The wind was rip-roaring this morning (25-30 mph with an occasional higher gust) after a heavy rain in the early morning hours that was just letting up as we rolled out of bed.  I didn't really feel like fighting the wind on our bikes along the beach and knew the road would be full of puddles, so suggested we just walk up the road a ways and do some birding instead of riding our bikes north to Grande Belizean Estates, our usual birding spot.  Barry agreed, so we grabbed our binoculars and Birds of Belize book and headed out after a quick snack.

Along the way, we happened to run into a younger couple, Andy and Rhianna, who were also bird-watching.  They were staying at the Cocotal Inn on vacation.  Turns out that Rhianna had lived in Chapel Hill back in the '90s; what a small world.  She is the second woman we've met in a week vacationing here that has lived in Chapel Hill (as we did before moving here) and was originally from Minnesota.  Wild coincidence.

We walked up and down the road a short way and managed to see quite a few birds in the foliage alongside.  Most we had already seen before, but we were able to help Andy and Rhianna identify the various species and show them pictures in our book, so that was more fun than it would have been if we'd been by ourselves.  

An unexpected highlight occurred right as we were almost back to our condo and thought we were finished with our birding for the morning.  Suddenly I saw two birds flying and dipping overhead and then alight in a nearby tree.  I realized they were parrots, or similar, and looked just like the ones we had seen in GBE the week before, ever so briefly, too briefly to get a photo of.  

This time, we were in luck.  One of them spent quite a bit of time on a tree branch eating some sort of fruit, and Barry was able to get some nice shots.  When we got home, we identified them as Olive-Throated Parakeets, another bird for our life lists.  It's a real pleasure to see such exotic birds right in our own "back yard"!

Here are a few of our photos from the walk:

What a fun night!  We rode our bikes into town early Friday evening to attend the Saga Humane Society's pasta cook-off at Mojito's Bar and Grill on the San Pedro beachfront.  These monthly events, featuring a different food theme each time, support a wonderful cause, and really, who can resist pasta?  In addition to pasta, there were special prices on "Meow-itos" (mojitos), "Bark-aritas", and other drinks.

We met our friends Robert and Maureen there, and were early enough to get a great table.  We were supposed to meet our "virtual friends" Bill and Debra (Taking Belize blog), whom we've been corresponding with for quite some time, as they were arriving in San Pedro this very day to begin their retirement dreams here in Belize.  Unfortunately, unlucky Friday the 13th struck them, and they missed their original flight out of Houston due to difficulties returning their rental truck, so they arrived on the island too late to join us.  

The four of us enjoyed some mojitos and great conversation and bought some raffle tickets from the darling local children circulating around.  When we brought our pasta dinners back to our table, we had fun discussing our favorites.  With nine delicious entries, it was really hard to decide!  When it came time to vote, Robert chose the chicken parmesan fettucine, Barry and Maureen picked the pork lo mein, and I chose the spicy bowtie pasta.

When the winners were announced, Robert's favorite came in third place, and Barry and Maureen's pick came in first!  My favorite, unfortunately, did not place.  I guess some folks just can't take the heat.  :)

We were all getting a little tired by this time (hey, we're retirees!) so didn't stick around to see who won the raffle drawings.  I am assuming we would have gotten a call by now if we had, so I'm not holding my breath.

We used our headlamps again to ride home on a beautiful dark and starry night.  The road from Reef Village up to Grand Caribe had just been re-graded, making for a smoother-than-normal ride.  There's honestly nothing much more fun than night riding.  Kinda makes you feel like a kid again! 

Recently, we were delighted to learn from Tacogirl's blog that we could order organic produce directly from Sol Farms on the Belize mainland and have it shipped via Tropic Air from Belmopan to San Pedro.  Between us both being sick and the holidays, we didn't get around to placing an order until this week.  The flight schedule out of Belmopan seems to be a bit erratic, but we finally received notification from Greg at Sol Farms that our shipment had gone out on the last flight yesterday.  It had originally been scheduled for an earlier flight, but we had stopped by Tropic Air Cargo earlier in the day on our way back from lunch in town, and it was not there.  Unfortunately, Tropic did not call us after it came in on the later flight, so when we received Greg's email, we had only 30 minutes before Tropic Air Cargo closed at 6:30 to pick up our package.

