It's Fishin' Time!

Like I have stated many times in the past, we thoroughly look forward to our day off during the week. I am not sure we could have every day off and enjoy these times as much as we do with only one day a week to ourselves. I guess what I am trying to say is you really treasure these times when you are not able to experience them on a daily basis.

So this past Wednesday we headed out on The Newt again with our friends, Lynn and Carl. We were invited to go snorkeling and then spend the remainder of the day fishing. So we hopped on board bright and early after grabbing a few burritos at Ms. Sara's Kitchen.

Carl first took us to snorkel Tres Cocos, which is a little north of town. I find it amazing he can just pull up to a random part of the reef, anchor, and say, "okay, this is Tres Cocos." Like...how does he know where to go?  There are no markers, no buoys telling you it's a great snorkel spot....just his knowledge of being here his entire life and learning from experience. Quite amazing to me.

I have to say Tres Cocos was maybe one of the top 3 snorkels I have ever done. We saw so much wildlife: two nurse sharks, a few rays, a school of squid, two squid mating, turtles, barracudas-my LEAST favorite.

We then headed off to Hol Chan, the marine reserve. This is one of the top places to visit while in Belize. It is a marine reserve in which you have to pay to enter and is protected against fishing, touching, or taking. I actually stayed in the boat for this snorkel, as Tres Cocos was a long snorkel and my foot is still recovering from my foot surgery. Rob said it was amazing: 60 pound grouper, hammerhead shark, sea turtles, moray eels. I am sure we will be back to Hol Chan in the future, so I look forward to experiencing it.

Hol Chan: on a crowded day!

Now I'm going to throw Rob under the bus here....this is the morning after Carnaval...and Rob had sucked down a few too many rum and cokes the night before. Needless to say, he was "under the weather" for this boat ride. I will give him credit-he hung in there and eventually turned the corner, but the two snorkel stops were not his best showings.  I am just going to say he helped "feed the fish"....sorry Rob...had to do it.


After the two snorkel stops, we headed WAYYYYY north to do some fishing. When I say way north, I mean 14 miles north. The water turned many different shades of blue and it was a gorgeous ride. I love looking at all the resorts and houses, so many different styles and colors. It makes you want to spend a day at each one just to experience the different environments.

Captain Morgan's Retreat-home of reality show Temptation Island back in 2001



Boat ride heading north.

We ended up at the last resort, Tranquility Bay, where we anchored and threw in some lures. We started to get bites almost immediately and the amount of fish that came in the boat was astounding. Carl was a great guide in teaching us when to pull up on the fishing pole and how to control the line. Before I knew it, we had red snapper for dinner!

Rob and Lynn fishing on The Newt

Sushi anyone?

Gorgeous trigger fish we threw back

That's part of my dinner



Not only did we see fish that day, but there was plenty of other wildlife out and about. It is amazing the amount of different kinds of birds, iguanas, geckos you can see in Belize.  I took a few pictures of some birds I found to be quite interesting.

It was time to head home and cook up this fish for dinner.......

Yes...that's a golf cart in the middle of nowhere...somewhere north.....

Palapa Bar...water view

So when we got back to the dock, Carl gutted the fish for us and we took the snapper to Blue Iguana. Most of the restaurants here will cook your fresh catch for you. They cooked our snapper 4 different ways and it was DELICIOUS!

What is in store for our next day off? I am not sure, but each one is beginning to get better and better. I do know the weather is beginning to be gorgeous every day and I am so excited for our future here in San Pedro. I am so happy to be doing this blog....not for everyone to read it (don't get me wrong-I love to share with others)....but just so I have a documented timeline of where our experiences are taking us. So until next time....keep smiling and enjoying life.

It'S CaRnAvAL TiMe!

I know it has been a few days since our last post, but I PROMISE the next two blogs will make up for our lost days. As I stated in our last post, Carnaval was this past weekend in San Pedro. We did not make it downtown until Tuesday night, which is also Fat Tuesday. And although the festivities were dying down, we sure made it a fun night. The painting was still in full force and we have been wanting to experience it to the fullest.

Rob and I were determined to get painted and made sure we wore old clothes just in case someone decided to not use water-based paints. I tried to take pictures throughout the night so you can see our progression of painting.......

So let me begin at the beginning. This is Lynn and Carl, our newly found friends, walking ahead of us on the beach....headed into town.

This is one of the biggest signs I saw telling us we were near the painting....very near the painting.

Little girl climbing the manatee at the park....both covered in paint.

And then Rob found his first group that was willing to share their paint.

This is the crowd that was behind........

I found some red paint...and some peach colored underneath-if you can see it.

Oh Rob......

We then found some street dancers getting ready to make their way to the square.

This is front street...



