When Things Go Horribly Wrong

I remember when I was first talking about making this move and and getting ready to leave. So many times people would ask me about my plans and lots of "what if" questions. I would laugh sometimes because I had no real plans. Nothing was set in stone. Up until about three weeks before I arrived I had no clue where I was going to live. Some were even a little nervous for me saying "you can't move to Belize without a plan!" (Thank you Rob Woods). But my feeling was always, it will all work out, and what is the worst that can happen?

I truly tried to think of, what if I didn't find somewhere to live that I liked and could afford? I knew I could probably find a place I could afford for a month or so, even if that was just a resort here. My only plan was then to just get here and see what happened and see what I could find. The worst then that could happen was I'd have a month-long vacation in Belize and if I had to return to the US, I'd figure it out, when and if that happened.

Then I suddenly found online a house for rent in Placencia. Small but exactly what I needed and well within my budget. See, I told you it would all work out. But then the house wouldn't be available til mid-March and just as suddenly I found the cabana I'm currently living in, also small but just what I needed for the intervening month between my arrival and getting into the rental house.

It just convinced me that flying by the seat of my pants is actually when I do best. I didn't need a lot of plans it will work out just as it is supposed to. I'm just putting my faith in the Universe.

So since I've been here I've kept that attitude, nothing is that big of a problem. And if you compare my life to the things that some people in the world are facing every day, I have it pretty damn good. I will admit not being somewhere that I get to dive easily and regularly has been a disappointment. I can hear some of you saying, "but if you had done more research you would have known that before going", and that is true, but I am just as happy for the experience of just going and hoping for the best. Placencia is a lovely place just to be.

As many already know, as important to me as diving is and as much as I love it, I also have my other passion, writing and have a couple of works in progress. And for that passion, this has been the ideal place for me. I have the time and the solitude necessary for uninterrupted writing time and I have become so relaxed it has allowed my creative juices to flow.

I've got ideas and things in the works for more adventures in the very near future but for today, I'm happy just being where I am. That is something I've rarely been able to say, that I'm just happy exactly where I am at that moment.

So what could go wrong?

Ummm,  at about 10 a.m. I'm taking my shower, "mindin' my own business" as they say, when I hear the sound of sizzle, snap, crackle, pop then pow and the pipe leading from the wall to the shower head directly over me bursts into flames. Really? A pipe for the shower head -- flames??? Yep. Then it continues to crackle and pop.

Okay so first thing is I'm dumbfounded. It sounds like an electrical problem, but an electrical problem in the plumbing? There finally is a little of my own snap crackle and pop as the synapses start to fire and I realize, Ah Ha, that is how they give me hot water only in the shower, there is some type of heating mechanism in the pipe leading to the shower head (think having an "Insta-Hot" on your kitchen sink).

But now there is flames and sparks and smoke, and the thought is "oh, this can't be good". So I shut off the water (thank goodness I was already rinsed and not just covered in soap), but I need water to put the flames out, so I have to turn the water back on and use my washcloth to douse the flames. The fire has also now shorted out all the electricity in my little cabana. And just to make the neighbors happy, the internet for the entire group of cabanas is in my little place, I house the  modem and the router, so now no one has internet.

I get dressed, open the door to try and get the smoke out, there are little bits of ash floating around in the air in my little room. And I know you want to know what it looked like. Although my first concern was putting the fire out, as a dedicated blogger of my experience I did snap a quick photo of the burned pipe before I evacuated.

Not a very good picture but I was hoping it wouldn't suddenly burst into flames again, even though it had already shorted out all the electricity. but you get the idea.

Now mind you, I don't have a local phone yet (remember I'm kind of a seat of my pants kind of gal), I now don't have internet so I go out and see if any of my neighbors are around so I can borrow a local phone, but the place is deserted. So I walk into town go to the leasing office and tell them of my terrible, no good, very bad morning. A phone call is made to an electrician who is heading over immediately to get it fixed and I"m assured they will have it fixed today or have another unit I can stay in if its not.

I hang out in town until late in the afternoon, I check with the leasing company, they call and are told they are just finishing up and cleaning up so I head home. Well they weren't quite that far along but they had replaced the pipe and they had at least some electricity going into the cabana as the lights were working.

Lucky for me I met nice neighbors who invited me over for a seat and a beer while I waited. The electrician, (who about four people now have told me is just a great guy, a great electrician but can also take care of most other household emergencies including plumbing etc., note for future reference) comes over and tells me that whoever installed these shower heads and heater things used the wrong kind of wire (and he actually told me what was used and what was needed but I don't remember facts like that) which caused it to short out and catch fire. He said he had found the same thing in another unit when theirs had also caught fire so he will tell the leasing company to let him fix them in any unit they installed them in.

