Fish Lingers

Tori the Shellfish (library photo)

Some of you have been in email correspondence regarding the ongoing adventures of Tori the (erm, dead) Shellfish. You may remember that a few days after the fishing trip, my neighbour Mr Torres had mentioned that he knew someone who could have my triangular friend injected with botox (or something like that) and preserved so that I could send him home and have him mounted on my wall.

I was kinda stunned by this offer. Putting aside moral doubts, and concerns over appropriate packing, postage costs and leakage, my main concern was over UK customs regulations.

However, there has been a further exciting development over the weekend. I now have a potential buyer for Tori here in Belize! Turns out that Mari’s brother-in-law has been looking for a Shellfish for some time as apparently they are extremely tasty and considered to be a rare delicacy.

So… stuffed and airmailed, or sold and barbecued? I could start an internet vote. Might include a third choice, in case the British Museum of Natural History get in touch.

In other developments, in reponse to concerns over the ongoing heatwave here, Tori has now been moved from Mr Torres ice-box to the secure depths of Evan’s freezer.

Is it a bird, is it a fish... is it a travel iron?

A little bit of Bliss and a little bit of that…

Man, it’s been ages since I’ve updated the site. There’s been nothing quite as outstanding as the trip to Mexico to report on. Instead I’ve been very busy working away. And been busy outside of work too. Am building up a portfolio of bizarre and unlikely tales these days!

Last week I had my big meeting with the director of BCVI. This was the key moment in my three-month project. The meeting went well. And work done so far is broadly on track. There is still plenty to do though and I’ve been very busy in the office since then. Overall, I’m relieved to find that the work should be a really helpful contribution and I’m very pleased with how things have gone.

In fact, I’m now making changes to my plans so that I can do more charity work during the rest of my trip. As well as being rewarding in itself, doing the charity work has allowed me to be really integrated into life here – I have an interesting time at work and a great social life outside of work in a way that I wouldn’t have if I was just travelling and lying on the beach.

Didn’t think Belize was a world leader in technology until I saw this horse and carriage with fully-integrated poopa-scoopa. Maybe not a great feature for long-distance passengers…

I’ve been in touch with the Red Cross in New South Wales and I’m hoping to get involved in a project with them when I’m there in the Spring. This might involve working between Melbourne and Sydney and I’ll have to extend my stay in Australia, and sacrifice time in SE Asia. Sure it will be worth it though.

Outside of work, I’ve been busier than ever. Went to see a Mexican Acapella group - Voz En Punto - at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts. Really entertaining - the sort of act that would go down great at the Edinburgh Festival. Went to a fundraiser with Teri last weekend, which was a really nice night out and an introduction to Belize’s unusual auction rules, where I bid Bz$70 for a meal for two, was outbid but still had to cough up the 70 bucks – was for charity though! Also went back to my favourite weekend retreat, Caye Caulker, with Naomi last weekend.

And I got to the Museum of Belize at last, the highlights of which were the intriguing public accounts of state executions, major fires and hurricanes, the last two of which are as perilous for Belize now as they’ve ever been.

Someone asked for a picture of Belizian jugs. I hope this is sufficient to satisfy all you pottery enthusiasts out there.

This weekend past, Evan and Mari invited me along to Mari’s father’s 65th birthday party at his house in San Estefan, up in the north of the country. I felt very honoured to be asked and it was a great weekend… photos below. Also borrowed a bike and managed to crash it and take all the skin of one of my knees. A lot of the time I’ve felt like I’m about 22 again over here, and sometimes more like half that…

Evan and I were in charge of the barbecue…


…it wasn’t friendly territory for vegetarians, or chickens.


Lovely photo of Mr and Mrs Vega. Note the bottle of Scotland's finest.

All the children… (Mari is at far right)


…and grandchildren

Next weekend is another holiday weekend and Teri and I are going to enjoy a wee bit of luxury again out at the Cayes. Also hope to scuba dive the world-famous Blue Hole. Should be pretty special...

Baby Yucatan Drive My Car!

a little luxury

Yay!! After all the planning and false starts I finally made it to Mexico without any planning at all. On the spur of the moment last Thursday, my good friend Teri and I decided on a road trip to Cancun.

We left Belize at 6pm on Friday evening, heading north up the Yucatan peninsula and into the darkness in our little hire car.

Carribean beaches on the Yucatan coastline.

Like any good road trip, the drive was a rollercoaster of emotion – mostly shock and awe. I don’t know what happened to my usual Schumi composure but it’s fair to say that my driving put a few years on poor Teri and added some more grey hairs to my barnet. My biggest problem was not being able to see the speed bumps. The Belizian and Mexican authorities have both adopted the dubious policy of placing these hazards anywhere and everywhere, including in the middle of the countryside and often across four lanes of dual carriageway. I guess it gives the locals some amusement. I hit one bump near the Mexican border at a good 50mph+.

As well as getting some good ‘air-time’, I also had a couple of arguments with trucks, drove through stop junctions without slowing down (I’d swear they weren’t particularly well marked, though Teri was, probably quite rightly, convinced otherwise) and ran a red light. Plus, I left the lights on all night resulting in the battery running down and our hotel having to give us a jump start, I managed to pull the door handle off the passenger door and the electric windows got jammed in the down position, though I’d like to think that last one wasn’t my fault.

Who needs a De Lorean to travel in time. Just take one Dodge Tracker, get her up to 55mph (88mph is a little outside her capabilities) and hit a Belizian speed bump. Me and my Teri-fied Mexi-codriver saw everything from 1974 onwards flash before our eyes.

