My birthday was yesterday, and I chose one of my very favorite places to go for dinner here on Ambergris Caye, Aji.  Neither Barry nor I had any desire to go into town, since we knew it would be packed with tourists and locals partying like crazy for Easter weekend.  Every now and then we enjoy that type of atmosphere, but those times are few and far between as we've gotten older.  Normally we prefer quiet and peaceful to noisy and rowdy -- maybe we get that from living in the woods on acreage for so many years.  

Aji definitely provided the quiet and peaceful setting we craved, and it was a perfect night with gentle ocean breezes and no bugs.  An added plus is that we can so easily walk there as it's just a couple hundred yards up the beach from our condo.  And since I didn't have to ride my bike to get there, I could wear a dress. 

I started with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, one of my favorite wines.  Barry had a Panty Ripper (coconut rum and pineapple juice).  Our server then brought out a plate of lovely homemade bread with some tomato sauce and cilantro for us to enjoy while awaiting our dinners.  Yum!

For our entrees, I choose the curried coconut conch with veggies and coconut rice, and Barry had pasta with spicy tomato sauce and chicken.  Both dishes were delicious and beautifully presented.

Since it was a special occasion, we splurged and got dessert -- not just one, but two!  We tried the chocolate rum cake and the coconut pie.  The key lime pie is amazing too, but since we'd tried that before, we wanted to try the two we hadn't had.  Both were scrumptious!  Barry liked the chocolate rum cake best.  It was deliciously moist, very rummy, and delicious.  However, the coconut pie blew me away because it was absolutely packed with fresh coconut, unlike any coconut pie I've ever had before, since they are usually made with dried, sweetened "angel flake" coconut and more "cream" than coconut.  The crust also seemed to have a lime syrup on the outside.  Manna of the gods!  Chef Hugo is truly a talent.

After dinner as we were taking the short walk down the beach home, the full moon was rising over the ocean, amid clouds.  It was a dramatic and beautiful sight to see and a lovely ending to my birthday evening.

The previous Sunday, our condo neighbor Danny threw a surprise birthday party on the beach for his wife Judy.  It was a spirited celebration with plenty of food, a band, and plenty of adult beverages.  Just the right size for a party, I thought, and a good mix of locals, snowbirds, expats, and visitors to the island.

After sunset, Barry brought Paisley out but kept a tight hold on her.  She would have gone bonkers for all the finger food!

Turns out that Danny is quite the musician and singer and joined the band for several numbers.  Even Cowboy Doug got in on the action!  

Judy, the birthday girl, was getting into the spirit of the evening by now and was bustin' a move with a friend!

We enjoyed hanging out with our Grand Caribe friends, tapping our feet to the music; and since the party was right on the beach behind our building, the trip back home was an easy one.  

We started this morning as we usually do on Sunday, with a bird walk.  We saw many of the usual suspects, but we did manage to add a new hummingbird to our life lists -- a female Green-Breasted Mango.  The distinctive stripe down her throat, breast, and belly made her easy to identify with the help of our Birds of Belize book.

We also caught sight of this Snowy Egret and a Greater Yellowlegs hunting for breakfast in a swampy area near the roadside.

After birding, we strolled down to Ak'Bol for breakfast.  Unfortunately, it seemed like just about every tourist staying north of the bridge had the same idea, so we had a long wait for our food, and our breakfast turned into brunch.

When the food did come, it was delicious.  I had a spinach omelet, one of the specials of the day; and Barry had a huge breakfast burrito. 

Earlier this week, we had to say goodbye to Paula, who was leaving San Pedro to move back to the US.  Although we hadn't known her for very long, I'd been Facebook friends with her before we met in person, so I felt like I had known her for longer.  We ate lunch at Blue Water Grill on Monday to say goodbye.  Paula, you are already missed, but I wish you all the best for your new life in Tennessee.

