Cave Swimming at Blue Creek

After our tour at Cyrila's, we were taken to lunch at an Indian restaurant. There were many different kinds of rice, beans, meats, bbq and it was all delicious!
One thing about Belize is that they LOVE habeñero pepper. A lot of times they offer a habeñero sauce that is blended with some kind of fruit. So good, but it is potent. They also have jars of pickled veggies: onions, olives, and the habeñero - much like the pickled peppers that you find at mexican restaurants containing jalepeños, carros, onions, etc. - on the table for you to enhance your food.
When in Rome! We totally took a bite!

Yes, it was VERY spicy and our mouths hurt for a good 10 minutes.

After lunch we headed out to start our tour of Blue Creek. It was about a 30 minute drive to get to the parking spot. Along the way, we saw great sites, though.

Maya Mountains

Maya Mountains

giant Mahogany tree

building with thatch roof

After we parked, I saw, what I thought, was the weirdest thing. CHICKENS lying on the ground!

After I got over the chickens, we started our trek to the opening of the cave.

As we walked and came across various plants, our tour guide (whose name escapes me at the moment) would tell us how Mayans used to use them. For example, how to make a thatched roof.

And how to extract the heart of a palm to make heart of palm soup.

We also had the chance to see a Mopan Mayan woman in her traditional attire.

Then we finally got to the river, which lead us to the cave opening.

We then got into our suits, hopped in that cold water armed with life jackets and a head lamp, and swam to the back of the cave where we found a waterfall. Obviously we don't have any pictures because we didn't have a water proof camera and the lighting was horrid, but I suggest that you do this if you ever get the chance. 

Here are some things we saw on our walk back.

busted bridge

spiny palm tree 

giant leaf cutter ant hill

Cacao Tour

When Alex and I went to Punta Gorda, Belize in November, we decided we'd splurge and pay for a tour. Luckily, there were a couple of really great ones to choose from and it only cost $100 per person for the entire day.
The first part of our tour was a demonstration from Cyrila's Chocolate, a small company that farms cacao in a sustainable and organic fashion and then makes products from it, such as wine, chocolate, and chocolate powder.

  

We left at about 9am with our tour guide, Seriano, who drove us out to the demonstration site. 

When we arrived, we were greeted by José who showed us around and explained all the facets of the way their farm works. 

Cacao in fruit form

vanilla in plant form

ducks

rooster

turkeys

José and his raised plant beds. Dried palm leaves help keep the animals
from eating the plants. It's organic! 

Then he took us upstairs to a loft area where he and his wife gave us a demonstration of how the Myans used to take the seeds from the cacao fruit, roast them, shell them, and then grind them to make chocolate.

Taking off the roasted shell of the cacao seed

Once all the seeds are out of their shells, you have to try to get the little broken parts out. 

To do this, you have to (carefully) throw the seeds into the air and catch them.

The idea is that while the seeds are in the air, the little particles will float out.

Instructions on how to use this ancient grinder.

Alex is a master chocolate maker.

But this lady, chocolate making is in her blood.

100% cacao. Very bitter.

While talking about their farm and business, they allowed us to try their cacao wine, orange chocolate, and hot chocolate drink. Not only were they tasty, but it was organic and from a sustainable farm. I was really impressed with this business and very happy to help support them. Alex and I bought all three products for our families, and even some for ourselves.

If you ever make it down to Southern Belize, it's definitely worth checking out.

macaroni and (three) cheese

Besides hanging out with friends and family and catching up on our TV, we've been up to nothing. I need to get on photo editing, but I've been so busy doing NOTHING.
I'm sure you know how that goes.

The other night, while Alex and I were dog sitting, we decided we wanted macaroni and cheese. There was no Kraft, so I checked out what The Pioneer Woman had on her site.
Now, I used her recipe as a starting point, but there was a bunch of cheese in the fridge, and they all sounded so great, so I used them all. Cheddar. Brie. Asiago.


I didn't take pictures, so here is the direct link to the recipe: macaroni & cheese

I didn't have dry mustard, so I used mustard from the fridge. I put about three squirts in, whatever that means.
I also used the optional spices of cayenne, paprika, and thyme,

Our sauce had a lot of flour taste to it, so I added a lot of spices, but I think I should have used more.

