Small Craft Advisory

I will spare you the details of thursday and Friday since its pretty much more of the same, but we did make some jerk chicken and veggie/pineapple skewers on the bbq that were really good. Theres a popular snorkel spot near Caye Caulker calle shark and ray alley and its a spot were a bunch of nurse sharks and stingrays gather. I wanted to check it out and Callie was quite hesitant because shes afraid of sharks and sting rays (supposedly). Anyways we finally got around to booking a snorkel tour for Saturday morning and unfortunately it was postponed due to high winds and a small craft advisory. Carlos (the tour guide) said we could come back tomorrow because the winds were supposed to die down. So we decided to bike down the the southern til of the island since we hadn't explored that area yet. It was a cool trail right along the water with mangroves and iguanas (or lizards?) all over the place. Our new favorite island food is hot ducunus (basically a chicken tamale) sold by this guy who walks around the island with a pushcart and a cooler full of them. The first time we tried them was maybe wednesday at the split. He walks around yelling HOT DUCUNUS! FRESH and TASTEY!!! MELT in YOUR MOUTH not in your hand! But it seriously sounds like hes yelling hot coconuts! And we were like WTF is that!? We finally had to ask him how to proneounce it and he spelled it out for us.

Trivia champs!!

Wednesday started off with our new routine, breakfast, coffee, and lounge by the pool. It's a routine I could get used to. After a while we headed down towards the split stopping at the budget man for some conch fritters. They were dee-licious. Wednesday night is trivia night at the Barrier Reef Sports Bar and Callie and I have been on a trivia kick lately so we decided we were going to check it out. Also the Flyers were playing the Penguins on tv and thats always a game you don't want to miss. Before heading to trivia night we stopped at pizza caulker for some pizza and beers. Its owned by a canadian ex-pat who reminded me more of a character from fear and loathing in Las Vegas. (See also: nose candy, hyper, squirrley). The pizza was really good though. When we got to Barrier reef it was the second period of the game and they were just getting trivia night set up. We teamed up with a few other characters sitting near us (they obviously had been hitting the booze much harder than us up to that point). Two old guys Larry and Wayne- both from BC who were really cool and a guy name Joshua who was more than likely blacked out and didn't remember meeting us that night becasee we saw him every other day on the island. Anyways, By the time the final question came around we were in first place by one point ( having gotten all the answers so far right). We correctly answered the final question with a max wager of ten points to complete out perfect game! (And thirty dollars off our bar tab!!)

Island Time

After a bumpy ride down the island we arrived at the sea garden cottage. We unloaded our stuff and got a quick tour from Michael. I asked him what time it was and he said "You're on island time mon" We thanked him and after a little unpacking decided to walk back down towards front street and hit up a grocery store and grab some food. We headed back towards front street and when we got there decided to explore the area a bit. We found a beachfront bar/restaurant called brisas del mar and decided to have a beer. After looking over the menu for a minute we decided we were pretty hungry so we ordered some tacos and ceviche. The idea of ceviche has never been appealing to me but after Callie convinced me to try it I can tell you I have been missing out! After paying the bill we decided to walk down to the north end and check out the split. By the time we got there it was starting to rain- straight up downpour. So we headed into the closest bar for refuge. Luckily the rain passed quickly because Callie and I were both falling asleep in our beers as the jet lag kicked in. After a quick stop at the grocery store we headed back to the house. It was around 6pm and we decided to lay down for a minute before having some beers and chips. Two hours later I woke up and seeing Callie still sleeping I decided to turn off the lights and save the beers for the next day. Woke up Tuesday morning to the sounds of palms swaying in the island breeze. After a quick breakfast of potatoes, onions, and peppers (the Callie special) and toast we headed out to lounge by the pool. Ahh so nice. A little while later we decided to head down to the split and try out our new masks and snorkels. The split is a section of the island that was made during a hurricane a few years ago and basically split the island in two providing a nice swimming and snorkeling spot. It was hopping! The bar at the edge of the split is the Lazy Lizard and they sell buckets of beer for $20 belize. ($10 american). Pretty sweet deal. They also have some safe looking teeter-totter tables in the water that we might try out since we both have our tetanus shots up to date. After a few sips of beer I decided I had to try out my new snorkel and jumped into the water. It was so nice and warm. I saw some fish and a sting ray- got some cool photos that I will post later. After our second bucket of beer the afternoon rain blew in an we found refuge under the tent of the budget man- a Brooklyn raised man who moved to belize to sell food and live the island life. He makes different dishes everday and serves them with delicious sides. We had some jerk chicken. The rain passed- or so we thought and we got back on our bikes to head home. Suddenly it was pouring rain again, beach-cruisers flingning mud up on our backs and faces. After a quick siesta I made some fresh salsa and we had happy hour on the porch. We decided to walk to dinner so that we would'nt have any mud slinging going on. For dinner we went to Rose's bar and grill. They have the menu set out in front of the restaurant and you pick what you want and they throw it on the grill. We had a shrimp kebab and a shish kebab and some bbq chicken. While waiting for the food I looked down at the table next to us and there was a crab just chillin. It reminded me of the scene from the little mermaid where the crab escapes the kitchen. The fish kebab was dee-licious. After dinner we headed over to bambooze for a night cap. The slogan on their sign is "happy hour everyday from 4 til everybodies happy". They also have swing seats at the bar. All in all it was a good first full day.