So the moral of the story? Actually while scary at the moment to find yourself in a the shower with sparks coming down around you, it really was not that big of a deal. I'm all good, it is fixed and life goes on. It is still gorgeous here and I'm living the good life. Mid 80's, sunny with summer on the way.

RULES FOR VISITING AND LIVING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY

I’ve decided there should be rules.

I’ve thought for a while now that tourists are really the problem, but I have started to see that becoming a resident or at least a long-term visitor can still allow you to forget your manners.

So here goes, for all of you planning a vacation or moving. (And I think this applies even more if you are planning on being in a culture of people of color).

RULE #1: Remember, you are a visitor to someone else’s country, hence you are a visitor to their home.

RULE #2: It is not all about you. (Hard to believe I know)

RULE #3: Yes, they appreciate your American or Canadian (or whichever country you hail from) dollars, but just because you are spending money does not mean that you can treat people with scorn or ridicule or without  courtesy and dignity.

RULE #4: The people who are cleaning your room or bussing your table really are not getting paid enough for you to be snotty to them, or treat them as your personal servants. They are doing a job, that’s all and doing it likely just fine. You like it cleaner, don’t make such a big mess, clean it yourself  or stay home and mess up your own house.

RULE #5: Refer to rule #1.

RULE #6:  If having all the comforts of home, including the very fastest high speed internet, a million TV channels with a flat screen TV, the best “sleep number or memory foam” mattress, all the latest appliances are really that important to you, then just stay home and use your stuff there.

RULE #7: The culture you are visiting is likely different than yours, respect that.

RULE #8: If you are going to move to a foreign country to live it is your job to adapt to their culture and way of life, not the other way around.

RULE # 9: Please don’t embarrass me and other ex-pats who are trying to enjoy a lovely life in another country and assimilate here. I’d prefer not to be considered “the ugly American” because of your poor behavior.

RULE #10: Just because there is a lot of alcohol available, does not mean you necessarily need to drink a lot of alcohol and show off your not very good dancing or singing skills in every beach bar you come across.

RULE #11: If you must get drunk and loud, it becomes even more important that you remember your manners and treat the locals with respect.

RULE #12: Refer to Rule #1 again, must I remind you?

The reasons for these rules? I have to admit, a woman I was speaking to the other day hit a nerve. She was complaining, complaining about things just weren’t “as promised” and just not good enough when she moved into her current place (a cabana/guest house similar to mine but way bigger). But when I asked questions like is it just that leasing company etc., she would say things like “no they're just Belizean”, with a roll of her eyes and a big sigh. This is the same lady that owns a high end condo here that she rents out. She comes to Belize for about 3 months out of the year and can’t “afford” to live in her own condo. So she rents a one bedroom place for $600 a month and rents her condo for $5000 a month. And she’s complaining about what?

Add that to the number of times I’ve been around the beach bars when they are filled with tourists drinking sweet drinks with four different kinds of alcohol, a piece of fruit and an umbrella, and paying no attention to how intoxicated they are and acting like ….. well, like asses.

My limited experience here has been, the local people of Placencia are absolutely lovely. Those that work in the service industry are generally really nice, try their best to be helpful and want to see you enjoy your time in Belize. I have run into a rude person here and there, certainly no more and likely much less than I did in the states.

I would like to continue to be welcomed here and in other countries I might visit so I’d appreciate if you’d just abide by the rules when you come. Thanks.

Pretending to be a Local

Well I’m not really pretending to be a local but I am in that in-between place. I’m not here just on holiday, I live here now, but I’ve only been here just over a week and know less than many of those here on holiday.

If you want to know where a grocery store is or a bank or the post office, if you give me a minute to get my bearings I can usually point you in the right direction. But ask me where I live and I have a hard time describing it, is there even a name to the dirt road that I walk down to get home? I’ve never seen a sign and I haven’t asked.

I usually talk in landmarks, “you know where the soccer field is (futbol field if their European)? On the other side of the soccer field between the ocean and the lagoon, where the lagoon narrows”.  Someone finally said it was out towards Sunset Pointe. But here, just for you I have a map. If you look down on the lower left, #71; according to the legend that is called Sugar Reef (Sunset Lounge and Cabanas). That actually is where i live although it is now called Nikolai's Place. And if you look directly across the lagoon there, to the right of #70, that is where the house i will be renting starting in March is.

I only made the map this big so you could maybe read the legend. I still needed to enlarge it to read it.

Please don’t ask me how to get somewhere and really don’t ask me if something is north, south, east, or west of where we are at that moment or we’ll both be hopelessly lost.

But I am starting to feel more like a local than just a tourist.

I was telling a friend just the other that just about every morning for the past six years I wake up, sometimes early, sometimes not so early and I dread the idea of getting out of bed. And it has been this general malaise, I wasn’t doing anything that made he excited usually to start my day.

