New Year's, SAND-ta, and Reservations Booked!
I've been slacking a bit with the holidays but will be back to our regularly-scheduled programming now!
On the 30th, we parked for dinner and our curiosity got the best of us - we see random, small, mostly windowless buildings that say, "Games" on them, and peeked into one on a side street - it was a small casino! After dinner we popped in for a little entertainment - it had at most 20 machines, most of which you had to put credit on at the front desk to play. They had the original version of QuickHits (my favorite machine) that took US dollars, so we exchanged for some cash and had a grand time! While a shadier appearance from outside, inside we felt totally safe, no one tried to talk to us, it was a huge improvement over our trip to Palm Casino on Middle Street! And we actually made $100 last for probably two hours (also a 180 from Palm Casino). We didn't leave thousandaires, but we had a lot of fun!
My "big win" of the night - $51.25 US
The only negative is that they will only cash you out for $50US or more...so unless you win big, consider all of your play a "donation".
New Year's is a grand party in San Pedro, but just like Christmas Eve, we spent New Year's Eve painting our fence. We've pretty well exhausted the leftover paint in lighter tones - didn't cover both sides of the whole fence, but made a good dent. After sweating and dripping paint all over ourselves, we didn't feel like getting all dolled up to go out; Nathan made steaks and we watched some TV - I didn't make it past 11PM but Nathan did, and said the fireworks display was IMPRESSIVE! He could see (and hear) it from our villa.
Saturday we journeyed out to Secret Beach - on Friday, Joe at The Alibi told us that Sunset Palace has reopened as Mistico Belize. A quick Facebook search found their page, it's apparently a chain of night clubs in Mexico. No hours are posted on their page, nor much information, but since they were open, we had a destination! Service was considerably more attentive than Sunset Palace had slipped to, and they have redesigned the bar and brought in some new furniture. After a few drinks and some ceviche (and a cashier that needed a third try to give me correct change), we walked in the water down to our land - the first time since October...? I know we haven't been over there since TS Sara.
I'm not sure if it's because of the tropical storms, or the northernly winds, or just some freak of nature, but about 20' of our 60' of sand lost since last May has been returned to us by SAND-ta! That's who I am attributing it to, anyway.
The beach is back!
For reference, a few months ago the water line was back in the scrub line - we had only a tiny sliver of sand exposed, and only in small areas! Vast improvement! We'll be meeting with a vendor later this week to start selectively clearing the lot - only where our house will go - we want to retain as many trees as possible. Trees equal shade, habitat, and roots to hold our land together.
Our villa has also received two bookings - my dad will be here in late February, then Zach and his girlfriend over ASU's Spring Break. I am not sure if our Beiruit-style ceiling will be put back together by then...I'm used to it now, but it may be a shock to visitors. We'll need to clear out and consolidate down some of our bins, currently our third bedroom has a few stacks plus the cat boxes. It may be easier just to move Nathan's office into our bedroom and free up bedroom #2 for guests.
More rain in our forecast - ugh. I thought December was the start of "Dry Season" but I guess that's more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule. Having the yard at the villa raised makes rain considerably less daunting. We still need more rock, but we want to find a truckload of black dirt to fill the planters we've created for a garden first, which is proving to be either difficult or laughably expensive, so my search continues...