The annual San Pedro Holiday Boat Parade consumed my thoughts ( and the blog) yesterday and I didn’t get around to bringing you up to date on what has happened on our build in Ambergris Caye.
So, what has happened? Well , on Saturday afternoon Rose and I went to the site to see what progress had been made and were pleased to see that our guys ( we see them as that now) were all hard at work. In all honesty we have seen nothing less since the build started. Skilful at what they do with a great work ethic.
Concrete bricks had been laid where the water pipes will be housed. This will be immediately beneath the bathroom to the Ground Floor apartment.
Concrete had been poured and the forms removed for two of the pillars and for the other two pillars the concrete had been poured but the forms will remain until the concrete starts to set.
Concrete pillar.
A lot of work had also gone on to support/hold in place the forms for the concrete pour for the walls of the water tank.
Form in place on the south side of the house.
Work underway on the form for the west side of the house.
Focus was also on fixing the horizontal lengths of rebar.
Measuring the lengths required.
Cutting the rebar to the required length.
Forming the necessary curve in the rebar.
Fixing the rebar in place.
As has been the case for every single day since our build in Ambergris Caye commenced, Daniel Camal, our building contractor, was on site making sure that things are going to plan.
Daniel in the shade reviewing the architect’s plans.
On Friday we also took the next steps in the application process for the Qualified Retirement Programme.
This entailed a visit to the San Pedro Police Station to apply for Criminal Record Reports . We arrived at 10.30 only to be told that the person we needed to see was out of the office but would be back in 10 minutes . The 10 minutes actually turned out to be 50 minutes. Not a good start.
Things improved though when we met Police Constable Cho. He could not have been more helpful or pleasant.
We presented our 3 passport sized photos for each of us along with our passports ( to show our Visa stamps). PC Cho then asked for the photocopies of the relevant ( those with the Visa stamp) pages of our passports . We didn’t have these and thought that we would have to go to Gekko Graphics to get them copied (and maybe start the whole queuing process again). We couldn’t have been more wrong. Helpful PC Cho just copied them and then completed the necessary paperwork and asked us for BZ$12 for each of the applications.
He will take the applications to Belmopan ( Belize’s capital) next Wednesday and we should get the Criminal Record Reports 2 weeks later.
During this time Rose and I will have the medicals ( obtaining the necessary Doctor’s reports) that are required and then ( along with proof of finances) be in a position to send the application forms to the Belize Tourism Board.
We are hopeful of being admitted to the ‘Programme by no later than next February.
For those of you that are enjoying the photos of Christmas decorations around and about Ambergris Caye here are a few more:
The title for today’s edition comes from the Commodores’ 1979 song which reached number 4 in the US. It is also in ‘honour’ of Andy “Commodore’ Milner and Cindy Vigna whose baby shower party Rose and I attended Sunday afternoon . We had a great time and met lots of people.
