Tacogirl's travel blog has moved to www.tacogirl.com

tacogirl.com island blog, San Pedro, Belize

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sun, 17 May 2009 12:20:00 +0000

Please visit - tacogirl.com daily island blog, San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye Belize.

If you want a great view, tacogirl blog is pleased to offer 24h Live beach video - realtime streaming Belize webcam. Tune in to see sunrise, Caribbean sea, barrier reef dock and occasional wildlife, people and boat view Ambergris Caye Belize - streaming video courtesy of Storm Chasers Belize.

tacogirl specials - Belize discounts on Tropic Air flights, Carts Belize, Hotels, Tours, Resteraunts and more.

p.s. If you got here from a link on another site - please shoot me an email
tacogirlbelize [at]gmail[dot]com with the website so I can write them and get the link changed.

tacogirl.com

A great ride - Extreme Adventures Belize

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sat, 16 May 2009 12:01:00 +0000

6:00 am Saturday morning and I am back at my labels again - I have to get them done asap as we are off to parasail this afternoon.

It's been a great ride a good ride on blogger but I have outgrown being here and I am ready to let it go put my attention on the next level.

My transition is almost complete and tomorrow is my last blogger post.

8:02 am still on second page of editing 300 posts. Been at this a solid 2 h so far and almost done. Will break before the last 300 and team up with Paul on revamping my amazon store before he goes to his morning meeting.

9:30 am - still glued to my chair got slowed down by a power out - finally finished second section of work - 300 posts left to go through - and a big sigh of relief when it is over.

I wish I could fast forward to this afternoon and all our work be done ha ha - I am definitly ready to float in the sky right about now.

12:16pm I made it up to 2009 and am pushing the envelope for time. Got to get to town by 12:45.

More later

I think it is safe to say I can speak on behalf of everyone on the boat today and say Thanks to Monica Alex and Kevin for making our parasail trip with Extreme Adventures today an all around good trip. Alex and Kevin did a great job of keeping us all laughing and making sure we were safe at every step of the way.

Our flight height was 250 - 300 ft and what a gorgeous day to be out on a boat and taking turns soaring above San Pedro with a bunch of we have never met who all turned out to be really nice. We had Benjamin from Chaa Creek - Frank who lives on the mainland and Darsi Salazar & Jose Acosta 2 teachers from Corozal who were doing a tandem parasail.

Tune in for part 2 Monday on tacogirl.com for my view from the air.

8:o9 pm whew here is my big sign of relief - finally finished going through all 761 posts. Time to get ready for Helda's birthday party at Roadkill. Party was fun - lot's of friends there. Watched people take turns whacking a Belikin bottle pinata and the frenzy for candy and mini squire guns after it opened. Helda Colette and Joe did some karaoke by that time we were ready to call it a night. Party pics coming soon.

Extreme Adventures Belize 226 - 3513

Ready for blast off

Floating high up in the sky

Coming in for a landing - Benjamin's turn

Great day for a parasail

Flying high on his first trip

Benjamin touching down

Frank is up

Lift off

Frank way up there

Frank just landed - Benjamin still smiling from his 1st solo flight

Darsi Salazar & Jose Acosta go airbourne

Hanging out chating

2 thumbs up

One occasion it's ok to double dip ha ha

Darsi Salazar & Jose Acosta make smooth easy landing

Back to town

Extreme Adventures crew

On the move towards tacogirl.com

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:51:00 +0000

I have been working hard and moving fast towards launching tacogirl.com

Thanks to Alissa's guests posts on Cayo the past 2 days - I have been able to immerse myself in wordpress and and get familiar. I found once I started it was pretty easy although I know I have just touched the surface.

I also found a good wordpress tutorial site - that walks you through some very useful stuff.

Really getting a better feel for twitter and how I can use it to help market my blog.

I just saw @tacogirl on right hand side of twitter and realized that not only do I know how to reply direct to a tweet by moving cursor to right of tweet to bring up direct reply arrow - now I can see peoples replies or who has sent direct messages to me that I may have missed.