It was pitch dark out, so Barry had to hunt for his headlamp and quickly get his bike ready to make the ride into town.  I was sure he wouldn't make it in time because by the time he got going, he had only 20 minutes before they closed.  Fortunately, he is a speedy cyclist, and they had just re-graded the dirt road from Grand Caribe on down to Reef Village, so it was a faster ride than it had been lately with all the potholes, and he made it just in the nick of time to pick up our precious cargo!  

Here is what we got from Sol Farms:

I had already eaten dinner while he was gone as everything was ready right before he left, so I quickly made him a big salad with these lovely organic greens and golden cherry tomatoes to go with his chicken chili and cornbread.  He pronounced it delicious!

Since we had never ordered from Sol Farms before, we didn't know how we were supposed to pay, but Greg informed us that he invoices, and we would go to his bank and deposit the payment.  We have been surprised to learn that this is how many payments are made in Belize.  We paid our shipper for our goods from the US this way, as well as Goss Chocolate in Placencia when we placed an order from them.  Although paying at the bank does involve a bit of waiting in line, it is a simple way to make a payment in a country where credit cards are not nearly as widely used as in the U.S.  Fortunately, now that we're retired and living on island time, we have the time to do things a bit more slowly!

Today we rode our bikes down to the south side of town to meet our friends Robert and Maureen at Rico's at Banyan Bay.  This was our first meal at Rico's, but we'd heard good things so were looking forward to trying it.  We got the "palapa table" over the water, a wonderful place to sit and catch the tiny amount of breeze on this hot January day (just writing that seems strange!)

We had an excellent meal.  Barry got the chicken burritos, and I got the fish burritos.  I'm afraid I'd order the same thing over and over and never even try anything else on the menu, they were that good.  Yum!  And the conversation was as good as the food.  We feel like we've been friends with Robert and Maureen forever.  Amazing what a chance meeting while riding our bikes in town can do.  That's just one of the many great things about living here -- it's so easy to meet people because everyone is outdoors so much instead of holed up in their homes or cocooned in their cars.

After lunch we rode the short way south to Robert and Maureen's new condo at Royal Palm Villas.  It's a cute place, and they have big plans to make it even nicer with new tile, paint, and other improvements eventually.  Unfortunately, the sweet "potlicker" they adopted from Saga, Rico, was not home as he was off in his dog training class.  We did find out that he is featured in the 2012 Saga Calendar as "Joe".  Such a precious pup!  

On our way home we stopped at Super Buy South for groceries and met a nice couple, Mary and David, who said they read our blog, so recognized us.  (Hi guys!)  We've met a lot of friendly folks simply because we write this blog, and that's just one of the many pleasures of living here.

Near the airport, we also ran into our neighbor Jim, who had the Grand Caribe "mascot", a sweet mixed-breed dog some call Cannelo and others call Sammy, in a dog crate on the back of his Polaris.  Sammy is very fearful of human touch but loves companionship, and will happily follow along on walks, play with Paisley, and lick my hand.  He frequently sleeps on a rag rug on our veranda, and hangs out with us during the day a lot as well.  We feed him whenever he indicates that he's hungry, and quite a few other Grand Caribe owners feed him too.  As with most strays, he doesn't get any kind of regular vet care, since no one owns him and no one can touch him, yet he normally seems pretty healthy for a street dog.  But in the past couple of days, he'd been crying out in pain when he would scratch one of his ears, so we knew he needed vet care sooner rather than later.  It was heart-breaking to hear his cries and even woke me up once last night.  

Without a crate or a vehicle, I wasn't sure what to do, other than call Saga Humane Society and hope that they could come up and somehow capture him and take him in for care.  I had been planning to contact them today to find out what the options were, but then I didn't see Sammy in the morning, and I knew we'd be out a lot today, so I hadn't yet contacted them.  Fortunately, Jim had also heard Sammy's cries and managed to get him into a crate (with quite a bit of difficulty) that he had for his dog Zeke.  I was so relieved and thankful because I knew that Sammy would finally be getting the care he so desperately needed.  So he is at San Pedro Animal Hospital and will have his vaccines, flea/tick treatment, and treatment for his ear.  He is also being neutered, which was such good news, since there are so many unwanted and neglected dogs on Ambergris Caye, so more puppies are the last thing this island needs.  Seeing Sammy with Jim and knowing he was going to be well taken care of was a real highlight on this excellent day!

