Day 1, Saturday 6/26 – I had 2 visitors arrive today, my brother Dave who I welcomed with open arms, and my new friend Alex who was an unexpected and unwanted surprise. Alex delayed Dave’s flight from Belize City to Dangriga for over an hour because the commuter airlines servicing the rest of Belize and the Cayes were being used to evacuate people from Cayes Ambergris and Caulker before the tropical storm’s arrival. Alex may not have been unexpected by those of you served by the Weather Channel but here in Belize he came without much warning. It had been raining here for over 24 hours but I wasn’t aware of the storm until I reached Dangriga Airport to pick Dave up. I was right on time but there was no plane on the tarmac at either Tropic Air, which Dave was flying, or Maya Island Air. That was unusual because there is almost always a plane with people deplaning or boarding. Today there were none. When I asked the service agent she informed me that Tropical Storm Alex was the reason that Dave’s flight was delayed. So I did the shopping that needed to be done, and that I planned to use to introduce my brother to the differences between shopping in the U.S. and Belize. We’ll have to save that for another day. When I got back to the airport (it’s actually 2 small buildings on the side of the road) he was sitting inside staying dry. The rain was changing intensity almost every 5 minutes, going from a drizzle to a tropical deluge. We stopped for lunch and had fried chicken, which is a fare popular in every restaurant in Belize, and had a semi-leisurely lunch with my brother enjoying his first Belikan Beer, sitting outside under cover, and actually quite dry. We finished our meal and headed for Hopkins Village and home with a brief stop at Ron’s house to restock my supply of fresh mangos from his tree and to introduce the 2 of them. By the time we got to Kismet water was starting to creep around my trailer. This gave me a chill because I’d heard tales of thigh deep water on the property in years gone by. It wasn’t rising fast and actually seemed to recede some while I introduced Dave to Tricia. Then we went back down to my home and he unpacked all the goodies he’d brought down for me. My favorite was the 2 bags of almond M&Ms! After unpacking we put on a movie to pass the time while the rains came and went but mostly came. Around 5pm Peter made a surprise visit (yes, a day full of surprises!) and said he was headed for the lagoon to throw net and asked if we wanted to come. Well what better time to introduce Dave to Peter and the lagoon?! We only had 45 minutes until dinner but I figured that would be enough time for both. Peter rode off on his bike, with his net in his basket, and Dave and I drove. The Kismet driveway had a foot of water in several places and there were deep puddles in the pathway to the lagoon. Peter said that an old fisherman taught him that just before a storm was a good time because the fish would be on the move out of the lagoon and into deeper water. It proved to be true. Soon he was catching barassee and small stone bass with every throw. At 6pm Dave and I headed back to Kismet and a very enjoyable dinner. I supplied the fish from my catch the night before (6 red and black snappers) and the salad, with Tricia supplied the rice and fresh baked bread, and Ron a nice merlot. Oh don’t give me that! I know you are thinking that you are supposed to drink white wine with fish but we 3 are of the mind that you drink what you like best. Anyway…it rained all through dinner and our after dinner game of no score Scrabble. Peter stopped by on his way back home from the lagoon and reported that Alex would make landfall between Belize City and Corozal at 3am. Oh joy! By the time we got back down to the trailer the water had risen to 2 inches in places, with the wind strengthening, as we waded to the door. We finished watching more of our movie but by 9pm Dave was ready for bed. He had started his travels at Milwaukee Airport at 4am central (3am Belize) and was ready to call it a day. I turned on a DVD and watched it in bed while Dave snored away. It’s now midnight and the water is close to 4 inches deep around my home and the trees are singing the song of stronger winds. That means I can sit here through another 8 inches of water before I have to drag my home to higher ground. So it will be a sleepless night for me as I monitor the water level in case we have to make the move before daybreak. I have a spot picked out just across from Kismet where there is a relatively unused side road that is 4 feet higher than I am right now. It’s a good spot to park myself and start up my gas powered electric generator and wait out the storm. More later!
Day 2, Sunday 6/27 6am – After all that worrying the storm was actually over by 2:30am. It stopped raining then and the wind died. I looked outside a minute ago and the water has receded from the door side of my trailer and my door mat outside is dry again. The drive still has approximately 10 inches of water in one section but for me the threat of having to move to higher ground has passed. Dave and I are actually talking about going to the lagoon to fish.
We went fishing but the current out of the lagoon was too strong for the weights that we had on our lines so we were back, fishless, by 8am. Instead of coming in I got Dave back into the car and drove him around Hopkins and Sittee River villages so he could see where I live. Today was the last day of Lobster Fest 2010 in Placencia so we decided to take the 1 hour drive to see what it was all about. On the way back home and to breakfast we stopped at Ron’s to get a few mangos and to ask him if he wanted to join us. He jumped at the offer so we made plans to head over around 11:30. Breakfast was egg and cheese on a blueberry bagel, coffee, and mangos. Eleven thirty rolled around and we headed off. The Lobster Fest was sort of a bust. The lobster dishes were going for between US$12.50-17.50. We ended up with BBQ chicken, red beans and rice, and potato salad for US$4 as our main dish with a Belikan Beer. We did sample lobster wedgies though for US$2.50 and they were quite good. They consisted of a triangular stack of 5 flour tortillas with lobster, cilantro, celery, and onion between each layer and a nice salsa on the side. The live band was pretty good and we sat and people watched for a couple of hours. We also treated ourselves to root beer floats (Ron and I) and mint chocolate chip ice cream (Dave). We talked to the American who owned the shop and he told us it was soy milk based ice cream. Now I always made faces when my daughter Carrie talked about eating and drinking soy anything because I always thought those products were fake. I like the “real” thing. I’m publicly apologizing to Carrie right now because the ice cream was very good. That’s not to say that I’m going to dive into eating/drinking all things soy. I still like the real stuff. On the way home I asked Ron what movie he was showing that night on the yard screen (remember I told you that he shows movies in his yard every night at 7pm for the locals?) and he said Pulp Fiction. That decided the rest of our night. It’s 9:30pm now and we just got home. Our next plan is to try fishing in the lagoon at 5am so it’s off to bed. Actually Dave is already snoring away…
Our Mexico plan now is to go on Wednesday and return either Friday or Saturday. We’ll shop the Free Zones (kind of a duty free area of shops only for foreigners) in both Chetumal MX and Corozal BZ and WalMart in Chetumal plus reclaim my US$990 temporary vehicle tax, which is the main reason for going in the 1st place. Plus we’ll get in some sightseeing. Sometime next week we’re planning a fishing/snorkel trip to the reef.
As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
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