More to come I have so many things on my plate right now and the first one needs to be food ha ha.

This afternoon I am tackling something on my blog list that has needed to be done for a while but was never quite the right timing - redoing my labels. I have come up with a few new ones and now I have to check all 761 posts 1 at a time to make sure the labels are right and add new ones where applicable. Lot of work but well worth it as I think the label option is a good search function if done well.

Sometimes when doing blog labels people get to caught up and want to stick a post in too many categories when in reality it should only be in one or 2. It can be a bit tricky deciding but well worth making sure you get it right so people get the most out of searching on your blog.

The new categories I have added are - fishing - cool stuff - 411 - Island Life - Stuff Swap and Useful Information.

I managed to get through doing 161 posts before I had to break. We were supposed to go to Lime for the chili cook off - I walked down to meet Paul at Pedro's sat down at the bar and just could not get up again. So we stayed there and ate pasties with a side of beans - played Yahtzee and bowled.

San Ignacio - part 2

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Thu, 14 May 2009 12:02:00 +0000

San Ignacio - part 2 by Alissa Reid

The bus comes to a complete stop in Santa Elena, the sister city to San Ignacio. They are separated by a wooden bridge large enough for one vehicle to cross suspended above the Macaw River. Between both cities, the population is around 16,000 people. The city looks worn and dirty compared to the countryside. We stop in the middle of the road. People start jumping out the back of the bus and the ticket agent with the gold fillings walks out the front of the bus. We wait. The bus driver honks the horn and everyone comes running, jumping back onto the bus with styrofoam containers filled with BBQ chicken and rice and beans, the Belizean staple food. It smells incredible.

We are then dropped off in the middle of town square, where the local fruit and vegetable markets are held. We are told to jump out the back emergency exit and I hold my breath until a man hands our big back packs down to us with a smile. We made it! As we start to try to close the school bus back door, the bus driver is already driving away, to his final stop at the Guatemalan border.

I hoist my bag up to my shoulders and notice that it is much hotter and much more humid that I had expected. I was actually thinking that this place was mountains and trees, dense and cold, but it is mountainous and hot, as we are still in Belizean jungle. We are immediately accosted by the cab drivers, to which I smile and say, "Maybe, gimmie a second to figure out where I am!" They smile and I start to realize that this area is much more friendly than the Island people I have grown accustomed to over the past year and a half. Steve and I scan the area. It seems there is the market area, and then up the hill the road splits into two and I can see stores up each way and the Belize Bank. Down the hill and past the market seems to be a less populated area. They have many tour operators, so we decide they might be the most helpful people to talk to first. We walk up to one of the tour operators and ask him where Casa Blanca hotel is, a hotel we have found in our guide book and it seems quite charming by the description. He points up the hill, it's not far. We start walking up the hill while the taxi drivers keep calling to us to take their offer of a ride. We realize it is literally a 2 minute walk. As we walk up the steps to the hotel, I notice an over powering sewage smell and see that beside the sidewalk there is an open sewer. So far I am not happy with our quaint nature adventure. The lady at the hotel comes out to greet us. She is very sweet and takes us through the locked gate and up a staircase to show us the rooms. There is a common area where people are able to cook in a kitchen and a small living room to watch tv or hang out. Steve finds it endearing, I find it weird, with mismatched decorations and the worst selection of books I have ever seen. She takes us down a long corridor, to our room. It is small, with two small beds, a tv and a dresser. Each room has a bathroom with a slated window for ventilation, that goes directly into the hallway. You can hear the people in the common kitchen area from the bathroom. We decide to take the room for the night, and she tells us to get settled and then come down to pay. We change, freshen up, and decide even though the room is $50US, it isn't that bad and we will survive. I can hear the traffic below. We go downstairs and pay, deciding that we will only pay for one night, and see if we can find something a little better.

