I'm blaming Crazy Canucks for my disappearance

Wow.....it has been awhile since I last blogged. I apologize! I kept telling myself, "you need to blog, you need to blog", but time just kept slipping away. And then my mother told me last night on videochat that I needed to blog because some of you were missing my posts...so here it is Mom!

What has happened within this last month and a half???

QUITE A LOT!

We took over the very popular beach bar, Crazy Canucks, on June 1. We have been very blessed with this opportunity. And we have been going full speed ever since.

We have also had two visitors from Ohio, many Sunday Fundays (more to come on this fantastic day later), and a few Punta/Reggae nights inbetween. Whew...I get tired just thinking about all that we have accomplished!

Here is a taste of where our lives have brought us to now:

Crazy Canucks Beach Bar

Full moon...from behind the bar

Cheers to a fun group from Pittsburgh...yes even Pittsburgh
has fun people (I guess)...and to our friend, Meg (right), visiting.

Our view from the bar....and that is Matlin working hard on the grounds of
Exotic Caye Beach Resort.

Crazy Canucks

After moving to the beach bar from the Snack Shack, our daily routines have changed dramatically. Snack Shack hours were 9am-5pm and a day off on Wednesday. Crazy Canucks hours are 11am-midnight, every day of the week.  That equals many more hours for us at the bar, late nights, and not a day off since June 1. Everyone says, "man, you guys are on vacation every day down here." However, I do not remember going on vacation and working seven days a week!

Now, don't get me wrong, this type of work beats any type of work we both were doing back in Ohio. We meet new people everyday, everyone is happy at the bar due to plenty of liquor and those on vacation tend to smile much more, making our daily lives much happier also.

Crazy Canucks had a great vibe when we took it over, so we have tried very hard not to change much. Ali is our number one bartender and he is amazing. He has been working at Crazy Canucks for about 12 years...and I have learned so much from him in just a month. He is always smiling and has so many fans that come back to see him on a yearly basis.  This place would not run without him.

Here is Ali...prior to us taking over the bar...got to
get a few updated pictures of him!

So I apologize for the delay in the post, but I guess I can't complain on how busy we actually have been. That is a great problem to have when you run a business in Belize.

I have many stories and pictures to already share from the bar. Cannot wait to post them...hopefully quicker than this post made it to you.

Our New Adventure....Great Views...Spearfishing

Well, the big news on our homefront is......................we are taking over a beach bar here in San Pedro on June 1! 

What bar, you ask? 

Crazy Canuck's Beach Bar

You can check out their current Facebook page (Canuck's FB) and their website (Canuck's Web).

Check out the view from the bar.

We moved down to Belize with the intention of being on the beach....at a bar.....I mean, what more could you ask for? Beer, rum, umbrella drinks, sun, sand, fun people, great service, smiles....sounds like a fantastic time to me. Wouldn't you want to visit?

We could not be more excited than having the opportunity ahead of us. We know it will be a ton of work, but we also know we will continue the traditions of Canuck's while also adding our own flare. It truly is a dream come true. June 1 cannot come soon enough.

Okay, so we touched on our new adventure...I know there will be plenty of new stories to tell in the future. Let's move on to some great views that we have recently seen. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous down here and the sights have been just as amazing.

Sunrise at our condo. The sky was many shades of pink and orange.
This is at about 5:10am...the sun rises very early.

We got out on the water during our day off last week. Shocking, I know! Rob just cannot keep himself from that spear. But...good news this time! He actually caught a decent size fish that we cooked up for dinner. I was extremely proud of him and he stated that it was the best he felt in the water yet and he cannot wait to get out again. I know one of these times he is going to come back with a rather big fish...one that will be more than one meal's worth......one of these days.....

Check out Rob's big catch of the day!

Passed these two sailboats full of young tourists from Caye Caulker.

Then it was time for some lunch on Caye Caulker. How cute is this place?

The view from our table at Chat 'n Chill

And check out the spread. It was delicious.