After all this adventure we were ready for a bit of luxury when, at 4am, we at last arrived in Playa Del Carmen, a few miles short of Cancun. And what a great resort we found. We had a good 24 hours or so of being pampered, with massages, free drinks, fab food and great accommodation. So nice to have a couple of glasses of good wine too, which is extortionate in Belize due to the local taxation.

The place was awesome and we were more than a little reluctant to leave. In amongst the traveling and relaxing, we also got to the Mayan site of Tulum. This is smaller than some other sites, but well visited by virtue of its closeness to the big Mexican resorts.

Of the three Mayan sites I’ve now visited, Lamanai has the most impressive structures, Altun Ha has the best atmosphere, but Tulum is the most photogenic. At Tulum, the clear blue sea and white sand adds something extra to the blue of the sky, green jungle and grey stone temples and rocky outcrops...

…plus a touch of purple weed…

…and some bright flowers. Makes for a great palette.

A little mention for the St Louis Cardinal’s big win in the World Series. Teri and I arrived in Chetumal just in time to see her home team wrap up the biggest prize in baseball with a 4-1 series win over the Detroit Tigers. Go Cards!!!!!!

Wave goodbye. A weekend of traveling, temples, good tunes and great company. So sorry to leave Mexico.

Lamanai

Our knowledgeable guide with the 1500 year old carving off the Jaguar God.

When the Mexico trip was scuppered by passport problems, I made some virtue out of adversity by doing the one-day boat trip to the ancient Mayan site of Lamanai instead. This is one of Belize’s most popular tourist activities and was a pretty nice trip, though not quite as memorable as Altun Ha.

I saw an alligator, dolphins and these howler monkeys over the weekend. Sadly the only close up wildlife photos I get are when the wildlife has passed over to the other side...

Gordon Brown was always jealous of his Belizian counterpart’s exotic walk to work

The huge, and hugely impressive, Temple of the Jaguar.

Gone Fishin’ or, 9 Men in a (5-man) Boat

Saturday: Finding Nemo Sunday: Fish Supper

Another cracking weekend for photos. After a few false starts this was to be the big weekend when we did BOTH the fishing trip AND the trip to Mexico.

Well… nearly.

The peace and tranquility of Haulover Creek at 5am is about to be disturbed by 150 horses.

The crew tuck into some meat pies for breakfast.

The fishing trip was a great lads day out. There were seven of us, including Evan, Mr Torres from next door, Ulises from El Salvador and Evan’s brother Wilbur. A 5am start was essential as we had to allow for a fair amount of faffing to get our kit in the boat, stock up on lots (and lots) of petrol and pick up our two ‘drivers’.


No small, open boat trip is complete without two large containers of 4-star.

Our route was a pretty ambitious one, covering half the country’s coastline, stopping at Frenchman Caye and Caye Caulker, and running within a flare’s distance of most of the other Northern Cayes.

Our boatman scans the shallows for the rare and exotic fish known as the ‘sardine’.

First stop was at Frenchman Caye, where a few of us transferred to a smaller boat to go fishing for the bait. It’s fair to say that the trip was always going to be 90% journey and 10% fishing and was all the more enjoyable for that. We actually spent longer (unsuccessfully) fishing for the bait than we did for the fish!

Mr Torres with the first catch of the day.

About mid-morning we arrived at our fishing site, just off the picturesque and exclusive Caye Chapel. I’m no fisherman but, in principle at least, the line-fishing technique sounded pretty straightforward to me:

1 Attach a sardine head or lump of non-specific fish to your hook
2 Throw the bait and weight as far as you can (making sure the other end of the line is securely attached to something in the boat – essential, that bit)
3 Hold the line taught and wait for a nibble (ooer missus)

Timing is now key. When the fish starts to nibble…

4 be patient and wait for it to take a bigger bite, at which point
5 jerk the line violently towards yourself (being careful not to fall out of the boat). If your timing is right, there will now be a fish pulling on your line, which you can
6 reel in hand over hand.

In practice my timing was – to use the Belizian – crap. After about twenty minutes, everyone else had one, two or three fish and I still had none.

My duck is broken as I catch my first Grunt. (So called because after you pull them out of the water they make a grunting noise – bit unnerving that.)

I’d like to think I then got the hang of the timing. Though it might just have been luck. In any case I caught five fish in a pretty short space of time, including…
…The catch of the day.

This beauty was a Shell Fish. It has eyes and lips like a horse and head-on is almost a perfect triangle in shape. I was tempted to throw it back as it looked more like an exotic pet than prey but I was assured that it is very tasty (a bit like chicken) and it is now safely stowed in the bottom of Mr Torres’ freezer.

The rest of the trip was spent celebrating our good fortune in sea-faring style, including a stop at Caye Caulker to replenish our beer and rum supplies.

When the rum runs out the crew resort to wearing their pants on their heads for cheap laughs.

Evan does a moving Cpt Bligh impersonation. Though the solemnity of the moment is rather spoiled by the boatman grinning over his rum and coke.

The last stretch of the trip was a long motor up the coast to Rocky Point. From here we could see Mexico across the waters of the Caribbean, before we turned west for the run along to Sartaneja and San Estevan where we stayed the night. Sadly that was as close as I got to Mexico. Due to some confusion, which was largely my fault, though Evan insists it was his, I left my passport in Belize City and so when we got up in the morning I had to stay in Belize. Foiled again.

‘scuse me, while I kiss this pike…