Since I have been here, I often stay up late reading (I’ve gotten through four novels since arriving here a week and a half ago) or writing. I turn out the light and fall asleep quickly and sleep well.

The little cabana I am in, and I think most places in this part of the world, has windows with screens and then louvers on them. No glass. I think the louvers will only get closed if some really severe weather comes in, the rest of the time I am lulled to sleep or awakened by the sounds of life outside.

And it isn’t cars, or sirens, or television or any of those things that made up the cacophony of noises in our daily lives.  I lie in bed and can hear the water lapping up onto the sand from the Caribbean, or I can feel the wind, a gentle breeze, or bird of undetermined species but they can be loud.  When it has rained it has not been accompanied by thunder or lightening. It is more that it comes sweeping in, starting with just a few sprinkles and then the skies open up and it pours.

It continues to come in like the ocean does at the beach, the rain breaks above me like a wave that washes up on shore then recedes,  it gets a little quieter, and then another wave comes in.

It seems to last an hour or so and just as suddenly as it had arrived it is gone. Shortly I’ll hear the birds again and then I”ll feel it begin to warm up as the sun reappears.

In the mornings if I wait in bed I hear a few boats, usually small skiffs, I imagine their owners are “commuting” to work from somewhere a bit further south.

Often though I get up and go out to see what that morning’s sunrise will look like. They have almost all been spectacular. I watch the sun come up and the boats, mostly sailboats, that are anchored offshore as they gently rock on the water. I have yet to see any boat yet “under sail”.

I find myself feeling guilty often, what do I “do” all day? I have no work, I am on no ones schedule and no one would know if I chose to just stay in bed. But then I try and remind myself, I am allowed to enjoy my life. I know how fortunate I am to have a great retirement that allows me to live this way, but I earned that retirement so I needn’t feel guilty for making the most of it.

I am truly loving not having a TV. I had become used to watching a few shows regularly back in the states, but I feel just fine without them. I just skip over all those posts on social media about Breaking Bad and House of Cards and whatever else is the popular shows these days, I didn’t watch them before and can’t watch them now. Have no clue what all the fuss is about..

It has become a bit of a treat these last couple of weeks to go out in the evening to a local restaurant/bar and be able to watch bits and pieces of the Olympics, but that satisfies my desire for TV and I go home and read. I would have enjoyed seeing some of the ice skating performances but wasn’t there at the right time and can’t find clips of them online. Guess I’ll just do without.

I got my stove working (thank you Greg for the help), and finally cooked a little for myself. Nice not to just keep spending money, going out for every meal. The "kitchen" here is a little tough. A very small stove, next to a sink with about 8 inches of counter space on one side and about 20 inches of counter space on the other. Below the twenty inches of counter space is a small dorm sized refrigerator. Under the sink is a cabinet. Thats it, no shelves, no drawers nothing. So that "large" counter space is taken up mostly by a dish drying rack that holds the dishes that I have here, and the rest of the counter space is taken up by the small amount of food I'm keeping in the house.

Have enjoyed meeting people, both people who live here and those here visiting. Met a great couple the other night, here from Wisconsin (I’d be out of Wisconsin too in the winter). They were traveling throughout Belize, they hope to one day retire somewhere in Central America. They liked Placencia but were most impressed with inland places, the jungle and mountains. They talked sustainability and self sufficiency. When I asked where they were staying they told me they were camping. That husband was originally from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan (insert comment about real winters and huge amounts of snow), he is currently unemployed and his wife is a nurse. They are leaving Belize at the end of the week, hoping (wink, wink) they don’t get stuck here due to bad weather back home. I’ll leave the camping to others.

Went to a restaurant today for lunch, “The Pickled Parrot”. This is my second visit here. It is owned by an American couple from New Jersey (south Jersey I’m told). They have been here for almost 3 years and have owned the restaurant for just over two. Really nice people, their son tends bar there,  and another young man who is Belizean but spent about 12 years in Chicago and fairly recently returned. He is this great mixture of Belize and Chicago, his hair is shoulder length and braided, he speaks with a Belizean accent, I think he speaks Creole, but he dresses a little like a hip hop artist. I'll have to get a picture of him tomorrow.

The food is good, very American style food, the special the other night was meatloaf, today was Chicken Parmesan. Who eats meatloaf when they come to Belize? But, they ran out. I guess many of the expats enjoy coming in for an "American" meal. I had a burger and I’m not sure if it is because I’ve had almost no beef in the last few weeks or what, but it was an awesome cheeseburger and maybe the best onion rings I’ve ever had. I think they make them with a tempura batter. And, of course, a Belikin to wash it down.

The Pickled Parrot

Have a date to return there tomorrow, to watch the USA vs. Canada Women’s Hockey match with a couple from Canada. Should be fun. Go USA!!!

So What About Diving??

