Friday: Private Pool

We’re away for a couple of nights in Hopkins, about 90 minutes south of Belmopan.  Our room is lovely, complete with private pool.  Some of the resorts can be a little pricey here but we benefit from off-season rates at the moment, as well as local Belizean rates so it makes things a bit more affordable.

We had a couple of drinks in afore-mentioned pool, followed by a lovely dinner.  Afterwards we lay on sun beds on the beach, trying to identify stars and constellations.  Probably not very successfully but it was still fun.

I have a bit of an update on Winston.  He had a good first night in the cat sanctuary and is now with a neo-natal foster mother who has a cat with a litter the same age, or thereabouts, as Winston.  She is going to try and place him with the kittens and see if the mother will feed him.  

And then, once he’s weaned, it’s likely that my colleague, Julian, who took him to San Ignacio for us, is going to take him.  He’s being all gruff and ‘we’ll see’ but he knew what he was doing when he took Winston home first to show his wife, before dropping him off.  We feel so relieved to know where he will probably end up and that he will be looked after.  

Attitudes to pets are different here - they’re seen as more functional, for example dogs are for guarding and are often kept on chains.  Similarly, cats are often yard animals, used for catching rodents.  Julian and his wife are Brits who have settled here and see pets more as an extension of the family. I do totally respect the cultural differences but being a yard cat is not what we would have wanted for Winston.