The Mundane Parte de Vida at Casa Kahanek

The Mystery of the Monstrous Manhole

The house sits on a relatively quiet street...at least by Merida Centro standards. By quiet street I mean it is one-way as most streets in Centro are, we have no bus traffic in front of the house, and there is a 90 degree turn just about 100 meters up the block so it slows most cars down and keep large trucks from using the street...most of the time. When we bought the house, the "quiet street" part was a big factor. But, we hadn't counted on the huge manhole some 20 meters up the street from us. The manhole with the big steel cover has no rubber gaskets inside to absorb the noise when cars hit it. And, we are quite sure it doesn't sit flush with the street as every time a car hits it there is a pretty loud, jarring sound. It's a sound we can't quite get used to.

But, here's the good part - Parking on our street is allowed on one side of the street. If all of our good neighbors would follow the rules of not parking where there is a yellow line, all would be good all the time and cars would travel off to one side of the noisy manhole and we would never hear a thing. Directly to the side of the manhole are our good amigos the two mecanicos. They help us out a lot by parking an old truck with the hood open directly parallel to the manhole, making sure they ooch out
in the street just enough to forcej cars off to the side of the manhole. Gracias nosotros amigos...The downside is that during Catholic mass (which is often) the parishoners get a "pass" and park in the no parking zone and BAM! BAM! goes the manhole. Also, city offices are located next door. They make great neighbors as they are quiet and all leave around 4pm each weekday so we have no next door neighbors at night around us. But being city workers they get a pass from the "no parking" as well. And wouldn't you know it---they had a little white car that was left in the no parking zone untouched for several weeks, which meant every car hit the manhole no matter how the mecanicos arranged the cars they were repairing. Just this past week,  city worker got in the little white car and Terry and I watched out the window silently praying it would start and they would move it. The angels were with us and it now sits directly under the front bedroom window.

But, as Terry always reminds me smiling - it's parte de vida!

Leche, helados, jugo/licuados, pan, tamales, buy, buy, buy or your saw sharpened

Horns....everybody has a horn. I have read where street vendors are decreasing in numbers. I guess this applies to all of Merida Centro, but I'm pretty sure many of them are just re-locating to our neighborhood. I am totally intrigued by them, and if I was wealthy I would hand out pesos to everybody up and down the street to buy from them. I don't won't them to ever go away. We still have the bicycle guy with the refrigerated unit he pulls behind him that comes down our street with the horn sound you can't mistake for anything else. His horn is the "Moo, Moo, Moo" of a cow. And, it sounds just like a cow.

Then there are several guys that come down the street at various time of the day with their carts, and sometimes ride bicycles, selling ice cream and other frozen concoctions. There horns all sound alike and are pretty much the "ding, ding, ding" of a small bell ...it's the sound you would imagine and ice cream vendor should have.

There are the juice and licuado vendors and I think they are the silent ones. I can't remember if they have a sound.

There are the bread vendors that all ride cargo bikes and they set their covered containers of bread and pastries in front of them. Their horns are fairly loud and more like those little horns that you squeeze the bulb and they go "honk, honk". Most of them come by late in the evening and they make me think they are selling the bread that will be "day old" tomorrow. We have bought from them on occasion, but I don't really have a favorite vendor that I feel a connection with.

Now for the best one. There is a very small in stature elderly Mayan woman and her small in stature husband, I presume, that come down the street frequently. They sell tamales out of a very large kettle-type pot. The little lady looks like she could barely speak beyond a whisper. She is always traditionally dressed in a white Huipile. The woman is always walking down one side of the street in a very straightforward way, with her husband on the opposite side of the street pushing the cart with the tamales. This tiny woman has a voice that sends shivers down your spine. We can hear them coming from several blocks away...I kid you not. In fact, we heard them coming down the street this morning so I ran to the front of the house just to watch. I am intrigued! Right when I got to the window, she yelled "TAMAAAALEEES"at the top of her lungs and it literally scared me to the point of making me jump. This tiny woman has a set of lungs that I seriously can't describe to you....it's amazing. If she wasn't selling tamales she could be an opera singer I truly believe.

Throw in the trucks, bicycles, cars, and walkers that have loudspeakers....they scoot around Centro and expain where to go to buy what, where there are special deals on pizzas, etc., etc.

