One year ago today, February 5th I arrived in Belize. The 9th will be a year living at Kismet. I’m amazed at how much my life, and my way of life, has changed in that year. I couldn’t be happier or more content. The only thing that I would change is the chance to see all of you more…
We went sailing for Thursday (1/27) and for me it was the very 1st time in my life it was really cool! Tricia’s friend Bob (a retired archeologist), who spends his winters here in Belize with his wife (a retired doctor) picked us up off the beach in front of Kismet (we walked out in 3ft water) in his 28 footer and we took off almost directly east toward the Cayes. We never made it that far though as the wind was pretty strong and he didn’t rig full sails because of it. But we had a 4 hour sail and Tricia supplied ham sandwiches and beer. It didn’t turn me into a sailboat fiend though because it’s too labor intensive for me and it’s hard to do any fish trolling while because of the rigging all around. But I’d go again for sure. Tricia, Conan, and Chris, were all aboard and Conan, who is looking for a boat, kind of waivered over a powered fishing boat or a sailboat that he can live on. He’s back to the fishing boat though after hearing about all the maintenance that a sailboat needs.
My new sun roof is almost finished. It may not be pretty but it's functional. I brought back two 16X10 foot heavy duty, UV resistant, tarps when I came back from Orlando at Christmas. Elvis (Tricia's common-law husband) and I used the hard-stick from the palapa that I accidently pulled down when I was moving my trailer to higher ground before hurricane Richard arrived. I'm going to give it a few days to stretch before I finish tying it off. I also want to see which way the rain will run off. I set it to run in a particular direction but we know how that works! But at least I have shade again and the inside of Casa Del Mar 13 will be a little cooler now. Come down and see my new roof for yourself!
A new couple, Paul and Mae, from The Netherlands arrived on 1/28. Really nice people! Both are retired. They’ve been on the road about 5 weeks and are wrapping up their tour with a stay at Kismet. They spent the previous weeks in Guatemala and have only a few more days to spend in Belize.
We had our 2nd “Movie Nite” at Kismet and it was a success! Aya, one of our guests from Germany, picked “Mars Attacks” out of the list of the 674 movies that I have. She said she selected it because she likes Jack Nicholson. I let her chose because they are leaving to go back home to Frankfurt early Sunday. She also loved the 1st movie the other night, “Team America” so tonite’s movie was right up her alley. So it looks like Movie Nite may be a couple times a month…
I find it odd that we have 2 guest couples who stayed at Kismet the week of 1/23-29 and both of the women (Aya from Germany and Mae from The Netherlands) are psychologists. Too funny because Conan and I both admit to needing intense therapy! Sadly, since both are on holiday, and since both left on Sunday 1/30, neither held office hours and we continue to be dementedly off the wall. My major complaint at the moment is of the nightmares I have every night of marionette puppets having sex. Actually it was the sex scene between 2 team members in “Team America”. I was telling the group that I have nightmares about it
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We went on a reef fishing/snorkeling trip on Saturday 1/29 with Charlie and Aya, Mae, and Tricia. Conan didn’t make the trip because he had a bad chest cold. Our usual guide Patrick wasn’t available so we went with Mark from King Cassava. The trip almost didn’t come off. Nice boat but he sucked as a guide and captain. (Hey I think this is the 1st time I’m actually complaining about something since I’ve arrived in Belize a year ago). Tricia chose fought with Mark over the cost of the trip. She convinced him that the price she wanted to pay is the price we always pay, which it was. Charlie, Aya, and Mae were very keen on the snorkeling part and I was the only fisherman. Charlie and Aya had been yearning for a chance to go the week that they were here bit the weather was very uncooperative. Friday night at dinner Tricia said she was going to manifest good weather for Saturday and darn if it didn’t dawn sunny. The wind was a bit brisk but the waves hitting the Kismet beach were manageable. They actually picked up a bit while we motored out to our usual starting point, Bread & Butter Caye. A bad thing happened in the marina just as we were about to get underway. Aya slipped in the boat and wrenched her back. It almost looked like we were going to have to cancel but she decided to tough it out. She did get in 1 snorkel and enjoyed it. Mae and Charlie did several off the beach and enjoyed theirs too. While they snorkeled I fished. I hooked 2 small barracuda off the dock but didn’t land either. Actually I wasn’t holding out much hope of catching anything because of the bad weather that’s plagued us for the past 2 weeks but was proved wrong later. During the stop at B&B Tricia served lunch and afterward Mark suggested dropping Charlie and Mae off at the outer edge of the B&B reef and then do some trolling. So, off we went. We trolled around B&B and then headed east toward the outer reef. No luck so we decided to drop anchor and bottom fish. We caught a bunch of small snapper and grouper and 1 porgy of decent size. After about 2 hours we trolled back with Mark saying it was so he could take the snorkelers out to another spot. I had some pretty harsh criticism about Mark’s fish guiding because of 2 incidents and left it that I was pretty unhappy. I don’t know if it was because of my criticism or what but he totally ignored the 2nd snorkel. Tricia let him have it then too when she realized he was headed back to the marina. So, needless to say, he won’t be getting anymore Kismet business!