It was another great week for us on our new adventure in San Pedro. We continue to learn things everyday. We do know the people here are amazing, the weather is the best we have enjoyed in a long time, and our experiences are ones we will remember forever.

Cannot wait to share the next blog.  We just had a recent addition to our family and she is very cute and feathery.

To end the day....a great shot of another sunrise.

First Dive in Belize

One of the reasons Rob and I chose to pick up our lives and move to Belize is because of the tremendous scuba diving. We are both divers, Rob being more experienced than me. But we both love the water and enjoy seeing the marine life that is not able to be experienced snorkeling.

Being that we have been so busy with The Snack Shack, we had yet to have the chance to dive.....until last week! We went out with Ambergris Divers.

Check this guy out.....

That's us...waiting to get on the dive boat.

Meet our new friend, Erin. She is from Boston and we met her a few months ago when she visited with her family. She came back to visit new friends this past week and we had a chance to dive with her on our day off.

We began our first dive at a site known as Mayan Princess.  If you are not familiar with diving, you normally do a two tank dive. The total "travel" time for the dives can range from 3-6 hours, depending how far you go from the dock. Luckily in San Pedro, there are many, many dive sites within a few minutes of the island.  This bode well for us! It only took us 5 minutes to get to the dive site from the dock.

That is our dive captain spearing a Lion Fish...the only
fish you can spear while having a scuba tank. They are
becoming a major problem in the waters and some will
pay money for each one that you kill.

Dive master and Erin

Rob....being Rob

Rob and myself....everything was okay!

Mayan Princess was a great spot. We hit 80 feet and then worked our way back up to the surface. One of the best things of the first dive was the nurse shark coming up and eating the lion fish right off the spear. May as well not waste anything, right! Rob was not quick enough with the camera to catch this shot. Boooo

After we finished our safety stop and got situated on the boat, we headed back to the dock for our surface interval. This is one of the nice things about being so close to shore....you can do your surface interval on land! 20-30 minutes on solid ground rather than sitting in a rocking boat, I am all up for that! We were served some delicious oranges and pineapple.....and then headed back out for our second dive of the morning.

We were told we were headed to Esmeralda. This made me smile, as I have heard so many good things about this dive site. It happened to be about 4 minutes away, so we were there in a flash.

We jumped in the water....headed down.....and the first thing I saw was our dive master with a chumstick, better known to him as a "chumsicle". It is a plastic hollow stick filled with fish....used to feed the bigger fish (aka SHARKS). Because the chumsicle was with us the entire dive, the marine life followed us. There were plenty of sharks, grouper, and eels to go around.

It was AMAZING!  Check out these pictures....

Gorgeous Grouper

Awesome picture of a moray eel

Shows how big the eels were....but this picture is funny
due to Erin's (right) reaction....this is after the eel
almost ate her finger

Not sure what Rob is doing

Love this picture of Erin and the grouper

Dive master, chumsicle, and plenty of sharks

It was an amazing day with awesome people. I know this has put an itch in both off us to get out and dive more often. I mean, we do live next to the second largest barrier reef in the world!  You have to get out and explore it...the snorkeling is one of a kind here, but the diving......is once in a lifetime.

Cannot wait to add to my dive log in the future here in San Pedro....next up.....maybe a night dive? I hear it is unimaginable.

Photos That Haven't Made the Cut.....

In looking back at the many pictures I have taken since our arrival here in San Pedro, I have come to realize there are many photos that do not make it to the blog. It is not that these photos are not great pictures or do not include someone or something that we love. It just gets hard to share every single photo I take.

In reviewing my many files, I figured it would be great to share some photos that have slipped through the cracks.

There is no overall theme to go with this post...just great photos with great stories behind each and every one of them.

These next few pictures are from an evening at Pinocchio's, the local Italian restaurant near The Snack Shack. They make brick oven pizza that is delicious. We headed there one evening after our weekly euchre night with a great group of people.

Surendra, Carolyn, and Nina...they moved here from Tennessee
back in November. Great people.