The other one that may be my favorite, or maybe the close second to the tamale lady are the saw sharpening guys. They also have a consistent sound, ride bicylces, and carry their tools for sharpening along with them. When Carlos and Geronimo were here sawing on the aluminum for the doors, I heard the saw sharpener on the street. I so wished they needed their saw sharpened just to give the man some business. The saw sharpener sound is very distinct is is a long whistle that changes octaves from the beginning of the whistle to the end. And, you hear it a long way off.

I love that we still have an abundance of street vendors with horns. Love it!

The Sounds of Merida are such a Parte de Vida!

 

Mopping 101

Growing up I had to clean my room and help in the kitchen. I also remember folding up clothes. But, Mama never taught me how to mop. Having tile floors and living close to the street means any little dab of water on the floor makes for a mixture of black dust and water on the floor. We have deemed these footprints "tar babies" because it seems like when you mop up one "tar baby" there are 4-5 more that take its place. Invariably, while mopping I back myself in the corner and when I walk through the freshly-mopped area I leave a trail of tar babies. This morning I mopped the living/dining room and the kitchen. Then I decided I may as well sweep and mop the front porch. Well, by the time I got through hauling my bucket from the front porch to the kitchen a couple of times, I had tar babies all along the path...right in the area I had already mopped. Just wish I would've taken Mopping 101 somewhere along the way!

Parte de Vida! 

 

Grab the Broom and Knock Yourself Out

Last year I wrote a blog that mentioned I had blisters on my hands from sweeping the floors in the rental house. I had blisters because I went from living on the boat to renting a house. I went from using a little whisk broom used to sweep the boat to a house on a dusty street with lots of tile. Now fast forward and I can tell you this year those blisters are gone and they are replaced by callouses. Callouses from sweeping. If I get frustrated about something, I can always pick up the broom and sweep up a pretty good pile of dust. If I need some time to think, I can pick up the broom and sweep a pile. I can sweep in the morning, I can sweep at noon, I can sweep at midday, and I can sweep at dusk....anytime I sweep I can get a pile of dust. I can sweep and turn around and sweep again and get a pile of dust!

 

It may just be a "Southern thing", like commenting on weather conditions to the person behind you in line at the grocery store, but in the south when you go to somebody's house for a visit the standard phrase is always "What can I do to help?" The standard answer is generally "Oh, nothing. I have it pretty well under control." At most, you may be asked to put ice in the glasses or set the table. Well, I told Terry I can't wait for somebody to come visit at Casa Kahanek and ask me what they can do to help. I already know what they can do! They can sweep!!!! Knock yourself out!!!

Living where we do, we love keeping our windows and (now) screen doors open to the outside. You see and acknowledge the neighbors, you hear the horns, children, birds and other sounds. The sounds are truly part of the day to day experience. If we were behind closed doors and windows we would miss so much. But, there is a downside.....where is that broom....I need to sweep up this dust!

As Terry says: It's Parte de Vida!

 



 

 

 

Meet Carlos and Geronimo

On Tuesday, Terry and I were hanging around the house, and it was pretty darned hot so we had both the front and back doors open to catch whatever breeze we could. Mosquitos and moscas have not been as vicious as they had been in the weeks past. Maybe because the front door was open and maybe because it was obvious there was no screen door, but we heard a tap, tap, tap on the front gate. That's the Casa Kahanek doorbell ringing. Terry went to the door and I heard some exchanges in Spanish. Next thing I knew in walked Terry and his two new amigos. They introduced themselves as Carlos and Geronimo. Carlos is tall, thin, can't quit talking in his Spanglish, and his most identifying characteristic is the black patch worn over one eye...a patch just like Capt. Ron wore in the movie. I wanted to ask him; Hey! what happed to your eye? (Just like in the movie, but I didn't.) Geronimo was short, stocky, spoke no English, and he was el jefe. Geronimo knows how to build and Carlos knows how to speak some English - it is the cornerstone of their work relationship. Carlos and Geronimo build aluminum screen doors and it sure looked like we needed one. Then they realized we needed two. After dickering with them and getting them to lower the price some, Terry shook hands with them and the deal was sealed. They wanted to come back and do the job the following day, but we had already planned on going down to Progreso for cruise day so we asked if they could wait and come back Thursday. "Si, a los ocho en la manana".

We went to the beach on Thursday and had a great day. Lots to look at and we did as we said we would and after all the trips we have made to Progreso and all the exchanges and jokes we have made in talking with Antonio, and all the times we said we would buy a hamaca from him "one of these days", we did exactly that. He was very grateful for our purchase, and we now are going to do a favor for him. On our return trip back down here we are bringing him a pair of Nike tennis shoes in a Size 6. "It's a deal!"

