Sunday

Another short night for us - we were both up a couple of times.  It was a little noisy last night, likely because it was Saturday night.  Lots of dogs barking and more traffic on our street than usual. Let me clarify that when I say "traffic" I mean people on bikes or foot.  No cars, obnoxiously loud motorbikes, or sirens.  You may also remember that I mentioned yesterday that the housekeepers changed the sheets on the bed.  Lovely to have clean sheet day on holidays, isn't it?  Sadly, the sheets must have been dried on a clothes line in a sandy area, because they came with a colony of sand fleas.  Within about 30 minutes of being in bed, I suspected that this might be the case. Sand fleas are a crafty gang, however, and it's often hard to tell if you are actually getting bitten or are just imagining that you are.  You know the feeling - when you hear someone you've just spent time with has lice or scabies and you suddenly feel your skin crawling even though you aren't actually afflicted?  Sand fleas are just like that.  Also, you can't really see the little guys - thus the name "no see ums".  We spent a few minutes trying to determine if they were actually there or not and, deciding we were just imagining them, we went to sleep.  By midnight I was up and out of bed knowing that the sand fleas were there from the many new bites itching like crazy.  Luckily, we had taken our previous sheets to the laundromat yesterday!  Poor Andrew - roused out of bed in the middle of the night to help me rip off the biting sheets and replace them with the sheets dried in the dryer!  Ahhhhh!

Awake for the day before 7 am, we were on our bikes early and headed up to Front Street to find the taco lady again.  She had a surprisingly sizable crowd for so early on a Sunday!  We ordered four flour tortillas (two chicken, two pork) for Andrew, and a johnny cake with pork for me.  Hot sauce on everything, please and thank you.  Within a few minutes we traded $6.50 BZ ($3.25 US) for a warm, fragrant bundle and hurried home to unwrap it. 

Johnny Cake - Belize's decidedly more delicious version of a McMuffin.

 The johnny cake was delicious!  The dense little "cake" about the size of a hamburger bun.   As I mentioned in yesterday's post, It's made with coconut milk so it's slightly sweet (but not in a doughnut kind of way).  The stewed pork is everything good all at once - tangy, salty, and spicy and it's topped with a combo of onion and cilantro.  Finished off with a healthy dose of habanaro  sauce, and it's perfection you can hold in your hand!  We're not exactly sure, because we paid for everything together, but we think it cost 75 cents, USD.  

After breakfast, we headed out for a walk.  We again tried to get over to the northeast side of the island, but it's still very mucky over there from the rain last week, so not passable in some places.  We did manage to wander around for a pleasant, albeit sticky, hour before heading back home to shower.

Lagoon side of the island

The sign may not be fulfilling it's intended purpose.

The remainder of the morning and bulk of the afternoon we just lazed around the house - moving from inside to outside and various decks (the house has three, if you'll recall), just to mix things up a little.  The weather was a bit strange - it would cloud up and sprinkle for about 15 minutes, then they sun would come back out.  Lather, rinse & repeat for most of the day.  Instead of lunch, we ran in to town about 1 pm to get a banana milkshake ($1.50 US).  So good in the heat!   We also ran in to John who told us that the manatees wouldn't be a go tomorrow, but he was still trying for Tuesday.   I am beginning to fear that this may be a repeat of the Chocolate fiasco from February.  How can I be the only tourist on this island who is interested in the manatees?  For hell's sake, how can you not love a big, bulbous manatee!?  They eat lettuce and sea grass and are all-too-commonly injured by boat motors because they are just too damn dumb to move out of the way.  Come on, people!  Sigh.

 In addition to seeing the manatees, I am also quite committed to crossing off more foods from The List (see yesterday's post).  I am also happy to report that this is proving a more successful venture than encountering a manatee.  To that end, we headed off for an early dinner at Chan's Fast Food, which the locals refer to as "Auntie's".  As you can see from the photo below, it's less of a restaurant, and more of a window cut in to the side of the building.  If you want to "eat in", you are welcome to use one of the rickety picnic tables you see.  Otherwise, it's take-away only. 

Don't let appearance fool you - some amazing food comes out of this place!

 I have read on various sites that the fried rice at Auntie's was not to be missed, so an order of that was top of the list.  I also ordered fried chicken wings (another reported specialty) and Andrew ordered the fried lobster meal (which came with fries and some slaw).  A young Belezian woman took our order, which threw me off at first.  Soon, however, a rather elderly Asian woman, talking non-stop in a language I couldn't understand, came in to view.  She scooped a mountain of white rice out of an enormous rice cooker, and quickly slid out of sight again.  Within about 10 minutes, we were handed three large Styrofoam clamshell containers, and presented a bill for $36BZ ($18 US).  We paid, said thank you, and quickly high-tailed it home!   What we revealed when we opened the lids was just as good as I had hoped!  The fried rice (shrimp, Shelby!) was so good!  A tiny bit salty & greasy, just like it ought to be, with lovely pink shrimp and crispy cabbage, celery and carrots confettied throughout.  The chicken wings were super crispy and still screaming hot even after the ride home.  Andrew shared the wings with me, and was very happy with his breaded & fried lobster.  I didn't try it - I don't like breaded things, as a general rule.  Also, fried lobster seems a bit blasphemous, no?  He didn't like the rice very much, so I'm also happy to report that there is about three-quarters of it left-over!

From L to R:  shrimp fried rice, chicken wings, & fried lobster dinner.

The rest of the evening was spent watching TV (we brought some of our Tivo shows on a external hard drive), and playing on the computers.  Not sure what is on the agenda tomorrow...stay tuned!