I am living now in the Caribbean, in a country that has some of the best diving in the world, along the second larges barrier reef in the world. So what about diving?

I had done a little bit of research online before I even moved here, I found in the Placencia area what appeared to be three Dive Shops/Operators, Splash, Seahorse and Avadon. All advertised that they were PADI shops.

During the taxi ride form the airport into the village, Splash was pointed out to me and I was told that it was the largest dive operation with the biggest fleet of boats. (I wondered if the person pointing them out got some kind of kickback for directing people there --- there is that skeptical part of me surfacing again!)

While wandering some through town I noticed that Splash had what you might call a satellite office in town. Really it is a satellite desk. I spoke to the man there who really is there to arrange trips and tours for the tourists. I asked him a couple questions about group pricing etc. ( I mean just in case I can get a group of you to come visit) but he told me I should talk to the folks at the main shop.

A couple days later I found Seahorse Dive Shop as I wandered around. I stopped in and talked to Brian whose father Brian Sr. started the shop. He said they were the first dive operators in Placencia.

First of all, it's kind of a good news/bad news situation.

Good news, some of the most pristine reefs can be found at the diving out of Placencia.

Bad news, almost all the dive sites are at least an hour long boat ride from the village, some even a bit longer. There is a place called Laughing Bird Caye which is only about a half our boat ride, but from everything I have read although lovely it is really a fairly shallow dive site and so while it is beautiful you will get a lot of juvenile fish and some pretty coral but very few large schools, no sharks, few turtles etc. Maybe some southern Stingrays but certainly no spotted eagle rays.

I asked about the other dive shop, Avadon. Bad news, the have just gone out of business. When I asked why Brian was a bit unsure but he said amazingly what some would call the slow season (summer) in Belize, they just call the stop season because it just dies. I'm at a loss to know why and so is he. So now there are only two shops. There are other shops and tour guides that offer snorkeling trips to many of the same places but not diving. I know that I had looked Avadon up online before I moved here so it seemed weird when Brian told me they had closed. So I went back online today, their website is still up and active and I found a Trip Advisor review of them from January of 2014. But there is nothing on their calendar, nothing really recent on their blog. So I used the e-mail address in their contact us link and sent them an e-mail. It came back undeliverable as the domain doesn't exist. You'd think if you were just going to close down your business  you might take down your website as well. But who knows what happened.

I have to admit, I have a few of my own ideas about what the problem is and why business dies off but I'll get to that later.

So I first did some comparison shopping between the two shops. They both go to the same places and dive sites. They both offer training and all their dives are lead by PADI dive masters. And, they are both what I would consider pricey. Two tank dives at Laughing Bird Caye are $125-$130 US. Two tank dives at some of the other, (what I would consider better) dive sites are $170-$180 US. That is a lot of money for a two tank dive and an hour to an hour and a half boat ride.  Three tank dives range from about $170 to$215, with 2 tank Whaleshark dives at Gladden Spit $210 and 3 tank Blue Hole dives $330-$350 and about a three hour boat ride.

I then compared that to dive trips out of Ambergris Caye. Of course those are different dive sites and different boat ride times but generally they are a bout half the cost. That is a big difference, at least in my budget it is. The Blue Hole is about half way in between Ambergris and Placencia so there is about the same length of boat ride for each and the Blue Hole Trip from Ambergris I think is close to the same cost.

I asked Brian about shore diving and there is none, he said there is nothing to see, the reef is 20-22 miles off shore -- hence the long boat ride. But he said people do snorkel from shore. I noticed that right near shore both near his shop and right near where i live the sea floor is covered in monkey grass which I know in other places is a prime place for Seahorses. Brian said yes there were seahorses in the monkey grass so I asked if I could then dive there to take pictures. He told me I'd probably just want to snorkel it is very shallow no more than about 2 feet deep.

Then I asked about Manatees which I had heard were around. He said you could find them in the lagoon near the Mangroves. Again, he made it sound like people only snorkel there and I don't think the dive shops do a lot of snorkel trips to see Manatees. I have seen that some of the tour operators do offer some type of manatee trip but I'm not sure if you're in the water with them.

Brian is a nice guy, but didn't seem that interested in getting me to go diving with his shop. Maybe it is because right now they are headed into whale shark season and so it is their really busy season, he could maybe care less. I still have to go see the folks at Splash. I asked if Seahorse had any kind of relationship with any of the hotels/inns etceteras to offer packages to travelers and he said no. (Can anybody see where I'm going with this?)