Check out the new clock tower at the square. They made sure it wasn't going to get painted.

Many of the businesses downtown cover their storefronts to save them from the paint. This is Jaguar's, one of the nightclubs.



And Rob found some local kids that had eggs and were ready to fire them any moment. He helped out and let the kids put them in his hair. Seemed fun at the moment...but getting them out 3 hours later was not so fun.

We seemed to find more and more paint...different colors and different people.

Remember this picture......and how much (or less) paint we have.

Cool people from Wisconsin that we met while getting a street burrito.



And here comes the troublemakers...that's paint going on Rob's head.





The guy on the left is the one that found me.....

We look like Smurfs...

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the picture.

I am guessing we know this guy, but couldn't tell it this night.

So this was our first experience with Carnaval. It was such a great experience, we cannot wait until next year. And if you are wondering if we found some non-water based paint....yes we did. I washed the clothes the next day and almost NONE of it came out. Looks like we will be saving these clothes for next year's celebration of Carnaval. So if you are thinking of visiting San Pedro and want to get painted...think about coming during Carnaval.

What a life......

We are beginning to count down the days until our next day off. Don't get me wrong, we love our day job...but having the day to enjoy this beautiful island is the way to go. So on Wednesday Rob and I headed down to Estel's to get breakfast.  People have been raving about their food so we thought it was time to try it out.

The fruit filled fry jacks were AMAZING...and the banana pancakes could compete with Mr. Joe's. The views from our table were almost better than the food.



View from our table at Estel's By The Sea



It was then time to do a little shopping. One of our friends owns a gift store in town and we have been meaning to stop by. The store is fantastic and we look forward to buying some art from them...when we find the place we plan to permanently stay.

But they have a bird named Survivor. She was very entertaining and had some fun with me.

Fiesta de Carnaval begins today in Belize. It is one of the most boisterous celebrations here in San Pedro and is always held the week before Lent begins. There will be celebrations all weekend and the big day is Tuesday (Fat Tuesday). I can't wait to experience it! We saw them beginning to set up downtown...

After the shopping and breakfast, we headed to the beach to just enjoy the day.

What a view

On the way, we stopped at Changes in Latitudes, a great little bed and breakfast that we work with. They send their guests to the pool and we give them a deal on their drinks. I saw a cute little "footsteps in the sand".

So even though I got hit with the flu bug this week, we still were able to get out and enjoy our day. What to do this weekend? I think our days are booked....tonight is Wine de Vine (pre-Mardi Gras party with free beads and masks), Saturday-work and then Carnival, Sunday-work and Carnival. Sounds like a great weekend ahead! Stay tuned........

A Weekend of Randoms.....

This past weekend was extremely busy at The Snack Shack. We had a first on Sunday-we sold out of our BBQ Chicken. And not only sold out, but it was gone by 3pm! Thanks to our chef, Kevin, for making some darn good chicken.

So backing up to Friday night, we headed to Wine de Vine for "Wine Social Night". In other words, hang out with some fun people and drink A LOT of wine. A group of us then headed to Casa Picasso for some fantastic dessert and a martini. The molten chocolate lava cake is to die for...and the espresso martini isn't so bad either.



CV and Amy dancing to the tunes of Valentino.

 I do have to say that the night snuck up on me and Saturday was not such a fun day for my head....Gatorade to the rescue!

And although my head was not happy that the wine took over, I still had to cook breakfast Saturday morning for a group that is here from Animal Planet. They are doing a special on crocodiles and ordered breakfast to go. Here is a cool picture of a piece of bacon I cooked.  I know....it's just bacon, but look at the shape.

A fish of baocn anyone?

Next thing on the list from the weekend....another group that we met on our day off last Wednesday came to The Shack to visit us on Saturday afternoon. And how did we meet this group?  Well, I was headed to the restroom at Palapa Bar and saw on one of the wooden poles someone had written "War Eagle".  I yelled out "War Eagle" and the group standing next to me said...."are you from Auburn?" So that discussion led to us figuring out we all attended Auburn during the same years and they said they would come visit us at The Shack.  Well....once again, the group held their word. I won't hold it against them they brought their friend, Stacey, who is an Alabama fan. So a few pina coladas with free rum floaters later (minus the $5 rum floater for Stacey-no free alcohol for Roll Tide people)....we had another great group of people down at The Shack.

WAR EAGLE!!!! WDE.

We let them sign The Snack Shack door....only for "special guests"
**Notice Stacey signed in red.

So not an extremely exciting weekend here at The Snack Shack, but we always find a way to enjoy ourselves. We did get TripAdvisor working, so if you are reading this and have visited The Shack, please take a moment to review us on TripAdvisor. We already have 3 great reviews!  We would love to move up the list of restaurants here in San Pedro.