I can highly recommend the Shrimp Po'Boy sandwich we both ordered.  It was delicious!  And speaking of delicious, Barry and I made this veggie pizza mid-week.  Toppings were onions, zucchini, red and green bell pepper, snippets of fresh basil and oregano from our tiny container garden, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese.  Barry made the crust with seven-grain cereal from GoNature.  

Last night we attended the Saga Humane Society cook-off.  These cook-offs feature a different food "theme" each month and through food and raffle ticket sales serve to raise much-needed funds for this worthy organization.  This month's theme was appetizers, and the cook-off was once again held at Mojito's Bar and Grill, right on the beach in San Pedro.  We had previously attended a pasta cook-off in this same venue, and it proved to be a great setting with plenty of seating, a fine breeze, and a good bar.  The bar was offering $5 BZD ($2.50 US) "Meow-itos" (mojitos) all night in honor of the occasion, a fantastic deal that we took advantage of, of course!

We had the pleasure of meeting and sitting with Jana and CJ, who were visiting San Pedro from Texas.  Our friend Bill was volunteering this evening and did a great job.  There was a great turnout from the community, locals, tourists, and expats alike, and we recognized quite a few of the faces.  

The entries were delicious, though it is always a little disconcerting to me to bite into something without knowing in advance whether to expect seafood, chicken, pork, or something completely different.  I am a person who likes just about everything (except olives!), but I enjoy reading a menu with description of the dish first to prepare my tastebuds for what I am about to eat.  These cook-offs are a bit of an adventure since many dishes are a mystery when judged by appearance only.  There was only one item I didn't care for all that much (must have been the olives!) that I passed over to Barry, and he passed his Scotch egg to me -- he is not an egg lover.  I had never had a Scotch egg before and liked it quite a bit.  I googled the recipe this morning and was surprised to discover that the outer coating contained sausage.  I had no idea.  But hey, it was fried.  Anything fried tastes good, if not good for you!

It was nearly impossible to choose a favorite as I'd forgotten so many by the time I got to the end, but ultimately I cast my vote for the Fish Cake with Chipotle Sauce (upper left of right side of plate above).  Barry chose the Garnache, which is the large corn tortilla with toppings on the right side of the plate.  He really liked its spicy flavors and also its large size!  The Garnache was a close second for me, and I also liked the Honey-Garlic wings and the Scotch egg.  

The sign below helped us remember what we'd eaten and how to vote.  However, it was put up after we'd eaten so it didn't help much in knowing what we were eating as we chowed down.  I truly don't remember eating a ham and cheese roll up!

When the winners were announced, there was a tie for second place between two restaurants, Mojito's for the Garnaches (Barry and CJ's choice) and Crave, for the Fish Cakes (my choice!)  First place went The Hotel for the Potato Skins.

There were five prizes up for grabs in the raffle tonight, mostly lunches at local restaurants.  No one from our table won, though at the next table over, one lady won two, and another won one!  Must have been a serious case of stuffing the raffle box, but in this case, we certainly don't mind as each raffle ticket benefits Saga in their worthy quest to care for the dogs and cats of San Pedro.  Thanks for all you do, Saga!

It has been a week of interesting weather.  A week ago, the wind was so blustery, our Saturday Ak'Bol yoga class had to be held in the small palapa off the beach and without mats, lest everything blow away.  Late Sunday through Monday, a cold front came through bringing quite a bit of rain (especially for "dry season") and leaving lots of muddy puddles in the road north of the bridge.  We've also had  extremely high tides this week (from the full moon?) bringing boatloads of sargasso and other sea grass up onto the beach. This is the highest we can remember the water coming on our beach since last fall, when Hurricane Rina came within 100 miles of the island.  As a result of all this weather, both the beach and the road have been messy to ride bikes or run on.  By mid-week the weather was back to the norm -- moderate east winds, sunny, and very warm.  The changeable weather here continues to surprise me!

I've been posting a lot of photos on Facebook this week but have been neglecting the blog.  I know at least a few folks worry if we don't post in a week, so I thought I'd share some of the photos from the past week here.   