Yesterday, we set the alarm sure to not oversleep. By 8 o'clock Terry had all the taping and prepwork completed, and I started painting living room walls. Sure enough, shortly after 8am Carlos and Geronimo show up. They have a backpack, but no supplies. Terry gave them part of the agreed upon price to go get supplies...not in a truck but walking around centro. Terry could have accompanied them, but he chose not to. As is customary around here, they left the backpack and whatever was in it here at the house as somewhat of an insurance policy that they weren't skipping out on us while they went shopping with a pretty good chunk of change given to them. Well, they were gone quite a long time. Terry and I didn't discuss it until later, but both of us had flashbacks to the gas tanque and the "bombero" hauling off our gas tanque. Carlos and Geronimo did show back up....with supplies. And they went to work. Well, Geronimo went to work and Carlos helped. They had to make several long trips back to get additional supplies, and maybe stopped off along the way for refreshments. One time they both left, and Carlos showed back up but said he had lost Geronimo. Several minutes later Geronimo hops off a city bus at the corner by the church and is ready to go back to work.

Geronimo, Terry and Carlos with the new screen door

I went to the local and new economica and bought them lunch. They appreaciated it, ate and then went back to work. We ended up eating their leftovers for dinner.
By 9pm we had two new screen doors. We were happy. They were happy, and they were happy we were happy. Terry gave them a reward for their hard work, and they got even happier. We celebrated our new screen doors with cocktails on the patio and had a toast to Terry's two new amigos - Carlos and Geronimo.

Puerto Moreles - One of Many Favorite Places

Got up and went downstairs to reserve the room for another night and they were all booked up! And it is such a lovely place. So, we'll just find another place....despues (later). Went to Dona Triny's for breakfast and met Dona Triny. We found out the restaurant was run by her and her two hijas. We also met the 6 month-old family chihuahua. I love that in this country people don't go beserk over having a dog in a food establishment.

We decided to go ahead and find another place to stay so the first place we checked on was Posada El Amor. Don't let the name excite you. It is very old, very quaint, very clean, nicest people ever, but if you have to have a/c or nice linens or a newly-tiled bathroom this place isn't for you. The pictures really make it look upscale...well, some of them....but you must not confuse it with upscale. We loved it!


Welcome to Posada El Amor

The Showerhead was uhhhhh......

 

And the bedspread read....

 

The room was very clean and comfortable w/ a ceiling fan

I asked "Lorena the inn manager what the meaning of "Dona" was. (I never downloaded the Spanish keyboard so just imagine that the 'n' there has the little squiggley line above it like pinata). I always thought it meant the family matriarch. She explained that it is a term bestowed on a woman that can be of any age that has gained a high level of respect and admiration from people that she knows. They essentially bestow the term "Dona" upon a woman held in high regard. The male counterpart is "Don". I am digressing but I want to tell this - after we made it home a group of four young ladies were walking down our street while I was sitting on the front porch. One of the girls said "Buenas tardes, Dona." I caught the phrase since we had just learned the true meaning of it so I looked up, and Terry also looked out the front window while sitting at the desk. We both realized they were talking to me. I took it as a compliment and they came over and talked with me, asking me (in English) what my name was. I found out they were 14 years-old and we exchanged a few words in both their Engish and my Spanish before they moved on. I took it as such a compliment and feel they were truly giving me the utmost compliment and respect.
Now back to Puerto Moreles -
We visited the Catholic Church in PM and met the priest. Terry asked the priest to bless a purchase we had made. He gladly obliged and said the blessing in Spanish. It was very touching. Both of us got a little emotional.

We did our morning walk past Desire (ho-hum) and all the way down to Dreams. We were surprised at the number of people that crowded the Dreams Resort considering the time of year it is. Lots of kids and way too many people for us.
On this day we did our normal beach hangout, Sol from Super Willy's thing, and went to a little beach bar for a snack. We met Fernando. Fernando is a waiter and also likes to box. He had a gash up on his forehead directly above one eye to show for it. He told us his fighting days were now over....it was peace and love now. We ordered ceviche and both of us were super surprised when Fernando brought it to us. It was the best ceviche ever. It had the normal shrimp, fish, conch, and pulpo but also had shredded cucumber. It was served with salsas to die for and of course, crispy tortilla chips.

