the start of our second week in belize

tuesday evening was a quiet one indeed. we watched tv and went to bed. slept good with the new fan.

awoke early wednesday morning and walked into town for breakfast at the snack shack...we wanted to see if we could find roberto (our friend with the boat) to see what the status of our possible fishing/snorkeling trip was. my breakfast was interesting...i ordered pancakes and fresh fruit, but was served waffles instead. no big deal, except when i poured on the syrup i got a little extra protein mixed in with the sugar (there were bugs swimming inside!) i brought this to the waitresses attention and she just smiled, nodded and walked away. i returned the bottle of syrup to the counter and explained again about the bugs. she handed me a new bottle of syrup! i returned the plate to the counter and requested a new order and finally she understood that i preferred my protein in alternate fashion. about 30 minutes later i got my new order and enjoyed it immensely. in the meantime, ricks breakfast burrito arrived at the table and was huge (and, according to him, delicious). roberto stopped by and said no water trips today...check back tomorrow. after we finished eating jenna entered the patio and introduced herself. we asked her to join us and ended up talking with her for over an hour. originally from the UK, she moved to punta gorda from the US 20 years ago after doing missionary work here. she owns 25 acres of farmland in the jungle, but is trying to sell most of it since she is almost 75 years old and no longer able to care for it herself. she is a very brave, interesting and smart lady. we made plans to meet her again on friday when she is in town. while chatting with her, she introduced us to carol, a baker who moved here last year from MN. she, too, is quite a character. after our chat, we returned home and took a swim then back to the apartment for showers, internet, tv and lunch. linda spent a quiet afternoon reading, internet and nap, while rick returned to town for more groceries, a better quality skillet and a knife set. left-overs for dinner and then a quiet evening of internet, reading and tv before bed. wednesday started off very warm, sunny and humid, but in the evening the wind changed and it became cool and cloudy. great sleeping weather, almost cold?

thursday morning started out very cool and cloudy...maybe some rain today? a local was next door mowing the weeds with a machete at 6AM! after a breakfast of oatmeal, we walked to the outdoor market to complete yesterdays shopping. we stopped at several shops along the way and chatted with a couple of very nice locals. we thought we might like to buy a cooler for our travels, but a standard size one cost $100!!! we decided against it for the time being. we did find a grocery store with a better selection of items and picked up some red wine vinegar which we didn't think we would have any luck finding. home after a couple of hours in town, but too cool to swim today. roberto was back at his boat, so rick chatted with him for quite a while and linda caught up on her soap opera! sandwiches for lunch and then started preparing the beans for a new recipe for dinner. played a couple of games of cards (linda won) and then watched the kids walk/ride bikes home from school. used our new skillet to prepare an outstanding chicken dish, served it up with rice/beans and pineapple. delicious! after dinner spent the evening chatting on the computer with family. jason set us up on skype, so if any of you have a computer with a microphone and can set up a free skype account, we can chat! almost time for bed. supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees tomorrow. should be perfect for more adventures!