Lil Alfonse Act II

Thursday, February 20, 2014.

Today we had booked another snorkeling tour with Alfonse.  He was scheduled to pick us up 9am on the pier.
Now, our boys from the night before, they got up and were ready to go, although one was suffering

considerably (poor ol' Brandyn!).  The boys were not getting much sympathy from the ladies!  Nolan seemed to have fared better than Brandyn.  I think Brandyn must have had a bad lime or something last night!
Alfonse picked us up and we zipped out to Hol Chan & Shark Alley.  The water was absolutely crystal clear!  There were twice as many fish around this time.  Alfonse said that we hit awesome conditions that always brought in lots of the reef fish.  When we jumped in, there were two sea turtles feeding right there beside the boat!  We saw a couple of huge eagle rays, another big green moray eel, more sting rays, a couple of nurse sharks and thousands and thousands of reef fish!  We went over to Shark Alley and again Alfonse amazed us with his interactions with the rays and sharks.

Kirsten aka Shark Girl!

He wrangled a 7 footer for us and we all got the opportunity for photo ops holding it.  Alfonse called his pal "Bobo", the large ray with part of its tail missing, and it came to him like a pet dog would!  There were Caribbean rays, sting rays, spotted rays and nurse sharks everywhere!  There were a couple of 10 foot plus nurse sharks that came in as well.
This was again an awesome experience.  The little Peanut missed a bit of it as she powered out and napped through most of our stop at Shark Alley.  Brandyn had to take a break at Shark Alley too!  His claim to fame for this trip was he survived it and didn't chum the waters!
After the awesome snorkeling trip we spent the afternoon resting and relaxing in the sun and shade for those who needed some deep zees (Brandyn!).
This evening we decided to try Ramone's for dinner.  It was another awesome dinner.  The special was the fresh catch of the day, grouper, blackened, with shrimp, .veggies and coconut rice, Munchkin and I had this.  Nolan and Kirsten had a bacon wrapped stuffed shrimp dish that was very tasty they said and Brandyn found his appetite and had a pesto style catch of the day.  The Peanut loves fish!  She chowed down on the grouper like it was candy!
We made one stop on the way home for some fresh eggs as Brenda was going to be making eggs benny for the household tomorrow morning!
After a bit of decompressing we all drifted off to bed ending another fabulous day on Ambergris Caye!

Alfonse's "pet" Bobo!

Gracyn at sea

 

Alfonse with one of his buddies!

Nolan Arrives!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014.

We awoke to another fabulous day, this has been pretty much the norm since we've been here.  We went for a dip off the end of the pier and Gracyn had a blast!  She didn't even mind getting some briny water in her mouth!

Her dad did struggle a bit with the water temperature, I guess 82 F is just not warm enough for some!
We spent the rest of the morning taking in the sun, then set out for town for our rendezvous at Fido's to meet Nolan.  He was expecting to get in by water taxi at about 3pm.
We went into town at about 2pm, Brenda and Kirsten went off to check out the art gallery again.  Gracyn, Brandyn and I went to Fido's for a Belikin!  This was the beginning of a bit of a runaway for some or our party!

The girls returned after a bit and we hung out waiting for Nolan to arrive.  Shortly after 3pm I spied him walking up the beach.  He said his travels were good and the water taxi from Belize City was a great experience!
We had a late lunch there at Fido's and this is where the ball got rolling for Brandyn and Nolan.  They were pounding back rum and tequila drinks like they were water!  After a few of these we went back to the Pelicano where Munchkin continued making more of the blended drinks for them.  After a bit Nolan and Brandyn decided they were going to go check out the Palapa Bar.
End result; Kirsten and Brenda went off looking for the the two boys, found them closing down the Palapa and not ready to call it quits at that point.  Kirsten described them as being "hammered" and her parting words to her husband at the Palapa were "You better not screw up our snorkeling tour tomorrow!"  The boys hit the Pirate's Treasure after the Palapa and rolled in after the rest of us had gone to bed.
I expect that there will be a couple of hurting units tomorrow!

Points South.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014.

This was another great morning!  Beautiful sun, a nice breeze, just a perfect beginning to the day!  Gracyn's mom said that Gracyn decided it was time to get up and play at 3 am!  She spent an hour or so trying to get her mom and dad to buy into the play at any time business, but eventually succumbed to her boring parent's wishes and went back to sleep for a couple more hours.
Today we zipped off in Big Blue and headed south.  We were told there are crocodiles down that way on the lagoon side of the island.  We didn't see any!  There are a number of both private residences and condo developments south of town and some new construction underway as well.

We located a street sign that said "Roughrider Rd" with the 'Riders' logo and colours!  Them flat-landers really get around!

We stopped at Rico's for lunch.  A nice place on the beach.  It was another very good meal.  After lunch we hit for home, with the a couple of "quick" stops along the way to re-supply.  One of the stops was a little fruit and veggie shack by the bakery.  Brenda and Kirsten spent about 16 hours in there choosing 3 limes and a watermelon!  Brenda then promised the shop owner fresh cookies.  Why you ask?  Who knows, its a Munchkin thing!
At the bridge Brenda was again haranguing the toll collector and he looked at the pass and told Brenda it was expired!  He kept a straight face about it and had Munchkin going for a moment!
Back at the Pelicano we spent the afternoon lazing about in the sun, I know it was rough, but someone had to do it!
We stayed in this evening, Brenda whipped up some nachos and that was able to sate all of our appetites.
This day ended with us catching up on some of the Olympic results and then off to bed!