The street is filled with cars and people, a strange sidewalk that doesn't go straight, but cuts off in places to allow the drains to go where they need to go. There are three small buildings across from us. One is called an icecream shop, although there is a line up at the window and people are getting things that don't look anything like icecream. The place beside it is called Hanna's restaurant and is also featured in our guide book so we cross the street and go in. The place is fairly bare, except for linen table cloths and some local art for sale on the walls. There is another traveling couple around our age sitting, already enjoying their food. The menu boasts that Hannah's has its own farm, where they raise their own chickens, beef, and grow all the vegetables. I am eagerly anticipating the food, as living on an Island does not provide the freshest of produce, unfortunately. I am having a difficult time deciding on what to order and the traveling couple suggest the fish fingers and the giagantic quesadilla they cannot even finish half of. Steve orders the quesadilla and I opt for the chicken curry with salad and their own homemade dressing. The food surpassed my every expectation as the freshest, tastiest food I have had in ages.

As the traveling woman appears from the bathroom on their way out, I decide to ask her where they are planning on staying, as they are still carrying their oversized backpacks. She tells me they found a cute little place called Midas, just outside of town with little cottages and a hammock strung up on the veranda. They also serve breakfast. We thank them for the suggestion and they are on their way. While finishing our lunch, we decide that we should explore other places to stay, as our friends Jean and Doug are meeting us the next day to stay for the weekend as well so we start walking in the direction the girl pointed. We decide to walk, as we are exploring the town anyways and aren't carrying our heavy load anymore. We ask along the way if we are headed in the right direction and are greeted and encouraged by the smiling faces we meet. The small town center is gone from view within a few minutes and we are greeted by a much cleaner, greener area. We walk past a large park and find ourselves at a sort of large outdoor restaurant with gaming area for children. We decide to go and sit for a drink and enjoy the view of the wooded area. Steve asks where Midas hotel is and the waitress points through the trees, she says its right there, and then points to the road we had been walking on and says maybe five minutes and we are there.

We arrive at Midas, and find a small building which serves as the office. There is a young white teenager working. He is very friendly and has a thick Belizean accent. He tells us his name is Michael, that this is his mother's hotel and he was born in the Cayo District. We ask if he minds showing us a room and we are guided into a wooded area around back with a long winding path through at least a dozen small cottages. He shows us 4 or 5 of the cottages and the different styles and prices and we are confussed but happy, as we like them all. He asks us where we are from and we tell him Canada. He says he has family in Canada that he has wanted to go and visit, in Winnipeg. I laugh and tell him that that is where we are from. What a coincidence! He asks how long we have lived in San Pedro and we tell him we have lived here for one and a half years. He says that that qualifies us for a Belizean discount and we end up with a cute little cottage and airconditioning for $50USD. We tell him we will see him in the morning, as we have already paid at the place downtown and will be staying for three nights. As we are leaving we see the traveling couple from the restaraunt and they are happy we have found the place.

After walking around the very small town square for awhile we decide to go and have a beer or two at the pizza place, as we can't find anywhere with a patio open. Shortly after, the couple arrives again, so we ask them to sit. There names are Katie and Evan and they are from Iowa, but have great stories about living in New Orleans. We sit for a few hours until it starts to get dark and I suggest we go back to Casa Blanca for a shower and out for supper to the Italian restaurant, that we have also heard good things about. Our friends have decided to go for a night on the town. We say goodbye.

I awake in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of a fridge opening in my ear. I hear the pan go down on the stove top and realize my head is right beside the wall in the kitchen. The sun isn't up. I hear the tv go on in the common living room and people talking. I look at the clock on the cell phone and laugh. It's 4:55am. I wonder how happy the guy is that I heard come in at 2:30. Probably not. I decide I couldn't let it bother me, but then realized that I am smushed up against the wall with Steve on the other side of me in the tiny little bed with a terrible mattress that I almost thought was a water bed the night before with the way it swayed when we got in. We end up awake, showered, and packed up to leave the Casa Blanca hotel by 7:00am. We go over again and again how happy we are that we are moving to Midas cottages. We decide that we should find Evan and Katie and buy them a beer for getting us out of the downtown hotel.

