We celebrated St, Patrick’s Day on the 17th and Tricia’s birthday in the 18th and a great time was had by all! For St. Paddy’s Day we went to the Driftwood Bar and Pizza Shack. Oliver, the owner, is ½ Irish ½ English and his partner Denise was promising lamb stew with Guinness sauce, poached salmon, and green beer. We’ll they were out of salmon by the time we got there but the lamb stew (which is what I was going for anyway) was great. Denise gave me a free 2nd serving after I complimented her on it. Actually she said the freebee what because I was so nice because I had picked up a new set of guitar strings in Dangriga for Ollie that day. That was a pretty funny story too. When I was walking into Driftwood that afternoon Ollie came in the side door and was upset that he had just broken a 2nd string while practicing. I handed him the package with the new strings and asked if they were the right ones. Well…the look on his face and the way his eyes widened to saucer size you would think that I’d just fallen from heaven with what he needed most! I mean right when he was lamenting that he was down to 3 strings on his guitar, and was schedule to be that night’s entertainment, here was his savior! I could see in his face the question, “How did you know???” Denise had forgotten to tell him that she had asked me to pick up a new set on our morning trip. It was priceless!!! Ollie surprised us with his performance. None of us knew that he had such a nice voice. Of course he’s Irish and had a drink or 2 in him and that’s when Irishmen sing and play the best. The next night was Tricia’s celebration. Conan and I had split the cost of one if Caitlin’s delicious carrot/cream cheese icing cakes which we knew Tricia loves so much. We also gave her a bottle of wine. Normally she bales a cake for a guest’s birthday and we didn’t want her baking her own. Caitlin is the local baker and is very good. We’d gotten the same cake for her last birthday too.
Conan and I were victims again on Saturday 3/19. Actually it’s his 1st time, but my 4th, and we were REALLY upset by this one! Now we’re losing fishing equipment!!! It was all stolen out of Conan’s van. The thief got both of our new fishing rods and reels (one of the reels that Zeppi bought for me in the states) and Conan’s Hawaiian spear, a 2 ton car jack with assorted tools that he’d thrown into the case, a new fillet knife still in the package, a pack of cigarette, and a 5 pack of cigars (with only 4 in it as I’d smoked 1 of them) that Bruce has gifted me before he left. We called Choco, the Hopkins cop, to report it and have him come to take a formal report but he said he was too busy training the police explorers and would come that afternoon. Not good enough for us because we had 12 backpackers who were leaving that same morning, one of which had found the thief in his tent and several of them saw the guy in Conan’s van but thought he was sleeping in there. Anyway…late that afternoon Tricia called Chocó again and really gave him and earful about how incompetent he was and how he had promised to come and still hadn’t. A couple hours later he showed up with 2 Dangriga cops, 1 carrying an AR15 rifle (it’s a non-military version of the M16). By this time we’d found out that the thief was Elvis’s cousin Jason Pasqual, who lived in Dangriga. So we told them the story and told them who the thief was and I asked if we should report it in Dangriga since that’s where he lives. The reason that I asked that was because 2 weeks before, Tricia had seen the guy who robbed my trailer on New Year’s Eve, walking down a Dangriga street. When she reported seeing him to a cop in the Dangriga police station he said they couldn’t do anything about it because it was reported in Hopkins. I didn’t want to have that problem with this guy so I asked. We were told yes, to report it in Dangriga. We also put the word on the street that there is a reward for recovery (but didn’t specify an amount). We’ll also be biking around to look for him. If we found him we’re going to hobble him. Chocó had told us a few weeks before that it is legal for us to do that to a thief for 1) ease in identifying him (because now he’s limping) and 2) to keep him from escaping. So now we were both carrying knives and rope with us to tie him up until the cop arrives on his bicycle. If we’d seen him before making the official report we’d make him take us to the people he sold our stuff to, lying that we would set him free if he did. Once we get our stuff we’ll exact our revenge and let him know to tell his friends that what he suffered will be what anyone else coming to Kismet to steal will suffer as well. And it won’t be pretty! He will limp for the rest of his life so he that he remembers us and as a reminder to others that Kismet is off limits to thieves. In a drive around the village we talked to a number of locals to spread the news of what was stolen and to announce a reward