To the waterfalls,,,,,

A road trip I recommend anyone with a car take is a drive to Billy Barqidair State park. It is on the hummingbird about mile 11 or somewhere near it, easy drive.
There are two entrances to the park. The first is across from this house. This is also where you pay the park entrance fee to a woman named Hyacinth.

Then I suggest you go one mile further and use the next entrance to get to the falls.
Yep, waterfalls! Very seldom anyone else there either, (wink wink nudge nudge). So don’t tell anyone!
The trail to the falls is well maintained with rope hand lines where needed.
It is about a mile hike in with a couple steep spots but not bad at all.
A tree at the falls has a natural spot where you can change if needed.

If you leave the peninsula early, you can be done with the falls by noon and the location leaves you options for lunch. Dangriga is nearby with plenty of choices.
Or, it’s an easy enough hike someone could bring lunch in a backpack.
Haul out your trash and whatever else some slob left behind.
With the ipod playing, A.C. running, and beers in the cooler, this makes for a fine day!


edit: i am no doubt spelling the name of the park wrong but it's close.

i'm gettin drunk with or without you,,,

We have been in Maya Beach since 1998. There was no power for the first 6 months we were here. Then, with slush money from all of us, BEL decided it could run poles and wire up to us.
For entertainment we had Roxy’s bar, ‘The Escape’, later the Maya Beach sports bar came along. A sports bar? Yep, with a 60in T.V. fer crissakes.
We had a lot of good times at The Escape. Let’s just say the drinking was done in epic proportions! And with a fun group, we did a lot of laughing.
I was just the other night reminded of ‘nekkid bartender night’. And, I was declared the winner!
If I remember right, I woke up with a hangover you could see from space!
My blood could run a lawnmower.

I happened to be there the morning BTB came to inspect her hotel books. (she also had little rooms she would rent out).

After a couple questions from the BTB guy, she got pissed, threw her cardboard box of ‘files’ at the guy and yelled “you look thru em”. She had shit scrawled on bar napkins, a calendar page with scribble about some guy staying for 3 nights, scratched out replaced with 6 nights, a receipt for dog food, all kinds of weird crap.
After some more yelling, the guy tells her to calm down or they might take her hotel license away.
She grabs the license from the wall, glass frame and all. And throws it at his feet!
Within 2 hours there was a big “CLOSED BY BTB” sign in the yard.
Just the rooms,, we still got hammered in there till hurricane Iris blew the bar into Guatemala.




One day I get a package in the mail. It’s a bunch of cd’s a friend had burned for me. COOL!!
I take them to Roxy’s that night for a test spin. Her cd player was on a shelf about 6ft hi so you reached up and placed the cd in the player from above. My buddy had not labeled anything so it was a grab bag what we would hear.
The first cd is a live Jimmy Cliff. Finish that and load the next.
Another live Jimmy Cliff?
Remove it and place the third one in place, more live Jimmy cliff???
WTF? Looks like my drunken friend recorded live Jimmy Cliff 10 times. The next one is the same.
Then,,, it hit’s some one. Just as I am ready to toss 9 of 10 cd’s into the trash, we find that there is a live Jimmy Cliff in the player already and I have been laying my new ones on top of it!
All our finest maneuvers are conducted after 6 or 7 drinks!
The next day I received divorce papers from my liver. And it wanted full custody of my kidneys.

paybacks a bitch,,

Here is a good payback story for ya!
A lot of you know my neighbors. In particular Ray, and further up north, Egbert and Patrice. While Egbert and Patrice are gone back to Holland they ask Ray to keep an eye on their house.
Well as we all know, it can get pretty slow and boring around here and what better way to amuse your self than with practical jokes?
Ray jokingly sends Egbert an e-mail saying something to the effect that since his house is just sitting there and it’s big and roomy, Ray says he’s going to start cultivating pot plants in the house.
Egbert kinda brushes it off.
Then Ray sends another e-mail a few months later saying the cops raided the house! BDF soldiers and all. And they are going to seize Egbert’s house and property! And Egbert should contact Ray before he attempts to enter the country.
Egbert flips out at this point.

Egbert finally gets a hold of Ray and Ray explains things so Egbert can calm down.
Too funny and Ray is giggling all day over this.
The next morning, early, my phone rings. It’s Ray, “get up here and bring your camera’!
So this sounds like something interesting and I shoots right up to Ray’s house.
Overnight, long distance from Amsterdam, Egbert arranged for a full load of dirt be deposited in Ray’s driveway!! Ray is trapped! He says it’s a good thing there was not a car in his driveway that shouldn’t have been there, if you get my drift!
So, now the ball is back in Ray’s court. He should be serving up a volley any time now.