At 9:00am we are already catching a taxi to Midas. We have realized we have missed every tour around and I am feeling a little down and want to find some sort of adventure to do for the day. We think maybe Michael will be able to help us. We arrive and realize to our dismay another person is working. It is another man who looks quite young as well but is of a Spanish or Mayan decent. We explain that Michael has said we could leave our bags at the front desk. He looks at us with a frown and says, "What? Reid? I don't see you guys in the computer......" then he breaks out into a grin and says, :Just kidding, you can get into your room right now! We were trying to find you a king bed, but if you are ok with 2 doubles....." We smile and still can't believe our good luck as he walks us to our cottage. I realize I didn't actually see anything about check in and check out times. We walk down the path and listen to birds chirping songs I have never heard and watch as the hotel guy points out different types of plants and trees, reciting what herbal remedy it is used for. I'm starting to think that time is not much of a factor out here.

That all we have, is time - more coming soon.

The Road to Cayo Belize - part 1

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:00:00 +0000

The Road to Cayo Belize - part 1 by Alisa Reid

We threw our backpacks onto the back of our golf cart and tied them in for the ride to town. We decide to leave the light on outside and the TV on inside. We have also come to the realization Steve's office might be a safer place to leave our computers and passports as we live outside San Pedro town, on the more remote North side of the Island.
Our ferry boat to mainland Belize leaves at 9:30, so we decide to go into town for breakfast. We have also decided to leave our golf cart locked up in town on Front Street, as taxis are not allowed on the North side of the Island. We park in front of another real estate office, an empty space now since our English friend Peter jumped ship to fly back to reality. Something you see on the Island on a regular basis.

We go to Estelle's, a favorite beach breakfast spot where Charles serves us fry jacks, bacon, and refried beans. Our favorite beach dog, who we affectionately named Playa, walks up casually to greet the customers until I say "Playa" and she breaks out into her nervous excited dance. We "adopted" her over a month ago, took her to the vet for shots, bathed her, and let her sleep in our house. After running back to the beach three times, we now realize we cannot own her, we can just be her friend. She walks us to the end of the pier where we get on the water taxi and she quickly disappears.

Our hour long water taxi takes us bumping through blue green waters past other Islands like Caye Caulker, our more relaxed counter part and Caye Chapel, an 18 hole golf course resort where we keep trying to justify spending $200 US each to golf.

We arrive in Belize City in a bustling area where they unload cruise ships full of pasty white tourists looking for a bit of Belizean culture. Unfortunately for them, they are corralled into an area with bars and shops all owned by the cruise ships where incidentally, no locals are allowed to go. We momentarily entertain the idea of trying to sneak in for American prescriptions and booze, but can't figure out how to even get into the area.

We are quickly escorted to a van that takes us to the bus terminal for three dollars. We have read that the bus station is in a dangerous neighborhood and are feeling a small level of anxiety as we walk into the bus station.

We see a young Spanish looking Belizean man and he asks us where we are going. I notice he has gold fillings around his teeth. I say "San Ignacio" and he points to the oldest looking school bus I have ever seen.

"Leaving in 10 minutes." I ask if there is an express bus, eying the nicer bus beside us thinking it might even have air conditioning. "Nope." He smiles. We climb onto the bus, realizing our pale skin is glowing to those already in the bus waiting. We are still anxious as we put our bags in the seat in front of us. Steve looks at me and says, "It smells like tomato soup." I think it smells like Lipton noodle soup.

