A couple of weeks ago I had the very cool experience of seeing a wild cat up close and personal.  Of course the events which brought this cat in to my life are very sad – it was a very young baby margay (http://www.belizezoo.org/zoo/zoo/mammals/mar/mar1.html) that had been orphaned and found by a Belizean in the jungle.  This cat is listed as an endangered animal so it was very sad to speculate that its mother had seen a worse fate.  A friend of mine decided to acquire the cat for the sole purpose of getting it to the Belize zoo located in Belize City – it is illegal to keep an animal such as this for a pet.  This little cat was so cute, but sounded just like a big jungle cat so it was a little nerve racking to be around the little guy.

The baby margay was very scared and simply stared at us.  He was maybe one or two pounds at the most.  In the cage he came in he tried his best to disappear in to a corner – we were glad to know that he would be in a much happier habitat soon.

The next day I coaxed him in to a cat carrier – appropriately a leopard print – with some tuna on a plate.  He seemed to be hungry enough since he went right in the carrier and I was able to zip him in for the trip from Corozal to Belize City.  So my friend and I plus another family all piled in to the vehicle and headed off to the zoo – we figured that we may as well make a day of it.  I had yet to see the Belize zoo so I was excited to make the trip.  We had called the zoo previously to make sure this was the best thing to do with the cat and they assured us it was and that they would take him in.

The trip to the zoo was about an hour and a half but we finally made it.  The skies were a bit cloudy and there was some light rain but we were determined to see all the animals.  It was probably ideal weather for viewing the animals since the hot sun wasn’t beating down.  First things first though, we stopped in at the front desk and told the attendant there that we had the margay to turn over to them.  They hustled around trying to find the correct person to check the cat out so they told us to go ahead and make our way around the zoo while they figured it out.

We made our way through all the exhibits and, as suspected, the weather was perfect because we saw all but one animal that day.  Most of the animals were in plain sight and walking around their enclosures.  The experience really felt as though we were simply walking through the jungle observing each of these animals.  There are over 125 animals at the zoo, all native to Belize and each exhibit provides a brief summary of the animal with a few facts.  I have visited the zoo in Portland, OR many times but this provided an entirely different experience.  I had never seen most of the animals that I had the privilege of viewing at the Belize zoo.  The kids were especially excited about each animal – there was some brief hesitation from some of them at first since they weren’t sure what they would be seeing, but that quickly went away and they were all running around to see the next animal.

The kids all decided that they liked the tapirs the best – probably because it was the one animal they were actually able to touch.  It was the first time I had seen a tapir though a few of my friends have seen them in the wild here.  After an hour or so we had seen it all and the kids were getting tired so we headed back to the front desk to see what had become of our little margay.  The carrier was empty and they were busy checking him out so now he’ll be safe in his new home at the zoo.

If you happen to make a trip to Belize in the future or you are here and haven’t been to the zoo yet; make sure that activity gets put towards the top of your list.  It’s a very worthwhile experience and a must see if you spend any time in this country.  Hopefully in the next year I’ll make another trip to the zoo to visit that little cat and see how he’s doing.

A few days in to the New Year, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2010! Check out http://www.expatdailynews.com/2010/01/racy-calendar-girl-pictures-cause.html for a brief summary of my New Year’s Eve experience here.

I would also like to make a note that any new entries of my experiences here will not include “real time entry.” Now, since most of my entries are of my current experiences, I will only distinguish the past experiences of setting up my restaurant with, “Scotty’s Story” at the heading of each of those entries.

Thanks for reading!

If it’s not too confusing I’ll start this entry as my first “real time” post. So I continue to go through my divorce from Will. It’s not pleasant of course but last weekend and this week it’s been even more unpleasant. I finally got my paperwork taken care of over last weekend and had them signed by a justice of the peace/photographer – I love how things work here – and they got sent certified to Will. Of course I was expecting a phone call from the states whenever he happened to receive the paperwork. Ours won’t be a difficult divorce, there weren’t a lot of assets to split – actually mostly debt – but there area few sticking points so I expected the call. In the meantime there have been some other emotional roller coaster type events lately. I really thought that Corozal would be the best location for me to go through the ending of a long relationship, for one main reason; this is a small town and there really aren’t a lot of single people here my age so I assumed that there wouldn’t be the distraction of meeting someone new while I’m still healing. On the other hand I hadn’t been in love with Will for awhile in our relationship so part of me was already moving on long before we actually split. Well, as it happened I did meet someone else and for the sake of his privacy I won’t go in to too many details – I’ll call him February since that is the month relationships changed for me – but we immediately and unexpectedly connected. It took me very much by surprise and I am sure he felt the same way. There was a nagging voice in my head to ignore all the emotions and everything irrational that was going on in my head – just simply do not fall for this guy – my head lost. I fell for him hard and fast. Recently, for reasons completely out of my control I lost him and it’s hit me hard. Maybe he was the cliché “rebound” relationship but I have a hard time describing him as such. I felt passion with him that I knew was there for the years it was being suppressed by being in the wrong relationship that was so intense I can hardly put it in the rebound category. So that made two emotional slugs to me over the holiday weekend, and the third came in the form of my Dad’s trip here coming to an end. My mom and I drove him to the airport on Friday and saw him off after he had been visiting for about three weeks. Even though I love it in Belize, it is always hard to see family or friends go home after visiting – especially my dad. I have a very close relationship with him which I feel so incredibly lucky for. So there it was the third hit, it was like a one – two punch and being finished off with a hard left hook. I am down for the count.

