New Moon and New Year!!!

I awoke this morning with the head from hell, but felt surprisingly better after our usual double caffine fix. Heads splitting we decided to seek out the pharmacy and some codine before starting our day. Knowing that many pharmaceutical drugs are available over the counter in this part of the world, we were confident that we would get our drug of choice. What proved a surprise was that drugs were sold by the tablet and not by the pack. Our mission to secure codine cost us $1.50 per tablet.

Pain dealt with we decided to walk up to Ak’Bol today, the yoga retreat about 4 miles North where we spent an enjoyable day the day after we arrived. With suncream, books and a joint in hand we donned trainers and enjoyed the invigorating walk up to Ak’Bol. By the time we arrived the sun was beginning to win the battle with the clouds, and a couple of beers quenched our thirst before we found our spot to settle. After a stint on the pier we relocated for comfort to what we found to be the most comfortable sun-loungers we have enjoyed so far!! So comfortable in fact that it did make a good spot to chill for a while. As the sun began to go down, Palapa Bar called to us, and we relocated to a spot in the sea as the sun began to settle on the last day of the year……now starting to enjoy a good buzz. As darkness fell we realized that the walk back to town was impractical and instead got a free ride back on the coastal Xpress to San Pedro……*note to self: free return easy to blag when most travel on return tickets.

We returned home for a brief freshen-up, and headed back out into San Pedro. Not to mingle with the typical tourist New Years Eve experience but to experience New Year in AC ‘local-style’. Off to Central Park the local hot-spot, and the venue tonight where we could do our New Year un-American and un-British!! The park was alive with locals all dressed to the nines for the evening. Even all the little girls were attired in sparkly heels and cocktail dresses, looking absolutely charming with their Latino looks! After sampling some local cuisine….firstly hotdog ala Belize, and then tasty BBQ chicken and pork ribs, we found our spot to sit back, chill and await the mark of the new year. Alas, our long day was taking its toll, and we were feeling decidedly weary and bed-ready……..and it was only 10:30pm! We were both agreeable to returning to our apartment, believing that waiting out the potential fireworks at Central Park may prove a disappointment. Back home on our balcony, we sipped our final beer, whilst trying to keep awake. I think Nick took mercy on me in the end and suggested we retire to bed. He did not have to ask twice, and by shortly after 11:00pm we crawled into our bed and fell asleep. Another first:……..the first New Year I haven’t seen in since I can remember!!

Rain, Rum and Remaining here........

A cloudy, overcast and rainy day has resulted in us retiring to our apartment with a bottle of the local Caribbean coconut rum and mango juice. But a huge positive step has been made…..we do like our little island, our local produce stalls and its largely shanty-town feel and ‘island’ life. Nick has decided he can tolerate the American invasion, therefore, a new decision has been made….to remain in AC for now and enjoy the island life. Our brief investigation of travelling within this part of the world has highlighted that the costs for ‘country-hopping’ are not cheap, and that without really knowing where we are going or having some command of Spanish, we could leave here and find ourselves out of our depth very quickly! I am pleased, I took a liking to AC immediately, yes there are tourists, and yes annoyingly American ones at that. But all said the island IS quaint and to be honest we could choose many worst places to sit back and settle for a while. Watching the tourists enjoying their brief visitation makes me feel all the more fortunate to be hanging out here for some time, and for me proves a constant reminder that we are doing things differently!!

Christmas Day 2009!!

Christmas Day 2009…….the first time I have actually spent Christmas outside of the UK, and the first time I have spent Christmas without my children!! Strange as I had wished about being away for Christmas for a number of years, but never envisaged it just like this! Guess it has been made harder by the lack of telephone contact with the children.

However, it has been an extraordinary day and it has been a welcome escape to have an ‘un-Christmas’ this year. We have spent the day relaxing on our pier, and taking the occasional swim in the beautiful Caribbean sea when we needed a cool down. The beach and sea-front was exceptionally quiet in the morning, with little air of Christmas around. My one ‘gift’ celebration was to buy a couple of hand-crafted bracelets from some local children selling their wares. It seemed quite strange that even the children carry on as normal here, out earning their contribution, rather than festering around a Christmas tree or sulking about what they haven’t got! The children told us that they celebrate in the afternoon with a chicken BBQ! And the afternoon did get quite busy with local children playing around the pier, jumping in……enjoying the free time to play.

We made our own ‘Christmas’ dinner which proved exquisite…..local lobster broiled on our little burner in foil with garlic, onion, vegetables and butter, served up with a fresh salad and home-made coleslaw! We washed it down with a bottle of Belikin beer, smug with our culinary success, and I guess pleased that we had made the day special in our own way!

Plumbing Caribbean Style!