We are in one of the roughest areas of Belize City. Where the murders here make any hood in the States look like a playground. Then a little white haired lady gets on the bus and I let out a sigh of relief. We drive through the city, filled with tiny stores with badly painted signs, junk, construction, and destruction. where the majority of houses and shacks look condemned but have bright colored clothes hanging on the line outside, or a mother holding a baby in one arm on the porch, and a cell phone in the other. I pull out my IPod and sit back for the three hour ride, letting people on and off, all the way down the Western Highway.

Along the highway we pass small villages with rusted vehicles without tires, small shacks with nothing in the window but a curtain, two neighbors talking through the window. Plywood shacks with hand painted signs advertising rice and beans, attempting to entice the hungry traveler. The landscape becomes less tropical with more bushes, trees, and mountains in the background. I smell rain before I look up and see it splashing the windshield of the bus. I wonder if the wipers work.

Off the highway I see a dirt road leading to a village. There is a school with windows and doors wide open. Two women are walking on the road and a drunken man is sitting on the road talking, possibly to them but it's hard to tell.

As we continue to cruise down the highway we come across an accident. A white Chevy truck has rolled, many times. I would be surprised if the person lived. This gets the people in the bus talking across to each other, mainly in Creole. The only words I can make out are FUCK. I think they might be speculating who the driver was, as there are only 250,000 people in the entire country. We pass, and I hope this serves the bus driver as a reminder that this is one of the deadliest highways in Central America.

-To be continued tomorrow

Madame in Mexico

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:27:00 +0000

Love waking up at 6 am been having a very productive morning got advance guest posts set up for the next 2 days ready and started this mornings among other things - just realized the time I better get ready for the pool. Going to test waterproof camera at the pool today and see if the memory card formatted correctly - silly me I forgot to put it in when we went out Sunday.

My underwater camera is another way of mastering patience. I have a set routine. First I run it under the tap and press the buttons a few times then I put it in a bowl of water while I go wash up. After that I rinse it off do the buttons again and set it outside in the shade to dry.

Today I am timing it by lunch - will eat sandwich and drink iced coffee then it will be time to dry it off with a small cloth followed by adding the laundry into the dryer and finally I will be able to check out today's pool pics. BY the way it looks like my memory card did not format. I will have to check it once more or try my spare.

For now I will leave you with Madame in Mexico and some hunky warriors ha ha. She said she and JD had a great trip. We were all glad to have her back - even Chunky and Ruth said they are missing Maureen's class from afar. Check out their blog to see what what Aquafit Norte is like. Funny just as I started downloading the Mexico pics One of JD's songs came on a man of constant sorrow by Soggy Bottom Boys - back to disco Madame's style with more more more.

For those of you attending Blog Fiesta - Lobsterfest schedule coming soon. Thanks for your patience.

p.s. Sharon I mentioned to the school to send MR. Victor to get the donations. Paul never told me who they were from so if you are reading this and you dropped off 5 bags of stuff at Lime for HC school recently we all say muchas gracias.

Maureen having fun and looking Fabulous in Mexico - pool pics below

Paul doing a drive by hi on my way home

Affordable Belize Real Estate Raffle

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:40:00 +0000

So much going on it's hard to know where to begin.

Last night I was trying get pics off underwater digi cam so I could check out how well beach and underwater settings look and get to work blogging them. For some reason it was not working this time - so I put in the Vivitar disk to ge the driver. Instead of fixing the problem it created a whole new one. It turns out the program is too old for the newest windows service pack and I kept getting blue screen error messages.

Lucky Paul thought to Google the error code so we knew what the problem was and possibly how to fix it. He tried a few things and even acer start up disks would not work so this morning he called Extreme Geeks and sent me off with a handwritten note of what he found the problem to be. Fingers crossed it is an simple and inexpensive fix - shuffles said they are really good based on her experience. I was on my way to the school anyways and would be riding right by their shop for an easy drop off.

Walking around the school it is amazing how fast things are changing. Francis took me to check out thge library again - last time I saw it in person they were still sorting. I did see pics of a more finished state but it was great to see how nice it is looking up close. What a treat for the kids to have such a big selection of books read right at school.