When we arrived back at Kismet we saw that a new RV had been added to the lot. Chantel and George, from France were here to visit. They have been on the road for a year and, like Simone and Frank from Germany, are on an around the world tour. They shopped their motor home to Nova Scotia and have toured the western portion of the U.S., visiting many of the national parks along their route south. They will travel through Central and South America and then head for Australia from Chile. They have an interesting website, www.girotpurdemuonde.free.fr, detailing their travels. Take a look!
We went to the reef again on Thursday 2/3 and I lost 3 really big fish. Two I got to the pier/side of the boat (both barracudas over 10 pounds) and 1 went straight to the bottom (probably a grouper) and broke my rod in half and broke the line! The 1st loss happened at the marina. A couple people told me I should have hit Patrick in the head for losing the fish by trying to yank it in when it wasn’t ready. The fish still had a lot of fight in it. Had he let me play it a bit more I’d have pulled it onto the pier. The other broke off right at the side of the boat. I did catch a nice crevalle jack though and we ate it as part of the communal “post fishing” dinner. Five us went but only 2 of us fished. Conan, Jacko, and Eva all snorkeled at Bread&Butter. John and I trolled. John was so sick though from something he ate the night before but he toughed it out and caught 2 nice jacks. We also lost a lot of short strike fish. But we all had a great time.
John and Eva are from Canada and Jacko (his real name is Kenny) is from Nashville. He’s here to visit a friend who moved to Belmopan but was too busy to spend time with him. So Kenny took a ride and found Kismet. His wife and 2-1/2 year old will meet him in Belize City in about a week and they will have a 2 week holiday. Conan, Tricia, and I regaled him with tales of life in Belize and about the Belizean people. He was shocked and amazed and laughed about all of it. He said his wife won’t believe it. So we decided to play the “what happens at Kismet stays at Kismet” jokingly telling him we were going to fix him up with a local. That’s the reason he chose the name Jacko. John and Eva are a really fun couple and we’ve all enjoyed hanging around with them. They will be here until Sunday 2/6 and then head to San Ignacio and the Mayan ruins for a week. They are another couple we are trying to talk into cancelling their flight home and staying for a while. But we know that it won’t happen. The best guests always leave… But again, they came as guests and will leave as family.
We’re all going to a Super Bowl party at The driftwood Bar and Pizza Shack on Sunday 2/6. Oliver, the owner, is making a deep fried turkey along with their normal Sunday BBQ and pizzas. It will be the 1st full football game that I’ll get to watch this year. I saw 3 quarters of one of the Bears/Vikings game before the internet went blooey. Usually it isn’t strong enough to show video or even an audio game broadcast. So I’m REALLY looking forward to it. I’d REALLY be looking forward to it if the Bears were in it. And, being a Bears fan, I have to go with Pittsburg because no Bears fan would ever root for a division foe. GO STEELERS!!!
And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… And, as always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