Gracyn Checks Out San Pedro!

Monday, February 17, 2014

An exciting morning for the Pelicano household this morning!  Gracyn's first full day on Ambergris Caye!  Munchkin and I were up before the rest, I know, that's so strange!  So coffee was on and ready to greet Kirsten and Brandyn. When they did finally emerge from the bedroom it was already a couple minutes past 7am!  Can you imagine, they had slept through almost a full hour of sunlight!

The little Peanut was all smiles and full of chatter.  She had a blast sitting on the tiled patio yakkin' and playin'!  She likes the sand, but still had to try eating a bit of it.  Kirsten says she may be a slow learner like her Dad!  I don't think so, she just needs definite proof that something works or doesn't.
We spent pretty much the entire day lounging in the sun on the beach.  Brenda had made another fresh batch of cookies.  Our care taker, Rene, is always pleased about this!
This evening we lit out for town.  Did a little bit of shopping, then went to the Wild Mango for dinner.  The Peanut was a chatter box through out our entire dinner!  She played the room like a master showman!

After dinner, which was again very good, we took a stroll down the beach, then up to Central Park, where all the street vendors have there tables.  Again Gracyn stole the show.  We met up with the two little boys that Dan had told not to let Shannon hold the puppy because she would take it home!

 The ones that chanted "Liar, Liar".  They showed us their puppies again and Gracyn loved it!  The boys names are Josh and Francis.
We stopped to talk to one of the vendors and she was holding a 7 month old little boy who was as cute as a button!  Well much to my personal pleasure, when I started paying some attention to the little boy, Gracyn took exception to this and began to cry!  She promptly stopped when I picked her up!  Score one for Johnny!

We talked to the vendor who Dan had beaten down to his price and he said that Dan was a very hard sell and he won that round!
With a couple of stops we made the trip back to the Pelicano.  Passing the Pirate's, Brenda resisted cheering as the Peanut was almost asleep in her mom's arms.  Well Brandyn just couldn't let that be and sang out the pirate's cheer!
We ended the night with a couple of rousing games of spades.  They tally ended in a tie, one game each.
Have to add a couple of Brendaisms;" the mosquitoes on your head are blending like freckles"  What this means none of us have any idea, I think she was trying to tell me that my freckles were getting bigger, but even she doesn't know why it came out the way it did!  She also modified the term "with your tail been your legs" to "with your tail behind you"  She says we know what she meant so what's the big deal!

Gracyn Arrives!

Sunday, February 16, 2014.

Today Gracyn and her parents are arriving.  They are supposed to be into San Pedro at 12:55pm.  We whiled away the morning as per usual, coffee, breakfast (a great omelet) some spades and then lounging in the sun.
At the appointed hour we fired up Big Blue and made our journey to town.  With the usual cheer as we passed the Pirate's!
Gracyn's flight came in about 20 minutes late, but right on time for Belize!  Kirsten and Brandyn said that she traveled very well and overall there trek here went without any major glitches!  We gave them a quick tour of Front Street on our way back to the Pelicano.

Once home we got them set up then relaxed for bit.  The Peanut got to dip her toes in the sea and she promptly attempted to eat a handful of sand!  She did not like it much, but tried a second time, just to be sure.  Same results!
We opted to take a walk down to the Palapa Bar for a refreshment.  Gracyn's first bar.  They did ID her, and she could only have tequila shots if she was going to drink!  Gracyn decided that she had enough of the great fun at the bar and asked me to take her home for a nap.  Just as I stepped off the pier and started the 5 minute walk back to the house, the little Peanut was already asleep.

We got back home and so as not to disturb the tired little girl, found a comfy spot on the sofa and we both caught a z or two!
That evening we went into town for dinner and ended up at Carambas.  We had another really good meal.  Kirsten, Brandyn and Gracyn were pretty spent from their red eye flight down here so we had an early night.

Lazy Saturday!

Saturday, February 15, 2014.

We spent most of the morning just soaking up the beautiful sun!  Brenda whipped up a batch of cookies, oatmeal and oatmeal choco chip.  We also got into a couple of games of Spades, and so far I think I am ahead in the W column!  It is so very relaxing sitting out in the quiet with a cup of coffee.  The weekends aren't so busy with the worker traffic going by on the beach as during the week days.  Our caretaker, Rene, showed up as he does daily to groom the beach for us and make sure everything is going as it should.  Brenda rewarded him with some cookies fresh out of the oven.  Banana and Bhuda showed up again this morning and low and behold, they took kibble from me without hesitation this time.  I think they have figured out their previous benefactor, Dan, is no longer around.
We took a run into San Pedro and Brenda gave the workers at the toll both some fresh cookies.  We checked out the department store.  It has just about everything in there.  I looked at a propane BBQ made by "Char-Broil", it was one we would pay about $300 CAD for back home, it was $650 USD!  I did find a smokin' deal, a pair of Adidas sunglasses for $7.50 USD (knock offs!).  As I had already broken one pair and was down to my $9.00 CAD Rapellas from Can. Tire, I figured a back up pair was necessary.
We decided to head north again today and see if we could find a beach that our neighbours had told us about.  They said it was on the west side of the island and was awesome.  Clear sand and no seaweed.  We hit the T were we had been last time with Shannon, JT and Dan, and this time headed west.  It was about a 35 minute ride to the location from the T.  This road was the best we had been on!  It was brand spankin' new, wide and no pot holes!  