Last night we were invited to join our friend David and his buddy Bob visiting from Virginia for dinner in town.  David, who lives on the beach a bit north of us, is normally golf cart-free like us, but had rented a cart for the day to show Bob around Ambergris Caye, so he picked us up on their way back into town at the end of the day to turn in the cart.  We're so used to riding our bikes into town that taking a cart provided a completely different perspective.

After returning the cart and picking up David's repaired laptop at computer shop, we walked through town and ended up on the outside deck of the Holiday Hotel for a dinner at Celi's.  I never realized you could eat anywhere other than inside the screened dining room, so this was great, as Barry and I always prefer to eat outdoors whenever the weather permits.  And tonight was a perfect night under the rising full moon, with just the right amount of southeast breeze.

We had a couple of drinks, a good meal, and good conversation.  Those guys have the funniest stories about their rugby days and had me laughing a lot.  Bob is a sailor so we talked some about boats and sailing as well.  I managed to resist the lure of dessert as I'm trying to lose the few pounds I've gained since moving to Ambergris Caye in August.   

After dinner we walked up towards the water taxi dock, stopping at Cholo's for a nightcap since we were between the hourly northbound departure times, as usual.  The 8:30 pm taxi north was packed, and I was surprised because there didn't seem to be many folks waiting to get on, but when it's time to board, passengers seem to come out of the woodwork.  We couldn't have fit another person on the boat, except in someone's lap!  

For the first time ever, we experienced engine problems on the water taxi as it pulled away from the dock.  The motor died, and the captain was unable to get it re-started at first.  The strong wind was blowing us back into other docked boats, and people on our ferry were having to fend off to avoid smashing into the other boats.  Fortunately, just as the bow was heading straight for another boat, the motor roared to life, and off we went.  Whew!

It was a beautiful night for a boat ride with the full moon high in the sky by now.  I always wish we didn't have to get off at what is usually their first stop heading north, Grand Caribe, because it's so much fun being on the boat, wind blowing through my hair.  It's delightful to be in such a warm place in January and continue wearing sandals even in the evening year-round!

This morning we got going earlier than normal (for us) and fought a stiff breeze to bike up north to Grand Belizean Estates for some birding.  Barry had such good luck seeing so many birds last Sunday while I was sick that I was hoping for a repeat performance, but for some reason, the birds were not quite as plentiful this week.  Perhaps it was simply too breezy for them to be out and about.  We had to be patient and look harder than usual, but we did end up seeing a couple different types of herons, several egrets, cormorants, plovers, a Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeers, Common Black-Hawks, Tropical Kingbirds, mockingbirds, grackles, and a couple of ducks (possibly American Coots, but too far away to identify).  Most interesting was a pair of parrots that chattered loudly as they flew overhead, then into the dense roadside foliage, allowing us only a quick glimpse of their green backs, so no hope of making an identification this time.  Perhaps we will get a chance to see them again one day.

Just outside GBE, Barry spotted this small fellow, which we later identified as a White-Collared Seedeater, on a weedy shrub by the sandy road.  A new bird for our life lists!  

On our way back, we stopped at Aji for a delicious Mediterranean omelet breakfast.  Chef Hugo served us himself, and we had a delightful breeze through the trees in this perfect tropical setting.  We could make a habit of this, and may!

I've been noticing the large leaves on these trees turning color here and there and find it very interesting.  I always assumed no leaves turned in the tropics, but apparently there are exceptions.  I don't know what tree this is -- perhaps a reader can enlighten me?

As we got back to Chico Caribe, we noticed this medley of herons amidst the copious seagrass that has floated towards shore this morning.  Unfortunately, it is filled with plastic trash -- the scourge of Belize.   Belize is a study in contrasts -- the beautiful right alongside the ugly.

