Apocalypse Prepping in Placencia for Dummies- Part 3

Did you know the water from a coconut is sterile? You can use it to wash your eyes, you can use it intravenously! Did you know you can treat a burn with the young flesh from a coconut? Coconuts aren’t just delicious and nutritious they’re an important apocalypse resource. #placenciaprotip Nothing says vacation better than enjoying a Crazy Coconut (coconut water, coconut rum) in a lounge chair at Barefoot Beach Bar.

Hang with me as we finish our foraging walk around the village and let me tell you about Pissabed. In my TV infomercial voice: Are you tired of embarrassing bladder leaks? Does your child continue to wet the bed night after night? Do you wish there was a natural solution to your Urinary Tract problems? Well there is!

In local culture parents used to give Pissabed to children to stop them from peeing the bed at night and someone recently was recommended it to combat heat exhaustion but I’m confused on this plant and its uses because when I Google it I read that it’s a diuretic…that it increases bladder function! So I don’t know but its kinda pretty to look at.

Next we found something to get excited about- Damiana- “the female Viagra!” Hey hey a tea with 4 or 5 leaves of Damiana promises to get the party started. And the 5-petal yellow flower is also good for infections, kidney health, and it’s a relaxant.

We also found a small Gumbo Limbo tree but these grow throughout Belize and get quite large. They’re nicknamed the tourist tree because the red bark peels like the skin of a sunburnt tourist. A strip of bark from the tree would be boiled and used to treat skin problems or internally for infection.

To end our stroll (we didn’t walk long or go far but we were bogged down with the weight of all this new information) we collected a little snack. The Cocoplum is a white or purplish velvety soft on the outside fruit that has a mild marshmellow-ey taste.

I don’t have a picture at the moment of our Sea Grapes but they look like grapes, and grow in bunches. Local kids collect them and sell for a dollar a bag and Kim told us they’re good for building bones and for joint pain.

Did you know Argan Oil has the UV protection of SPF 35-50?!?! And it would be reef safe because it absorbs so well in to skin and anything that did wash off would float not sink and settle on coral.

We finished off our workshop by making some all-natural toothpaste that (I’m sorry Kim) was abhorrent! It was greasy and salty and bitter and mine was a very off-putting shade of hunter green because I added Neem to it. I really really tried to use it but it was such a ghastly brushing experience I knew I could never give up my commercial toothpaste for it- I’d let all my teeth rot out of my skull before I’d use this homemade natural toothpaste. But if YOU want to DIY and try it here’s what you’ll need- 1 part coconut oil (this makes for a down right VILE, greasy mouth feel but is supposed to be really good for gum health) 1 part Baking Soda (I guess this is what makes it so salty) 1 part Diatomaceous Earth (if you don’t know what the heck that is don’t feel bad I was flabbergasted too- it’s ancient fossilized shells ground in to a super fine powder) a few drops of Lemon essential oil (to preserve and keep your paste fresh) and either cinnamon powder or peppermint oil to supposedly make the paste palatable. I’d been eating foraged weeds all day and was feeling like an herbal goddess so I tossed some Neem in mine for additional gingivitis protection; this lent the already awful concoction an incomparably bitter taste. If you can tolerate oil pulling you might be okay to use this tooth paste. If you make it let me know in the comments how you faired.