And what do I have planned tonight?  The Bachelor in BELIZE, of course!  Check it out!  It is mainly filmed on Ambergris Caye and I guess there is also a day trip to Caye Caulker. Can't wait to see some familiar sights.

From the south....to the north....

On Wednesday we tried to thoroughly enjoy our one day off this past week. We decided to ride our bikes south for breakfast and then north to enjoy the beach and try out a few places we have never been. So we headed south to Lone Star, or for those of us that have been here beore, better known as Mr. Joe's, for breakfast. They make the most amazing banana pancakes that are to die for.

Cute signs posted all over Mr. Joe's.

We also met up with a new friend, Peter, to look at his oceanfront condo, as we are wanting to move on the beach in a few months. He lives across the street from Mr. Joe's, so we headed over there after our awesome breakfast-obviously some banana pancakes and we also split a Belizean breakfast...yummmmmm-o.

Maybe we shouldn't have looked at these oceanfront condos, as I am ready to move NOW!  Check out this view right outside Peter's condo.

Quite an amazing view to wake up to everyday. Oh, how I am somewhat jealous. I know I only live 100 yards from the beach, but you would be amazed at how infrequent you make it to the sand if you do not live right on it.

After spending some time with Peter and riding around the area, which is known at Mosquito Coast (no..not because of mosquitos, but in relation to the Mayans), we began our trek up north. Now for those of us that live here, heading NORTH sounds like a daunting task.  In reality, it is truly only a couple miles. However, when you live on a small island, a few miles sounds like 60 miles back in the states.

We made a short stop on our way north at a cute place called The Huts. It was recently renovated and just reopened January 1st. I have heard numerous people talk about it and I actually drove past it one day and put it on my list of places to see. It is a small hotel, with only 12 rooms, a restaurant, pool, and bar. They have karaoke and bands on some nights and are in the process of bringing in a pool table. For those that do not know, playing pool on the island is hard to do. There are not very many places that have pool tables and the locals love to play this game. So I am guessing this might be the new hotspot for the locals south of town.

And for those of you looking for a bargain, you can stay at The Hutz for a week for $300BZ or $150 American. It is clean, updated, and such a cute place. I would recommend this to anyone on a budget. And the bartender, Julio, is super friendly and very informative. 

How cute is Hutz pool?

I want some of these cute letters.

After our stop at The Hutz, we headed back to the bikes and turned back north.

So our "long" bike ride that I had anticipated actually took us only about twenty minutes. We had to cross The Bridge, which in actuality, was a more difficult task on a bike than I would have assumed. It is quite a big incline and if you do not get speed, making it to the top without any difficulty can be difficult. Ha ha.

You may have been able to hear a few grunts coming off of my bike...but I'm not admitting to anything.

The north side of San Pedro is a completely different feel than the south side. I am not sure what it is exactly, but it just feels different. There are no paved roads and it is definitely less populated, but the condos and views are to die for. We headed immediately to Coco Loco's, a cute little swim-up pool bar that is located at the Bermuda Landing (I believe??) condos. This is where a few of our friends live. We decided to stop by and have a few fun hours with them.

Riding up the beach...what a way to spend the day.

I want this bowl.

That's Rob...at Coco Loco's.

We had a few drinks and relaxed in the pool. I viewed another oceanfront condo-I need to stop doing this!

And then I saw the coolest thing of the day. This guy, whom our friend knows, pulls up in his kayak. He begins to pull out a total of 16 lobsters. Yes....pulling them out from inside of his kayak! It was amazing. He obviously caught them during the day and is now trying to sell them. So our friend works out a deal with him and buys all 16. I guess they already have 20 in their freezer...so why not add more? He began to cut the tails of the lobster for us, we got him a rum punch, and just watched. I have to say, it was pretty cool. We have 3 of the tails being delivered to us at some point this week.  Cannot wait to grill them up on Sunday at our BBQ!

So a few pool bars, lobsters, and bike rides later, we head up to our last stop: Palapa Bar. This is one of the well-known bars/restaurants on the island, as it sits out over the water on stilts and the bar is on the second level. For some reason, I didn't take very many pictures of this place-my fault! But they have inner tubes at this bar in the water and they will lower your drinks to you while you enjoy time in the inner tubes. Friends that are visiting in the future-we will have to try this service out! But we just headed straight up to the bar and it got packed for a Wednesday afternoon! I then realized that my world was swaying a little. Rob and I looked at each other and said-this bar is moving. Yes...the bar sways...a little freaky and I am wondering how much sway it has left in it?

We met another couple from Cleveland...boy how this island is small! It was a great end to a great day. I am sure we will be taking many more south-north trips, but the first one will always be special.

View from Palapa Bar.

So until next blog......