ambergris caye

ernesto may be past but the weather here is still unpleasant enough to make me want to stay on my lanai and be lazy.  i ventured out yesterday long enough to walk the entire town and not feel like i'm missing much.  there isn't anything to do in bad weather except drink, and with the wind kicking at a steady 30 or so an outdoor bar doesn't appeal to me.

in my few hours of wandering i covered all the main streets and some far off ones.  the beaches aren't great, they're mostly hard packed for golf carts and covered in debris from the storm. this isn't a place for a beach towel and a drink.  there aren't swimming areas both due to the storm and that boats are the main activity and there are warnings that they won't look for you in the water.  the wind is too strong to rent the one paddleboard on the island.  i stopped in both of the yoga studios and found that it costs way more than i'm willing to spend for an hour.  so what to do...

there are 3 bars that i want to go to tonite.  one is wet willy's, just a short walk from my condo.  it seems like the kind of place that i'd like, but its out on a pier and if the wind doesn't die down i may skip it.  the second is the jaguar club, its a techno/house/loud dance club that i normally don't bother with but i met some of the guys that work there and they convinced me to at least stop by.  and its ladies nite.  the last is fido's and they have a 'chicken drop' on thursday nites.  you buy a number for a dollar, all the numbers get laid out on the ground in a little fence, they throw in a chicken and whatever number the chicken poops on is the winner.  how can i skip that?

i had lunch at a local favorite, elvi's, got the belizean tacos.  if you ever wondered what a fry jack is, well, i'm not sure either but that's what i ordered.  it was a fried corn thing that replaced a taco shell.  kinda poofy so i couldn't pick up my tacos but also hard to cut with a knife.  probably won't get it again.  came with fried bananas that were very good.  the local rum punch was so super sweet that i could almost hear my dentist crying.  and no, i'm not wondering why i've been gaining weight.

i was a bit put off by the actual town of san pedro, everything is run down and dirty, garbage everywhere.  wasn't super charming like the guidebooks say.  the people are a mix of latin, creole and mayan and for the most part very nice.  i did get followed down the street a few times by older rasta guys 'wanting to get to know me,' but i'm not much into the stalker types so i had to decline.

i see the dive shops getting their gear back out today so it seems like tomorrow they might be running trips again.  the wind waves at the reef are fairly constant so i'm not sure if its going to be any good but i may as well try one dive.  if its good i'll stick around for more.  i'm planning the next stop in my trip and this entire country looks rainy so i'm not in a big hurry, but i have to remember to check on the next tropical storm forming, that'll probably decide when i leave.  but for now this is an ok place to sit and do nothing.

tacos on fry jacks