It was kinda neat, as a long part of the road was bordered on either side by mangroves and Brenda thought it looked a lot like some of the scenes from Swamp People and she even tried her impersonation of Troy from that HGTV series and yelled out "Shoooooot 'emm!"  Apparently there is a subdivision being built out there.  We saw only one actual house out this way and it had solar panels.  These were the first I have seen on the island.  As we got nearer to western shore line we noticed a number of roads being built off of the main road, we also noticed a number of signs with lot numbers on them.  We hit the shoreline, which is the end of the road, and noted there was a couple of docks plus a small house there that appeared to be a sales office for the developer.  The beach was not what we expected.  Not a lot of sand on the shoreline, but it was seaweed free out as far as you could see.  We determined that the location was not quite worth the drive out to it to spend a day.  The road from the T back to the Palapa Bar turn is very rough and your internal organs take extensive joggling, and that is traveling a just better than a brisk walk!
That  evening Munchkin made an awesome spinach salad and we added chicken that we had picked up

That's an egret perched on the top of the palapa above the flag!

from a spot in town.  It was a whole chicken done on a rotisserie and it was very good!
We had another beautiful sunset and after catching up on some of the Olympic results hit the hay for a well deserved rest!

Valentines Day!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Woke up to a very quiet house!  Kept with our usual morning routine, coffee, a muffin and some toast.  Banana and Bhuda came by to say good morning.  I think that they missed our Daniel!  I offered them some of the kibble and both sniffed it then looked past me into the house, looking for Dan I'm sure.  It took them a while to finally realize that I was the only one there that was going to give them any treats and a pat, so they eventually accepted the kibble from me.

Brenda was up and sitting on the sofa and she asked me to go to the kitchen area a number of times for different little items.
This was all a ruse to get me to see that she had smuggled a Valentine treat here for me!  It was hiding right there in plain sight on the counter and I must have passed it about 6 thousand times before I noticed it!  The Valentine Jelly Bellys were awesome!  I think that my little bride still loves me!  She even gave me a kiss to acknowledge it was Valentines day!

After a couple of games of cards and coffee.  He decided to head into town.  It goes without saying that Munchkin did her pirates cheer as we passed by the Pirates Treasure.  We gave a local a ride into town.  He was on his way to a poultry shop for some chicken that he was going to bbq later.  We parked on Front Street and took a walk down the beach.  We had lunch at Hurricanes, and again it was a great meal.  They are constructing a sea wall next to Hurricanes and we watched as they manually assembled re-bar then using nothing but people power moved it inot place onto the forms.  There was a large pile of conch shells beside the forms and they come from the excavation under the forms.

Dirty Banana At Hurricanes!

Apparently they pick them out of the dig by lowering one of the workers head first into the water holding onto his ankles and then pulling him up with an arm full of empty conch shells!

On our way home we met Florenzio on his was back from dropping of his guests at the airport and gave him a ride back to the house.  He has another family coming in on Saturday afternoon and was going to be busy getting the place ready for the new guests.  He told Brenda that the new guests would be leaving on the 22nd and there were no others coming until March 7.  He offered the use of the pool again if we liked after the 22nd.  Florenzio said that he missed Dan out on the pier with his fishing pole already!  He asked if we had heard from them yet and hoped their travel home was without problems.
This afternoon we spent on the beach loungers sunning, reading and resting!  Munchie was mostly reading, I was mostly resting!  In the late afternoon I took a bag of sardines, the fishing pole and a Belikin out to see if I could angle up a big one!  I saw three small barracuda swim by under the pier, they didn't even appear to notice my hook and bait!  A fair sized ray cruised by and circled the hook, so I reeled in quickly.  I didn't have the means to release him if I hooked him so I did not want to take any chances!  I sat out there until sundown.  I pretty much just fed the crabs and the little fish the hole time!  I did make one long cast that I'm sure Dan would be proud of, into a sweet spot straight off the pier.  That was also my only real strike of the day!  Something big grabbed and took off.  I grabbed up the rod, but it ended as fast as it started.  I had a whole sardine on the hook and when I reeled in, there was only half of it left!  I suspect it could have been one of the barracuda.
Brenda made a fantastic pasta dish for supper, complete with homemade garlic toast.  It was awesome.  We ended up watching a James Bond flick, "Die Another Day" with Pierce Brosnan, then hit the hay.
Tomorrow I think we may go north again.  There is supposed to be a beautiful beach up there on the west side of the island.  We are going to check it out.