I’ve had an odd question from several of you so I figure I better answer. The question is what do I wear every day? Well I’ve made it easy on myself. I wear a bathing suit and muscle tee and nothing on my feet. At night I wear a pair of cotton athletic shorts. On days when I go into Dangriga or Belmopan I take may take a pair of flip flops but wear them less than ½ the trips. I’ve been to the U.S. Embassy in bathing suit and barefoot twice and no one has said a word. It’s too hot to wear much more than I do and I never know when I’ll end up in the water so I’m always prepared. My pockets are always empty too because of that and I have to remember to take money with me when I leave the property. I’ve been caught short in the grocery stores more than once with no cash because I forgot to load my pockets. Most times I don’t even have ID on me. You don’t have to carry your passport here so mine is always locked away with my wallet. I did wear a pair of shorts and a Hawaiian shirt (I even wore underwear!) for Luke & Jen’s beach wedding. Other than that my normal clothes are put away until I leave for the states because I DON”T NEED THEM!!! I like to live as simply as possible because I’m retired and I want to do as little work, and laundry, as possible. Anyway, its “no shirt, no shoes, no problem” most everywhere in Belize.
We had 2 more guests this week that we didn’t want to leave. Mark is from Douglasville GA who is a retired merchant seaman formerly of the Military Sealift Command and a former monk trainee (he never took his final vows. His friend James lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and they’ve known each other for 35 years. Mark has joined the ranks of the Hopkins Fishing Club on Facebook and is a fly fisherman. He ventured out to the lagoon with me at 4:30am one morning to try his hand and caught a needlefish, actually foul hooked it in the stomach. But we recorded it as a catch none the less. I foul hooked a tiny snapper too just to make him feel better. On our reef trip he caught 2 more fish…by the mouth. Mark is looking to make his retirement home here in Belize and I hope it’s here in Hopkins. We can never have too many fishing buddies!!! Plus he’s a trained chef and we’ve been putting his skills to the test and he’s passed admirably. Coconut curried barracuda, stuffed peppers (my request) and several other entrees and veggie dishes have delighted out palettes! We’re going to steal his passport so he can’t leave! They did stay 9 days and I think thoroughly enjoyed it. But we were talking about all the people that had passed though Kismet that we didn’t want to leave but decided that, had they not left, we wouldn’t have met the next bunch we wanted to stay because Kismet would have been full up. So we decided its good they leave but that they come back again very soon, when there is a room available for them again.
Frank left us on Wednesday 4/5 to head home for Norway so we had to get in one more reef fishing adventure before he left. Our crew consisted of Frank, Mark, James, Conan, Tricia, Elvis, and me. Patrick, our regular guide, wasn’t available so Tricia hired Johnny Bosco (his nickname is “Johnny Bosco scumbag who can fish”). Tricia assured us he caught fish when no one else could catch them so we hired him. Well we added another adjective to his nickname today and (please I don’t mean to offend anyone) “STUPID”. I thought we’d been with the worst boat captains in the past but Johnny was a new low. We had dropped Conan (to spearfish), Mark (to fly fish), and James (to snorkel) at Bread&Butter Caye and headed off to find bait and then troll. Well we never found any bait (strike 1 for our new guide) and as we wrapped up our search Johnny gunned the engine and turned left (strike 2 and 3 because he did it 2ce that day). I was standing on one of the seats casting a lure at the time. The abrupt start and turn threw me over the seat, crashing in to Tricia who was sitting in the next seat up and my momentum crushed her against the side of the boat and pounded her right side ribs against the boat railing. WELLL I let him have it! He apologized but he certainly didn’t understand what could have happened had I not been able to soften the blow of my 225lbs crashing into Tricia. Anyway… Frank and I trolled with some of my new lures. I caught 3 small barracuda in different spots, all of them while we were looking for bait. We did get several hits while trolling but landed none. We bottom fished in about 100 feet of water for a couple hours and filed our cooler with Grunts, Jimmy Hine grouper, Rockfish (also a grouper) and a few other types. We had a lot of fun fishing though and the others enjoyed their adventures. Mark caught a couple of small snappers that sounded like keepers but he threw them back. At least he caught something though. When we got back to Kismet we were sitting in the kitchen with cold drinks and Mark told me that I taught him something. That turned out to be that he needed to buy spinning gear like mine because of the windy conditions, which made fly fishing hard to do. I told him he needed both because it’s been unusually windy the past few days and he’ll really enjoy his fly fishing when they calm down. We did manage to go back out on Tuesday 4/12 with Patrick though. Our group consisted of Karl (Sweden) and his red-headed traveling companion Kelly (Australia), Conan, and me. Tricia was a bit under the weather so she stayed home. I got a small cuda trolling while the others snorkeled and dove off Bread& Butter. Conan was able to rent 2 tanks but had immediate O-ring problems so spent most of his time snorkeling. He speared a few small fish of various kinds. After a few hours of trolling, and losing bait to small fish, we picked everyone else up for some bottom fishing. Kelly is the only one who caught fish, a small grouper and a small snapper. We did catch enough for dinner though. Karl, Kelly and I hit the lagoon on Wednesday night (4/13) and we each caught a fish, Karl’s first in Belize. He caught a dogtooth snapper and Kelly and I each caught a catfish. It’s a free dinner for Conan. We have another reef trip scheduled for Thursday 4/14 with 2 new guests from San Francisco, a father and son team.
I mentioned that Frank left on 4/5. More on that now. Tricia decided she was going to take a few days holiday and travel with him. Since Frank was flying out of Cancun for Oslo they decided to spend a few days in Playa Del Carmen. Tricia was in need of more REAL tequila, at a reasonable price, as well as a few other things and it’s a great place to rest and shop. It was a 14 hour bus ride from Hopkins to Playa (something I’ll find out 1st hand when I head back to Orlando in late May) but they made it safely and immediately headed for the tequila store. From her mouth to our ear it was a rather drunken day or 2 and not much shopping was actually accomplished. They are well though, had some beach time, and generally rested before they parted ways. Frank nearly missed his flight because he’d forgotten about the 1 hour time difference between Belize and Mexico. He hit the ticket counter 40 minutes prior to his flight and the flight was already closed out. An agent took pity on him and rushed him through security and he made his flight. Tricia did come home with a new glass monkey (she collects monkeys) that made the 2 day return intact. It’s sitting in a place of honor in the kitchen.
Conan made a down payment on a scuba tank compressor and 4 tanks that he hope will be ready for pick up in the next week or so. The owner is going to have it looked at and run because it’s been a long time since it was used. Hopefully everything will be fine. Now it’s time for him to settle on a boat. He has one in mind that he’s trying to contact the owner to haggle a price. We’ve looked at it twice and talked to the son and now it’s time to get busy. He’s hoping to have it all before Matt and Angie (Kismet friends from last year) get her in May 7th. If he’s successful we’ll use Conan’s boat. Keep your fingers crossed!
Tricia’s 9 chickens are all alive and doing well. They are getting big and even climbing the stairs to the porch and flying off. Bad thing is that they leave chicken poop all over the place and it’s like trying to get chewing gum off the bottoms of your feet if you aren’t careful where you step.
And, so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… And, as always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