Live music at Mango's,,,

I spent the morning shooting birds. I modified the perch for easy clean up.
My light setup is working well,, just need a bigger varity of birds. Getting kinda monotonous.

Yep, I made my third trip to Mango’s this week.
Realy, honestly, just looking for blog material.
Well tonight was a treat. Not only was the ‘band’ playing but it brought out lots of surly characters. Two of which I speak were Carla and Hippie Dave!

It was great to see old time Maya Beach-ers like Jim and Sarah also. Rare really.
It was a nice blast from the past!

Mark and John did their usual good job at the music. Folks really comment on how good they are! These guys have a good time with their music!
Mark,, good job with ‘Whipping Post’!!
I left at a respectable hour, but left an invite for Hippie Dave to come get drunk in the next few days. Uh ohhhh, more stories!

Fuzz gets a kill,, make that 2!

Yep, still bored. But busy so that’s a good thing.
Mrs. Barn left me a list of shit NOT to forget and I almost forgot a biggie today! It was 30 minutes before I remembered I needed to haul some folks from up north to the airstrip! Whew,,,

Spent the morning shooting birds. Photographically you understand.
But, ‘ol mister Fuzznutts picked this morning to be the day he catches and kills a bird.
Before this, the only thing he ever captured, overpowered, killed and brought home was a corn-on-the-cob. So this is a big step for him!
Naturally, he brings it inside the house to show me? I let him bat it around for some time then decided that’s it,, and took it away. I thought it was dead,, looked like it.
Tossed it in the trash (sorry ‘bout that bird, hell of a way to go).

Later I toss some thing else in the trash. Open the lid,, and he is in there chirping! CRAP.
What would you do?
Then,, I hear Julio outside. Fuzz got another bird!
Well , this one is dead so I toss him/her into the trash also. But when I lift the lid,, ‘chirp,, chirp’,,. I feel like shit about now.
But, I get over it and go to Mango’s for a few beers.
A couple I don’t know are in there,, seen ‘em before but not much.
I didn’t get much more than the usual gossip. They were Reagan and Yoli’s friends and the conversation seemed to revolve around that.
Heard that Clouse ran over Gary’s scooter. That was funny.
Mango’s road rumors were nothing new from what we have already heard.
Spoke to my mom. Things are very good back there. Dad has Hotties for therapists again so he is happy. And a big thank you to all who expressed their concern for me papa!

just me,, with scurvy and fuzznutts,,,

Both of us have parents living in the states. That makes it a tough trip home each year to visit. We don’t want to go but its mom and dad!
So we endure the travel hassles and make the best of it. It is the only time we are apart all year as well and it sucks! I should mention she left today.
Sure there are perks for us both. On the plus side for her, she has a clean house the whole time I’m gone, and I’m not hogging the computer.
But, she now has to feed herself. That is a concern since I do all the cooking. Every year tho she is doing better. This year it was not a concern at all.
Me? I have ups and downs also. I like the bed to remain just as it was when I got out of it. It was very comfortable then, why make it up? So for a week the bed stays just like I like it. And no one washes my coffee cup! That’s a biggy I cannot break her of. I turn my back and she is washing my cup???
And Scurvy gets some liberties he would not normally see!

My downside is it gets very lonely around here. Quiet and lonely.
This week I am on a mission to get some photos for this blog so that will help.

First one I have is the broken down trash truck sitting at Maya Playa this morning.
This is the worst trash pickup service I have ever had the displeasure of paying for!
I place the entire blame on the guy who took it over. As they say, “the buck stops here”.

I saw a trash truck years ago in Denver that had a sign on its side, “satisfaction guaranteed or double your trash back”. Let’s hope he never thinks of that!
So, I go to Mango’s for some juicy context for the blog, their closed?
WTF? So I goes to the Frisky Frog and bullshit with Gary for a couple beers.
Got the ‘you ran over my dog’ story. Gawd,, sometimes Maya Beach realy is Mental Breach!
But, I end up back home with nothing but 2 cases of beer. So I do some ‘off camera’ strobe practice to kill a few beers.
Tomorrow is a good day. I got banana’s for the birds. Always some Kodak moments there. And maybe Mango’s will open up.


oh yea,, if i never mentioned it, you can click on any photo to enlarge.