Slowing it Down on Ambergris Caye: A Weekend At The Camp

My work involves getting out and about, taking pictures and then chatting about it on the internet.  So when I’m at Cayo Frances Farm and Fly, 12 miles N on the west side of Ambergris Caye – a few acres of rare black soil on a sand island on a mostly hidden lagoon – things take a different pace.  Not only is the internet speed awful over there* but the “out and about” is very different from San Pedro town.

Over the weekend, I did a bit of reading (I LOVED this book), helped with the meals, planted about 50 heliconia and ginger flower plants,  swatted mosquitoes, situated our 4 new mango trees that I brought up from Hopkins Mango Festival and took some pictures.

Here they are.

Elsie guarding a row of new false birds of paradise plants.

Fingers crossed we will have these in 6 months.

Another Elsie.  I can’t help it.

*We are working to install the Smart Broadband internet and time is running out.  Running out before the World Cup starts in a few days.  Fearful that our camp manager, Andress, might defect without a proper link in to this critical event.

I headed over Friday afternoon.  We’ve had a week of hazy humid weather.  Not much rain just haze.  But that was breaking…and Cayo Frances looked absolutely gorgeous.

The weather brightened as the weekend went on.  By Sunday both the sky and the sea were sparkling.

Weather is shifting again as I type.  June in the tropics…it’s just going to be that way.

Check the National Hurricane Center for the updates but this is the most recent.  We have storm clouds sitting just south east of us.  They are predicted to head this way as the week goes on.  NOT as a tropical storm but “heavy localized rain” in Belize and other countries.

As always I recommend Windfinder for near term weather – 2 -3 days out max.  Beyond that?  Well…it’s the tropics.

Back to “the farm”.  The wild orchids are blooming and I brought just one inside.

Our mixed greens mix has sprouted.  When you are not fighting a wish willy (a grey iguana), it’s a caterpillar.  But I just don’t have the heart to pick it.

Some pictures of the cabanas – there are two smaller ones and then The Bote House on the hill.

My orange jasmine bushes, 14 in all, are in a line in front.  They are now being attacked by a scale insect.  I’ll called in for help at the nursery.  Please let me know if you have any good fixes.

On a happier gardening note, our kinep trees are giving fruit!  I found that we have two different types.  (Here’s some more information on this sweet delicious juicy little fruit also known as guaya or mamoncillo)

The darker, tangy-er but a bit less meaty ones are local kinep.  And the larger paler ones, the Mexican.

The trees are actually BIG.  And Andress is quite good at gathering them.

He’s got skills.

Red shorts = Andress.

I’m headed back to town for a meeting…but keep an eye on the weather and as always, if you see some strange fruit for sale in town, try it.

Kinep are delicious.