Looking out from the place where Fernando waits tables

Later, we ended up going to Tacos.com as we had passed it down the street from us at the other Posada. OMG...again, tacos to die for. They had every type of taco you can imagine, and each order is prepare from scratch as you watch. It is family run by a husband, wife and their two sons. It is a must if you visit PM. By the way, Tacos.com is not their website and I don't even know if they have one.
We met some great people in PM, they had live salsa music one night at our little posada and oldies music the next night. Doesn't lull you to sleep but fun to listen to when you can't go to sleep. We ate again at Fernando's place, again at Tacos.com, and ate wonderful fish again at a beachside restaurant. We hung out at Unico's with a group of beautiful Mexican people then took a walk down the street past gorgeous homes on tree-shaded grounds on our way back towards downtown.

We watched the grand finale to an exciting PM major fishing tournament....lots of nice, big fishing boats and plenty of fishermen filled with testerone.

Love the Spanish word for "bug"

 Day turned to night and then it happened again. Next thing we knew we had no more clean clothes. It was Sunday morning and we decided we needed to head back to Merida after almost two weeks of tripping. Each of us had a backpack full of dirty clothes, along with an extra duffel bag filled with dirty clothes as well. We caught a taxi to the highway, bought our Cancun to Merida bus tickets at the ADO counter, hopped a very cheap ride into Cancun ADO on the Playa/Cancun Express, and caught the next bus to Merida. We were back in Merida "just like that".

Desire and Dreams

We always get up early although this day we slept later than usual. I actully did a little website "real work" and we had the continental breakfast at the Posada - great coffee, juice, fresh local fruits, and bread/butter/fresh jam. It was plenty after our rib-sticking dinner.

We did some walking and looking then went for our morning long, serious walk. Turning south leads you to the port authorities and there isn't much down that way so we headed north. This lead us past beautiful private homes, vacant land and finally along the beach where "Desire" is located....the nude resort. We were impressed by everybody having such nice tans, being so "hairless", and having such a good time frolicking around playing volleyball...and a few other things. We weren't so impressed with the age of some of the couples and the size of their bellies...ick! I guess we could have looked the other way towards the beach and pretended we were just observing the beautiful water....but we didn't - we both looked!!!
We turned around shortly after walking past Desire - we didn't make it to Dreams on this particular day. Funny thing is that Desire lies smack dab in the area that separates the beach town of PM with the resorts that are north of town. So anybody young or old that walks the beach to go into town has to walk right through the resort. Let me tell you, there was a steady stream of resort people walking that stretch of beach to "get into town". Both of us knew walking north would be a daily ritual during our time in PM. :) Sometimes wish we could just develop more of a European approach to bodies than the Southern attitude that we have.

 

Yesterday after arriving, we had sat at a beach bar underneath a palapa and drank a bucket of Pacificos- it was the Ojos de Agua beach bar. Today when we headed for the beach we went there for a repeat. Such a nice place to sit and look out over the beach with chairs, palapas, and plenty of sun when you want it. We were told by our same nice waiter "Miguel" that the chairs w/ palapas were going to be $150 pesos regardless of ordering from the bar. WTH! Also, the whole beer thing had changed....Miguel had changed. Probably because we saw El Jefe sitting up near the bar with a sour look on his face. This started our ritual of going to the Super Willy's in town and buying a Liter of Sol for $24 pesos plus $6 peso deposit that we got refunded when we returned the bottle. It was somewhat of a walk but worth the savings. We hope Miguel looks for a new job.

 

Back at the Posada, we met 3 interesting "sistas" that had traveled down to PM for the 3rd time. They all lived in different parts of the US and come together annually in PM. I would so love to do a trip like that, and PM would be a great place to do it. We also met an interesting younger backpacking couple from Northern Canada. We shared a drink up on the 4th floor palapa with them before we  went to eat fresh fish at a place on the beach called "La Playita".

We are really liking this place - gonna go to bed, sleep like a dog in Puerto Moreles, dream about the desire to come back here soon!