The main reason for my visit was to get some kids art work a couple of t-shirts and some crosses to send back to Joanne in Canada. She is working with her friend Heather to raise donations for the school and they needed some stuff to make a couple of displays in Colleges to get students interested to come and volunteer. They are the ones who make the school facebook group many of you have joined - if you haven't yet please check it out.

I also wanted to check out how the Land raffle was progressing and get more information on that. A local real estate agent has donated a piece of land to be raffled off for $10bzd a ticket to help raise money for the school - what an interesting idea. To find out information on the Belize Land Raffle hosted by Affordable Real Estate Belize - please visit the school blog.

While at the school another cool thing happened. I was hanging out in the office with Miss Linda aka wonderwoman and I realized I had forgot my water bottle in the Library. As I cut through the computer lab to go get it the teacher was talking to the kids about a pen-pal program they are involved with - likely the one set up by Heather who I mentioned above. She teaches at Greehholme Public in Toronto Canada and got Miss Knights grade 8 class to join pen-pal program with the older HC kids here in San Pedro Belize.

Amazing - look how many books came down in suitcases

Seating area for the kids to read

Teachers resource center

Teachers resource center

Easel with colorful learning material makes a handy door block

3 cheers Carole from Penguino for all her hard work in the library

Amazing artwork

Great artistic talent

One of the classes in school penpal program getting ready to take a test

View walking across the bridge

Heading south

Kids on bridge

Tole booth

Back roads home

Sunday = beach day

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:22:00 +0000

Happy Mothers day shout out to our 2 Mom's in Canada - and mom's worldwide. Hope you are having a great day.

Nothing says happy Sunday like a day at the beach - but first come the chores lol. Paul is downstairs hacking away at the banana trees with a machete and mowing the lawn while I tackle the upstairs bathroom.

Back and forth with Dick and Carole on the coconut phone this morning - hoping to co-ordinate a snorkel at Chunky and Ruthies spot - Lara just popped up to check in on timing for the beach. What a chatty morning now Colette is saying hi.

I have a system down for cleaning the counter. Since we have a double sink with a lot of counter space I clean one half then while it is start dismantling stuff on the other side - add random blogging and packing a beach bag into the mix today.

Amazing how we all of are running on the exact same slight delay.

Afternoon was great - ended up at Catamaran for a b it then walked to Canucks to meet Dick and Carole - they were dropping Zac and his drum off after a quick Snorkel. Paul hung out at All Star Jam while Lara Dick Carole and I went out in the boat for a bit. When we got back to Canuck's the band was cranking out some great blues music today.

FYI... A few of you might want to consider reinstalling your coconut phone (msn messenger) as your cf keeps auto sending spammy link messages - not naming names so if you want to know if you are one of those people just ask.

Yard work

Watching Uncle Paul cut the grass

Now for the good stuff.....

Mini power outs

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sat, 09 May 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Working hard all morning on lobsterfest planning - between organizing Blog Fiesta and decorating two booths I am keeping myself quite busy. Of course you can't run on empty so cooked a lovely breakfast for Paul and I this morning - eggs - fried potato & ham with toast on the side.

Message from Quick Silver Dianne... There will be scheduled power outs from 8 - 8:15 am and 4 - 4:15 pm daily until Tuesday.

Lara came by this aft and we hung out on the veranda talking about our latest dreams and schemes. It's always good to have our chat sessions we both get a lot of ideas that way.

Went to Pedro's tonight for some bowling - yahtzee and pizza. On our way there we had a fabulous happening - ran into Ruth and Monel carrying fresh made warm fudge. 2 YUMs up for that delicious goodness ha ha.

Lizard hanging out on our veranda

Change is good

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:48:00 +0000

There is lots of change in the air right now. I see evidence of so many major breakthroughs and changes among my friends here and back in Canada.

I am glad my change is good and brings excitement instead of upsets.

