a meeting with them this morning to discuss web site design and development.
Added to this plus, is the fact that we have finally got Skype working via a VPN, and at long last are able to make calls. Nick is just now chatting to his Dad back home. Setting it up last night was a complete buzz, putting us on a high, laced with frustration as with the time difference we could not actually talk to anyone until this morning.
We bought our first fishing rod yesterday, and did our first exploration into sea fishing last night. It was amazing to see so many different fish coming out, although only small, they were all colourful, feisty little fishes. We found out that the ‘stick’ fish is actually a Needle fish and has the meanest mouth I have seen on a small fish.
Today has been a GOOD day! Our shoestring issue was so wonderfully resolved by our good Samaritan Calgary neighbours, Burl and Jenny, who wonderfully subbed us $100 just as we were down to our last few dollars!! And our ‘clever’ Texan casket seller actually paid up early…..so we should have the funds available to draw on Tuesday. We enjoyed a pleasant day round the pool being extremely sociable. Strangely enough just the day after Nick and I discussed going to Austrailia from here…..who should we meet round the pool but a couple from Sydney!!! Oh but for coincidences!!!
Reading the news from the UK today I came to the conclusion that journalists in the UK must have felt they needed to inject a little ‘realism’ to the news today. Maybe a diversion from the tragedy of Haiti was needed?? Tesco announce that they are to ban customers from shopping in pyjamas; and an employment agency are informed that they cannot advertise for “reliable, hard-working” employees as it would be “offensive” to unreliable applicants!! It is good to know that some people focus on real issues in these surreal times!!
The last couple of days have been good days. We have finally ‘switched on’ our working heads and begun to address a few issues. We have had a couple of very minor ‘horn-locks’ but these have been resolved and neutralised. Now we have to try and decide our forward plan. The frustrations of the useless inconsistent internet and lack of skype continue to plague us. And the last couple of days have pushed us to explore options for leaving AC – however, we have been shocked to discover the extortionate costs to fly around Central America. So the question yet remains…..to stay, or not to stay? And if we do decide to move on…….where next?
