We Take Our Hammock Sitting Seriously ...

It has been a while since my last post, and for that I apologize.  It felt a bit like I had settled in, almost to a point of monotony. That isn't all bad, I am retired after all, the whole point here is I don’t’ “have” to do anything. And boy I’m getting exceptionally good at doing nothing.

But that is “nothing” in a healthy sense. If you ever need to relax, lower your blood pressure, find some place to meditate, consider your life, I can’t recommend the Caribbean, specifically this place, enough.

I am elevating hammock sitting on an over the water dock to an art form. So to let you know what is happening in this corner of the world, otherwise known as paradise:

Well first, one of my favorite bar/restaurants closed. I’m not always sure of the veracity of the stories I hear but what I've heard is the mother of the owner, who is from the UK, has fallen ill and he has decided to return to England.

The Purple Space Monkey has been in existence for 12 years in one form or another and seemed to have survived a few owners and a fire to become a relatively stable village staple. Good food, wonderful staff, good drinks. One of the very few places you could get a Belikin on draft.

When the owner decided to sell, in swooped Caldwell Banker Real Estate. They are selling most of the properties at Sanctuary Belize, a very upscale development in the area. I’m not really sure of the reasoning for Caldwell Banker to choose this property although it does put them on the main road right next to two other real estate offices. But they are apparently going to take a good restaurant property and enclose it to make an office building with a bar out front. I don’t know, maybe expats with a lot of money are looser with the checkbook after a few drinks.

The last few days at PSM were bittersweet, one less place your likely to run into friends for a drink while in the village, separate from the bigger beach bars. It was cool to see many of the local business owners, including restaurant and bar owners coming in for a meal and drinks and to say goodbye.

The Staff at Purple Space Monkey

The staff is going off in different directions, some will be working at other local bars, the chef Rick is building his own restaurant up the main road a piece, not sure when it will be built and operational.

Personally,  I’m sorry to no longer be able to get a Pizza at PSM, it was really quite good, and I loved a Monkey Mud Slide as a dessert drink.

In other news, at the cabanas where I live it has been fun  we seem to be forming a little community. Just about every afternoon and evening, some or all of us will end up on the dock, lounging in the newly purchased hammocks, exchanging stories about our day, telling each other what new we’ve learned about living in Placencia as an expat and learning about where we all came from. Mostly we’re just becoming professional hammock sitters.

There is Doc, he’s from Texas, a retired veterinarian and an author. He has published four books of short stories about vet life and has a fifth being edited for publication. His long term plan is to live here almost permanently, having just bought a piece of property but  he does go back to the states to travel to several very large stock shows where he has a booth to sell his books. Although his wardrobe now is shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops, it doesn’t take much to imagine him in boots, spurs and cowboy hat. You can check out his books and his website here.

There is Cruz, a former software engineer form Chandler, Arizona who just decided the Caribbean life was for him, so he sold everything and came on down. Long term he’ll likely buy or build a home here or in another Central American country,  and who knows, may start his own business. Don’t let him fool you though, in addition to being an engineer he is quite the dancer, ballroom style, western swing. You can often find him in one of the local watering holes cutting a rug and making several of us less than graceful types look reasonably okay on the dance floor.

Dan is the most recent addition to our little “community”, a former truck driver from Phoenix, Arizona who after a medical scare, retired and decided he could better afford life here and could avoid all that traffic.

John and Donna have lived here longer than the rest of us, they own the 2 Can Be Sweet coffee shop and bakery on the sidewalk. Donna makes those amazing cinnamon rolls I’ve previously raved about. They plan on moving and expanding their business a bit, less baked goods and more breakfast and lunch food in a new building on the main road. Right now they are in Guatemala on their newly purchased sailboat that after hurricane season they will bring up and anchor here to live on.

Finally we have Mike, a business owner from Kansas City, Missouri, who while back in the states right now will be back soon. He is building and opening a fishing charter business, in partnership with a local Belizean boat captain and fishing guide. Looks like he’ll be very successful. Hoping I might get a chance to go fishing with  him.

L to R: Dan, Doc and Cruz, cleaning fresh fish from the Co-op before grilling, it was excellent.

There is still one cabana unoccupied, you should come down and try out the hammock sitting job. There is always a breeze on our little dock, in fact sometimes it seems almost gale force winds but even then it is still comfortable and beautiful.

Next week I’m off to Utila for a week of diving with friends. Can’t wait to see Greg, Paula and Sandra. Besides the diving, Greg is checking out some homes there,  maybe I should get him to write a guest blog post about his trip to Utila and Placencia. After diving he’s visiting with me up here, checking out the local bars and restaurants and getting to enjoy the annual Lobsterfest.

Next post will include, ferry, taxi, bus and small plane rides to get to and from Honduras and an overnight stay in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

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.

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.