Busy, Busy, Busy

Yesterday was one of the busiest we've had since moving to Belize. The day started off with us jumping into the Isuzu and heading off down the highway to Orange Walk. Our plan was to find somewhere along the way to have breakfast, then get to San Sing's motorcycle shop and see if he had the part I needed to get the scooter running again. After that, we thought we might try to find the People's Store in Orange Walk. That was about the extent of our thinking.

Canadian Bob had pointed out a restaurant on the outskirts of Orange Walk as being a nice place to eat. I thought we might have breakfast there, but as we pulled into their parking lot it became immediately obvious they weren't open. We decided to cruise on through Orange Walk to San Sings - take care of the primary task, then we could worry about everything else after that.

Naturally, I overshot San Sing's. As we turned around, it looked as though they might not be open. The only clue from that side of the building was that there were a couple of vehicles parked there that I had not seen when I was there on Saturday. As we swung around to the far side, the garage doors were open, and I could see a couple of folks crouching over a dismantled scooter inside.

We pulled up. I grabbed the broken part and went into the shop. After exchanging morning greetings, I asked if they might have this part. Both men looked at it, mumbled a bit, and one asked if it was for a Honda? I answered in the affirmative. About that time, the other mechanic got up and ambled over to some storage shelves. I wasn't sure if he was looking for my part or something for the scooter they were working on.

At last he came back with the part I needed. Price: $47BZ. I paid them for it and we left. A somewhat abrupt end to the conversation, but that was all the conversation that was needed.

We were still looking for a place for breakfast. As we turn back onto the main road from San Sings, we were just passing Landy's Hardware as I remembered I needed to get a new filter for our Rotoplas cistern, so we pulled in there. I found a sales girl who pointed me to the filter locations. Of course, there were several different sizes and shapes... I hadn't dismantled the old filter, so I had to rely on a picture on the box to find what I hoped was the right filter.

But there were two different boxes. Both looked to me like the same filter but, since everything was in Spanish, I couldn't be sure. She took the two boxes and went off to find the answer. After a couple of minutes, she was back - they were the same product, just one newer than the other.

I had already lost Dianna in the store. After paying for the filter ($23BZ), I went out to the vehicle - no Dianna. So, I went back in. I should have known... there she was, immersed in looking at housewares. She reminded me she needed to find a wedding gift. I had completely forgotten.

Breakfast was still a gnawing necessity, so it really wasn't too hard to pull her away from Landy's. But, as we were leaving Landy's we decided to stop across the road at a business named Santiago Castillo to see what they did or had to offer. On a previous visit, a sales person at Landy's told us we could shop there.

Entering the Santiago Castillo compound, we weren't sure if they were a business or a government agency - a nice new and modern-looking building surrounded by a eight-foot security fence, complete with a guard house at the gate. After parking in their clean, paved parking lot, we approached the front door where we were met with a sign: "Press buzzer for admittance". What was this place?
After we got in the front door, we were still in the dark. We were in a lobby sort of area, with three or four uniformed staff behind computers at a low counter, a glassed-in Cashier's area, and no other sign at all of what this place was about.

We were about ready to turn around and get out before we got in trouble, when a very friendly young man came into the room and asked if he could help us. I answered that he could and asked what they did there? He smiled hugely and said this was a popular shopping place for Americans and that we were welcome.

Still having no idea what we would shop for at this place, he offered to let us look through a catalog, which we started to do. At about the same time he introduced us to Patricia, one of the staff at the computer terminals. She offered to show us around the warehouse. Ok, we said, as she escorted us behind the counter and through a doorway into the warehouse.

As we began walking through the warehouse, it finally dawned on us what this place was. It was sort of like a mini-Costco, selling case-lots of toilet paper, cleaning stuff, foods, and some hardware items. Ah-ha! Now we had it. As we walked around looking at everything, we asked Patricia about the business, and yes, it was similar to Costco, but on a slightly smaller scale and without the membership fees. They did sell mostly wholesale to businesses, but did sell also to individuals, still mostly in case lots. We found a huge box of clumping kitty litter that we asked if we could buy that. We could. Patricia put it on the floor and asked one of the warehouse men to bring it up front for us.

About this time, she mentioned that their store downtown sold everything in the warehouse but at retail and in single quantities. That was the People's Store. More of the puzzle was falling into place. We asked where it was located as Nigel and Jenni had told us of People's but we still hadn't found it.

