The park has a blue water cenote where you can swim and cool off, plus there are also two big caves to explore. We have been to the cenote before, but never made it to the caves. So this time we brought our flashlights and hiked about 20 minutes to the first cave’s entrance.
Once there, we found cement stairs going down into the cave. They were steep, covered with wet leaves and very slippery. We decided not to go in too far, as we were the only ones there. Besides that, you are only allowed to go about 200 yards in before they require you to have a guide. Still, that was far enough for us to see how big and amazing this cave really is.
Besides the blue hole cenote where you can swim, they also offer cave tubing, which is something you have to experience. This time we only went to the one cave, so next time maybe we’ll stop and check out the Crystal Cave. St. Herman’s Blue Hole Park is only about an hour’s drive from our place and is a great place to stop, especially if you’re already heading to Hopkins or Placencia.
Like most of our weekend beach getaways, there are no plans, just go there and see what happens. The weekend was windy, so getting out on a boat was not an option, but that didn’t mean water wasn’t going to be involved. A lot of places there allow you to use their pools as long as you purchase food or drinks, which is not a problem for us.
It was a great relaxing weekend, seeing old friends, meeting new friends and just enjoying time at the beach. On Sunday for Father’s Day, Ron & Rhonda invited a couple of friends over and cooked up a delicious prime rib roast. It was a great meal and a perfect way to end our long weekend in Placencia.
Once we got back home it was time we started picking some pineapples. Now that they are starting to ripen, the birds are pecking holes in them. I think the electric fence is keeping most of the ground critters away, but that can’t stop the birds. We are trying to let the pineapples get as big and ripe as we can on the plants before we pick them. But sometimes, as soon as they start turning a little yellow, we need to get to them before the critters do. Just this past couple of weeks we’ve picked around 60 pineapples, and there are still more on the plants. We’ve been eating them just about every day for breakfast plus giving some away.
We have also been dehydrating some, and Kelley made up a batch of pineapple jam. Another way that is delicious is to soak slices of them in brown sugar and rum for a couple of hours, then throw them on the grill. As they are grilling, take the rum/brown sugar mixture and reduce it down on the stove for a thick dipping sauce. It makes for an excellent dessert that everyone seems to love.
Our dragon fruit is just starting to get blossoms on the plants. The first ones should be ready in a month or so, and we should continue to get them for the next few months. So far it looks like the first blooms are the deep purple ones, so the white ones shouldn’t be too far behind. I can see some purple dragon fruit margaritas in our near future.
We’ve said it before, most everything grows big and fast down here. About five years ago a friend gave us a local avocado, which was delicious, so we decided to plant the seed. It sprouted immediately in some dirt, then we planted it in a bigger pot until it was a good four feet tall. We had a spot in the garden where a plum tree had died, so that’s where we planted it. Now, here it is five years later and it is huge. We really thought this would be the year that it finally got avocados, but maybe next year.
All of our fruit trees on our farm lot are doing great and getting big. I’m thinking that in a couple of years we should have an abundance of mangos, avocados, citrus and a few others. Recently one of our citrus trees up there died. So we replaced it with a ruby red grapefruit tree. It’s small right now, but it shouldn’t take too long before it catches up to the others.
We find quite a few different types of orchids around the property, which we will usually relocate back near the house. We have a few Catasetum Integerrimum Orchids that will bloom every so often with big flowers that only last a couple of days. About the only reason we know when it blooms is because of the loud buzz from the big black and yellow bumble bees that it attracts. The only time we ever see these big bees is when this orchid is in bloom, we have never seen them anywhere else.
The other morning after our first good rain of the season, we noticed an exceptional number of different types of birds swooping down on the ground and eating bugs. Then we saw why. It was a massive migration of army ants moving through the yard, there must have been millions of them. In front of them every insect you can think of was running for its life. Cockroaches, spiders, crickets, scorpions and everything else were trying to get away from the ants.
I got the hose out and sprayed water just in front of the ants to keep them away from the house, but that didn’t stop all the other insects from running towards the house. It’s kind of a little creepy seeing all of that, but hopefully after the ants are gone, the bugs will retreat back to the jungle. If you ever want to see a wide variety of birds in a short period of time, I guess keep an eye out for a giant ant migration.
The other thing that happens after the first big rain of the season is the flood fly invasion. This is where millions of termites leave their nest to mate and start a new colony. Usually around dusk on the day after the first big rain, termites will take to the air by the millions. We have learned that when this happens to shut all the windows and turn all the lights off for a couple of hours until they quit. After mating they will shed their wings, leaving behind a huge mess everywhere that we will be cleaning up for weeks. Then if that wasn’t bad enough, a couple of nights later, we had swarms of big flying ants all over the house (we have never had these before). I guess they also come out after the first big rain looking to mate and relocate. They are harmless (they say), come at dusk and are attracted to lights. So once again, we had to turn out all the lights and shut the windows, but they still managed to get into the house. They were only there for an hour or so before they quit swarming. The good thing was that they didn’t shed their wings, they just died and that made clean up the next morning a lot easier. We’re happy that the first big rain is behind us now and we shouldn’t have to deal with these again till next year.
Chachalacas are a common bird around here. They are a good-sized bird and are very loud, especially in the early mornings. They are considered a pest in the garden and will eat seedlings as soon a they pop up. We planted a bunch of bush beans last year, and as soon as they popped up they were gone. We replanted them three times and even built a scarecrow and put old CD’s on strings to scare them away before we just gave up. In Texas they actually have a hunting season on Chachalacas and they say the flavor is similar to chicken or pheasant. We’re always up for something new, maybe we’ll have to give one a try.
Last week we were at the grocery store and saw something we’d never seen here before, bags of frozen crawfish! Of course we had to get a couple of bags to see how they were. Now all we could think about was a big Louisiana-style crawfish boil, with crawfish, corn, potatoes, spicy sausage and a lot of spice. The only thing we didn’t have was a good spicy sausage. Not a problem, we’ve been making Texas style hot links that we think are pretty good. So we whipped up ten pounds of sausage, got it in the smoker and now we were ready for a crawfish boil. Saturday we put it all together, invited Amanda over and dug into a big pile of delicious finger food.
We’re thankful that the rains have finally come and there were no big fires around us this year. All the plants are looking great and the animals are a lot more active, but the bug invasion this past week was something else. Now that we’ve had the big first rain of the season and the termites and ants are out of the way, the rest of the year should be great, with mild temps and a little rain thrown in.
A low-country boil is always good! I was invited on a Chacalaca hunt in Texas a while ago but it didn’t work out. Let us know how they taste!
I’ll let you know as soon as I try one!