Love that you can watch your pizza being made.

Ken, Larry, and Rob. Larry is our old neighbor and Ken
is Larry's friend. Larry is staying on the island for
6 months. We LOVE Larry!

There are many, many dogs on the island, however, we have a few that are our favorites.  That being Jager (our dog, of course) and Winston (Lynn and Capt. Carl's black lab).......

Winston LOVES to chew coconuts.

He needs a bath....bad.....

Jager loves hanging on our deck.

Jager found a mini coconut. Perfect for
his size.

Jager enjoying some time on The Newt

There are many faces in San Pedro that have yet to make our blog. We are meeting people every single day. Some we see more than once, others we meet for a few hours and say our goodbyes, others we interact with on a daily basis. Any way you look at it, we are meeting tremendous individuals from all walks of life.....something we would not be doing if we were back in Ohio. One of the many reasons we love living in Belize.

Miss Anne is from Alabama. She is a sweet lady....we
each wore our shirts on her last day in San Pedro for the season.
Me=Auburn    Anne=U. of Alabama
Who said we all couldn't be friendly?

Kathy and Kim...realtors in San Pedro and one of the main
reasons we made the leap of faith and felt like Belize was
the place.

That's me...with a couple from Overland Park, Kansas.
Why is this important? Because that is where I grew
up and they live about 5 miles from my parents. It is
still a small world all the way down here in Central America.

Mary, on the right, and her friend, visit San Pedro
often. She is a witty college student that has serious
connections to Exotic Caye International.

Visiting many places on the island, you come to see neat little things that just make you smile.  Here are a few that I enjoyed.....

Kevin posing with the BBQ sign at The
Shack-I made him take this picture....
and I love it!

The Jaguar at our adult water olympics. Made
from sheets, a table umbrella, styrofoam,
and duct tape. It was awesome.

Rob fishing off the dock.

I know we could write a book with everything we have learned just within these past five months. It is amazing the people you meet, experiences you go through, the ups and downs, highs and lows....but one thing is for sure.........

we love calling Belize home.

A Newtonian Beach BBQ

If you have been following our blog, you know that we are avid fans of Captain Carl and The Newt. So...when Julie and Andrew (Rob's sister and brother-in-law) visited a few weeks ago, booking a full day on the boat was not even an option, it was a necessity.

This particular day, we opted for the full monty: 2 snorkel stops, fishing, spearfishing, beach BBQ, and a stop at Caye Caulker. I had doubts that we could fit this all in and still enjoy each destination. Carl proved me wrong.

From L to R: Rob, Leonard, Carl, Julie, Andrew
Aboard The Newt

Living in Belize and on Ambergris Caye, one of the main tourist destinations in this area is Hol Chan Marine Reserve. We have visited this destination once previously, however, I did not snorkel it last time. The national park is known for it's numerous marine wildlife and this visit did not disappoint.

Check out their website: Hol Chan Marine Reserve

Sea Turtle

Eagle Ray

Nurse Sharks and Ray

After a great snorkel at Hol Chan, we then headed to Shark Ray Alley. Shark Ray is also located in the Marine Reserve. I chose to sit this one out and be the "over-the-water photographer". Rob and Andrew headed in to swim with the sharks. Carl and Leonard fed chum over the boat, which brought out a gam of sharks. It was quite a sight to see.

That is Rob....swimming with the sharks.

They swam right up to the boat. I could have fed
them from my hand.

Andrew swimming with the sharks....
although it doesn't seem there are many sharks in this shot.

These nurse sharks showed up in herds.

Next stop for the day was a little reef fishing. Although I am not a big fisherman, I do love this part of the trip. It is super relaxing and I get extremely excited when something bites and fish start coming in the boat. With us doing a beach BBQ later in the day, it was extremely important that we starting catching fish immediately.

We got the lines in the water and the fish were biting in no time.  I could tell our BBQ was going to be amazing....and very filling.

Andrew with his first catch.

