Settling down on the island...Guanaja

EDITED VERSION TO LIST CORRECT URL FOR THE REAL ESTATE COMPANY

We spent the last 15 months traveling thru Mexico, Central and South America.  Now starting a new journey of the island lifestyle on Guanaja.  We finally landed here and are very excited about this venture.   We arrived on the island January 15th with the intentions of staying with our friend, Jim for 3 days.   Well those 3 days turned into 13 days.   We had 3 apartments to chose from when we arrived but getting to see those apartments was another ordeal.   We were relying on a guy to show them to us but during this time he had guests/divers to accommodate and tomorrow came 13 days later.   Jim was a wonderful host and very generous man.   Jim, Thank you very much for your hospitalty and all your island wisdom.  We greatly appreciate you.

Jim and Cindy have lived on the island for years.  Unfortunately Cindy is back in the states and Jim will be following her as soon as they sell their fabulous place.  We are both bummed that we won't be neighbors.   If anyone is looking for a wonderful retirement home or vacation place...look no further.   The house was constructed 3 years ago up on a hill and has a fabulous view.  I'll send you the link to their webpage so you can see for yourself...although, pictures don't do it justice.  If we didn't have other ambitious; we would buy their home.  And just think if you did buy it; we would be neighbors!  Wait, is that a downfall?  haha.   The price of the home includes a nice boat, boat dock, kubota, numerous of tools and all the furnishings.  Check it out on http://www.guanajareefreality.com/condoandhomes

As of January 27th we've moved and are living in our 2 bedroom oceanfront furnished apartment.  No addresses here, heck there's really only one road here, so the locals call it the Blue House on Sandy Bay.  We have a great view and nice porch.  Just need a couple of hammocks which they do not sell here on the island.  Crazy right?  Probably the only island in the Carribean where you can't find a hammock to buy.  I guess it's more of a tourist thing & that's one of the beauties of this island, only a handful of tourists at a time visit this unspoiled paradise. We do have a/c but have yet to use it due to the breezy days and nights.   And the bugs have been minimal.  We've been warned that on this side of the island the sand flies can be brutal and boy do they love me.  As part of living the island lifestyle I lotion up each morning with Cactus Juice (non-toxic) that has an SPF of 25.   Keeps the bugs off me and provides a little sun protection.  If anyone comes across this lotion, please buy it for me.  I'll pay you back.  The stuff is expensive here but we found in at Academy in Houston for half the price.  We bought all they had but with our daily routine we'll be out soon.

So what do we do all day?  We have no cable or TV at the moment; which has been nice.  Took a little adjusting to since we are both TV people but now we read a lot and test our patience with the internet.   Here the phone company provides a dial up modem.  Feels like we've gone back 15 years in technology but at least we can surf the web and keep in touch with everyone.  The only problem is that our Skype isn't working.  We were told that we shouldn't have any problems but the error message we get says we need to buy another component to use this free download.   Hopefully we'll figure it out soon, Angela at the internet place is helping us out to find the problem.   We did find this paved road behind our house that is really steep and we walk it for exercise.  It was strange to find this road on the island but its really nice.  Apparently, some investors came down 5 years ago with the expectations of building a neighborhood.  Guess they ran out of money.  There's only two houses built in this neighborhood.  One is being occupied and the other was left totally abandoned.    Let's see if I can download some pictures for you. 

This road is a 25 min uphill walk and it's beautiful.

As you walk along this paved road, you can

hear fresh water cascading down.

The road forks off  and continues up.

Ready for homes to be built.  They already have

the transformers in place and they are humming.

Beautiful views from up here.

Sailboats pull into this harbor and hang out for several

days or longer.  Safe haven for them.

This is the house we found abandoned.

Really nice concrete structure built on the side of the hill.

Why would someone build and just leave it?

The landscape will be taking over soon.

We keep our front door open pretty much all day long

The breeze is just wonderful not to mention, I love looking

at the water.

This is our groundskeeper's dog.  Cori.

He is so sweet.  He's owners are so mean.

They never pet him.  They feel his only purpose is to bark

when strangers approach.  UGH.  I hate that mentality.

We show him lots of love and he stays at our door most of the day.

He won't come in.  That's as far as he goes.

He's so stinkin cute and loveable.

This is our boat slip for when we get our boat.

We will get one soon.  It's a must here on the island.

We do have water taxis but that expense adds up

fast.  Taxis are not cheap. 

We are however walking distance to what has become our favorite watering hole.

Manatees.  Expat hangout and just across from where the sailboats

pull in for the night.

It's a 25 minute walk and normally we work up a thirst by the time we get there.

Here are some pics from the bar.  Well, maybe I can download the

pics next time. I keep getting booted out.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

Much love to all,

B&B