The trade winds really kicked up over the weekend. Saturday morning it churned the water inside the reef – there were whitecaps where we had calm sea before! We went down to the resort restaurant for breakfast. We both ordered the Belizean breakfast – scrambled eggs with tomato bits and bacon, black bean puree and fry jacks. Fry jacks are fried bread dough that comes out very light with a hollow interior. It’s tasty – I tore it in half and stuffed the hollow core with bean puree and eggs.
After breakfast, Donna and I took an early morning walk up the beach past several homes and boat docks. The beach is considered public land, so homeowners cannot bar access although a few of them piled seaweed and vegetation along their property lines to discourage visitors.
We came back onto the Costa Blu property and walked past the pool. We encountered a few iguanas and lizards sunning themselves. One large iguana lived under the building next door to us and we saw him every day in the garden by the stairs.
Fishing and snorkeling weren’t happening in the windy conditions – Tuff-E-Nuff cancelled all boating activities. We reserved a trip for Monday – a combination snorkeling and fishing excursion and hoped the wind would die down by then. While talking to Hatcher at Tuff-E-Nuff, he recommended a cafe in town called Brianna’s. He said it was a small place and not much to look at, but the food was great and the prices low – not many tourists go there but a lot of the locals do.
We took the golf cart and headed into town. When I rented the cart, the guy at the agency showed me the anti-theft device and told me it was very important to always use it. I made it a habit and saw everyone else with a golf cart did the same. The anti-theft device was crude but effective.
We found Brianna’s and ordered lunch – Donna and I ordered the chicken soup special. The soup had potatoes, cabbage, rice, corn, a little pasta and a lot of chicken meat. It was delicious and very filling. Lunch for two with a soft drink was $14US.
I should mention hitchhikers in Ambergris Caye. We gave rides in town to a couple of guys – they weren’t hitchhiking with their thumbs out – they just called out “how about a ride” as we slowly drove by. When we were at Secret Beach, a young mother with a boy about 7 years old and an infant needed a ride. The boy asked us for a lift to town – otherwise they would have to make a five-mile walk. We drove them back to town.
On the way back from lunch at Brianna’s, we made a couple of stops. The first stop was a place on the side of the road called The Truck Stop. It was a cluster of buildings with a bar, ice cream parlor, pizza place and other food vendors. At The Truck Stop, I learned that craft beer had arrived in Belize. A brewery in Placencia on the mainland, south of Belize City was brewing it.
Donna tried the golden ale while I had an IPA. It was okay, but nothing too special. The beer you can count on in Belize is Belekin. Belekin beer is sold everywhere – from grocery stores to road side stands and every bar in the country. When we were in Turkey, there was beer there that was ubiquitous called Efes. In Jamaica, it’s Red Stripe and here it’s Belikin.
The Belikin slogan says “onlieenabelize.” This is a good example of the Belizean Creole language – words run together and are spoken quickly with the emphasis on certain syllables making it hard for a non-native to follow.
Belikin also makes a dark beer they call stout – but stylistically, it’s more of a bock beer. It’s lager, not stout ale and it’s 6.5% ABV. The slogan for the stout is “go deh strong.” Hatcher told me that Belizean Creole doesn’t use suffixes like “ing” or “er” as in walking or stronger. The prefix deh replaces it. So walking become deh-walk. Also, when they say “you,” it’s always singular. If you want to address a group you don’t say “all of you” – it’s unu. No wonder I can’t understand them.
We made another stop at Rojo’s Beach Bar and Grill. The road into Rojo’s was a little tight.
Donna tried a ginger caipirinha there and said it was great. We’ll have to try making it some time – a caipirinha is a Cuban cocktail made with rum, muddled limes and sugar.
Back at Costa Blu, I claimed my regular perch at the poolside bar. There was one corner of the bar that was sheltered from the wind and I always sat there so I could puff a cigar with a nightcap. The staff at Costa Blu are all super-friendly and quickly caught on to my habits. It was like they saved that seat for me and always broke out a clean ash tray when I arrived.
The wind continued unabated throughout the night and into Sunday. We headed back to Secret Beach on Sunday – it’s on the leeward side of the island and wasn’t nearly as windy.
Monday morning we had some light rain for an hour or so, but I was happy to see the wind had calmed. We were on the dock at 8:30am and Rafael took us and another couple in the boat to the main Tuff-E-Nuff dive shop at the Wyndham. From there we got on a catamaran with a crew of three plus 10 other people and went to Mexico Rocks. Mexico Rocks is another marine reserve almost directly in front of Costa Blu – we were nearly back to where we started.
A fishing guide took four people at a time on a boat through a channel past the reef to fish. A guy in the first group caught a huge barracuda – they said it was 30 pounds. While the first group fished, the rest of us snorkeled. At Hol Chan, we snorkeled in a relatively tight group with six people per guide. This was to prevent people from getting lost or joining up with the wrong group. At Mexico Rocks, we were pretty much by ourselves so once the guide was reasonably certain no one was likely to drown, we were able to snorkel on our own.
Donna and I went with another couple on the second fishing run. We went outside the reef where the ocean bottom suddenly drops off to a depth of 70 feet or more. There was an old shipwreck on the reef – just the skeletal remains of a ship – the keel and a few ribs and a partial mast. I don’t know the story behind it – the guide thought it had been there for at least 15 years. Maybe a victim of Hurricane Mitch?
After a short while, I had a fish on! It gave a tough fight but I landed it. It was an ocean triggerfish. These are good fish to eat. Triggerfish feed mostly on crustaceans. They have powerful jaws and teeth that can crack crabs and mollusks.
Our boat captain – captain Bob – prepared food in the small galley of the catamaran. They fileted the barracuda and Bob took the fishing boat with another crew member to the beach to grill the fish. They came back and served it in a seasoned broth with sliced potatoes and flour tortillas. It was excellent! They also provided unlimited beer and rum punch.
The sun rises early in Belize. This time of year near the spring equinox and and again in the fall are when they have the longest daylight hours at this latitude. As usual, we were up early on Tuesday and Donna snapped a photo after sunrise.
We had breakfast at the restaurant, then packed our bags. It was time to head back home. I checked us out and we managed to stay within budget – I was wondering how we did on room charges but never really kept track.
We stopped by the cart rental place and a girl from the agency rode with us to the water taxi so she could take the golf cart back.
The taxi was on schedule and took us back to Belize City with a stop at Caye Caulker. One of the deckhands on the water taxi called ahead and arranged for a taxi cab to take us to the airport.
Our flight home took us from Belize City to Dallas/Fort Worth where we caught a flight back to San Diego. The flights were uneventful but we were exhausted by the time we took an Uber ride back to Mission Bay RV Resort. Vacation over and back to the RV lifestyle in sunny San Diego!
