Final Belizian Days

May 22, 2015

But not forever! I really liked Caye Caulker so I think it's now time to start really looking for business and/or property investment opportunities there. I need to also dream up and research possible moneymaking opportunities as well, hopefully fulfilling the adage "do what you love"!

Our island transportation

Tuesday we went diving with Frenchie's, a PADI certified dive shop on Caulker. They took us out to the reef where we did two 60-70 foot reef dives. The company was great - professional and safe - and we enjoyed our morning out in the water. The fish life wasn't anything crazy but I still love seeing the colourful, serene small fish in action. Most people it seems are now wanting to see bigger and more exotic fish life after they've dived a few times. Sure, a hammerhead or a manta ray would have been cool but I'm happy with what we did see. There were quite a few lion fish on the second dive, too.

After diving, we had lunch and took the guys back to the cottage. They were sleepy but I was energized, so I went over to the beachfront property and took out a paddleboard. It was easy going as I paddled with the wind but coming back was hard! After struggling for the first 3/4 mile standing, I had to just kneel and put some muscle into it because I was not getting anywhere! My hands got beat up - blisters and torn skin - but I did not fall once and I had a great time out on the water again. I love paddleboarding!!

Dinner that night was at this small beachside shack called Fran's. The food is cooked on an outdoor barbecue and Fran offers only 3-4 meal options while customers sit at shared picnic tables beside the water. Our meals wer fantastic, even if the service was super slow. The meals, coconut curry snapper or jerk chicken, were filling and very reasonably priced, accompanied with two rum and pineapple juice drinks and a piece of chocolate cake. It was fun and relaxing to sit under the stars by the sea, enjoying a fabulous meal. I'll miss that overall experience a lot...

Scott's dinner was a combo of the fish and chicken and they actually brought him what looked to be the equivalent of two dinners!

We ended up at the Barrier Reef Sports Bar again where a live band was playing. I discovered a couple of Saskatchewan license plates up on the wall and found an Alberta and BC one later. After the band was finished, the music was great and we had a few dances. They even had the Chicago-Anaheim game on...we watched the whole thing, through the regular game and the almost three full overtime periods (shutting down the bar) but Chicago won!

Wednesday, our last full day in Belize, was pretty chill. We tried a new breakfast place called Paradiso, which seems to be the only place in town with Romaine lettuce, olives, sundries tomatoes and goat cheese. The food was yummy and I love the setup of this joint. I envision my breakfast place being similar, with similar hours and service.

I've decided that my dream of opening a breakfast joint suits me because I cannot sleep past sunup, which is roughly 4:30-5:30 in Belize year round. This works great if I need to be up early to open my breakfast place!!

We hung our by the pool for the majority of the day, just soaking up as much sun and heat as we could before we had to return home. Bryan somehow forgot to eat lunch so he was very stunned to realize how hungry he was at 5:00. We went out in search of food at that time but found no one is really open for dinner that early! So, a couple of drinks and some appetizers held us over for a bit until dinner started.

I'd read that the restaurants rated #2 and #3 on Caye Caulker were their two Italian places so we opted for one of those. The Pasta Factory is only open from 6-9 five evenings a week and they make two types of fresh pasta each night, accompanied with different fresh, made-from-scratch sauces. The owner was very friendly, coming by to talk about his business and make sure things were going well. Again, the setup is family style so we shared a table with other people. My vegetarian dish was called Norma, made with some pasta I've never heard of with a tomato, garlic and eggplant sauce. It was so delicious that I had a really hard time stopping myself from finishing the entire thing, even though I was so stuffed!! The boys had the other dish, a rigatoni style pasta with Parmesan cheese and bacon for its sauce.

Almost everywhere we go, there is a dog, either a stray or a pet. I think it's cool how they're welcome in most restaurants. Lou, the pasta place owner's dog, was a really sweetheart.

We ended up back at Barrier Reef for post-dinner drinks and stumbled upon trivia night. And, as a wonderful way to end our trip, we came in late and won the overall trivia prize, $30 Belizian off our bill!

It's almost back to reality...I need to start thinking about my next trip now. So many choices...Ireland? Nicaragua? Roatan? Bali? Thailand? Peru? Columbia? Sigh...if only I could travel the world for a year or two.