Mid-week, Chunky and Ruthie stopped by on a bike ride north.  Paisley made sure Ruthie had a full bath before allowing them to continue on their way.

On Thursday, we met Bill, Paula, Gigi, and Gigi's friend Mike for brunch at Estel's.  A good time (and plenty of good food) was had by all.

This past week we had the opportunity to meet Terese and Rick from Vancouver, Washington, who are visiting Belize on vacation.  I've been corresponding with Terese for awhile after she found this blog and wrote to me.  They are planning to retire before too long and are starting to investigate possible retirement places.  On this trip they are visiting San Pedro and Placencia.

We met them at Ambergris Brewing Company on "leap day", February 29th.  I'd noted that Ambergris Brewing had posted on Facebook in the morning that if you said "leap year" when you came in, you got specials on rum drinks or beer all day long.  So, our rum drinks were only $4 BZD ($2 US) apiece, a great deal.  We were the only folks there on this late afternoon, but that was fine with us.  We had an easy, fun conversation, answered Rick and Terese's questions, and made a few recommendations.  

Terese brought me a gift of a lovely bottle of Washington State wine, because I'd told her in emails how pricey wine is here and how much I missed it.  It was a perfect gift!

As we were sitting and chatting, who should we see walking his Siberian Huskies but our friend Bill.  This proved the point I'd been making to Terese and Rick that San Pedro really is a small island, and you see people you know everywhere.  One of the main reasons for that is because the weather is so nice, people aren't holed up inside their homes but are out and about -- walking, biking, shopping, dining.  

In fact, our new friend Captain Simon who took us on the wonderful Guatemalan sailing cruise recently also stopped to say hello to us as he drove home in his golf cart.  Too bad we forgot to snap a photo!

We were having so much fun talking we hardly noticed that it was getting dark and an ominous cloud was approaching from the northeast.  We quickly said our goodbyes, and Barry and I put our beach bikes into overdrive as we peddled the two miles north to our condo at breakneck place (or as close as you can get to it on beach bikes on an unpaved road).  We almost made it before the rain hit, but did get a little wet right at the end of the ride.  And this just after I'd told Terese that they probably wouldn't see any rain for their entire visit!  Turns out, it didn't last long and was mostly north anyway; they just got some "spitting" where they were in town.  

We saw Terese again walking to the post office as we did our errands by bike on Friday morning, thus proving, you really do see people you know everywhere.  She said that she was already starting to notice the same with a few folks they'd met since arriving in San Pedro.  It's just that kind of a place --  a perfect place to make new friends! 

As I mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, I nabbed the 4:30 am night watch shift, which meant I'd get to see the sun rise.  Even though I hit the hay early and got everything ready to go the night before (binoculars, camera, windbreaker, hat, etc.), the alarm on my cell phone startled me when it rang at 4:25.  It was pitch dark, and as I struggled up into the galley, I was relieved to see Ruthie just getting off her shift.  She very kindly made me coffee before retreating to her cabin.  Nothing had ever tasted better.

I took the helm with Simon, and it was eerie not being able to see anything in front of us.  To the port side, I saw a city and asked him if it was Caye Caulker or San Pedro.  "Belize City", he replied.  Duh...I really was sleepy.  Obviously we weren't far enough along for either of the Cayes.

The sunrise was as dramatically beautiful as I'd hoped thanks to the low cloud banks, so I was sure I had nabbed the best watch time.  Only Simon and I got to witness this amazing sequence.

I was glad I'd brought my binoculars as Simon needed help seeing some markers of shoals and later, lobster areas.  These were mostly just sticks coming out of the water or milk jugs and difficult to see.  We actually saw the depth sounder read .1 foot (yes, that's "point one"!) of water under the keels for a short while.  Scary!  He reminded me that we didn't even have a depth sounder on the way down.  He had been nervous when we passed this same way heading south, while most of us laid around oblivious on the trampoline! 