I then said something about being a PADI Open Water Instructor and that although I knew I couldn't work in Belize I wouldn't mind maybe bartering ... teaching once in a while in exchange for some time on the boat to dive. Nope. Not allowed. In order to teach scuba in Belize you must be a tour operator or tour guide. Even if I just wanted to teach a friend who came to visit from the US, legally I'd have to be a tour guide or tour operator to teach here. There is that chance that "who'd know?", but I'd hate to get deported for doing something stupid while here. Brian did say that the offer a class and if I got my Belizean residency I could then take the class and could then teach. Residency is at least a year off if I decide this is where i want to stay, so that is something maybe in the future. I am only guessing that if I were living in Ambergris and wanted to teach there that the same rules still apply that i'd have to be a tour guide or tour operator.

I also asked about hurricanes, thinking maybe its a bigger threat than I had originally thought. No, its not. Last hurricane to actually make landfall here was in 2001. They do get weather from the tropical storms but the south is much drier than other parts of the country. But maybe a lot of tourists don't realize that because the rainy season here is from June to November, so possibly travelers think summer wouldn't be a good time to visit. I'll have to let you know what its like then. I mistakenly thought based on some things others told me that we were in the rainy season now. But, it does make sense when someone mentioned that it has been unusually wet this year (for what I now know is the dry season).

So, this is a bit of a disappointment. But let me assure you I still think I've made the right choice to live in Placencia. I can dive here or take a bus up to Belize City then a short ferry ride to Ambergris. I could also take a relatively short plane ride to Roatan.

I still think I will enjoy this area generally more than Ambergris as a place to live. I really feel like what I need to do is find divers in the area, locals or expats that live here and dive and see what they do. Do they own their own boats and go out to the reef? Do they pay those rates to dive? I have to admit, for as great as the diving is down this way, you don't see a lot of people with dive equipment wandering around or even talking about diving. The shops are hidden away a bit, out of the general flow of traffic so they aren't getting the walk in tourist traffic. So my next mission is to find some divers. And I am thinking I need to get in some saltwater with snorkel gear, and get myself and my camera wet. I'd love some seahorse or manatee pictures and who knows what else.

Okay so if I ruled the world this is what I'd tell these folks. I think the reason your business drops off is that you aren't really working very had to entice divers to come here. I had to drag information out of these people about diving and if they do anything for groups. They don't have any relationship with a place for divers to stay so that they can offer some type of package deal for diving and staying and some land based stuff and there is lots of that stuff around! An hour boat ride is a long boat ride, thats why if people come here probably a lot of them stay out at Glovers Reef, it has resorts there and is considered one of the best dive sites anywhere.

Let's be honest though, what do I know, I'm new here and this may be something they have been hashing over for a long time -- or maybe the dive industry is not the tourism they want here.

You know, there is an upside and a downside to everything. I've already talked about the downside for me personally and for their dive industry here as to the way they do business now. But the upside is, they are not overrun with dive shops, fly by night dive operators, a million people stepping on and ruining their reef. It is still one of the most pristine areas on the Mesoamerican Reef.

I mentioned in my first post about choosing Placencia and the plan for Norwegian Cruise Lines to build a cruise port here, right off shore at Harvest Caye. There has been a halt to plans, and at least for now Norwegian has to fix what is a really poorly done Environmental Impact report. There was supposed to be another meeting on February 12th about the plan but I haven't yet heard or read what happened there. Here is a link to one of the latest stories in the Placencia Breeze (a monthly publication by the local chapter of the Belize Tourism Industry Association). So you can see that tourism and how they deal with it in this growing community is a big issue here.

I'm hoping I haven't caused any of you would-be visitors to change your mind, this is such a beautiful little village and there is a lot to do here, including diving. I just want you to know what it will take to dive here in Placencia. I'm enjoying my everyday existence here and the people I have met so far are wonderful. The next big event here is what they call the Flaming Heart Ball at one of the local beach bars and restaurants. Proceeds benefit the Placencia Volunteer Fire Department. And then there is Easter Break in April which is actually Spring Break and all that brings. (I think I might be out of town that week ... darn.)

Living Here AND Being a Tourist

As I mentioned before, this weekend was the Placencia Sidewalk Art and  Music Festival.  So although I like to think of myself as almost a resident (not sure how long you really have to live somewhere before you kind of belong), I felt like this weekend would be more like I was a tourist.

But there were a few other things to do as well, like figuring out the whole, how do I do my laundry, and I guess I actually do need to order butane for the stove to work if I'm going to cook for myself (what, you mean peanut butter and jelly sandwiches don't constitute dinner?).

As long as I didn't have butane though and couldn't cook, I did have breakfast at this lovely little place called Dawn's Grill and Go, right on the main street. All the tables are in a screened in deck. I heard about this place from a woman I met who does not live here but comes here quite often. She said that Dawn started out with just a little cart on the side of the road and has grown into what is one of the more popular little local restaurants in town. I had a breakfast burrito of eggs and bacon, coffee and a huge orange juice, all for about $8 US. I later had a late lunch/early dinner at the Barefoot Bar where i had some soft chicken tacos, also great. They come five to an order for about $6 US. Add in a couple Belikin Beers at $2.50 ea. US and I got away for $11 US before tip. You can find reasonably cheap food here but eating out every meal becomes cost prohibitive, I mean there are times you just don't want to leave the house and walk into town just for food.

