***ATTENTION: COLD FRONT #32 ALERT – HISTORIC FREEZING EXPECTED IN BELIZE***
This was the warning that came across our news feed here in Belize.
The Arctic storm that went through the states a week or so ago did not forget about Belize. We woke up on Monday morning with an outside temperature of 47° and inside the house was 57°. It was the same on Tuesday morning. We do not have a heater or a fireplace in the house, because it’s Belize! We don’t have heavy blankets, jackets or other types of warm clothes, because it’s Belize! This was the coldest we’ve ever seen down here, and that’s what a lot of the locals are also saying. Our evenings have been in the low 60°s to high 50°s for a few weeks now, and it looks like it will stay that way for at least another week. I know a lot of you up north are saying “That’s not cold”, but we’re in Belize where it’s supposed to be warm!
Our friends Brad & Carol came down for a first-time visit to Belize. It just happened to be in the middle of our cold snap, but that didn’t stop them from seeing and doing a lot of things.
One day we took them for a tour up to Mountain Pine Ridge to check out Rio On Pools and Rio Frio Cave. With the weather being so cold there was no way any of us were going swimming in the pools. So we’ll have to save that for one of those hot summer days.
After checking out the pools, we headed over to explore the cave. Rio Frio Cave is the largest cave opening in Central America, with a mouth of 65′ tall. In the past, we were able to park right near the opening of the cave, but the road was a little muddy and they had it closed off. Still, it was only about a 20 minute walk to the cave, which made for a nice peaceful stroll through the jungle.
The cave’s only about a quarter mile long and once you get to the middle, you can see light at each end. There is a river that runs through it with a few small waterfalls, a sandy beach and a lot of stalactites. On the way home from checking out the pools and cave, we stopped off at Francis Ford Coppola’s Blancaneaux Resort for some pizza and beer.
Since we had some willing help, we thought it was a good time to get some of our pineapple plants that we had rooted into the ground. Brad & Carol gave us a hand getting them planted, as well as trimming the coconut trees and clearing up a bunch of branches. We’ve still got some more pineapples we need to get planted around our house, which should bring our total to around 300 plants this year
The dragon fruit plants really needed to be trimmed back again before they start to bloom. After planting the pineapples, we went to work trimming all the cactus that the dragon fruit grows on. Just like last year, we once again filled the truck bed with cuttings. We ended up letting people know that we would be heading over to Remo’s for a few cold beers, and they could come get some cuttings. By the time we left all the cuttings were gone. It’s great to be able to share stuff like this without just letting it go to waste.
After some time up at our place we all headed over to Placencia for a little beach time and to do a little fishing. We had scheduled a fishing trip for one day, but it was going to be windy and a good chance of rain. So we rescheduled for the next day when the weather was going to be better.
The next morning was perfect, the sun was out and the water was calm. It was about a 45 minute boat ride out to the fishing grounds. Brad got a nice Jack right away and we also caught some good-sized King Mackerels. It wasn’t a ton of fish, but enough for lunch and some to bring back home.
For lunch we stopped at Moho Caye, where our captain cleaned and cooked up some of our fish under the shade of the coconut trees. He also had some veggies and potatoes that he cooked up, plus a couple of lobsters that the deckhand dove for while we were fishing. While lunch was cooking we wandered the beach sipping on beer, rum punch, and checking out some sharks that were eating fish scraps near the boat. After lunch, the captain cleaned the rest of our catch and we ended up with 4 bags of fish to bring home. It turned out to be a perfect day on the water, and we all had a great time.
One night we fired up the pizza oven and invited a couple of friends over for the evening. After cooking up all the normal type pizzas, we decided to try a dessert pizza. This one was layered with our homemade chocolate, then a layer of mini marshmallows and then topped with some buttery graham cracker crumbles. That’s right, it was all ooy-gooy and tasted like a campfire s’more.
It was time to pick more ripe cacao. This was our biggest harvest yet; in a week’s time we ended up picking 174 pods. We decided to keep this batch and process it so we will have a good supply for the rest of the year. Then we stopped by the market and our produce guy asked if we had more to sell him, so we ended up taking him a bunch more. This time of year, the pods seem to be bigger, I think it’s because of all the recent rains we’ve had. The trees are still loaded with a lot more cacao in all stages of development, plus it’s starting to get more blossoms. So far this year we’ve picked around 250 cocoa pods, looks like it should be a very chocolatey year.
Every morning Kelley puts fruit out on our bird feeder. There is a good variety of birds that stop by all day and nibble on it. If there’s any fruit left on there in the evening, the possums climb up there and eat what’s left. We tried to put a slinky on the pole to try and stop them, but that didn’t really work, so we just let them do their thing.
Our friends had a great time and took in about as much as they could. They went cave tubing, checked out the ruins, saw waterfalls, explored a big cave, did a little planting and trimming of plants, and we probably ate too much. Then we topped it off with a trip to the beach. With their last day being a fishing trip, and then a lunch of our catch out on an island. I know we had a great time and hopefully they will be back, because there is still a lot more to see and do here in Belize.
I was there during the cold snap and the Canadians I met were laughing at the government’s Facebook post – “Protect the elderly and your pets. This is not alarmist, it’s about safety and prevention.”
Thank you again for a spectacular time and extra-friendly hospitality. Great food, great accommodations, and great friends, including the folks we met. Belize is a beautiful, friendly country, full of things to explore. It was an experience we will not forget, and hope to visit again.
Brad & Carol
Sounds like a lot of fun!