What is it like for us?

Belén

We are living in Belén, a Miskito community of about 450 people on the north coast of the Rio Plátano Biosphere Reserve.  The village is on a thin strip of land between the Caribbean Sea to the northeast and a large, freshwater lagoon to the southwest.  In addition to the boundaries of the sea and the lagoon, the airstrip - built in the late 1960s - is the orienting landmark of Belén. 

Links:

Steve & Jude’s

Homepage

Our house

The house is built from Caribbean Pine and has a tin roof. We have about 1 acre of ground with coconut, cashew and nance trees and plenty of space to grow vegetables, manioc and fruit such as bananas and pawpaw.  The soil is very sandy so we need to use plenty of compost.  We also have free-range hens for eggs, a crazy dog and a cat to keep rodents away.

The kitchen

We collect water in barrels from the roof but in the dry season use a hand pump in the garden.  Any water that is used for drinking or cooking is put through a filter. There is no mains electricity but we have solar panels to power low voltage lights, a fridge and our laptop computers. We cook on a butane gas stove. It is important to keep the kitchen really clean otherwise we would be invaded by ants and cockroaches!

Other rooms

We also have verandas at the front and back, our bedroom, a lounge, a study / spare bedroom and a bathroom with a (cold) shower using rainwater collected from the roof. The rooms are all bright and airy and have mosquito nets on the windows to keep out most of the insects. There’s a “long drop” toilet in the garden.

Typical local houses

Most houses in the area are also built of wood but many have thatched roofs.  They seldom have electricity and water comes from communal pumps or wells.  Most families cook on wood fuel stoves outside or in separate kitchens.

Travel

There are virtually no roads in La Mosquitia so most people use the rivers and lagoons as their highways.  Generally people travel in dugout canoes which, if they have an engine, are called “tuk–tuks.” The local airline, SAMI, flies between the larger villages around La Mosquitia and comes to Belen with its battered old Cessna aircraft when there is sufficient demand. To leave La Mosquitia we need to take a one hour canoe journey to Palacios from where there are daily flights to La Ceiba, a city on the north coast of Honduras.

The MOPAWI office in Belen

The office is just a few minutes walk from our house and is one of the largest and most modern buildings in the village. In addition to us, 6 MOPAWI staff work here co-ordinating a wide range of projects including sustainable forestry and agroforestry, conservation of turtles and iguanas, ecotourism and management of water catchment areas.