Chapter 2

By late morning of the second day, my little bungalow was beginning to take shape. I stood back, looking around me at what I was making.

The house was never meant to be a luxury palace, and we had chosen it for its simple utilitarian beauty. The entire living area was on one raised level, to protect it from rising waters in any storm-surge, and it consisted of a single nice-sized bedroom, a small guest bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and a cozy living room. The living room overhung the beach, with plenty of windows to let in the view and the morning sun. There was a door on the end which led out to the big wrap-around deck, perfect for enjoying my morning coffee or relaxing in the cool of the evening. There was no real "downstairs", just a shelter for the car, to keep it out of the sun's heat. Simple, functional, and more than enough for two people, let alone one.

I stepped out onto the deck, the blazing heat of the mid-day sun striking me like a hammer. Now I know why we always saw Central American men wearing those big white hats, in all those movies, I thought, and I resolved to pick up a few, on my first trip into town ... the couple of hats I had brought with me (still packed away, somewhere) were going to be woefully inadequate for this blazing tropical sun.

Way out in the cove, I could just make out the splashing of the dolphins, and I smiled. It would appear they were going to be a regular part of my day, here.

The growling in my belly suddenly reminded me that I needed to get something to eat. The fridge and cupboards were bare, and it was long past time that I did something about it. Time for a drive into town, to take care of the matter.

The nearest civilization was about a 20-minute drive, just north to Dangriga, a modest little town along the coast. For any serious shopping, I'd have to go further, to Belmopan (which looked like about a 40-minute drive, inland) or all the way up to Belize City (maybe an hour), but for a grocery run, Dangriga would do fine. Many of the roads down here were kind of iffy, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this one wasn't too bad, and I got there without hitting any major potholes. Belize is an English-speaking country (one of the reasons we'd decided on it), so it was a simple matter to locate a decent shop and buy what I needed. I even managed to find a good hat store, and picked up one or two for starters. The trunk loaded with my haul, I headed back home, whistling, looking forward to stocking the kitchen -- and to a nice ham and cheese sandwich, and a cold beer.

By the time I had stocked the fridge and pantry, and filled my belly, it was early afternoon, but I was feeling much better about the world. I could do this. Life would go on. I took the last of my beer out to the deck, once again feeling the hammer-blow of the heat, now at its peak. Have to invest in some white clothes, too, I thought, as my gringo T-shirt started to stick to me. Within moments, I was anxious to rinse in the brilliant blue water. Just for a few minutes, I told myself. Besides, the dolphins were back...

After tossing back the last swallow, I strolled down to the sand (again leaving a trail of clothes) and waded out into the warm water, flopping the rest of the way into it back-first. The dolphins were closer, this time, and heard my splash, two of them swimming over to investigate. "Hello, again!" I called, as they approached, and one of them answered me with a couple of screeches. Bottlenosed Dolphins, I noted, for the record, now that I was paying attention. Bottlenose are known to grow up to 8 feet long, but these appeared to be smaller, more like 5 to 6 feet. I seemed to recall that the males grow larger than the females, but I had no real way to tell which was which, at this point.

The two of them came bobbing up to me, obviously in a playful mood, and one of them poked me gently with its snout. Giggling with surprise, I poked back. This prompted the other one to swim around and poke me in the butt, and I laughed out loud at the unexpected contact with these delightful creatures. We played like that for just about 3 or 4 minutes, whereupon the two of them circled me, gave one final squawk, and swam away.

Alone in the water now, I considered my little beachfront haven, and decided I needed a dock, of some sort, resolving to whip one up, before too long. It would also be nice to have some kind of little boat, maybe just to row out into the cove and back. Rowing was such good exercise, and I was going to need some, if I didn't want to get completely out of shape. Besides, with a dock, I could walk out closer to where the dophins swam, without even having to be in the water. Sounded like a plan...