After we got back out to the sales area in front, Patricia rang up our litter purchase. Well, that's too easy a description. She entered a lot of keystrokes into the computer, asked my name and what town we lived in, and printed out three sheets of paper. After shuffling them into order, she proceeded to stamp each sheet with it's own stamp in large capital letters: "CUSTOMER COPY", in red - "OFFICE COPY", and "WAREHOUSE COPY". Then, she stamped each sheet with another stamp that had the company name and "PAID" on it. She initialled each of these stamps. Then, each sheet was stamped with a red stamp that said: "S C Ltd. CASH SALE". She then stapled the three sheets together, handed them to me and directed me to go over the the glassed-in Cashier's booth to pay for our purchase.

At the Cashier's booth, I handed the young uniformed lady my three copies. She made several ledger entries, a couple of computer entries and took my money. After filling out a receipt form, which said they had received $26.99BZ from me, and stapling this form to the original three, she gave me my change... and, the four forms, all neatly stapled together.

We picked up our big box of litter, and saying goodbye to everyone who had helped us, we went back out to our Isuzu. I couldn't help but wonder later, just how bad we had screwed things up at Santiago Castillo since we had the warehouse, office, and customer copies of the invoice, and the receipt. It was amazing how much bureaucracy there is just in a simple kitty litter purchase.

We cruised on to the southern edge of Orange Walk still looking for breakfast. At last we found a restaurant, the Sit and Dine Restaurant, where we had a nice two-egg breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed back into town, circling around the square, where we finally found the People's Store. After parking, we went in and did some shopping for laundry detergent, a wedding gift, etc., in short, the usual. As we finished loading our purchases into the Isuzu, my cell phone rang.

It was Roy Pascascio, of Roy and Son Trucking, saying he had most of our boxes and was planning to deliver them to us later in the afternoon. Hoo Haw! Our stuff was going to arrive from the states! Yippie!!!

After that, we headed back toward Corozal Town with a bit more focus than we would have normally.

Arriving at the house, we unloaded the vehicle, and I decided since it was around 12:30 PM, that I probably should get some 2x4's to put down on the floor of Tony's meat shop, so we could store our stuff and not have to worry about getting water in it from seepage under the door.

I called the lumberyard, appropriately named "the Lumba Yaad" asked if they closed for lunch - they did till 1 PM, and if I could get some 6' 2x4's - I could, so I headed into Corozal to do that.

I wasn't exactly sure where the Lumba Yaad actually was located, and figured I'd use the time before 1PM to find them. I did, at about 5 till.

Of course, this being Belize, I waited till about 1:15 PM, and still no one showed to reopen the Lumba Yaad, I decided to head to the Post Office, to mail a refund check from Comcast to our bank in Olympia (It cost $0.60BZ), to check the mail at our and Tony's mailbox, get some cash to pay for the lumba, and stop at the Doctor's to have him look at my finger, which had decided to look like I had whacked it with a hammer (I hadn't, but that didn't seem to bother the finger - it was doing its thing), and get back to pick up the wood.

I did the post office thing, cruised by the Doctor's office (at Evergreen Pharmacy) - they were closed till 3 PM, so that was a bust, got cash and made it back to the Lumba Yaad by about 1:40 PM. They had reopened and I got my lumba. 12 - 6' dimensional 2"x4" pieces of mahogany. Can you believe it? These things weigh a ton and are full 2" x 4" cut. The twelve pieces cost me $84BZ. I had envisioned just leaving the wood for Tony to use in his smoker after we moved our stored items to our own house. But with that quality wood and the cost - no way! I'm keeping it.

I got back to the house about 2:15 PM. I had to drive with the tail down and the spare tire carrier opened, so I drove all the way back with the emergency flashers flashing, for all the good that would have done. I put the wood on the floor in Tony's meat house and went to wait for Roy to show up.

A little later, Paul came over. Plying him with beer (we had to twist his arm) he told us he had actually gotten his boat into the water and it ran - all good signs. He was planning a trip over to the far side of the Cerros Peninsula to visit Donna and Enrique's resort and we were invited. Not sure what day that was going to happen yet, but soon.

Paul stayed till about 6:20 PM, still no Roy. I called Roy on his cell phone a couple of times to check his progress. He had been delayed by very heavy rain down in Belize City and was heading our way.

Roy and his crew arrived about 7:45 PM. I met them out on the highway. He was concerned that his truck (about a 24' single axle job) would get bogged down. I assured him the soil was solid enough to support whatever he had and he came in.

Backing up to the meat house, Roy and his crew off-loaded all 88 pieces. Some boxes looked a little dented, but overall, everything looked to be in good condition. Keep your fingers crossed. After thanking Roy profusely, they left to head into Corozal, and we went in the house, showered and

Bright Lights, Big City

We finally made it all the way down to Belize City, or just "Belize" as the locals say it.

The day started with a nice breakfast at Mrs. June's, who had been on vacation in the States for the past two or three weeks. She told us about going shopping in the States - not for clothes, but restaurant tools and accessories. It's nice to see her back and in business again. We missed her.