for the return of everything. The last guy we talked to says the guy tried to sell him Conan’s car jack last night and described the additional tools that were inside the case. He also saw 1 rod/reel and the spear. He said the guy wanted BZ$10 for the jack (that cost Conan US$50) but the guy we talked to didn’t buy it. He says the guy lives in Dangriga and vows to get the stuff back. And he doesn’t want the reward. That will probably change though. We’ll see… UPDATE: Tuesday 3/22 we went into the Dangriga police station to make our report. As soon as we told them the purp’s name we knew that they knew him. In preparation for the visit Tricia wrote up and printed the details on her computer. I’m not sure if you remember me telling you that Belize is a very UNcomputerize country. Entry/exit and monthly visa stamp info is kept in large ledgers, not on computer. Police stations are even lower in the list for modernization. We’ve been in to report earlier thefts and the cops couldn’t take our report because, now get this, they didn’t have paper to write it on! So we went prepared for that by printing out the report so they would have a copy. Well, this time they had a pad so the desk officer proceeded to write, in long hand, the report directly from the printed page. That took an hour. Meanwhile we were able to take 2 other officers in Conan’s van for a drive by of the purp’s house so that they knew where he lived for whenever they decided to bring him in. If he was there as we passed by they were ready to pick him up, again using Conan’s van as transport. We still haven’t heard if he’s been questioned yet…
Frank returned to Kismet from his side trip to Caye Caulker the other day and brought 5 new guests with him. One was George, from Hamburg Germany, who he'd met on Caulker. He also had 2 very funny, and very friendly Polish women, Zofia and Kasha (Kasha actually lives in Brooklyn NY), plus 2 others whose names I’ve forgotten. George finally left us today (Monday 3/28) to head down to Panama to meet up with a friend and then fly back to Germany. He’s another of those guests we hate to see go and he actually rescheduled his leaving us twice to fish the reef and just because he didn’t want to leave us. Frank will be with us for about 3 weeks before he has to go home and back to his job. We keep trying to talk him into "pulling a Conan" (cancelling his flight and staying forever!) but, as much as he'd like to, can't.
We did a reef fishing/snorkeling trip in Saturday 3/26 and had a great time. We actually picked the best of 3 days to go out too. The sea was nice and smooth. Frank, George, Tricia, Conan and I made up the party. While we were still in the marina George tried unsuccessfully to board the boat as it was drifting away from the dock. He fell into the water and lost a US$400 pair of sun glasses. He and Conan tried to find them but couldn’t. We headed directly to Bread&Butter and Conan and George stayed to snorkel while Frank and I went to troll. Fishing was pretty slow. We did lose a lot of bait, well actually had ½ the bait taken by short strikes until we went back to Bread&Butter. Then my old friend the 6ft tarpon struck my line again. He made a couple of really spectacular twisting jumps before he straightened out my hook and swam away. And, like the 1st time I hooked him, Tricia didn’t have the camera ready so there’s no photographic evidence. Frank and I did manage to boat 2 Crevalle jacks and Patrick, the captain boated a nice mutton snapper which he gave to us. We pulled into the marina and Conan tried again to find George’s glasses. He dove for about 15 or 20 minutes without finding them Tricia enlisted the help of a couple of local men sitting on the dock. One of them found George’s glasses in about 10 minutes. We were really shocked because we thought that the tide and boat prop wash would have pushed them either downriver or into deeper water. They were about 10 feet further into the river but right near where they were lost. Hopefully our next trip out to the reef will be in Conan’s new boat.
Playing cards took over Kismet the past few nights. While I missed the 1st night I joined in the next couple. The favorite game was called “shithead” and was introduced to us from Germany by George. The last one with cards in their hand was the shithead. It’s a very fun game. Even Elvis followed along and did well. Now that George is gone things will probably go back to normal though. I had suggested a movie night, with Geo selecting the movie, but he preferred cards so that’s what we did.
I’ve booked a trip to Orlando from May 25th through June 15th to see my daughter Carrie finally make her confirmation. She’s chosen the name Josephine for her confirmation name, as her name when she becomes a nun will be Sister Mary Josephine.
And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… And, as always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