Right now that is the hardest part about living away from my friends and family, there are limited shoulders to cry on here so because of that my mom and I are building a much closer relationship since we are each other’s sounding board. We have also met some outstanding and supportive people here and I hope that I will have some friends for life from Corozal Belize. The week has continued to be gloomy because of these circumstances. I finally got the call from Will last night and he was not happy. I also have a lot of pent up anger towards him which almost always comes out when I talk to him on the phone. It’s not fair to him and I try to control it but between the two of us we weren’t able to have a rational conversation last night so he hung up on me and I sent him an email trying to resolve what we had attempted to talk about. I also continue to be very sad about losing February and think about him constantly. Today I made phone calls trying to talk to him even though I agreed I wouldn’t – it was totally out of my control when I picked up the phone and rang him. Drunk dialing without the excuse of being drunk – sad.

I am determined that my day will not end in a funk though – I am in the Caribbean and have a totally fresh start to my life. Yes, there are issues I’m dealing with but nothing too hard to handle. We have had a positive couple weeks at the bar (after a major summer slow down). It’s just one of those days where the “blues” are getting the best of me but the battle is not over yet and I am determined to prevail. I have a friend coming to visit next week which will help things tremendously. Mom and I also have a trip back to Oregon planned in early August so it will be a breath of fresh air to see the people I have been missing – funny enough my 10 year high school reunion will fall during the time I am visiting home so that should be interesting.

I would very much appreciate any feedback about inserting these real time entries in along side of the continuing story I have been telling. Here’s hoping for sunshine tomorrow!

Our new gym

Yes, it was in fact a gym.  Leroy was the trainer there and ran the place himself.  He is a very nice and very encouraging man. The gym may not be much to look at but he tries to make it encouraging by pasting motivational posters and quotes all over the place.  We talked with him for a little while and he explained the different membership packages he offered.  We could either be a member of the gym and just use the equipment on our own, or we could hire him as a trainer and come in three times a week to do workouts with his instruction.  I was a little hesitant to hire him as a trainer because I have quite a bit of experience with weight lifting and wasn’t sure if he would help or hinder my workouts.  My mom, on the other hand, doesn’t have much experience with weight lifting so in the end we decided to hire him as a trainer and we would meet three times a week at 8am.  We agreed that the focus would be weight lifting with some cardio pumped in there too.  I also opted against the simple membership plan because I wasn’t sure that I would be able to easily operate any of the machines that were in there.  They were all very close together and looked like they were new about 50 years ago.  I am aware that you don’t have to have snazzy workout equipment to get a great workout in, but it would be helpful to at least know how the machines function.

As our workouts started the first obstacle to get through was convincing Leroy that I can actually lift weight.  He had a hard time understanding that a 5lb dumbbell wouldn’t be adequate for my workout.  There aren’t many women here who go beyond the 5 – 10 lb range in weights.  Eventually he saw that I needed more weight to lift and we got to the appropriate level.  It was so comical working out there because he utilized those three machines that he had to the max.  He would take a piece out of one section and put it in another to create a whole new machine – it was a talent.  He could take one machine and turn it into six different lifts.  At this point I was happy we went for the trainer option because it was clear I would have been aimlessly roaming this small building for a workout since I didn’t have the key to unlocking the puzzle of these machines.  The second obstacle that I would never get over was the heat of working out in a Caribbean atmosphere.  I happen to be an individual who sweats profusely – that may be an understatement.  This gets really bad when you combine it with heat and humidity and no air conditioner.  So throughout the hour long workout I probably lost about a gallon of water in the form of sweat – okay that may be an overstatement, but not by much.  Of course I am still able to work out in these conditions but I have a hard time trying not to slip off all the machines because of the constant stream of sweat running off me.  My mom does not have this problem so I can place full, 100% blame on my dad.  In fact my mom doesn’t sweat at all so instead of looking like a constant reflective device, she actually looks like a normal person when she works out here.

Mom, Leroy and Kristi at the gym

So despite it all I finally had a new workout routine going.  The sad thing is that I had taken quite a few steps backwards with all the sweet bread we had been eating (almost all the bread made here is sweet), but I guess that’s life.  It is so amazing to me how much of a stress reliever working out can really be.  I may hate to do it sometimes but it never fails that I am so happy I did once the workout is over.  Living in a small town in a small country has also reminded me that there is no excuse for getting a good workout in.  If you don’t have the equipment you can always do a few push-ups and run around the neighborhood.  My mind likes to make all sorts of excuses to not put my running shoes on, none of them are good.