Barry had thought he might get up with me, but he didn't quite make it.  He did finally stagger out of bed around 6 am or so and grabbed a couple of photos of Simon and me at the helm. 

Eventually everyone else groggily emerged from their berths and greeted the day.  I am sure Chunky and Ruthie were very tired as it sounded like they both stayed up for at least part of the other's watches.  From what I heard, Chunky and Clive were so busy chatting it up at the helm that they went a bit off course and got a stern talking to from Simon.  I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that one!  And when Ruthie and Clive were at the helm, sounds like Ruthie's electronic tablet "Tabby" got quite a workout.  Simon and I were both too tired for that kind of frivolity.

When Ruthie got up, she scrambled up all the remaining eggs.  She even got creative and fried all the leftover lunch meat (ham and salami), since the breakfast sausage was gone. I broke down and ate eggs and meat to help out the cause -- I hate wasting food.  It was truly delicious.

After breakfast, we started getting close to our final destination, San Pedro. Barry commented that it felt strange to be returning to San Pedro as "home" rather than coming here on vacation.  True, true.  It's a great place to come home to, and we had a gorgeous day for a homecoming.

Simon docked the boat to get fuel, then left the dock and anchored a bit away.  S/v Hope had to stay at anchor until we all checked in with Belize Customs and Immigration.

I learned a valuable lesson about checking back into Belize.  Always verify the date they write on your passport for your "length of visit" while you are there.  I had filled out both Barry and my forms indicating we would be staying 30 days, the longest you can stay on a tourist visa without a renewal.  We didn't check our passports when we got them back from Simon nor until the next day at home.  When I finally did check them, I was given the full 30 days, but Barry was only given 7 days!  We went to Immigration the next day to try to get it corrected, but they refused to budge.  I don't know if they don't keep copies of the form or they just won't pull them, but the officer insisted that we asked for 7 days, we got 7 days.  It made no difference that I filled out both the forms or that we live here, so asking for 7 days would have made no sense.  It was her word against ours.  Very frustrating, but there's nothing we can do about it now.  Lesson learned.  

After we checked in, Simon and Clive had to accompany the customs officers onto s/v Hope for customs inspection, so they headed out in the dinghy.  This is where they verify that you don't have any prohibited items onboard, like Mexican beer (sob).  They also checked the duty-free quantity of rum that we had declared.  We had to leave all our bags and luggage aboard for this inspection.

Once Hope was safely tied up at the dock, it was time to climb back aboard one last time and grab our luggage.  Barry and I had planned to ride back to our condo on the Coastal Xpress water taxi, drop our gear, grab our bikes, and pedal back to town to pick up Paisley at Pampered Paws.  Unfortunately, when we got to the taxi dock, we found out that we were smack dab in the middle of northbound runs that were two hours apart.  It was too early for lunch, and neither of us wanted to wait an hour, so we made a quick decision to splurge on a land taxi.  We walked down to Pampered Paws to pick up Paisley, then grabbed a taxi to take all of us home.  I confess that I was kind of happy not to have to ride my bike as I was really tired and a bit off-balance from the boat travel and really wanted a restful afternoon.

The good folks at Pampered Paws posted the photos below on Facebook.  The one of Paisley and Biggy playing tug-o-war was posted while we were on the trip, and Ruthie actually brought it up on her tablet, Tabby, while we were out at sea.  It was great to see that Paisley was having fun and had been reunited with her friend Biggy from her first visit there.  The second photo was posted the day she left and is one of the sweetest pictures I've ever had of her.  Thanks Pampered Paws!

What an adventure!  All in all we sailed/motored approximately 400 miles.  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Chunky and Ruthie for telling us about this amazing opportunity, and to TMM Yacht Charters and Captains Simon Backley and Clive Forman for letting us join the makeshift crew on s/v Hope's  voyage.  As Simon said on Facebook after the fact, to him, this trip was just work, but to some of us, he now realized it was the trip of a lifetime.  Yes it was, Simon, yes it was!