Leonard cleaning the conch that Carl
picked up earlier in the trip.

As Leonard and the rest of us continued to fish, Rob, Andrew, and Carl threw on some fins, grabbed a speargun and headed out to dive for some fish. This is Rob's favorite new hobby. He absolutely loves to spearfish and talks about it continually. The last time he spearfished, he got a few grunt fish, but nothing substantial. This time, Rob actually speared a snapper and a few other fish that we ended up fileting and eating later in the day.

Rob, Carl, and Andrew getting ready to spearfish.

I made Carl pose for this picture. Ha ha.

This was Andrew's first time spearfishing and he hit a few fish, but they were fiesty little buggers and wiggled themselves off his spear. I am assuming they didn't make it much longer, but long enough not to make it on our boat.

Carl disappeared for at least an hour. He swam as far away from the boat as he could, as this is the way to spear bigger fish. I could always see him off in the distance, but then I would see his fins fly up in the air and disappear under the water. He always resurfaced, but not before I would worry, as he seemed to be underwater longer than a normal person. That is why we call him Mer-man.

Before we knew it, we had caught a few fish on the lines and then Carl made it back to the boat. His exact words, "Sorry guys, but there are no fish in this area. We are going to have to go somewhere else."

I was thinking...that is no fun. I was ready for him to come back with something really neat to show us.  And then he got me.......

Check out this HUGE hogfish Carl speared. I was in awe. It was one of the coolest things I have seen yet on The Newt.

Carl and his hogfish. I think Rob (bottom right) is wondering
if anyone noticed the fish on his spear....poor guy.

I did a little research on the hogfish, as I like to learn what we are eating and seeing on a daily basis.  A hogfish is a member of the wrasse family. It is one of the larger species in this family and got it's name from it's very long "pig-like" snout.

The hogfish is also a sequential hermaphrodite.  WHAT, I said?  That means it actually changes sex during different life stages. The juvenile hogfish is female and when it reaches a certain age maturity (usually around 3 years), it changes to male. Interesting?!?!!


So with our huge hogfish and others in tote, we headed to a beach to finish off the BBQ. I watched with amazement as Carl dug a hole in the sand, found some wood, lit a fire, and cooked our lunch. It was like something out of an adventure book.

Carl making our fire.

Our lunch is cookin'.

Julie and I waiting patiently for lunch.

Within minutes, our lunch was served and we were all in heaven. We had as much coconut rice, fresh fish, and conch that our stomachs could take in. It was seasoned just right, with fresh veggies and that "Belizean" spice. It was seriously one of the best meals I have had yet in San Pedro. You definitely cannot find seafood any fresher than that. And the experience of catching it, cooking it, and then eating it, all within the same few hours, was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

So with our bellies full and our hands still holding the rum punch, we headed to the split at Caye Caulker to enjoy the remainder of the day on The Newt. We walked the town, showed Julie and Andrew every place we have tried in the past, did some shopping, and ended up at The Lazy Lizard. You cannot experience Caye Caulker without hanging at The Lazy Lizard!

They have done a few renovations at the split. The changes we are not a fan of, as they put in a big retaining wall by the beach and there is limited boat docking. I used to love the way you could just pull up on the boat, hop out, and relax on the beach. It now seems more "formal" and less of a "lounge around all day" place, but we still found a way to enjoy this fantastic beach bar, as always.




Check out this boat-grill, hammock, palapa....that would
be an awesome day trip.

Great tile I found....this explains Caye Caulker completely.

Andrew and Julie hanging at The Lazy Lizard

The crew for the day (minus Lynn...who was the photographer)

Another great day on The Newt. I am sure there are still many more to come, as we have a few visitors lined up within the next few months. Cannot wait to see what our next adventure will bring!  I do know the manatees have arrived and I am waiting patiently to get out and view them.

Once again, if you are headed to Belize and would like to go out on The Newt with Captain Carl, check out their website (Imagine Tours Belize) or their facebook page (Imagine Tours Facebook). I promise you will have an amazing time.