Copal Tree Lodge, Belize. 1/7/2020 Tu

Good morning to you! As I have been cranky about people not liking my posts I am suggesting that you go up to the beginning of the post and click on the blue heading of the post. That way you will be able to go directly to the blog website where you will see the like button on the bottom of the post. Then you take your little index finger put it over the like button and press “like”. If you are reading on a desk top, then you need to use your mouse. It is really quite simple. I could be really mean and make this post in two parts. Those that clicked the like button would be kept on the mailing list. Those that don’t would get scrubbed. But I am nice, and I am not going to do that. As you could just go directly to the website and read the posts that way.

Did you click the blue post heading yet?

Today I ordered scrambled eggs for breakfast. I was also given Ketchup and hot sauce on the side. I suspect it was hot sauce although I didn’t try it.

I had a plate of fruit on the side.

This morning I headed to the lower veranda to hang out. All the howler monkeys were asleep and I didn’t see many birds although I could hear them. On Trip Advisor many people had posted about the great number of birds that they saw on the bird watching expeditions here. One person mentioned that they saw over 175 different species over 4 days! That is a lot of birds! I can’t say that this is something I will try as the thought of wandering around in the jungle trying to locate birds is not my cup of tea. Especially with it being so humid out and there are lots of bugs in the jungle.

While I am sitting on the lower veranda I am overheard some guests inquire about kayaking on the river below. Not my cup of tea also. Jungle, bugs, steamy weather, activity, hips stuck in an uncomfortable position. No thank you!

Before I knew it lunch time had come and I climbed upstairs to eat again.

My lunch time view.

I ordered the beef quesadillas. They came with all the usual fixings.

Instead of having something highly caloric for dessert I asked for a fruit plate. Talk about a generous serving!

After lunch I decided to try to locate the gym. It was down by the river. I could take the tram down or walk. What is your prediction?

Fooled you! I decided that I would walk down, but wanted to push the button to call the tram to test it out.

I think there were over 300 steps to reach the gym and I did not want to end up walking down and not getting a ride back up and needing to walk 300 steps back up. Momma didn’t raise me to be a fool!

The tram sounded like it was moving, so off I went, as I was reasonably assured that I could ride back up the hill.

Last year when we were here we met some French people that worked in Manhattan. They were in tremendous shape and walked down and up the stairs. I am not French, so I am therefore not in tremendous shape.

I was happy to see that the tram was indeed on its way back up.

I didn’t need to rest on the bench on my way down, I would have needed a long rest if I tried to walk up the stairs.

Halfway point!

The gym. They did a lot of renovations since last year, extending the gym.

There was an exercise bike, a weight system and some other equipment. The gym was air conditioned, but I don’t think that it was ever turned on. So even if you wanted to work out, the gym would take forever to be at a comfortable temperature.

There was also a bathroom with kayak paddles and life preservers. There is something about those sinks that are mounted above the counter. I don’t really like them. I prefer my sink mounted into the counter.

The dock was completely renovated since last year. There had been a flood and it destroyed the dock.

Looks like the couple decided to go kayaking. Did I tell you yet today how much I hate kayaking?

I was going to sit in the chairs and read instead.

Of course it started to sprinkle as soon as I sat down. This is the view downstream. Eventually the stream hits the ocean.

So I headed back to the gym and to the tram.

I pushed the button and the tram started heading down the hill.

The tram! The tram! See these people on the left? They carried big sticks with them. We had such sticks in our room, but did not know what they were for. They were walking sticks!

I pushed the up button and off we went!

The view looking down to the river was not very good at all with the plexiglass being all dirty.

With a little elevation it wasn’t so bad after all.

Someplace in the jungle is our room!

There were even birds of paradise growing near the tram tracks.

Then it was time to relax and wait for Steve to come back from fishing.