A Perfect Beginning to the End of Our Walkabout

Bienvenidos a la Playa en Puerto Moreles

We left Chetumal at exactly noon and rolled into Puerto Moreles via 2nd Class bus at about 4:30. The thing about doing this trip second class was that is was Labor Day so many people were not working and thus not taking the bus. Also, there aren't a lot of towns along the route which means there aren't a whole lot of pickups and dropoffs. The bad thing about it is that on "travel day" we eat/drink virtually nothing because we are never sure when we may get a bathroom break in there. We went through Bacalar and for the first time got a good look at Bacalar Lake that runs for several kilometers right along the highway. I read somewhere that it is actually about 50 miles long. It's referred to as "The Lake of Seven Shades of Blue" and after seeing it from the bus window we can understand why. Ironically, on one of our previous trips on ADO we had watched a movie that was filmed on the lake. There are some nice photos of Laguna Bacalar on this website. 

The total cost for this trip was $292 pesos...about $12US/ea. The PM bus stop is just off the main highway so we caught a taxi for $20 pesos and told him to take us to La Posada El Moro. The beach part of town is a short 3 km. or so from the highway. There are mangroves on each side of the rode and a super nice sidewalk the entire distance. Upon entering the town, you notice right off that it is clean, small, has plenty of restaurants and sidewalk cantinas, and it has a cute town square with the beach just across the street.

The Pool area from our verandah

We didn't have reservations but checking with the Posada was a place to start. Wow! So glad we made it here. Such a quaint inn nestled amongst a shaded courtyard with the nicest staff ever. There was a great pool area and a large 4th story palapa with a 360 view that overlooked the Carribean. We reserved for two nights and said we'd decide whether or not to stay or move elsewhere on day 3. Oh, and we had upgraded to an a/c room!

 

Second Story room

Rolling into a new place is so much fun. Immediately we knew we were in love with Puerto Moreles. It is a world apart from closeby Cancun and Playa del Carmen. After putting our backpacks in the room, we took a look around the inn and then decided to take a walk to the beach - a couple of blocks away.

The town itself has clean, white sand beaches with a few small hotels/condos, beachside bars and restaurants, some nice private homes, plenty of places for a massage, and Puerto Moreles has remained a fishing port so the pangas are moored off the big pier right in the middle of town.

We were both hungry for plain ol' Mexican food after the time we had spent in Belize. We ended up at a little restaurant called Dona Triny's on the edge of the square and ate at a table open to the sidewalk. It was just plain good Mexican food. After dinner we asked our waiter where we could go to get a bottle of wine. He directed us across the street and we bought a bottle of wine then went back to Dona Triny's and had our waiter open it for us. We sipped wine on the 4th floor palapa and took in the sights and sounds of the streets below. We could hear music playing and see people sitting in the little sidewalk cantinas and restaurants along the street.

Our room was very nice and had a super comfy bed. In fact, it was so comfy that when Terry asked me the next morning if I had heard all that thunder and wind or seen the lightning when the storm blew through I didn't know how to answer him. What storm?

Both us knew the clothing optional resort "Desire" was on the outskirts of the town of PM. Who wouldn't be curious to take a walk by just to see what you could see? Childish, immature...who cares?! We take walks every morning, right?

Warning! Leave the Guitarra en La Casa....

May 1st - It's a national holiday in Mexico - Labor Day! We are in Belize so there shouldn't be much significance, right?
...Wrong! It is also Belize Labour Day!
Banks and some of the shops and restaurants close. Many of the citizens don't work. And, it seems the price to exit Belize goes up when you exit on a holiday....at least when you are traveling by water taxi. The water taxi fare from Ambergris Caye to Chetumal, Mx was $40USD each. Personally, Terry and I had already thought the taxi fare for a 2 hr. trip via boat was rather steep. We had bought our tickets the day before and they had charged us $40USD for the May 1st departure. No mention of an increase in fees was mentioned at that time. But when we arrived at the dock we were Belizean dollared to death. Here is the breakdown of what it cost us to board the taxi (will talk about entering Mx. later!) -
1. Belize exit fee - $52.50 BZ for both of us (normally would have been $47.50 BZ)
2. Water Taxi Fare - $160 BZ for both of us
3. Border Processing Fee - $60 for both of us
4. P.A.C.T. Fee (whatever that is) - $15BZ for both
But, we had checked out of Ruby's and we were ready to cross back into Mexico...and had already purchased a water taxi ticket for May 1st so we hopped on the almost full water taxi about 30 minutes behind the posted departure shedule time. The travelers were a mix of Mexicans, a European tour group, a few Americans, and the wandering, backpacking, dark-skinned types I can never quite identify.

One of those dark-skinned backpacking types....oh, wait!

