New Friends from Here and There

Just wanted to introduce you to some new friends we met yesterday here at Copa Banana. Barb and Jeff Wean who are from, would you believe it - Blaine, Washington.

Barb, Bill, and Tony

 If you're not from Washington, that probably doesn't mean much. Just imagine, we're about 2,700+ miles from home, and we meet a couple who're from about 150 miles away from us! We're all escaping the rain.

The other gentleman is Tony from Menzies Transportation Services here in Corozal. He has been their driver/guide for the past 3 or 4 days. We're going to try to hire him to do the same thing for us.

The Weans are an entrepreneurial and adventurous couple basically looking for the same things we are, including moving down here. They're curious about Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua in this case is pronounced just the way it's spelled instead of the island pronunciation of leaving the "u" out. So, we might go there and check that out as well. We're flexible.

We splurged and had pizza tonight. Marcelo's Pizza. Mmmmmm good! It was only $25BZ for a large pepperoni, cheese, and shroom pizza - delivered.

We found a good way to get beer to the hotel. Greg, one of the owners said he will call the beer truck in the morning and will give us a case of empties to swap with the driver for a full case of Belikin. Since there's a $0.35BZ deposit per bottle. That's a good deal. Plus delivery to our door! It just don't get no better!

I rode a bike into Corozal this afternoon and went to the New World Grocery on Santa Rita Road. Small Chinese-run operation, reminded me a lot of the stores we used to find in the islands, mon. Not a huge quantity of any one thing, but a lot of things nonetheless. I bought 8 bottles of Belikin, a block of cheddar, a big box of corn flakes, a box of soy milk, chocolate cookies, can of peanuts, and a can of Pringles. All this for only $56BZ. I threw the beer into the front basket of the bike and everything else into my day pack and pedaled back to the hotel. My first shopping experience in Belize.

Of course, I forgot I was dealing with Belize dollars and the shopkeeper was trying to tell me I was going to write too much in traveler's checks. At about the time I caught what he was trying to say, an expat who came in line behind me said, "remember where you are". Good advice. Thankfully the shopkeeper was honest, cause I completely forgot about two BZ for one greenback. Not quite a resident...

We're meeting tomorrow with Connie and Greg the owners, to talk to them about the process of moving here, etc., etc., etc. Connie did say that about half of what you read on the Internet about Belize is BS. So, it will really be interesting to get their perspective on things.

Dianna's still sore, but feeling much better. Beer and aspirin - the miracle drug! I think she's going to wait for Tony and his van to explore Corozal. We'll keep you posted.

Benjamin - in One of His/Her Favorite Roosts

I think I mentioned Ben, the Copa Banana informal House Cat elsewhere in the blog. The shot above is a candid one of him resting after a night of carousing... er, I mean, "working". He's a cool kitty. I shot this through the dining room window of the Copa.