Household Topography, and a Mini-Break on the South Island

A few days before the Moores arrived, I was busily working away at my desk and the boys were relaxing on the couch in front of the air conditioner after a very hot bike ride home. A couple days previously a cold front had moved through, but now it was hot hot hot. I had my head phones in and was listening to the usual work mix of death metal/thrash/hardcore/reggae when I heard a POP! Then another POP! I took off my headphones and turned around, fully expecting to see the boys smashing light bulbs against their foreheads (or something similarly loud, destructive, and life threatening) but they just stared at me with eyebrows raised and a quizzical expression on their faces.

Then we heard it again--POP! POP! It sounded like it was coming from the floor near the fridge, and then I notice the tiles were no longer flat, but sloping up towards each other. Then I watched about ten more tiles pop up one after another in a line from our kitchen to the far wall. It was pretty crazy. The end result:  the bottom floor of our house now had topography.

Newly formed mountain range through the living room.

Houston, we have a problem.

An unfortunate consequence of this new found topography is that it was now very tricky to walk through our house, and a couple of the tiles broke, exposing some pokey shards and sharp edges near the broken bits. We told our property managers about the situation, they consulted with the owner, and we were given the option of fixing the floor right away or just living with it until we move out. After discussing it at length with Amy, we decided that having to cope with the repairs for a few days would be a hassle, but having to walk around busted and uneven tiles every day for six weeks would be an even bigger hassle, so we told them to go for it and have the floor fixed. 

When the tile guy came by to scope out the job I told him that I'd relocate my office upstairs and we'd clear out most of our stuff from the ground floor. I asked him if he would please be sure to cover the opening to the stairwell with a tarp, blanket, or some other suitable covering (there is no door). "Oh yes sir, no problem." And could they cover the gas stove too? "Yes, of course."

About five days later his demo crew showed up. I helped them move the fridge out of the way, covered our bookcase with a sheet, and confirmed that they would be covering the opening to the stairwell and the gas stove. "Yes, sir, no problem."

So I went upstairs and started working. About a half hour later the demo started in earnest and the noise was quite loud, so I popped in my headphones. About an hour later I thought I'd go downstairs and check on things. Absolutely everything in the ground floor was covered with dust. There was no tarp, blanket, or other suitable covering blocking the entrance to the stairs. There was nothing on the gas stove except a thick layer of dust. I asked the demo guy why he didn't cover anything, as I had asked. He just stared at me. I said "You didn't bring anything, did you?" He looked at me, and smiled, and said "No sir, I don't got nothing. But if you had some plastic that would work." I pictured my computers clogging with dust and ran upstairs to grab a sheet, which I jammed in place using a shower rod I swiped from the boys' bathroom. That kept most of the dust from making its way upstairs.

Gecko footprints in the dust on top of our bookcase. This bookcase is about 20 feet away from where the work was taking place, and it was covered.

However, the main floor of our house, including the kitchen, was pretty much unusable for four days. Our wonderful property managers invited us to spend the night with their family at a large rental property they manage on the south part of the island. We happily took them up on the offer, not only to get out of our dust-caked house, but also because our kids and their kids get along together so well.

The house is farther south than I had been before, about 3.5 miles south of the town center. Just past Victoria House the road transitions from cobblestones to dirt, and it starts to feel a bit more like Caye Caulker. There are a lot more trees and we noticed many birds that we don't commonly see near our place.

The house itself is right on the beach, with a pool in the yard. There is a dock that provided endless hours of fishing entertainment to Liam and Nicholas, and I don't think Lochlan left the pool the entire time we were there. I split my time between throwing the kids as high as possible in the pool and helping the fishermen with their gear, setting bait, and removing hooks from toothy fish.

Lochlan enjoying the pool

Alexandra, chillin'

Liam and Nicholas scouting the fish

The barracuda Liam caught

The barracuda Nicholas caught

They also caught some very cool looking paddle crabs (which were all released)

The two fishermen caught a barracuda (!) each, and I cleaned, scaled, and cooked them up for our communal supper. (As an aside, I cleaned the fish on the breakwater of the property, and I chucked the head of the bigger fish into the water in front of me, about 15 feet away. About two minutes later, an immature magnificent frigatebird swooped down and plucked the head out of the water, threw his head back, and swallowed it in mid-air right in front of me! It was a very awesome moment.)

Before dinner the four adults took a walk down to the end of the dock to enjoy the sunset and a cold beverage. A huge spotted eagle ray swam right under the dock and we watched the pelicans and frigate birds patrolling the waters around us.

Our hosts, Erik and Ana

Amy enjoying the sunset

The eagle ray that swam beneath us

Barracuda is surprisingly tasty, and although the bigger fish can accumulate dangerous levels of mercury, these were fairly small juveniles so I felt comfortable trying a few bites.

Barracuda in the pan!

Ready for dinner

The next morning was very mellow and relaxing, with more swimming, fishing, and lounging. There were plenty of birds flying around, and Liam spotted an indigo bunting and a scarlet tanager--in the same tree! We packed up our stuff and biked home around noon, grateful for the opportunity to relax with friends in such an amazing setting. It really felt like we were in a completely different place, not just a few miles down the road.

Amy was up super early and caught this shot of the sunrise from the end of the dock

Liam and I were also up early (but not that early) and caught this enormous stone crab. At first we were going to kill it, eat it, and keep the claws as souvenirs. But Liam thought it over, and decided it would be better to release it. He thought it was just too beautiful to kill. The next day he told his teacher about it, and she said "Oh, well, I have a stone crab claw and was just about to throw it away, so you can have that one!" He has since had it made into a necklace.

The owner of the house very graciously agreed to pay for someone to clean up all the dust, and she showed up the next day. Everything is just about back to normal now.