Immediately, "little travel boy" came on the loudspeaker and throwing his hands up close to his face and smiling only the smile he could smile put on his flight attendant hat and welcomed us aboard. He gave us the safety talk (we did have life jackets under the seats) and ended by saying he realized we had a choice in travel (really?!) and thanked us for traveling with them. Later, he prepared our refreshments of juice and cookies.

We have taken the water taxi before from San Pedro to Chetumal and we don't remember the "little travel boy" type ever coming on the loudspeaker and telling those aboard that if you have drugs aboard you need to get rid of them...."drop them overboard" before we enter Mexico. The Mexican Gov't is not tolerant of illegal drugs entering the country and they have drug dogs "smarter than I am". Evidently, all those backpacking guys with their cool Guatemalan guitar cases were sleeping through this part. Now, if you were carrying fruit out of Belize you could just leave that in the seat...."little travel boy" would take care of the fruit. You were on your own with the drugs!

Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mx

When we got to the dock we were instructed to take all of our luggage and line it up in a row along the dock. All the travelers stood in a group to one side as a young-looking German Shepherd pooch and his camo/fatigued handler came out for the sniffing. This dog really was smarter than "little travel boy". He went down that line and each guitarra case he passed he stopped, sniffed, then started clawing into it. The handler would then throw his rubber toy and the dog would "reset". The handler then moved the guitarras around to other places within the line of luggage and the dog made another pass at it. Now, anybody that knows Terry and I knows we don't do drugs and would never travel with drugs in our luggage but I have to admit when they set one of those guitarra cases directly on top of Terry's duffel bag and turned the dog loose to sniff, I got a little nervous! But, once again the dog went directly for the guitarra cases, and Terry's duffel bag was left intact.

Those of us that left the guitarras at home were instructed to get our luggage and move on to immigration. Terry and I had already discussed the $600 pesos we had shelled out as our "exit fee" in exchange for us being able to keep our tourist visas when we left Mexico on the ADO bus bound for Belize. Just to refresh, we had paid an exit fee when we purchased our airline ticket...it is included in the price of the ticket. Our tourist visas had the little airplane stamp that is supposed to be our "receipt" indicating an exit fee was paid. We paid $600 pesos at the Mx./Belize border to be able to keep our tourist visas....which is what we had done effectively last year. It seems the laws have changed....when we got in front of Immigrations and pulled out our tourist visas, the officer was not happy. His first inclination was that we had left Mexico surreptitiously because if we had left legally we would not have been able to keep those. We remained calm and explained that we had asked the officer at the border if we could keep them and he had replied "Si". Long story short we had to pay another exit fee....no, I don't mean entry fee...I mean exit fee....of $295 pesos each. We did request and get an official looking receipt to keep with our visas so we should not have a problem when we exit Mexico via plane.

As far as the guitarra guys....we don't know what the outcome of that saga was.

Next we shelled out a mere $50 pesos for the ride to the ADO bus station and arrived there at exactly 11:57am Mexico time. We shared the ride with a couple of young women from Ca. and Terry was generous enough to tell them the ride was on him. You may wonder how I remember what time it was when we arrived....well, I know because we walked up to the ticket counter and found out there was a second class bus bound for the Carribean Coast leaving Chetumal in exactly tres minutos. A quick decision to make this trip second-class meant we would gain back some of the dinero we had shelled out already this travel day, so off we went!

Digging Up Bones in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye

Departure/Arrival Day -
We got up on Sunday after sleeping intermittently through the Caye Caulker normal Saturday night/party all night night. Packed our bags, had some coffee and breakfast before catching a water taxi over to San Pedro. It had been almost exactly a year since we had visited San Pedro with Joanne and Larry. I guess we arrived at the San Pedro ferry dock at about 11 in the morning and turned left at the beach to go straight to Ruby's Hotel...only about a 1/4 km. walk from the dock.

The 5-Star View from our Room at Ruby's

We didn't have reservations and knew within reason it would be easy to get a room this time of the year, but it still feels good to get that room. We ended up in a third floor room overlooking the water...no a/c needed. It was right next door to the room we had stayed in on our last visit to San Pedro. The views over the water at Ruby's make me feel like I am in a 5-star resort but Ruby's is anything but that.


So the walk down memory lane began.

