Belize's Independence Day; Power Woes
Saturday was Belize's 43rd Independence Day, having split from the rule of England in 1981. I still have plenty to learn about Belizean culture, but one thing I know for sure: They take holidays and celebrations seriously!
"J'ouvert" (translates to, "Daybreak" in French - not sure why a French word is used) starts at 5 on the morning of Independence Day, and seemingly, most folks stay up all night Independence Eve for a massive party in town complete with DJs and fireworks.
The parade was set to start at 1 PM, but as with most things in Belize, times are more loose concepts than rules.
We had originally planned to stay out of town entirely on Saturday; we're "too old" for huge crowds and also as newbies, didn't feel we had yet earned the right to celebrate, although we did don the flag colors of blue, white and red and some beads in a show of support.
With King Tide flooding many roads, our best shot to get in the water was going to be off of a dock in town; we chose The Palapa Bar as they have floating innertubes in crystal water. 
We were pleasantly surprised to see that no one had claimed a tube yet! They were all ours, so we ordered a bucket of beers and enjoyed the beautiful day.
Eventually, a party of ten from a high-end resort rolled in, with some of them joining us in the innertubes. Very friendly group, and they struck up a conversation with us. I am shocked that they had completed essentially NO research on Belize before their vacation! They were late 30s, or early 40s, and seemingly thought they were coming to Cancun, wanting to buy Xanax and marijuana at the pharmacy, bringing $100 U.S. bills only, and eating at their resort instead of experiencing the island. That's three strikes, in my book. By the way - their resort offered a $200 U.S. per person per day "all-inclusive" option that they declined. They said their breakfast tabs for a couple were over $100 U.S.
Before long, the group wanted to move on. We suggested some other over-water restaurants to the north (some just a few piers down) but it seems like they wanted to get back to their over-priced, vanilla resort to the south. Godspeed, my underprepared tourists.
It grew later in the day and we figured the parade would have cleared the only road that runs from town to the bridge, so we tabbed out at Palapa, claimed our cart, and found that the parade was still very much going on, with no end in sight. Time to regroup, so we parked at Sandbar for a snack to wait out the crowd. We could tell when the parade had cleared the main road parallel to Sandbar as suddenly, it was packed! On a hot sticky day, the parade-goers started to fall out after hours in the sun. We finished our drinks and snacks and tried again to head home.
We found a "Phoenix at rush hour"-caliber traffic jam - the parade was north of us, but was just starting to disband. Hundreds of golf carts full of people were trying to press north to the one bridge connecting the island north to south.
It was slow-to-no-going for about 30 minutes before the traffic started to really move! Yet everyone beamed smiles of pride and joy for their country.
Sunday morning I felt like a Mack truck had bashed into me; I am so incredibly out of shape that simply lifting myself into an inner tube the day before left me SO STIFF and sore in my core! Said stiffness remains today, Monday. Pretty embarrassing!
Sunday we didn't feel like preparing lunch so we tried The Ol' Tackle Box in town. It's a bit pricey but the food was excellent! We had shrimp ceviche and fried jalapeno lobster bites. Their over-water setting means you'll have a cooling breeze and gorgeous views! They have a sushi night on Thursdays that we'll have to try.
After lunch we came home and watched the NFL games, namely my Lions versus Nathan's Cardinals, and relaxed before he went back to work on Monday.
At 3:30 this morning, I heard our neighbors' resort-sized generators (PLURAL) kick on and realized our ceiling fan had stopped...power's out again. I hopped on Facebook to BEL's page, and the whole island was experiencing an unplanned power outage. I purposely didn't stock our freezer up as I expected rolling blackouts over the holiday - the island saw thousands of guests come over from the mainland, and the concerts and DJ events suck down the voltage. So long as the sun is down, I can survive a few hours without AC, but Nathan sleeps too hot and was instantly up. My brain kept me awake, googling (as I do every time, in case the answer has changed!) How long does food in your fridge last in a power outage? and checking the BEL Facebook page for updates. They never did say why we lost power, but it did kick back on at 5:15. My groceries live another day!
The unreliable current continues to stress us out; Nathan needs power to work remotely (and sleep!) and we don't want to have to toss out groceries on the regular. Since the power supply is grossly undersized relative to the population in low season, we are preparing ourselves mentally and emotionally for high season when thousands more tourists (who typically do not care about energy conservation or adapting to island grid constraints) show up and further tax the system. We truly wanted to go solar, but at $70k+ U.S. ($52K for the system and the balance would be weatherproofing our bodega for the equipment) and only having minimal battery backup, that's too large of a pill to swallow for a small villa we will return to a rental down the road.
This week we hope to have our belongings delivered, I haven't heard from Belize Freight since I paid last week. Fortunately, the King Tide has relented a little bit, our front yard is no longer under water but our street is still pretty flooded. There is a tropical depression that will likely form into a hurricane in the coming days as it hits the Gulf of Mexico, and it could bring a lot of rain. We know the next full moon will raise the water again, as well. Timing is everything!