Now with the day free in front of us we had to decide what to do with ourselves. We biked back home to drop off our dive gear and decided we'd do a load of laundry at the laundromat. We gathered up a bag of clothes and were back on our bikes in to town. We started our clothes washing and decided we'd pick up the few groceries we needed - fruit, salt, bread and more cream for my coffee. I've been feeding to to that damn cat, Freaky, in an effort to keep him from meowing at me through the screen door non-stop. Now I've created Frankenstein and the monster must be fed or it will turn on us! We stopped at the necessary shops and stands for our items, and ran them back to the house before going back to pick up the laundry. The house we're staying at has a lovely clothes line, so we opted to hang them to dry instead of using a dryer.
With our errands run and chores finished (laundry and sweeping the kitchen floor - whew!) it was time to head back to the beach! Luckily, we had a much better experience than yesterday. Before spreading out our towels, we ducked in to the Lazy Lizard where Andrew spent $10 on a bucket full of 6 beer. Even better than the price was the fact that they didn't open them all so we were able to bring the 4 he didn't drink there home! I ordered a slushy lime drink ($5 for those who are interested) and we hit the beach.
Bargain beach beer bucket!
As we sat cooking ourselves, I couldn't help but look wistfully at the various women who were confident enough to put on string bikinis, despite the fact that most of their bodies were far from perfect. I notice this often when we travel to beach destinations and think how wonderful it must be to have such a positive body image. Or, perhaps, not have a mirror. Either way, it's an enviable position to be in. Maybe one day...After grossly increasing our odds at melanoma, we headed out in search of lunch. It was 1:30 pm by that time and food options during the siesta period are limited. We managed to find an open restaurant that we have been to before and enjoyed and lunched on ceviche, chicken tacos, and sweet tea. On the way home we snapped this picture of a little cemetery overlooking the beach - beautiful!
Bury me here, please!
We were back home by 2:30 pm and spent a few hours on the front deck w/ the cat. She definitely likes Andrew better than me, despite the fact that I'm the one feeding her, and likes to curl up by him to snooze in the shade. Traitor! We like the front deck in the afternoon. It's shady and there is a breeze and we can watch the traffic go by. What little of it there is, anyway. We are probably about a mile from the main action on the island, which suits us just fine. It's nice and quiet here and town is an easy walk or a very quick bike ride. This afternoon we see a hummingbird in the flowers, and a guy who is raking dead foliage and other trash from the sides of the road. He has headphones on and is singing at the top of lungs.
For dinner tonight we went to the new Italian cucina that opened in January. Word on the street (yep, we're that "in" here) is that it is the best place to eat on the island. We had looked for it a couple of nights ago but couldn't find it. We ran across it again yesterday and made sure to appropriately landmark it - between middle and back street, turn at the bank. I forgot the camera at home but trust when I say that it was a lovely little place and you could tell it was newly built. There were both inside and outside table options - meaning that one half of the restaurant had a roof and the other half didn't. There was no wall in between. The kitchen was open and had some of the fanciest Wolf equipment I've ever seen. At the bar there was an espresso machine that likely cost more than the gross domestic product of the whole island. It all seemed especially glamorous in comparison to what most of the restaurants or residents are cooking on here. For example, the grill at our rental house is made out of a bisected beer keg (clever & excellent reuse). Most of the restaurants are using something similar, such as old propane tanks with charcoal, or else a stove that someone threw in to a North American landfill in 1978. I couldn't help but notice that the chef cooking on this fancy equipment didn't have any shoes on. That made me envious. It would be really fun to come to work without shoes, don't you think?
Oh, and the food... it was quite good. We both had pasta dishes and I can see why people here really like this place. It's very different from what you can get everywhere else, which is more island-style foods such as jerk, curry, and rice with beans. The service was also very good. Unfortunately, as those who know me will attest, I don't particularly like to go out for pasta. It bugs me just a little bit to spend $15 on a plate of food I can make equally well at home for $5. Oh well.
As has become an unfortunate nightly habit, we stopped for ice cream on the way home. In an effort towards harm-reduction, we have located a shop that is at the opposite end of the island from our house, rather than the one that is about 1/2 way closer. I'm sure the extra calories we burn pedaling the extra distance home are at least equal to the calories in a single-scoop coconut ice cream cone, right? :)
That's it for today, folks. Tomorrow morning we head out early to Belize City for the day. We're doing the "Triple Crown" tour of the zoo, cave tubing and zip lining. Photos to follow!
For dinner tonight we went to the new Italian cucina that opened in January. Word on the street (yep, we're that "in" here) is that it is the best place to eat on the island. We had looked for it a couple of nights ago but couldn't find it. We ran across it again yesterday and made sure to appropriately landmark it - between middle and back street, turn at the bank. I forgot the camera at home but trust when I say that it was a lovely little place and you could tell it was newly built. There were both inside and outside table options - meaning that one half of the restaurant had a roof and the other half didn't. There was no wall in between. The kitchen was open and had some of the fanciest Wolf equipment I've ever seen. At the bar there was an espresso machine that likely cost more than the gross domestic product of the whole island. It all seemed especially glamorous in comparison to what most of the restaurants or residents are cooking on here. For example, the grill at our rental house is made out of a bisected beer keg (clever & excellent reuse). Most of the restaurants are using something similar, such as old propane tanks with charcoal, or else a stove that someone threw in to a North American landfill in 1978. I couldn't help but notice that the chef cooking on this fancy equipment didn't have any shoes on. That made me envious. It would be really fun to come to work without shoes, don't you think?
Oh, and the food... it was quite good. We both had pasta dishes and I can see why people here really like this place. It's very different from what you can get everywhere else, which is more island-style foods such as jerk, curry, and rice with beans. The service was also very good. Unfortunately, as those who know me will attest, I don't particularly like to go out for pasta. It bugs me just a little bit to spend $15 on a plate of food I can make equally well at home for $5. Oh well.
As has become an unfortunate nightly habit, we stopped for ice cream on the way home. In an effort towards harm-reduction, we have located a shop that is at the opposite end of the island from our house, rather than the one that is about 1/2 way closer. I'm sure the extra calories we burn pedaling the extra distance home are at least equal to the calories in a single-scoop coconut ice cream cone, right? :)
That's it for today, folks. Tomorrow morning we head out early to Belize City for the day. We're doing the "Triple Crown" tour of the zoo, cave tubing and zip lining. Photos to follow!
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