We put the cheddar in like the directions said. Then I added a pretty big slice of brie in. Make sure if you're going to use brie to peel the rind off. We also added ours in little chunks as to help it melt a little better.

To top everything off, we added shredded asiago.


It's a pretty easy recipe, both for ingredients and skill. Be careful - it is delicious but definitely not all that nutritious (for the calorie content). Buen Provecho!

Belize trip - part 1

Nearly a month later....

We left off the night Alex and I had traveled to the border of Honduras and Guatemala. We did not have the all of the proper paperwork to travel, so we had to turn back around and go home. We planned to set off again in the morning.

We were told that we could catch a bus at 5am. We were also told that we could catch a bus at 6pm. Even though it wasn't fun, we opted to try to catch the earliest bus so we could make it to Belize the same day. Our alarm clock went off at 4:30am and we got dressed in the same clothes as the day before. We were down at the bus station at 4:50am, which we thought would give us enough time to get on the bus. Wrong. We were about five minutes late. This changed our plans a little.

There was a bus that was very unoccupied but we were informed that it would be leaving at 6am. We thought we would just wait until that one left, but a pushy cab driver told us that he would drive us out to the main road where we could catch a bus in no time at all. We were unsure, but because we were pressed for time we decided to take his offer.

We got out to the main road at about 5:20am and waited. I watched the sun rise. I watched chickens wake up in their tree. I learned how chickens get down from trees. It's not rocket science, but I was still intrigued.

Finally, after an hour of standing out in the cold, buses started coming by our bus stop, and at 6:32am we were on our way toward the border. Then at 9am we were in Guatemala. This was by far the longest leg of our trip: 5 hours of traveling on very crowded buses/vans with Mayans, stinky sticky children, and sometimes a chicken.

We wanted to be in Puerto Barrios by 2pm at the latest in order to catch, what I thought was, the last ferry. We rolled into Puerto Barrios at 2:20pm and caught a cab to the dock to see if there was any hope of catching a rogue boat. Luckily, we met Memo and he took us, along with a couple other white folks, to Punta Gorda, Belize and even cut us a deal for buying our return ticket in advance.

It was only on the boat that we felt more comfortable taking our camera out of its bag.

It was a little chilly because the boat was able to go so fast. 

That water was calm!

Once we got to the other side, checked in with immigration, etc., we realized that our Honduran SIM card did not work in Belize. We asked Memo if we could use his phone, but he took a really long time and the guys at immigration were worried that we wouldn't make it to our destination. They got a cab for us and we headed to Hickatee Cottages.

We met Ian and Kate at the main building/Charlie's bar and immediately asked for a drink. We were all amazed that we had made it that night what with all the complications we had run across. While we were checking in, a large butterfly decided to say hello. Ian, being the butterfly expert that he is, caught it and showed us its wings.

After that little adventure, they informed us that they upgraded us to the suite for no extra charge in order to celebrate Alex's birthday. We thought this was just amazing because they had already upgraded us once already for no charge. Of course, we did not refuse.

Large bedroom; very comfortable bed!

Sweet living room with a very large collection of movies

Awesomely large bathroom with very plush towels.

Private porch and patio situated in the wilderness.

We didn't have any plans when we arrived, but they told us about the Garifuna Collective, a very well known Belizean musical group, that was supposed to be playing that night and took us into town to get some food and watch the show.

All cleaned up!

Because we had been traveling all day, as soon as we got food in our bellies, we were sleepy. We treated ourselves to some local cuisine, delicious milkshakes, and then got a cab back to the cottages. We would need our rest because we had an adventure the next day.

In the morning, we awoke to hot tea, which we requested over coffee, on our veranda.

Before leaving for the day, we stopped by the restaurant to try out some of Kate's famous homemade bread, butter, and jams. I have to say: they were VERY delicious! 

Some other pictures of Hickatee that we did not take on our first day - 

Hammock on the front porch

Solar panels situated on the farm, behind all of the cottages