Breakfast Burrito

Lunch: Grilled chicken tacos

Friday I made arrangements to have Butane delivered, the property management company called the gas company and requested they come by. They said they would be by on Saturday. This is not like Comcast or your electric or phone company, you don't get a window when they'll be there. I resigned myself to having to wait around for however long it took them to show up on Saturday. The guy at the property management company said if I wanted to leave and they had not delivered yet to come by their office, they would get the money from me and then tell the gas company to stop by there first to pick up payment so they could deliver. Not bad.

While I was there I thought I'd mention, I don't have any hot water in either of my sinks (the kitchen or bathroom), but it isn't like the water just doesn't get hot, there is no water coming out of the spigot when you turn the handle for the hot water. Oh, turns out that is a caribbean kind of thing, no hot water except in the shower. Yep, you wash your dishes in cold water, and anything else you're thinking of washing in the sink. Hmmm, good to know.

Between my cabana and town is  a house with a sign outside that says Ther's Laundromat. A family lives upstairs but downstairs on the bottom floor they have a room with about 3 or 4 washers and 3 or 4 dryers. The young woman said I could drop my laundry off Saturday morning, she would be open at 7 a.m. Cost is $7 US a load. May sound like a lot but I realized if I took my laundry to a laundromat in the states it costs about $1.50 per wash load and probably takes about $2-$3 to dry. Electricity is expensive here so $7 a load is not outrageous. Better than me hand washing in cold water in my tiny sink then trying to figure out where to hang them to dry.

By Friday night you could feel the vibe in town changing, it started getting busy. Lots more vehicle traffic on the main road and since it was also Valentines Day many of the restaurants were pretty crowded. The weekend also signaled the end of Lobster season so any restaurants that still had Lobsters were making some specials with them. It seems that once Lobster season ends, the restaurants can't even serve it anymore. Some of the bars and restaurants down on the Sidewalk at the ocean were having some type of welcome happy hour for the artists who would have booths at the festival and as it turns out the bars were staying open late. Some until 4 a.m.

Friday night I had a drink at the Purple Space Monkey while I watched a bit of the olympics coverage. While there I met the self proclaimed "Poet of Placencia" who was kind enough to recite me a poem for Valentines day. 70 year old guy has been in Placencia since the 70's. He would be "performing" at the Festival this weekend. (Someone else told me later that when they first met him  many years ago they had asked where he had come from before moving to Belize and he had a one word answer ... "prison". Apparently it was a relatively long stay there too).

Saturday morning I rose early, (you saw my sunrise pictures on Facebook?), if not, here is one:

An absolutely stunning morning. I read while I waited. Heard a truck on the road outside a couple times, went outside to check make sure I wasn't missing anything, but alas, no gas delivery. Finally I just decided to not wait any longer I'd go to town, stop by the property management office then go check out the Art and Music Festival. As I was leaving I ran into a neighbor who when I told her I had been waiting for a gas delivery, she told me I had just missed them. She said, "Did you hear that siren noise? That was them." We chatted for a minute how it might have been nice had they told me to listen for the siren noise then go outside to get them to deliver your gas. She was off on her bike towards town, she said if she caught up to them she would tell them to come back.

I waited another 30 minutes or so then headed into town. The property management guy took my money, got a gas can from the gas company and delivered it himself later in the afternoon.

I spent the rest of he day wandering the Art and Music Festival. I had lunch at another little restaurant. It is basically a very small wooden building, about the size of a garden shed with some wooden tables and chairs outside. It's called Pirate Grill. It was also pretty good, fairly cheap. They didn't have alcohol there but one of the guys working there ran down the sidewalk and brought me back a beer.

The art festival had several booths of jewelry, many of  paintings, there were quite  a few that had the woven bags, blankets, baskets etc., a bunch that had bake sale type items, some just selling sodas and water, a few that were raising money for one thing or another including the local humane society, the school and a few others. Several wood carvers. A few of the booths were run by businesses that already have shops or galleries along the sidewalk and some were people who obviously came from out of town. Most of the paintings were similar in style, usually brightly colored tropical scenes and animals. There was also one booth selling Noni Juice which from my limited research is a pretty foul tasting juice derived from the fruit of the Morinda Citrifolia tree, indigenous to the carribbean and Southeast Asia and Austraila. It is touted as a cure for all kinds of human ailments ranging from constipation to age related diseases and cancer. (Well not in the US mind you).