 

After unpacking, we walked north past Fido's, by the town square, past Wet Willy's, and all the way down past Wayo's Bar. Wow....San Pedro was really quiet! Guess a lot of it is the time of the year. For Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye to be so close together they have a world of difference in feel and attitude. For example, Caye Caulker is small and everybody either walks or rides a bike. It has quite a few backpack hotels with hotels and houses sprinkled around. Caye Caulker is all about golf carts, quaint hotels in town, large resorts out of town, and quite a few elaborate private residences. The travelers to Caye Caulker are predominantly backpackers, many European, while San Pedro attracts an older crowd/mostly American/many Texans. In some way, San Pedro is like being at home, ie, I look at each traveler that we pass and feel like I know them from somewhere.
We spent our first day walking the town, lounging on the beach, and went to Fido's in the afternoon to hear Dennis Wolfe and friends play at the Sunday evening jam session. We had some of the best conch fritters ever. Later on, it was Waruguma's for pupusas followed by a bottle of wine up on the balcony at Ruby's overlooking the water. 

The First Full Day -
It's easy to get into our beach traveling routine. It's like this - get up in the morning, have coffee, go for a long walk, eat breakfast, lounge around on the beach with a few beers during the day, do a little shopping and look seeing, more lounging on the beach while we discuss where we want to go for the evening, then do our evening thing. Our first full day started early and we took a long walk all the way down to Banana Beach Resort to see if Ingrid was around. Joanne and Larry had really wanted us to look her up. Darn! She has taken a new job at Cowboy Doug's out across the bridge. We had a wonderful breakfast at Estel's on the Beach and did our beach lounge lizard thing.

Breakfast at Estel's

The Crazy Canuck in the Daytime from the Beachside

Somewhere during the day we continued on our quest of digging up bones by going to the The Crazy Canuck and looking for Ollie. Ollie had taken Joanne, Larry, Terry and I on a fishing trip last year - and we had caught fish! He's a bartender when he isn't fishing. Ollie wasn't going to show up for work until after 5 so we decided to head back north to the hotel, and look for Ollie at another time. We stopped at a little beachside bar and upon leaving we were approached by a fishing guide...they spot Terry's Guy Harvey t-shirts a mile off. No, no fishing in our future this trip. No. No, thanks, but no fishing. NO! Dennis Wolf and the Usual Suspects were going to be playing at Fido's later on and we had decided to go listen. And more conch fritters. The show was good and lasted until about 11pm.

At Fido's

   When we left Fido's we just weren't ready to call it a night. These are usually the times an inner voice is telling you that you should call it a night. It is quite a walk from Fido's to the Crazy Canuck in the dark, but we weren't through digging up bones. Sure enough! Ollie was working. We had a nice chat and then in walked the fishing guide....did I mention it was a long walk? Wow, was it just coincidence we met up with this guy from several hours ago? Why didn't I listen to my inner voice instead of me telling Ollie to bring him a beer?! No fault of the Crazy Canuck's nor of Ollie's. I will take responsibility for this encounter. We can be quite quick on our feet when we need to be ---- Goodbye to Ollie, really good to see you again, off we go for the long, dark walk back to Ruby's.
Tomorrow we'll continue digging up bones - let's go see Joe and look for Ingrid!

If Yesterday was Monday Today Must be Tuesday -
Joanne and Larry had really wanted us to rent a golf cart, so we decided today was the day. We got the golf cart before breakfast then headed out to George's Kitchen for breakfast (best biscuits and gravy ever!). George's closes on Tuesday's so we went and had breakfast at Banana Beach then headed south cross-country on the golf cart. We stopped by Joe's Texas Grill but it wasn't open yet. We again shopped around for a long-term rental for Joanne and Larry. We definitely think the south side of town is the place to be....somewhere in the little village close to Joe's....great condos and houses for long-term rentals if anybody is wanting to stay on Ambergris Caye for awhile. We went almost as far south as we could go before turning around and going back into town.

The house I picked out for Joanne & Larry on Ambergris Caye

Breakfast at Banana Beach

Later in the day we headed north acoss the bridge and as far north as we could go. All the way to Rojo Lounge, stopped at the Palapa Bar, and past Cowboy Doug's.

The Palapa Bar

But, we didn't stop to dig up bones/look for Ingrid....walking thru the huge grounds of the Caribe something-or other was just too much. Joanne will have to contact Ingrid and let her know that she "heard" Ingrid had changed jobs. We still had golf cart time later in the day so we went to see Joe out south one more time. Oops - we had read the sign wrong and realized Joe closes up on Tuesdays too.

