Belize City

 All the pictures shown here were taken on Easter Monday, which apparently is a major holiday in Belize.  The entire city felt as deserted as a ghost town.  I only saw a few other tourists, and some police whose job it is to protect the tourists while wandering around all day long.  When we found the natives, they were all desperately trying to catch a ferry out to the cayes.

I wish I’d been less prudish about taking pictures of strangers.  The city simply doesn’t have the same ambiance without the crowds.  Try to imagine these places all filled with pedestrians, bicycles, and cars.

First, notice that the highway is four lanes here.  It only has four lanes until we leave the city.  Then it’s back to two.  This is one of the biggest, widest, smoothest streets in the nation.
Then the streets get smaller.

And smaller.

 
These last two are actually important thoroughfares.  We couldn’t get around town without them.

We went all over the place from well-to-do neighborhoods.

 
To less well to do neighborhoods.

 
We bought a case of water, Smuckers peanut butter and jelly in a jar, plastic “spones”, and some Fanta soda at a local grocery store.  The lady behind the counter was busy with customers when I realized the caps on bottles of soda in Belize don’t twist off.  I needed a bottle opener.  One of the other customers very helpfully pointed out an opener attached to the wall, with a trash can under it for the lid. I could tell because it was full of lids.

  I wish I could show them to you, because the people of Belize are cool.

Alice

Linky Linky

Here are a couple more you might find interesting, though not the same way.

 http://jauntyquills.com/2007/04/27/fun-vacation-things/

 http://wordflirts.blogspot.com/

Alice

Have you all been over to see CM’s blog for today?

 It’s about property law in Regency England.  Check it out: 

http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblings/2007/04/28/correcting-some-legal-misapprehensions/

Alice

Chateau Caribbean

 

I mention them so often that I think I should show you a bit more of the places where we stayed.  First, as my mother planned the entire trip with the help of the Internet, you can find out about both Maya Breeze and Banana Bank through their web sites.  I’ll be blogging on them separately.

The first place we stayed was the Chateau Caribbean in Belize City.  It’s a good thing we decided to stay in Belize City the first night because we got completely turned around and didn’t find the hotel for hours.  Not that Belize City is all that big.  It was because of traffic, which I already mentioned, and one way streets.  I’ll show you some pictures of that on Tuesday.

When we arrived it was to find a grand old mansion of a hotel.  I’m not sure if you can see it in the picture above, but the whole thing was on stilts.  Our rooms were in the attic.  Standing out on the enclosed porch at night with the wind making the windows and floor shake was a toe-tingling experience, but the rooms themselves were very solid.  They were also quite large.  I’d love to show you the pictures, but all of them are full of scattered clothing and wrinkled sheets.  Yes, we took to it quickly.

The Chatteau is on the ocean.  Here’s a view from the parking lot.

Across the street the beech is made up of tumbled stone.  Not much fun for walking on, but I could swear the first night there that I saw the fossil of a trilobite in one of them.  Later I could find nothing more than embedded seashells.

We ate several meals in their restaurant, which was on the floor right below us.  I never spent much time in the rooms below that, but they were lovely with hardwood and ceiling fans.

   

It was a nice way to start the trip.

 .

Alice

Golden Heart

Got my results back.  Sigh.  Maybe next year.

 Did you enter?  If so, how did you do?

Alice

The Animals of Belize – part 2 – not behind fences

Here’s a picture of the shark I mentioned before:

I didn’t take it.  The guide took it on my sister’s camera.  The film from mine still hasn’t been developed yet, mostly because I haven’t used it up yet.  Not much call for underwater cameras in Montana.

We also saw manatees, or as much of them as anyone ever sees,

and monkeys

 

and various reptiles

 

 
Yes, those reptiles are in doors.  The lizard is inside a wall sconce in a restaurant.  We watched him snag a grasshopper that landed on the top of the fixture, then drop back into the warmth by the light bulb.  Now and then a tail would flick out.

The lizards in particular liked to get around.  In Maya Breeze we would see whole confabs of them hanging on the outside walls under the lights.  Must have been good bug hunting.  I don’t know how the frog managed to hang on the wall like that.  You should have seen him crawl up it.  With a faster camera I’d be showing you.

There were birds all over as well as a variety of crabs.  No, I didn’t get any pictures of the crabs.

People had horses in their yards, particularly in the Amish community we drove through.  Yes, Belize has a community of Amish.  I didn’t get any pictures because I was driving.  Banana Bank had horses all over the place, along with a number of trophies for winning horse races.

All kinds of animals roam around in Belize.  Some I’m more familiar with than others.

 .

Alice

And the Winner of the Patricia McLinn Contest Contest Is

Ericka!  I was thinking Tessa might get into Pat more, as she doesn’t write Romantic Suspense or Mystery at all, but the coin insisted.  Ericka, send me your choice from Pat’s backlist and your mailing address and I’ll get that out to you.  Keep in mind I have her early backlist, but am missing releases from 2007 and 2006.

Alice

Overheard in the Kitchen Yesterday

Daddy:  You had the biggest eyes when you were a baby, like those toys you have – The Littlest Pet Shop Pets.

Daughter: Only I was cuter because sometimes the Littlest Pet Shop Pets are creepy.

More Belizian Food Links

OK, I’m cheating again on the food thing, but my mother sent me this link 

http://www.belizenorth.com/belizean_recipes_text.htm

And I gotta say this looks exactly like what we were eating .  Except the conch.  Every place we asked said they were out.  The Monkey River Tour Guide told us Iguana was legal for natives to eat, but not allowed to be sold in restaurants because in the short time it was allowed they were nearly hunted to extinction.  Makes me wonder about the conch.

And the barracuda.  I saw a couple of barracuda in the water while snorkeling.  Frankly they were scarier than the shark.  They sort of hovered there, eying us with a cold intelligence.  I got the feeling if I hadn’t been swimming in a pack, I could have been HIS lunch.  Kind of reminded me of some hyper-alpha Romance heroes.

Alice

Patricia McLinn Contest

I do a little work for Patricia McLinn.  I help her handle submissions to her contests.  The last one she ran involved questions that could only be answered if you had read a book released by a small press.  It didn’t get a lot of response.  Previous contests didn’t tie in that closely to her work, and brought in hundreds of entries.

She has asked me to help come up with a contest idea.  I’m drawing a complete blank.  Has anyone here ever read any of her books?  Most of them are Heart-warming Harlequin Super Romances generally set in Illinois or Wyoming, and tend to include lots of people and some reference to sports.

Any ideas for a contest for her?  I’m thinking it should be something people could answer without reading her books, but that relates more closely than “What’s your favorite flower.”  I’d greatly appreciate any suggestions anyone here comes up with. 

In the spirit of TessaD and Amy/India I’ll give one of my copies of her books to someone who comments here.  Unlike them, I’ll give you a few days to come up with something.  I’ll post the winner Wednesday.

.

Alice