In addition to all the bottles the renters next door gifted us with, they left us with a lot of assorted foodstuffs that they had left over as they headed back to the US.  We aren't proud; as expensive as most food is here, we were happy to get it.  They really must like cheese, as they had a ton of it to give us.  Yum!  So, we've been busy with cheese cookery.  

Last night I made four-cheese mac-n-cheese with brie, smoked cheddar, a mystery hard cheese they left us, and  some white cheddar we had in the fridge.

And tonight we collaborated on a veggie pizza with chevre, plenty of it, onions, and peppers, and Barry's homemade crust.  Mmmmm...I just love chevre.  What a treat!  Accompanied with Cabernet Sauvignon Barry bought me for Christmas, I was in heaven.  I think Barry liked it too, but he was too busy chewing to say much!

We'd been collecting Belikin bottles for awhile as I'd been enjoying the Sorrel Stout holiday brew leading up to and during the holidays.  Barry, silly boy, doesn't really care for Belikin, so I can't even blame any of the empties on him.  A few days ago, renters in the unit next door to us left us a large number of empty (and some full as well) soda bottles and a soda case that they hadn't had time to return to Belikin for their deposit.  It looked like free money to us, so who were we to say no?  

Since we don't have a golf cart, we have only one way to get such a load back to the distributor, and that's via bicycle.  Fortunately, Barry has some excellent utility baskets on the rear rack of his bike that enabled us to get the whole load of bottles back to town.  Good thing the biggest and only hill is the Sir Barry Bowen bridge, as this was quite a heavy load, but Barry was up for the challenge.  I bet Sir Barry Bowen himself would have been proud!

And we're off to town!  

At our destination, we unloaded all the bottles and made $13.75 (BZD, half that in US dollars) for our efforts.  This would have gone towards a Belikin "party can", which is the easiest and least expensive way for me to buy beer for home consumption here, but they were all out.  I guess that was a popular holiday item.  

Since party cans were sold out, I had to content myself with a few bottles of Belikin from the grocery store, thus beginning yet another bottle collection.  

While I was suffering from my cold, Barry ventured out solo on New Year's Day for some biking and birding up in Grand Belizean Estates.  He was lucky enough to beat the big rainstorms that began later in the day, but with it being a holiday, he ran into several locals with their dogs hunting for javelina.  We've biked in GBE many times, but this was a first.  

He stopped to talk to a couple of the hunters to verify that he was safe biking in the area while they were hunting, and one of them proudly showed him their kill.  I was glad I wasn't there since I am such an animal lover, but I do understand that they were doing it to feed their families.  I'm not posting the photo of the javelina in-line since it might be offensive to some readers, but if you'd like to see it, you can click this link to view it in Photobucket.

In addition to that unexpected encounter, Barry saw a nice assortment of birds, including a few new ones for his life list.  The photos below are species he didn't already have pictures of in his files.  I am looking forward to joining him on the next trip up to GBE as it is an excellent place to view a variety of birds and wildlife (we've seen a fox, and he even saw a croc there) and normally very few two-legged mammals.  We're planning on a lot more Belize birding in the new year.

We stopped in at SAGA today while on our errand ride in town and purchased our 2012 calendar.  You see, we're getting into the Belize spirit of not doing anything too terribly quickly, so instead of buying before the new year, we waited all the way 'til January 5th for a new calendar!  We're really getting into the island frame of mind, no?  

The calendar is really cute, with photos of lovely ladies with precious pooches and felines inside, and all proceeds benefit the SAGA Humane Society.  Several businesses around town are selling these, and you can also stop in at SAGA or even order online on their website to get yours too!  Get all the deets below....

SAGA –Paws & Princesses 2012 Calendars for Sale
Price: BZ $25 each, 6 for BZ$100, 15 for BZ$200

-Support Shelter Animals
-Adorable Puppies & Kittens
-The beauty of the Reina de la Costa Maya Princesses
-Belize Holidays & Full Moons Listed
-Important Phone Numbers

Through your support Saga Humane Society is able to save the lives of orphaned or abandoned companion animals, provide humane education and serve as a resource for pets and their owners in our community.

To make orders or for more information contact
Saga Humane Society. Sea Star Street. San Pedro Town, Belize
Phone:  501-226-3266      
www.sagahumanesociety.org
Facebook - Saga Humane Society