Belize

Haven't posted here in a long time. I figured since I am lounging poolside in Belize that now would be a good opportunity to get back into it. In order to escape the clutcheds of an Alaskan winter Callie and I decided to take a trip somewher tropical. After some research on activities we landed on Belize. Flying anywhere from Alaska is a pain in the ass and you are almost guaranteed to have some sort of delay. Generally you need to plan for about 20 hours of travel time when flying anywhere outside of Alaska besides Seattle. So in researching airfares we came across a United deal where first class tickets were only around $250 dollars more than economy. Well that was a no-brainer. We also found a really sweet litttle cabin on Caye (pronounced key) Caulker with a shared swimming pool for a good deal. Its a little more laid back than the more touristy Caye Ambergris. We got to the airport around 2pm Sunday and found out iur flght was delayed by an hour. Eeek! So we headed to the new Silver Gulch restaurant at the airport. It's pretty sweet because they sell growlers to go that you can carry on the plane. After a couple beers and a pizza we headed down towards our gate. The plane still hadn't arrived so we went over to Humpy's for another beer. By the time we took off the estimated landing time was only 20 minutes before our connecting flight departure in Seattle. Yikes! At least we have the luxurious amentities of first class to temporarily take our minds off that. When we landed in Seattle we were only two gates away from our connecting flight and luckily there was enough people on that same flight (the joys of the alaskan traveler) that they were holding the plane for us. The flight to Houston went by super fast because we were both out cold. (Not sure if the wine or the dream water was more responsible for that). We landed in Houston and were both feeling super groggy and tired. 5 am houston time equals 2am Alaska time. So we headed to the United club for some complimentary beverages and light snacks. Time for the final leg of the flying portion of our journey. We landed in Belize city and were the first ones off the flight, we both decided that would be a great opportunity to use the loo. Unfortunatley that gave the rest of the plane the chance to get in immigration line ahead of us. Damn- rookie first class traveler mistake! Once through customs we went over to the taxi stand and asked them to take us to the water taxi. The drive was interesting. It was almost like stepping back in time. Most of the advertisements for US products look like they were from 30 or 40 years ago. There is a lot of cool architecture but much of it has fallen victim to lack of maintenance. Heading thru the city towards the port we got a view of local life. When we arrived at the water taxi we were greeted by some friendly locals who took our luggage and directed is towards the water taxi ticket booth. Yes! We made it just in time for the noon taxi! After grabbing some refrescos at the mini mart we boarded the water taxi. After a thorough safety briefing we were on the way to Caye Caulker ! ( the safety briefing consisted of the captain " saying watch you steps!" As we boarded). The 40 min water taxi was pleasant yet choppy and brought us to a nice dock in Caye Caulker. There was a bit of chaos as we got onshore with everyone trying to find their luggage. Since we had arrived early and werent sure how to get ahold of the guy who was meeting us we decided to hit up the barrrier reef sports bar and have a beer to two. My first thoughts upon entering this low key laid back bar were "holy crap they have hockey on tv and trivia night and a view of the ocean this is the best place ever!!" Then i saw a phillies banner on the wall and that confirmed my first thoughts. The bartender chatted with us as we slugged down some Belikin drafts. We asked him if he knew Michael and he said he did so we decided to hang out and gave beers until he arrived. When michael arrived he greeted us. We finished up our beers and loaded up onto his golf cart ( main type of transportation on the island) and headed towards our cabin. Well my battery is about to die so I am done boring you for now. Stay tuned for more adventure updates....