So heres a tiny snapshot of the day:

I came home Saturday afternoon after a stop at the grocery, the fruit stand and to pick up my laundry. My intention was to maybe go back for whatever the evening festivities were. By evening I could hear the music from town, actually quite clearly. I felt old. I was thinking I didn't really want to go listen to extremely loud music with a whole lot of  20 and 30 year old tourists (or people who wanted to relive their 20's and 30's) who were at the bars drinking way too much. I've already witnessed a couple of cringe-worthy moments with too-drunk Americans saying rather rude things to Belizeans, I can't apologize for them but I'd rather not be witness to it either. By 8:30 or so I was comfortable at home and fine with listening to the music from here and not being the tourist. The music down towards this end of town quieted down by about midnight, I'm pretty sure at the other end of the sidewalk they would be going til well into the wee hours.

Next post: Information about the dive scene.

Settling In

Here it is day three. It actually feels like longer. I think that is because I can easily be "retired" and do next to nothing.

I have spent my days in town, grocery shopping, getting a little bit of fresh fruit from a fruit/vegetable stand and basically learning my way around.

The Belizean people I have met are lovely, welcoming and nice. I have begun to meet several ex-pats, it seems that many of the businesses here are owned by ex-pats and then they have Belizean employees.

There is likely a book in there somewhere, everyone has a story, what brought them to Belize to begin with, why they left their home country (often-times the US), and what they do now.

I mentioned earlier that the day I arrived I met a neighbor who said he and his wife owned a coffee shop/bakery. I stopped there today. I'll be back, often, the cinnamon roll was to die for.

And did I mention, they are HUGE!! Just have to be sure not to come back too often or I'll end up as big as a house.

Johnny, the owner is from Wisconsin, said he has lived here for two years. When he said to me he got out of prison and came here I bit my tongue. Then he followed up with, "I was a prison guard and decided I had  enough of that". I inwardly laughed. His wife (I think that is who she was) was baking in the kitchen. I think she is Belizean.

Last night I met Brian from the UK, lived here in the 90's when he volunteered for an organization from theUK similar the peace corps. Left here in 2003 and returned last year.

I also met Brad, he and his wife own the SeaGlass Inn in Placencia. Not sure if he said where he was from, but somewhere in the US.

And I met Olive, a woman from Punta Gorda, Belize, south of here, a Mayan Village. She comes to Placencia a couple times a week to try and sell her handmade goods, handwoven baskets, beaded jewelry, handwoven purses, and had carved masks and other wood pieces that her son makes and she helps him doing the sanding etc., before they are stained or painted. There are just along the main road several women with a blanket laid out and similar crafts displayed asking you to buy their Mayan crafts. But just a peak inside some of the  gift shops here, it appears they may have many similar things, so I'm not sure if they gift shops are getting their things from the Mayan village or if all of them are getting things from elsewhere and selling them as Mayan crafts. That is the skeptical and mistrusting part of me, the part I want to let go of.

Haven't been in the water yet, seems there is not much shore diving here, but soon I hope. It is warm and sunny, temps in the mid 80's during the day.

This weekend is the Placencia Sidewalk Arts & Music Festival, so I'm certain I'll have pictures and a post about that.  As it turns out artists from all over the country come here to display their art work and perform. See more here. I know that the elementary school kids will be selling calendars for $5 BZD ($2.50 USD), each month with a picture one of the school children has drawn. Proceeds go directly to the school.

There are several art galleries and shops carrying handmade jewelry and gift items that I have not yet visited. I'm certain I'll see some of that artwork this weekend.

Just can't find a thing that I could or would complain about.

Might as well Jump In with Both Feet!

When I arrived in Belize city it was already 4:00 in the afternoon. I had tried, the night before, to book a flight from Belize City to Placencia for Sunday and it wouldn't let me. I tried both Tropic Air and Maya Island Air. I had a sneaking suspicion I was going to have to find a room for Sunday night and get a flight for Monday.

But, as I got through Belize Immigration and Customs a Belizean man came up and told me he would help me with my bags. I must have given him one of those looks, you know the one, because he assured me he wasn't going to try and charge me anything, he just wanted to help me get out of the way of the doorway. Oh, okay, sorry dude.

Then he asks me where I'm going and I say I want to go to Placencia but it seems I've missed the last flight for the day. He says, "no, we can get you there ... and off he goes to the ticket agent. He's gone five minutes or so while I stand around and think about how I will find a hotel in Belize City, one within my budget. The guy comes back and says "no more flights for Tropic Air but I can get you on Maya Island Air". And with that he personally assists me through the entire process until I have a ticket in my hand and my bags are checked for a 5:00 p.m. flight.

Wow, that was nice.

It is a $116  USD one way flight. I could have waited until Monday and tried to take a bus (which is actually I believe several buses) which would have likely taken about 5 hours, or I could have rented a cab for about $250 and taken about 3.5 hours. Overall it was worth the cost for the 35 minute plane ride and a beautiful look at Belize from about 1500 feet.