Joe's (from League City, Tx) Lone Star Grill & Cantina
 

Just enough time for an afternoon lounge on the beach before dinner at El Fogon. El Fogon serves Carribean/Belizean food and the whole concept makes it fun and relaxing. You have a choice of appetizers, main course, and dessert for a fixed price. The wait staff is helpful and friendly and we enjoyed talking with them. We had decided to go there when earlier we had peeked inside the closed wooden fence and got caught by one of the owners. She described the place in detail to us with such pride and friendliness it made us want to go back. Later on, we realized from Trip Advisor that El Fogon is one of the top spot in San Pedro to eat. We had conch fritters and fish balls, seafood main courses, and key lime pie for dessert. Mmmmmm!
Tomorrow - do we head out or stay? Where are we going if we leave?

I Don't Know....I Dunno!

We ended up taking the water taxi as far as Caye Caulker. Such a laid back little island with reasonable accomodations and "The Split". We found Tropical Paradise Too right on the waterfront and for a great price. It is in the middle of town and "The Budget Man" cooks up some mean shrimp curry n rice right in front of the hotel.
One of the benefits of travel by bus at night means you arrive at destinations early in the morning and essentially end up with what we refer to as "the 7 day/5 night vacation" rather than the "5 day/7 night vacation". It is nothing more than our reference to getting somewhere in the morning rather than traveling during the day and arriving in time to check-in, go to bed, and pay for a night's room. It is like we won in a game of one upsmanship.

We split our R&R time between the hammocks in the sand at the hotel, the Split listening to music/drinking Belikans, and Bambooze's along the waterfront....and enjoyed some other bars and restaurants along the way. Each afternoon we would go to Bambooze's and I would order a "panty ripper". One of these rum conconctions is all I can handle, but they serve rum like it's water on Caye Caulker so panty rippers are 2 for 1. We would leave out with Bambooze's "owing" me a panty ripper. So the next day Terry and I would go in and collect my second drink, then start over with the 2 for 1. We left Caye Caulker with Bambooze's owing me another panty ripper!

Bambooze's

One afternoon while sitting at Bambooze's a local guy came into the dirt-floored establishment and was so excited because he had nabbed an older, stately looking gentleman as soon as he disembarked from the water taxi and was going to get a room for him behind Bambooze's in the little upstairs guesthouse. We assume the local guy was hoping for a small tip for bringing in a guest. Later, while talking to the new arrival he told us he was from Spain, but lived in Mx. as a biologist. He was going to stay on Caye Caulker for a few days on "official business" but was hoping to just enjoy some R&R. The only way he could accomplish both was with a good wi-fi connection. All was good at the little upstairs room at Bambooze's until the local hollered down to get the password. The answer from behind the bar was "I don't know". The local guy turned to the biologist and with a look of distress and bewilderment  threw out his arms and repeated "I DUNNO". Terry and I thought we were going to fall right out of those swings we laughed so hard. It was just one of those moments, and for the duration of our trip we would periodically turn to one another and throw up our hands and say "I DUNNO". Well, honestly, I dunno if that biologist ever got his attitude adjusted or not....hopefully, he got my one last 2 for 1 panty-ripper and was able to relax and tell somebody along the way that not only did he not know the wi-fi password, but couldn't care less.
We ate some great meals on Caye Caulker, did lots of walking, rented/rode bikes, and of course enjoyed the adult beveages. Food costs are reasonable, especially if you take advantage of the street vendors like the Budget Man. We ate our fill of conch fritters, and got dressed up one night and went to Habanero's Restaurant. You may think it would be a Mexican Food place by the name, but it was anything but that. In my own opinion, I imagine the chef being well-traveled. The food was delicious with a blend of seasonings we don't normally cook with - Asian and far eastern flavors. Great food and a little more pricey than Belita's breakfast place, the Budget Man, or the grilled shrimp off the roadside pit. I had a wonderful pan-seared snapper served over rice noodles and greens, and Terry ate coconut encrusted snapper.

The island is small so it is easy to walk from one end of the island to the other as well as walk from the windward to the leeward side. We wandered around on several occasions looking for a suitable house for Joanne and Larry to rent long-term on Caye Caulker. There were many options -

All was good on Caye Caulker. The Tropical Paradise Too had it's share of young "sleep all day/stay up all night" back-packers and Saturday night meant the locals partied till they dropped....but none of it was cause for stress. However, eventually we move on. Next stop - San Pedro/Ambergris Caye.