Yay! Steve came back to report that he caught three fish! Here is Steve’s report:

The new season began with a trip to Belize, where I fished once again with Victor Jacobs for 4 days-Jan 5-8. I chose the timing to coincide with the moon phase approaching full, but this hurt rather than helped, because of the cool, overcast conditions that prevailed the entire trip. Visibility was so poor that only 2 options were available-fishing the very shallow lagoon, an hour’s boat ride north of the marina, where permit wakes and nervous water could be detected, or blind casting in the rivers for snook and tarpon. We did some of each most days. Compounding the difficulties was the Spring tides, which emptied the flats of water so that permit left for the deeper channels, where they are impossible to find unless they are picking crabs off leaves floating in the tidal current, which I did see once.

On Jan 5 and 6, I had no action at all. Jan 7 was a bit warmer, but still below normal, and the fish were more active. I saw a crocodile swimming across the Deep River. I caught my first ever tarpon, about 12 pounds, on a Clouser. The fish came out of nowhere and jumped immediately. He was very fast, but succumbed quickly to the 10 weight that I had borrowed from Joe Codd, who I recently met at Delphi. I had a much larger tarpon, probably 30-40 pounds, swirl at the fly 10 feet form the boat. I also missed a small tarpon and caught my first Yellow Tail Trevally, about 1.5 pounds. Late in the day we saw some permit wakes on the shallow flats, and I had a couple of shots, and I caught another yellow Tail Trevally, this one about 3 pounds and very strong. Overall it was a good day, extending my streak to 47 months and adding 2 new species to my list.

Well done Steve! Perhaps I shall rename to blog to Steve’s Excellent Adventures!

This is a picture of a tarpon. Much, much bigger than Steve’s fish. Steve unfortunately did not have Victor take a picture of any of today’s fish.

Tonight’s amuse bouche was devilled eggs again. They were just as yummy as the first time we had them.

My drink of the evening was a Spicy Mayan. Copalli Rum, all spice leaf, lime juice, simple syrup and orange bitters.

Steve had the chicken wings for his starter.

I can’t remember what kind of soup I had. I neglected to take a picture of the menu so your guess is as good as mine. It was green though!

Steve ordered the chicken. It was too dry. He did enjoy the puréed carrots.

I ordered the fish. It was very good. Since Steve didn’t really enjoy his chicken I shared my fish with him. I am such a kind and generous spouse, aren’t I?

For dessert I ordered the pineapple coconut pie. Actually it was pineapple pie with coconut ice cream on the side. I guess that explained why the pie didn’t taste like coconut at all. Slow learner that I am, I didn’t realize that the ice cream was coconut until 2 nights later. More of that story in another blog post!

Steve had the vanilla cake for his dessert.

So far this trip Steve and I stuck to ourselves. While at dinner tonight I overheard a couple that had just arrived inquire about lobster for dinner. They were told that lobster was served the previous night. After the waitress left, I was going to tell them that they didn’t miss much, but thought better of it.

Should Steve do his own blog?

Should I speak softly and carry a big stick?

Should I make friends with the couple who wanted to eat lobster?

Major quibble time. I have noticed that the only people who have been liking my blog posts are people that I do not know in real life. Some of my friends have been kind enough to post comments. For those true and loyal friends, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. For you others, you had better shape up or I will cease and desist on my blog posts. I spend about three hours on each post. The least that you can do is figure out how to like and comment on the blog.

Steve says that I should not post my major quibble. Not because a quibble is slight objection about a trivial matter. Number one, you can’t have a major quibble if a quibble is slight, and number two is that my blog is not a trivial matter to me. His attitude is that I have mentioned in the past that I expect my fan club to respond with a like or a comment and that I can just have a diary if my fans don’t evidence their appreciation.

Now I have admitted to being a lard ass and sitting around blogging and reading. Are you a lard ass also and have fingers that are too weak to push a key on a keyboard?

Steve also suggested that I sleep on my thoughts and then decide in the morning if I wanted to post my thoughts. I slept on it and added the top suggestion that readers could go directly from the email to the website. I have also been told by others that the old email posts had a like button on them and you didn’t have to go to the website. I will check on that with WordPress. (Although that is really a lame excuse J!).

Let’s see if my stats improve. It’s all about the stats, and the comments!