We forget in our first world way how different simple things can be in a third world country. Sanitation has to be the one basic commodity, and just the fact that we cannot put toilet-paper in the toilet here due to the poor plumbing system highlights differences!! Somehow it still feels un-natural to go to the toilet and put all tissue-paper in the bin besides the toilet! Nick and I have joked about how this is a simple difference but one that takes some time (and experience) to become a ‘practiced bin depositer’! This caused us a little issue with our ‘hopper’ here, after we failed to do effective bin-deposting and we ended up with a blocked toilet. Requests to have it fixed eventually resulted in Nick taking on the task of plumber, being that plumbers here work on “island time”. We have now taken to using the toilet in Lily’s Restaurant downstairs for those ‘No.2’ moments…..just in case!

D-Day + 1

Well D-Day One has come and passed…….and I am still alive! I had already known that celebrating (or not celebrating!) my birthday this year would prove a nostalgic and reflective process. Especially with the added dimension of poor internet, no skype, and that other dangerous cocktail – hormones!

It seems quite poignant to recollect where we were this time last year, how it felt so magical to be with Nick and yet how this time of year made my leaving the family seem so heartless and selfish.

A Birthday on a Paradise Island!

I awoke early this morning with a clear head, and after a birthday wish from Nick, we started the day after a brief coffee with a walk south of the Island. Now the holiday season has effectively started, we can certainly notice a change around San Pedro. Many more local people have set up stalls along the beach and main street, and for the first time there do seem to be slightly more tourists around. After two days of rain and no sun, there appears to be the hint of blue sky lurking behind the greyness this morning. I am feeling a little strange, a combination of the date, my hormones and missing contact with Nicole, but the walk starts to take my mind off things.

Back at our apartment, I try yet again to connect and email Nicole but the signal is playing up again. We abandon this in favour of the opportunity of soaking up some sun……..and being the true lizard I am…..I do manage to make myself immoveable on a sun-lounger with a few ice-cold Belikins to assist! How appropriate for a ‘Sun-Worshipper’ to receive the perfect gift of sun for her birthday!

Ambergris Caye seems to consist of a bizarre mix of exclusive resorts, unfinished condominiums, houses for sale and an island of shopkeepers! The North of the Island goes 16 miles from town and is largely quite remote and made up of resort compounds. There is a toll bridge to cross just out of San Pedro, and although only golf carts are allowed to cross the bridge, they are charged at $16, making accessing town from the north by road quite expensive. The two main Island ferries (also known as the bus!) run every half hour from San Pedro up the coast of the Island, as well as offering a private taxi service…..this is most definitely the way to get up and down the Island. Despite having four supermarkets serving the Island, there are so many small locally owned stores we have lost count as we have meandered around the town. There are also a large number of realty agents, restaurants and speciality shops, of which many seem to be owned by Americans who are plundering the tourism economy of Ambergris Caye.

La Isle Bonita!

We have made it to AC at last…….a place we have only talked and dreamed about, the place we have been planning on travelling to for some months now. Arriving on our Island was incredible, and so special after thinking about what it would be like for so long. We certainly made the right choice to arrive by boat, as the journey felt quite symbolic, and we did our titanic-esque pose on the boat as we approached our island.

We have found our ‘new world’ here, the promised land, a land without global corporations, where everything you can want IS available…more or less, and most certainly at a price. Will we find our utopia here? Is AC going to be our ‘paradise found’……and as tourism is most certainly a huge aspect of the island’s identity and economy…..how will we find this as a tropical retreat?

Well here I am late afternoon on a warm and balmy day in my ‘paradise found’, sat on a balcony over the white sands of our island. The Caribbean Sea is gently lapping not 15 feet from my balcony. This, one of the first few days in my new world, my new life, started like a “new normal” day for me.

I awoke early, feeling incredibly clear-headed, and realising that my new daily buzz was certainly more agreeable to early mornings! After coffee and a walk on the beach, we encounter Rasta Todd, and I share the start of the day for the first time with a Rasta, on the beach smoking a tobacco-leaf rolled spliff….

Rasta Todd’s trade is selling hand-made shell necklaces, of which he wears one, and carries the other two he possesses. His little wooden stall on the beach from which he is plying his trade looks bare with just the two shell necklaces loosely hanging from the side. I watch the first joint I have seen being rolled in a tobacco leaf, one-handed, by a Rasta on a breezy beach in the Caribbean, breathe in the cigar-tainted aroma of weed, whilst leaning on the wood stall with my Nick. I find it quite amusing, as I reflect, that here I am in a place that not a life-time ago, I would have dreamt of my escape from the world……and now here I am “‘chillin’ wid me Nick man”! I have acquired a taste for Belizian Beer a local draft named Belikin. Well I can handle a small slip to the ‘dark side’ but all tings wit’in reason….eh man?

Back at our new apartment, plans are instantly changed for the day! Now the email to Arbor can get “nicely postponed…after all “dees tings take time”! I grumble to Nick that I haven’t really got a buzz from my Rastafarian sample of weed – so I get to tote on another whilst he showers, just watching the waves from our balcony. I like our new home, Lily’s is quite basic and lacking in some areas; but the location is awesome as a ‘starter’ and Lily is a likeable local woman. We can handle some basic accommodation, and this feels more true in terms of supporting the local economy here and not the ‘foreigners’!.