4-29-2017 took Trevor and Tracey to the Airport in Dangriga

Trevor and Tracey have become good friends and they spend 6 months in Canada and 6 months in Belize.  We rented their house from them while they were in Canada last time.

Last June a mutual friend named Jess Flores passed away suddenly.  Jess was in Trevor's band and was a long time friend of his.  In the last 6 months Trevor has been working on making Jess's Grave nice so that was our first stop.

Trevor and Tracey next to Jess's Grave.....they are sitting on a neighbors grave

A lot of the graves are in disrepair.....but so are a lot of the houses in Dangriga

Finally the Plane arrived and it was time to go

Cara had some errands to run so Eric hung out near the river at the Star River Restaurant

In Dangriga everything stops from 12-1 for lunch.  So if you still need to do something you need to chill till 1

This is a nice little place where the river meets the sea.  Interestingly this river just leaves the mountain at Trevor's where we hiked last week

These prices are in Belize Dollars which is 2 Belize Dollars = 1 American Dollar

4-27-2017 Thursday night music at Queen Bean

Thursday night at Queen Bean Restaurant has turned into the best music of the week in Hopkins.



This is Tracey on the left and a couple of her sisters.  She is leaving to go back to Canada the next day and is a little camera shy.  I included this picture because you can see her eye poking through her hand and the effect seemed cool.
 

Trevor is the bassist for the band Zero Tolerance.  Tracey (pictured above) is his wife and this is their last night here.  They are a very good band and will be missed.

4-26-2017 Trek to Trevor's Orchard

Our friend Trevor has some property in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, and he wanted to check on it before he had to
leave for six months. Eric had been to it before and said it was beautiful, so we jumped at the chance for this adventure.

Starting out on our trek - there is no road directly to the property, and apparently they won't put one in until he starts building.

We started off following a dry creek bed.

A cool fossil rock

The dry creek joins with a running creek.

This is where you head upstream toward the hills.

At first you can pick your way along, stepping on only the dry rocks, but eventually you have to just wade through the stream.

Across the stream is Trevor's land. Apparently, just after he bought the land he built a little cabana and lived there for six
months. Then he had to go work in Canada, and when he returned to this property six months later he found that his cabana
had been fully disassembled and carted off board by board!

We took our first break nearby - Clifford and Eric are enjoying the view. 

We hiked a little further to a nice sandy spot for another break.

This is where Trevor got out his drone.

He wanted to use the drone to do an aerial survey of his property and the area.

The drone was way cool! He took it up and around, out of sight, and flying using only the camera view.

Flying down the river...

Surveying the area...

Further upstream is a deep section that you must swim through.

The swim to get to this point took more energy than expected.

At the base of the little falls were big rocks just under the surface, so you could be cool and comfortable sitting on a rock in
the water. 

Some of us continued a little further upstream to another deep spot to swim.

We didn't go too far, then returned to the little falls.

Trevor sitting on a dry rock, and Eric sitting on a submerged rock in the stream.

Then we floated/swam back to the sandy spot for lunch, a rest, and a swim.

Pictures really don't do this place justice. It's gorgeous, and it feels like your own private park. And the best part is, Clifford
heard the call of a Toucan (which kind of sounds like a frog, so Trevor wasn't believing him), then moments later it flew
across the river in front of us, followed by its mate!

We eventually started the trek back.

On a little island of big rocks in the river Trevor got out the drone again, and this time he found that someone was squatting
nearby on his friends' property. Trevor went to talk to the guy, but he wasn't at there, only his stuff was.

This was our last rest stop.

It was after 3pm at this point, so we didn't stop again.

Following the dry creek bed back - not too much farther now...

Panorama of the dry creek bed where we parked.

4-23-2017 Sunday Funday

As it turned out, we had three events to attend this particular Sunday, and they all sounded like fun, and they all overlapped, so definitely no Sunday beach walk for us today. We tried our best to spread our time between all three events.

First we went over to our musician friend Trevor's house because they were going to record some music with a really good group of people. We hung out for a while, but unfortunately, not everyone was there by the time we had to leave to go to the next thing. We can't wait to hear the recording later, though.

Next was a pitch-in going away party for Cindy and Joe, who are moving back to the States.

Lots of friends showed up to wish them well.

This is Joe, one half of the couple moving away. (Apparently we failed to get a good photo of Cindy.)

Our friend Cheryl and her adorable daughter Khaya.

There was no breeze at all, so the the water was perfectly still. Some of the dogs thought it was perfect for swimming.

Lastly we went to Laruni Hati Beyabu, a beachside restuaurant on the north side of the village. Our friends Lea and Dorla
were hosting a "Buffalo Bill BBQ" featuring grilled water buffalo. Of course, they also had veggie rice and pasta salad.

Several friends from the last party were here as well, and it was also a really nice time with good friends and good food.

Children were having fun playing on the beach.

Yes, there is a barrier reef protecting the coast of Belize, and it reduces the wave action on the mainland beaches, but it's still
hard to imagine that this is actually ocean (okay, technically it's sea) when the water is this flat.