After finishing breakfast, we drove down to Belize on the Northern Highway. It was so nice to run on a paved road with no potholes, just dodging the occasional sugar cane truck and remembering to slow down (and I mean SLOW DOWN) for speed bumps.

As we were approaching Belize, we came up behind a large pickup truck fully laden with cinder blocks and towing a trailer also loaded with blocks. As we passed them, Dianna hollered that it was Franz (our contractor for the Mennonite house) driving the truck. We waved like crazy and kept on going.

We had talked earlier in the week with Franz about meeting him in Belize at Benny's (more later) since he was working on some new office spaces next to the Radisson Fort George Hotel, in Belize.

After a couple of hours, we got into the outskirts of Belize. Our first mission was to stop at Brodie's - the first US-style store we've seen here. Complete with paved and marked parking lot - of course, many people still couldn't quite master the art of parking between the lines, managing a sort of willy-nilly attempt all the way down the line.

Brodie's sells cat litter - one of those every-day products in the States that seem near impossible to find down here. They have it. We bought 75 pounds of dry litter - three huge bags, and two smaller bags of a new (to us anyway) crystal absorption-type litter. The dry litter (Litter Guard) was selling for $7.50BZ for a 25 lb. bag, and the crystal stuff (Fresh Step) was selling for $23.59BZ per bag. The crystals are supposed to last five times as long as the other... We'll see.

Our next task was to find Duke's Marine, which we did, just a little bit further down the highway. We pulled in and one of Duke's employees laughed at us because we pulled so far into their yard that we had to drive back toward the store, that he had pointed out to us.

Of course, we still didn't understand the directions and overshot it the other way. After parking, he pointed up some stairs to get to the actual store. He still found our ineptitude hilarious. It certainly would have been easier if they'd had a bit larger sign pointing up the stairs... but, who's complaining?

Anyway, we stopped at Duke's to get twenty snaps for British Paul for his boat. Turns out, there's single or double snaps - depending on your fabric thickness. We tried calling Paul on the cell phones, but couldn't get through. Oh well, we decided to bag it and try at the hotel to contact him and maybe make the purchase on the way back to Corozal.

So, we headed back out onto the road to Belize. Thank God I've had a few weeks of experience driving in Corozal. I couldn't imagine being a tourist, fresh off the plane and picking up a rental car to head into Belize City. Narrow streets, pot holes, crazy drivers, crazy bicyclists and motorcyclists, crazy pedestrians, crazy dogs, and traffic signs that may or may not indicate anything, all create an interesting driving experience, to say the least. We did see the first stop lights we've seen since moving here - exciting.

After cruising around downtown for a bit - lost, of course (we wanted to be on the west side of the river and we weren't) we finally found a bridge (not the famous Swing Bridge) to get us across and to the Hotel Mopan. The hotel is a nice, quiet, inexpensive hotel in the southwest side of the city. From there, we walked to Bird's Island for lunch.

Sign on the Way to Bird's Island

Bird's Island seems to be sort of a small, island used as a cultural, educational, and recreational center for tourists and schools. We walked into the island area surrounded by a bunch of kids from the State's who were going to the island for something official connected with their visit. Just not sure what that was.

There's an outdoor restaurant there, with cans of Off strategically placed for patrons use. There were a few mosquitoes there. The place was surrounded by several large pools of stagnant
water. But, we had a good lunch anyway.

During lunch, we managed to call Paul and figured out what size snaps he needed. We'd handle that when we left Belize.

After lunch, we strolled into downtown Belize. Approaching the Haulover Creek, which bisects the town, we were struck by the similarity of the downtown waterfront of Belize with the Carenage of St. George's, Grenada.

Colorful Caribbean Colors Show Off the Belize Waterfront

As we walked up the river toward the Swing Bridge, we passed the local fishing fleet, anchored in the creek and making a picturesque view of the waterway.

Belize Fishing Fleet at Anchor

I'm not sure how boats on the inside would get out, maybe it's not an issue if they all leave about the same time.

More of the Fleet

After a few more minutes we came to the Swing Bridge - so-called, because it swivels from the center, to open up the channel to boats. Different that the Northwest, it only opens once or twice a day for boats - no blowing your horn and having the bridge open up to allow your boat to head on its way. You just line up and wait.

The Famous Haulover Creek Swing Bridge

Nothing ever seems crowded when you're right in the middle of it. the picture below with Dianna looks like she's got the entire bridge to herself.

Dianna Dancing on the Swing Bridge

Thursday evening, we strolled into town, near the Radisson Fort George Hotel, to the Smokey Mermaid, located in the Great House, for a delicious supper. On the way there, we were accosted by a persistent street "guide" who called himself "Prince Charles" and for the longest time, refused to take "no thanks" for an answer. We finally managed to dislodge ourselves from the Prince and were able to continue on to the Smokey Mermaid in peace.

