9-29 to 9-30-2015 Kathleen & Ross arrive and settle in

We picked up Kathleen and Ross in Dangriga and returned to Hopkins to let them nap and settle in.  We failed to get photos
of their arrival, and the only thing of note we saw was this bus that had gone off the side of the main road into the village.
We didn't hear anything more about it, but we hope nobody was hurt. 

The next morning Ross and Cara were treated to a sighting of one of the many iguanas that live around us.

In fact, this one came back a little later.

We didn't have anything planned at first so Ross and Kathleen could adjust and settle in.  Ross got a little work done, and
Kathleen went out in the water as soon as she could.

Kathleen often enjoyed floating in the water and laying out on the dock during her visit.

9-27-2015 Christmas Party in September

Our friends, Chef Rob and Corrie, always throw a Christmas Party for friends and workers in September (during low season
when they are closed), and we were thrilled to be invited.  Janet (on the right) arrived just as we did, so Cara and Janet
walked in together.

We got there when the party started in the afternoon.

It didn't take long for the place to start filling up.

It was a family-friendly event, and the children took advantage of the swimming pool.

Photobomb from our friend, Pam

It was a lovely party, and everybody had a great time!  

There was a lot of food, and it was delicious, of course.  Not surprising since one of the hosts is a chef.

Chef Rob telling Cara which items are vegetarian.  :)   Thanks so much Rob and Corrie - you guys rock!

It was an outdoor party and we had a good view of the moon (blood moon, super moon, AND lunar eclipse), so everyone was keeping tabs on it.  We watched the eclipse happen, but failed to get any good pics of it.

9-25-2015 Farewell Terry

Terry planned to leave the next morning, so he needed to return his motorcycle to his tree farm, and Eric took him.  Of course,
time spent with Terry is always an adventure, so even a trip with a task can take longer than expected.  :) 

They guys toured Terry's farm, and they couldn't help but try to catch
the cute little ducks waddling around.

Now it's Friday night, so that means going to our usual spot, Windschief Bar, and that usually also means foosball.

9-24-2015 Eric's 50th Birthday

So Eric officially hit the half century mark and we celebrated with dinner at Belizean Dreams Resort. 

Surf and Turf



Veggies and Pasta

Salad (could you guess?)

Shrimp Scampi

Sabrina made this awesome cake!

Mark made Eric this Awesome Video that pretty much sums up this area of Belize where we are staying.  We had just been to a big birthday party the night before so it was pretty low key.

Janet made me this cool board!

and Janet also gave me these suckers!

9-22-2015 worked then went to Mirko's birthday party

Terry has been visiting for a few weeks and he is part owner in this Sailboat.  He is a detail oriented guy.  He spent 3 days polishing it and looking it all over.....In the end it got his approval and is fully sea worthy.



Terry turned the sailboat over to complete the inspection/cleaning

At about 5 we headed a short distance away to celebrate our friend Mirko's birthday.  Unfortunately we didn't take as many pictures as we should have and we have no pics of the birthday boy.

Brian and Janet and Annett's arm

Terry

Shawn and Annett

Brian and Annett

9-21-2015 Power Outage? Let's Go For A Drive!

Today is actually Belize Independence Day - Happy Birthday, Belize!!!  Just 34 years old!  We missed staying up last night for the fireworks they set off at midnight.  Then today was mostly rainy, so not much seemed to be going on.  However, I learned later that there actually was a short parade in the village.  Sorry we missed it.

In the afternoon the power went out, and Eric was napping, but Terry wanted to do something so he said, "Let's go for a drive".
No power...no Internet...so, why not!?  Our first stop was the former North Beach Bar, which a friend of Terry's owns.

We had visited here several months ago on one of Terry's visits, but the place was in much better condition then.  It appears
there has been another fire, plus some scavenging and pillaging.  I (Cara) did find two old (and wet, dirty, and faded) receipt
books that were from a time Terry spent a lot of time here, so he took those as souvenirs.  He actually did find one of his
receipts in one book.

It had rained hard earlier in the day (I think rainy season has finally started), so there was a lot of standing water everywhere.

This is Weiga, a restaurant with rental cabanas that will be opening soon - it is right next to the old North Beach Bar.

We poked our heads in at Palmento Grove and had a drink, then we stopped in at Windschief Bar to see what was happening.

I joined some friends in playing a new (to me) game called Molkky (the o should have an umlaut over it).

It's a fun, easy-to-learn game, that is perfect for the beach.  There are small wood posts numbered 1 through 12, and you have a
piece of wood that you throw at them.  If you knock over just one post, then you get the number printed on it, but if you knock
over multiple posts then you get the number of posts you knocked over.  You want to get exactly 50 points, and if you go over
then you get set back to 35 points.  Ollie (the bar owner, so he had the home field advantage) won the first two games, but
once he dropped out I actually won the third game.  I'll call it beginners luck.