Dinner Date, Our First Visitor, Fishing, and Food...
Last week was a race to get things done before our first guest, my dad, arrived on Thursday. The villa needed a deep cleaning, we wanted to set up the bed back in the third bedroom (mostly because the mattress was leaned up against the sliding glass door in the "guest bedroom"/Nathan's office) and general decluttering. We have an unholy amount of linens as we need 18 towel sets and 9 bedding sets to rent the villa, plus all the linens we brought from our home. We have duplicates of many kitchen items, too. All crammed into about 1,500 sq ft.
Monday Caribbean Depot was supposed to drop 8 cu yards of rock for us to fill the road in front of our home. At 4, they still hadn't arrived, so Nathan called. They "forgot" to send it and asked if we wanted it another day. We specifically asked for Monday delivery. Fortunately, they were able to dispatch a driver and we battled mosquitoes to get it all spread - with a special guest appearance by Vandam, our yard helper - he happened to be riding by and offered to help us finish up.
Tuesday evening, we walked to town to get meat from Prime Stock since the weather was nice, and saw our neighbors out for a walk - they invited us to dinner on Wednesday night. They moved here on the QRP program within a week of us, from SoCal. They are our parents' age, but don't drink and are involved in the church; we could use some positive influences and they are incredibly nice folks. Next thing you know, we had spent almost five hours at their home! We're grateful to have some friends in the neighborhood.
Terrible news launched on Facebook: The only veterinarian office on the island is closing March 7th. Devestating for those of us with pets. SAGA Humane Society does see pets, but they can be very busy and also aren't on-call in case of emergency. Selene has been losing weight and we believe she may have a bum tooth or two, based on how she is chewing. I am going to try to get her in before the office closes for good.
Thursday, dad arrived and was spent from a long day of travel, so we ate at home.
Friday morning, we drove WAY down south to walk a home that a builder had completed - one that we are leaning towards using. It was STUNNING, and will definitely make ours look like a basic cabin by comparison! We were sent the final copy of our blueprints that afternoon and should have a building permit in 3-4 weeks. We're setting up a meeting for next week (after dad leaves) with the builder to look at features and pricing.
Saturday we tried fishing the reef side, but didn't get any bites, so the guys decided to try fishing on our land on Sunday. For the record, no one has caught a fish on our property over many, many visits....but my dad bagged a barracuda and a snapper! On lures, only.
Nathan and my dad securing a fish basket to keep the caught fish alive
I tried snorkeling, but the water was a bit cloudy due to another boat stealing sand from the seabed....and taking it north. They were doing it right in front of Mistico and Villas Secreta, I don't know why they don't go somewhere less conspicuous! Although even with zoom on my camera, I couldn't read the boat's name. Maybe that's why they stay so far off shore...
We took the fish to Happy Island Beach Bar & Grill to have them cooked up - they only charged $25BZ per fish and gave us two sides per fish, too! We were pleasantly surprised by the cost; I asked before we brought them in and Edwin, our server, said $25. Their menu is in US$, so that's what I was expecting, and for it to be $25PP, not per fish! We had them both fried and there is nothing else like fish caught minutes before it's prepared!
Today I took my dad into town - I managed to get a parking ticket on Saturday - and he wanted a tee shirt from a souvenir shop. As we were exiting said shop, we were trapped by a PUP Parade - I later found out they officially announced their candidates today for the election on March 12th. It's so crazy to stumble into a parade randomly! Here's a video - Belizeans make elections a party, too!
PUP Parade Party in San Pedro Town, February 24, 2025
Naturally with all of the festivities, Town Council was closed...I have two weeks to pay the ticket, so I will try again later this week.
The winds have died down and it is HOT and STICKY in town - although it does make the water look unbelievably vibrant! This is from the Amigos Del Mar dock, and NO FILTER!
I grabbed take-out lunch to bring back to Nathan from Green Espresso - $15BZ for a chicken pesto panini with a side for him, dad got a smoothie, and I ordered something I have been dying to try since I found it on the menu: The Nacho Panini. It's essentially a Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supreme with the sour cream on the side, and no internal tortilla chip. I LIVED on CWSs back in the States, so this was a little slice of heaven.
That pretty well sums up our past week - enjoy yours!