When we finished our meal, it was well after dark, so we took a taxi back to our hotel. It is a big city, after all, with the usual night creatures.

Ok, I couldn't resist one more shot of the fishing fleet. These may look like recreational sailboats, but most of them are actual, working boats. These are the boats used for Belize's fishing industry. Might not be large, but boy, does the fish ever taste good (speaking of which, Cody brought us another Barracuda from his fishermen friends right before we headed down to Belize City).

At the Head of the Fleet

Back at the hotel, Friday morning we enjoyed coffee on one of three of the Hotel Mopan's balconies - one for each floor. An added bonus was this old safe used as part of the balcony decorations.

Hotel Mopan Balcony Decorations

Here's a closeup of the safe. I know Don and Owen will enjoy this. I know nothing about it other than the location.

Closeup of the Mopan Safe

Another decorating touch there were several large coffee urns, used as planters. Probably burnt out and re-purposed into serving as planters. Man, they must have gone through some coffee - there were at least four or five coffee urn planters around the hotel.

After an enjoyable breakfast at the hotel, we strolled the opposite direction toward downtown and Benny's - a housewares and building supplies store downtown. We drifted around in their first floor area thinking that this wasn't quite what we had in mind - a few items displayed, but mostly counters for sales staff to write up tickets, and large shelves in the background. Not conducive to figuring out what sinks and tile you wanted in your house.

Finally, we saw a door with a sign above it saying Showroom upstairs. That was what we were looking for. Sinks, toilets, tile, lights, faucets, counters and more on display.

Franz finally found us and we began serious household shopping. We picked out a toilet and bathroom sink - all white, and tile for the shower, bathroom, and laundry room. After about two hours, we were done. It was time to return to the Mopan and check out.

We said goodbye to Franz, checked out of the hotel and then tried to find a Harley dealer that Elsie had remembered seeing on our way in. We wanted to buy Dianna a helmet for the scooter. We never did find the Harley dealer, but we did find a scooter dealer... naturally, with a bunch of helmets, all too large for Dianna. So we headed out of town, stopping at Duke's again to pick up Paul's snaps.

We decided to head over to Orange Walk on our return to Corozal. There was supposed to be a good-sized motorcycle shop located there.

Pulling into Orange Walk, we were hungry. But not as hungry as the mountain of fried rice, shrimp, and veggies we got at a little Chinese restaurant in Orange Walk. It was enough for lunch, supper back home, and a lunch again.

Checking out the motorcycle shop, it turned out they only had one helmet (too large) and that with a messed up face-guard.

We tried Landy's, the big hardware store in town. They sell scooters as well. No go. Why would you sell motorcycles and not helmets?

We decided a last-ditch effort would be to try Courts, kind of a discount appliance and housewares chain throughout Belize, specializing also in financing same - they also sell scooters. Well, low and behold, they had a helmet too! Of course, getting someone to show it to us was hard. We were about ready to leave when one of the sales people finally came to help.

The helmet fit well, but it's face guard had a bit of a scratch on it off to the side. The manager decided we could have it for a 10% discount. So, Dianna finally got a helmet for $50BZ. Half the price of the one I got in Corozal.

After scoring the brain bucket, we zoomed off to home. As we opened the door, Miss Blue was upset with us again... the kitties had run out of food and she was letting us know she was unhappy.

First Road Trip - Results Are In

Yesterday, we completed our first road trip since moving to Corozal. We went on about an hour's journey south to Orange Walk, looking specifically for the large hardware store reported to be there and to see what other stores were there that might not be found in Corozal.

Orange Walk's population (15,800) is approximately twice that of Corozal's (8,800). We expected bigger and better all the way around.

What we found was a bit disappointing. What we found in the couple of hours we were there, was that Orange Walk does, indeed, have a larger hardware store than Corozal - Landy's Hardware and Home Center. However, I think that Villa's in Corozal comes in at such a close second that unless there was something only available at Landy's, I see no reason to make the trip to Orange Walk.

Corozal has all of the stores that are available in Orange Walk. Restaurants, etc., all seem comparable... So, what's the attraction? I guess it could be the river tours, but, so far, I haven't seen anything in Orange Walk that I'd rush from Corozal to take advantage of.

It was so unexciting a journey that I didn't even take any photos.

Our friend Jenni reported this morning that what Orange Walk DOES have, is lots of really cool thrift stores. When all your T-shirts are grungy, you can pick up some replacements for $1BZ each! There's also the "Peoples Store", a grocery store with a bit more variety than D's here in Corozal. Even so, she wonders at the Gringos who do go to Orange Walk on a weekly basis... "What on earth are they finding to shop for"?