Belize- "Treehouse Perspectives"

If you have any interest in Belize and especially if you already have been "bitten" by the Belize bug... get a copy of this book and sit down and enjoy. I saw this book at Placencia Office Supply and even though it was wrapped in plastic, so I couldn't flip through the pages, I decided to take a chance. I am glad I did.

"Treehouse Perspectives" will test your notions of what it means to live in a third world country. Even if you have never considered the idea, and especially not in the thoroughly immersed way that Tina and Kirby did it, you will find yourself imagining the possibilities.

Set in the remote Toledo District of Belize and beginning back in the early 1970s, the Salisbury's began their odyssey with the barest of resources and little more than a dream.

They chronicle their adventures as alternating vignettes, delighting the reader with details of living that one would ordinarily think might be boring. Far from it. The narratives are at times lyrical and Tina especially has a gift for finding the "pulse" of the  moment, etching for me the words that have eluded my vocabulary, describing why Belize grabs many of us.

No one who has the dream of "escaping" to somewhere, will be bored by this book. The path the Salisbury family took and the rough edges they endured and magnificently adjusted to and thrived on, are not for everyone. But the lessons they learned about the culture of Belize and its' people are terribly important...