I turn on my phone enough to text the leasing agent for the one month rental I have and tell her I'm taking a 5:00 flight. I am getting on the plane so I turn off my phone and have no idea if she received my text. My busy little brain that loves to worry, starts trying to figure out how I'm going to know where to go and how to get the keys to the place.

I step off the plane and there she is, like an angel, Desorine from the leasing office is awaiting my arrival. A fairly quick cab ride from the airport and through the village, pointing out places of interest etc.  ($7.50 USD). The soccer field, where I am told just about every Sunday you can find  games going on. There are booths around he field that appear to maybe sell food and/or drinks, banks (there are 3 in town), the post office, the police and fire stations and grocery stores --the largest ones are Chinese owned so she said you will find Chinese food ingredients. In fact I noticed at least two Chinese restaurants on my short tour, who knew? Desorine also says that along the road from the airport to the village a lot of people trot. It took a second for me to realize she meant this was a favorite jogging route, she said there were lots of people out at 5 or 5:30 in the morning or in the evening. I wasn't planning on being up and about at 5:30, but maybe I'll try and evening walk soon to start, we'll see.

As we pull into the parking area of the little cabana where I"ll be staying I can see that the house I will be renting longer term in March is directly across the lagoon from where we park the car. Convenient, no?

I get to my little tiny cabana, and it is small, but all that I need (except no place to put my luggage either empty or not), but nothing I can't cope with. I meet a couple neighbors, one of whom (an American) says he and his wife own a small bakery coffee shop down the road. I'm all about coffee and bakeries so I'm sure I'll see him in the morning.

Once I get all my luggage into the room and freshen up a bit I decide its time to go for a walk and get some dinner. As I walk out the door and to the street, it is dark but it is warm, shirtsleeve weather and I'm already happy. I walk towards the soccer field where I can see they are still playing and i can hear music. When I get closer I realize sitting on the bleachers are not only the local soccer fans but several guys playing drums. It was lovely. I walk over to a little stand and buy a Belikin, the local beer and get a warm welcome to Placencia from the guy "bar tending". I watch a little bit of soccer then wander on towards restaurants. I don't go far before I just decide to try this place:

Yeah, I have no idea where the name comes from or why .....

I sit at the bar order a beer (Belikin of course), and Jerk Chicken Quesadillas with black beans and cheese.

Quesadilla: Jerk chicken, black beans, cheese with fresh pico de gallo -- YUMMY.

Belikin on draft, the National Beer of Belize, not bad and not expensive.

I ate dinner, watched the Olympics, drank a couple beers and met Fabio from Italy, in Belize with his wife for the past month, here for his company as they are scouting a place in Central America to build a hotel/resort. Also met some guy from Montana (can't remember his name), here on holiday and planning on going boar hunting this week. I asked what he planned to do if he shot a boar, he said he would have it butchered and ship the meat home to Montana. I mentioned it seemed it would be really really expensive to ship meat home and he said he didn't care. Well okay then.

Mr. Montana ordered himself a double shot of Crown Royal with a splash of water. As he was waiting for his drink I got my bill for my Quesadilla and two beers, total of $22 Belizian -- $11 US. He gets his Crown --$40 Belizian ($20 US) YIKES!! I think I'll stick with the Belikins which are $2.50 US.  (Another reminder, if you come to visit and want liquor you might want to stop at the duty free and pick up your own).

After dinner I took the leisurely walk back to my cabana. I think I'm going to love it here. Although Placencia is known for having the longest sidewalk in he world (I hear it is in the Guinness book of World Records), many of the streets are dirt roads. Desorine tells me that many people rent golf carts rather than cars, I think I'd prefer a bicycle.  Monday I plan to spend the day wandering, figuring out where things are and making a stop at the grocery store. I don't see myself cooking that much, although my little room does have a stove, oven and refrigerator. We'll see. But I did notice a fruit stand that I will definitely visit.

I had posted on FB that I had arrived and my friend Cheri said the feeling of arriving is great but the first wake up will be the best. @CheriShaw, you were right, best feeling in the world although still have to get used to the idea that I'm not here for just a week on holiday but I'm staying long term.

By the way, one of my worries about the flight from Belize City to Placencia is that the airline had baggage policies that said they allowed two checked bags of 30 pounds each and one carry on of 15 pounds. Several people said to me, don't worry, they don't care. I'm a rule follower for the most part and I was sure I'd be the one person they singled out and made an example of  -- trying to get on their plane with two 50 pound checked bags and a small roller bag of indeterminate weight and a backpack carry on. But no, I was wrong, they took my bags without question, never weighed them. Desorine tells me that they are very relaxed, if you need to catch a plane and you're running a couple minutes late you can just call them and ask them to wait. I don't think I'll try that.