Belize, Monday February 18,2017

Steve’s fishing days for our vacation were over, and so the two of us actually hung out together. It does happen once in awhile on our vacations. Steve likes to keep busy, and I like to hang out and stare at tattooed men.

Look at this plant. I think it would be very painful to accidentally fall on it. I better stop looking at tattooed men, or Steve might push me into one of these bushes. It would probably poke my eye out.

Steve is very happy about our adventure today. We were going to go snorkeling and have lunch on one of the cayes or islands in the Caribbean Sea. They don’t call it the Atlantic Ocean here. I don’t know why. Cayes is pronounced keys.

There was a hummingbird feeder on the veranda, and I liked to sit near it at breakfast and lunch. This is a short video of the birds feeding at the feeder.

I ordered watermelon juice with my breakfast. No picture of my coffee but I did have some.

I was back to fried eggs and bacon for my breakfast. Steve ordered the scrambled. He thought his breakfast was a bit skimpy. We were told to report to the front steps of the building at 8:30 for our Jeep ride to the marina. As Steve always feels that on time is 5 minutes early, we were waiting at 8:25. There were other six people who were supposed to go with us who did not show up in a timely manner. Finally two showed up, they were one of the French couples that had gone up and down the steps to the river.

Mr. French man said that “We are French, and we are always late, and our friend is always later!” I was a bit annoyed at this, but tried to remember that we are on holiday and to just relax. The rest of the group showed up ten minutes later and we were off.

This is the marina that we were departing from. It is the same marina that Steve went to for his fishing adventures.Here is the boat we were going to go on. Everyone got a life vest to wear.

I look great in mine!

Our first stop was to drop off the cook and our supplies for lunch. We would be returning here after our snorkeling. We got to wander the very small island. It was a resort and went out of business a few years ago. I don’t think I would have been happy here. Guys who just wanted to fish, belch and sleep would probably enjoy themselves.

One of the boys on our excursion was fascinated with the ants. They had made quite the ant trail.

Steve was fascinated by the thatch ceiling. No, he is not going to try to have this replicated in any of our homes.

Steve liked this art work. It was pretty rusty, but it represented a school of fish.

Soon we reached our snorkeling spot. The anchor was dropped and we got ready to go into the water.

Steve put his flippers on and was first to go in. Sorry, but no pictures of us in our masks. I should have asked one of the French guys to take our picture, but “Eh, bien!”

Here are Steve and the rest snorkeling, I quit early. I talked to one of the French ladies, but her accent was a little too thick for me to understand. Here is our guide, he found two conchs and wanted to know if they should be saved for lunch. We all told him no. I was surprised that the French said no, as I though the French love escargot. Here is our guide acting silly and pretending he was the conch god!After we snorkeled we went to another little island. No doubt Steve is looking for fish. The French family wandered around. I stayed near the boat. There was a lot of sea weed that had arrived in the area. In fact many areas have been bothered by Sargassum. We stopped at the Ranger station to pay the fee to visit the national park that we were visiting.

Soon it was back to the deserted island again for our lunch. A table was set up inside the building for us to eat at. There was a bar set up for drinks also.

There was cold lobster salad, grilled chicken and fish. Although lobster season is officially over until the lobsters finish mating you are allowed to serve lobster that has been previously caught and frozen.There was also a warm green salad, plantains and cole slaw.

Warm soft tacos also. I had a little of everything. The French group asked if they could move the tables outside. I of course thought this was crazy. That there must have been a reason for us to sit inside, maybe it would cut down on the bugs. So Steve and I ate inside, and tried to keep the food covered from the flies that came in through the open doors and window. Steve and I walked around the decaying resort. It was pretty creepy. This must have been the old fish tank in the dining room. I followed Steve down to the pier.

We took a look at the schools of swimming fish. Those are not weeds, but many fish!

Steve wandered off to the bar and found out that we could have Mojitos or Daiquiris so he brought back one of each.

We decided to joint the French family sitting outside. Here is the sugar cane that we could nibble on if we chose to.

It was enjoyable be talking to the one of the French guys, the ladies had wandered off elsewhere, the kids were fooling around and one of the French guys was taking pictures (Mr. French Guy #1). It turns out the Mr. French Guy #2(who was the late arriver this morning) worked for a man that Steve knew. Talk about a small world! He was probably late this morning as he was talking on the phone to the guy that Steve knew!

Steve and I both told Mr. French Guy #2 that it was the better decision to move the tables outside. As Americans, we tend to follow rules and think that there must have been a reason to keep the table inside. Mr. French Guy #2, said that the French don’t care what others think, and that if they think it is nice to move the tables outside, they will do so. He said, that the real reason the tables were not brought outside is that the staff is lazy, and didn’t want to move them back and forth! We heartily agreed!

We were offered some local chocolate. It was very good.

Then there was fresh coconut. Here were almonds and watermelon. The almonds were from trees on the island. They had fallen to the ground, birds had eaten the outer shell, and our guide smashed what was left for us to eat.

This required a lot of work to do!

We saw some frigate birds flying around. Lots of them. They are called the pirate bird, as they attack the cormorants and cause them to drop fish that the cormorant have caught. The frigate bird then steals the fish. The frigate bird has feathers that are not water repellant so they can’t catch their own fish. They liked to hang out at this island.

We had chips on our way back to the marina. Pico de gallo also.

Punta Gorda has one bridge over the river. It is a one lane bridge.

Coming in for a landing!

This was our boat, and the gear that the staff unloaded for the day. Our boat was called the Kulcha Beach.

When we got back to the Lodge I took a picture of Steve’s picture from yesterday. Like most lodges, anglers submit their pictures and people think that they too will catch a fish. Steve’s fish was a lovely fish.

These are the horses that you can ride on at Copal Tree Lodge. I am not sure if I showed you them before or not. I thought it was a bit too hot to ride in the jungle.

I saw the two yapping doctors at dinner and asked if they caught any fish today. They had nils, for two days in a row. Superior Steve caught nil the first day, and then a fish on each day following. Well, now I have jinxed Steve for the rest of the month. But, as he is not fishing the rest of the month, ha ha to the evil fishing spirits. Let’ s hope they will forget what I said and let Steve catch a fish in March!

We went to dinner early and I had a “Happy Mama”. I wasn’t too happy with it. Give me my fruity martini any day. I should have asked the bartender to just make me a fruity rum drink. Hold the chartreuse, gin and bitter. Steve had a Dark and Stormy, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

Chef’s amuse bouche was pico de gallo on a plantain. Not my favorite.

Steve and I shared the grilled vegetable salad. There were too many grilled vegetables on it, to make me happy. I kept looking for pineapple in my salad!

I didn’t see anything on the menu that I was crazy about, so I asked the waitress if the chef could give me a piece of fish. Success! I am not sure what the purple stuff was. I didn’t care for it whatever is was, but the fish was good.

Steve had the chicken Bolognese. We have had it at home with turkey, but not chicken. He said it was quite tasty.

For my dessert I asked the waitress if instead of the cream puff with rum raisin ice cream and caramel sauce I could have vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce and she said Yes!

Do you ask for substitutions in a restaurant?

Are you French?

Do you show up early, late or never at all?