When you last left our intrepid crew, we had just left our morning tour of the Castillo de San Felipe.  After that, it was time to venture into town for more exploring.  Simon had advised us to catch one of the vans that rides through the area picking up passengers to go to town.  This area is not populated enough to support full-size buses, I guess, so the vans stood in, and it was amazing how many people they managed to pack into these utilitarian vehicles.  

We were able to catch one fairly quickly and hop aboard along with several locals.  More stops were made to pick up additional locals along the way as well.  The ride to town was approximately 10 minutes and cost 35 Quetzales for the five of us (just under $5 total).

The town of Rio Dulce (aka Fronteras) was bustling and definitely a new experience for us.  This was not a tourist town, so it was populated with locals going about their daily marketing and business.  All the signs were in Spanish.  There were fruit markets, clothing markets, hardware stores, convenience stores, pharmacies, and street vendors.  And traffic.  Although I sometimes complain about the traffic in San Pedro, there was much more here, and as pedestrians, we really had to watch our step to avoid all the motor bikes and vehicles zipping along, not to mention the large trucks.    It seemed that the town was just this one long road, so all the traffic had to share this road with the vendors and pedestrians.

Right as we got out of the van, we ran into Clive, who had come to town on an earlier van to buy a few items.  We immediately grabbed him and appointed him our guide, since he'd been here before and spoke Spanish, an excellent and handy combination.

Clive suggested we walk over the big bridge that we'd seen from the boat, and that sounded like a good plan to us.  It was a warm day, but we badly needed to take advantage of the opportunity to get some exercise after so much time onboard s/v Hope.  And we knew the views would be fantastic.

We noticed that the unmistakable smell of cows (and cow manure) in the air as we began walking up the bridge sidewalk.  We soon figured out that this smell came from cow trucks that drove over the bridge loaded down with their bovine cargo.  The trucks had slats on the side through which the cows frequently "let the shit fly", and it was deposited on the road.  This was a truck you would not want to get too close to! 

After finishing walking over the bridge and back, our crew was getting pretty peckish for a bite of lunch.  Clive thought he knew a good place to take us, so we trekked back down the road to get there.

To get to the restaurant on the waterfront we had to walk right past this large supermercado (supermarket), so we stopped in to have a look at prices.  We decided we'd stop in again on the way out so we wouldn't have to carry any packages with us.  When we did return, Barry and I bought a bottle of 12-year old aged rum at the stunning price of $10 US and some sensitivity toothpaste.  Ruthie and Chunky bought a couple of bottles of the rum and some more eggs for the boat.  Belize allows bringing in one liter of spirits per person duty-free, so we figured we'd take advantage.

Before too long, she came back with our beverages, and we asked her about a couple of items on the menu.  One Mexican choice sounded really good, so most of us ordered it.  She left the restaurant again, and we joked that she was off buying the ingredients.  At some point not long after this, someone noticed that she was back, and I believe that Clive went over to talk to her.  It turned out that she really wasn't prepared to serve lunch and the owners weren't there.  I am not sure why she even took our order, but since it was now apparent we were not going to be eating there, we paid for our drinks and left. Fortunately, this entire process didn't take too long, and Clive knew of another waterfront place we could eat.  We laughed off our Guatemalan "lunch" experience and proceeded on our way.

Our next stop, just a few blocks down, was Bruno's Hotel & Marina.  Bruno's had a restaurant, bar, and swimming pool, and was a pretty cool spot.

After lunch, we bought some fruit, which was amazingly cheap.  Barry and I got two small mangoes, two bananas, and a lime for 2 Q (approximately 27 cents -- are you kidding me?!?!)  Chunky also bought some mangoes.

Our group decided we'd had enough sun, fun, and walking, but the next van back to Abelle's was not leaving town for about 30 minutes, so Ruthie and I decided to do a little "window" shopping while we waited.  I happened to see a cute gauzy Indian sundress (used, certainly, but I'm an ebay shopper, so that kind of thing doesn't bother me) hanging at one of the open-air shops and was wondering if it would fit and how much it was (no prices are marked in these little shops).

Ruthie encouraged me to ask how much it was, saying that it would look great on me, so I finally asked the lady how much it was.  "Veinticinco quetzales" (25 Q) was her reply.  I knew this was a really low price, under $4, so I ran back over to where Barry was standing to get some money from him.  When I got back to the shop, I immediately handed the lady the 25 Q, before Ruthie could say "Wait!"  Turns out, she had already given 20 Q to the young man also working there, and was looking for the other 5 Q in her wallet.  Now we had a problem.  We'd overpaid, and they would not return Ruthie's money!  Of course, the language barrier was a bit of an issue, but we knew that they knew that we'd overpaid.  They kept pointing at the other clothing hanging up, indicating, I suppose, that Ruthie could pick another item.  But our money had disappeared into their pockets, and they just smiled when we tried to explain (in English) that she should be given her money back since I had paid in full.  

Ruthie had a bit of fun at my expense on the van ride back to the boat, talking about how I was about to punch the guy for taking her money, but of course I wasn't really.  Really I wasn't!  I might have a sharp tongue at times, but violence is not in my repertoire.  :-)

Back at the boat yard, s/v Hope was at anchor.  The transducer had already been repaired on the hard, and she'd been put back into the water.  After picking us up in the dinghy, Simon told us he'd had a problem with one of the engines after they splashed the boat, but they were able to find the appropriate part and get it fixed quickly, so we were still on schedule for a Tuesday morning departure.  I am sure he and Clive were really relieved, but the rest of us probably wouldn't have minded another day aboard.  We were having fun!

Once the engine repair was complete, Simon informed us that we'd be pulling up to the other dock for the night, since the dock we'd stayed the previous night was now full.  

After everyone relaxed for awhile and had showers, we got ready to head out to dinner at Rosita's at a nearby marina to meet Lori and Peter, who were friends of Simon, Chunky, and Ruthie.  I guess they used to live in San Pedro but were now cruising on their boat in the area.  We got to ride in the dinghy to the restaurant.

In addition to Lori and Peter, Captain Roberto from the Winnie Estelle came and joined us. He had some really great stories.

We were having our usual difficult time with the Spanish menu, and Clive was trying to help our end of the table, while Lori helped the other end.  Barry wanted what he thought was baked fish with salsa, but ended up with what looked like pan-fried fish with no salsa.  When Clive reminded the waitress of the salsa, he ended up with a big bowl of tartar sauce, which was perhaps correct, but not the type of "salsa" we had imagined.  Also, one of the side dishes that could be substituted for French fries was rice and beans, which Barry thought Clive ordered for him, but he ended up with fries anyway.  Barry really never eats fried food, so this was not the meal he was hoping for at all.  After the chicken soup fiasco the night before, I felt so bad that he was having yet another dinner disaster.  He did say it tasted good, but just wasn't what he expected.

My meal, on the other hand, was perfect.  I had the shrimp and conch platter.  Yum!

In retrospect, Barry and I really wished we'd just stayed onboard s/v Hope, made our own dinner, and let the others go hang out with their friends.  As introverts, we need more recharge time than we had been getting, and we were over tired from our long and busy day.  This made the dinner seem to go on forever. Then trying to deal with dividing the check and the currency exchange rate took much longer and became far more complicated than it should have.  We just wanted to get out of there and get some much-needed shut-eye.  Simon wanted to leave the dock by 4:30 am, and by the time we got ready for bed, it was already 11 o'clock, when we would have liked to be in bed by 9-ish.  If we'd known what the next day had in store for us, we might all have done things a bit differently.

Stay tuned for Guatemala Cruise Day 4:  The sea was angry that day, my friends