Thanks to the input of Jen on Authority Blogger Forum and Ashley Morgan at Upstart Blogger - Paul I and have reached a major decision. It's time to take a big step forward and let go of blogger so I really focus on building tacogirl.com.

I will keep you all updated as the changes are happening and let you know when it is time to change your bookmarks and re-subscribe to the new rrs feed.

I sometimes wish I knew better and had gone with wordpress from the get go, Paul reminded me things happen the way they are supposed to and that I did not know better at the time I decided to blog so I chose an option that I was able to figure out for myself. Damn that voice of reason - he is so right.

Lost power for 5 minutes - glad it came back fast. There might be more to come as I am feeling chatty today but I have to get cleaned up and go take pics for someone in town.

Back from my errands. Stopped by Changes to say hi to RLD and shuffles on the way in and chatted with quicksilver Dianne in the old football field for a bit. It was nice to catch up with everyone - sometimes we get so busy we do not cross paths enough. While in town I was able to fill in Blog Fiesta schedule more - aiming to have it ready to send out next week.

Here are some pictures I took in our yard yesterday afternoon.

Fluffy clouds

Sky watching

Cloud patterns

New bloom

Fan palm

View across the road - made for a cool desktop pic

Booze Cruise at the Beach

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:30:00 +0000

Can't say I have ever been to a Booze Cruise on land before ha ha.

Thursday Night 'Booze Cruise' at Catamaran Bar

Every Thursday Night at Catamaran Beach Bar (Caribbean Villas Hotel), please join us for our weekly 'Booze Cruise' guaranteed not to make you seasick!

Featuring Live Music by the Small World Band from 6 to 10 pm, the finest Chicken Lime Curry in the World, Fire Dancing, Raffles and much more... Win great prizes, including rooms at Pedro's Hotel and Caribbean Villas.

Roller coaster

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Been riding the tech Roller coaster today.

Dealing with blog things and trying to figure the best way to deal with blogspot now that I own tacogirl.com - what a headache. I have to say though I am so lucky with Paul - it is not always easy to work with someone over tech stuff. He puts up with me and is so helpful to make things look good and run smoothly.

I got some very exciting news today - Carbunkle Trumpet and his lovely wife Shawna are coming in from Memphis for Blog Fiesta in June. For all those of you who are planning to attend I promise I will get a schedule sent out soon - I am just waiting on confirmation from a few places so I can make it official.

I have just confirmed Pedro's for the meet and greet on Friday June 19th. It will be an open party - anyone who wants to come meet the bloggers is welcome to join the fun. For all you bloggers coming to the event this location has wifi option for live blogging.

I just took a short quiz to find out which adventurer I am - see comment section below to find out the answer.

Tuesday adventure

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:33:00 +0000

Instead of going to the pool this morning I decided to have a snorkel adventure - perfect opportunity to try my new underwater camera from chunkyruth.

I decided to walk along the beach to Ramon's dock and check out how the artificial reef is doing. Have not been in way too long (last time I remember snorkeling there was with DCG)

I do miss the big palapa at the end of the dock but they have a proper ladder now which makes it easier for those who want to go in right from the end of the dock instead of swimming from shore. It is pretty good for a free snorkel spot at the beach and close to town.

I still have to play around with my camera some more and see how different settings work underwater - for now I just went with auto. It was a bit hard to tell how my pictures were turning out under water as the screen was hard to see but I managed ok for my first try.

Ruthie said the camera is a battery hog but did not find myself running short of battery life. I had rechargeable ones in so I was able to practice deleting as I went along - found a short cut for that in the manual yesterday. Another good tip I got in the manual was to keep a silica pack inside the battery area when not using the camera.

Small downside of today's adventure somehow I lost my snorkel on the way home - I retraced my steps as soon as I noticed and could not find it.

My first underwater pictures with a digital camera...

We miss you already

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Had my last meeting with Chunky and Ruthie - they leave tomorrow boo hoo.

Ruthie called this aft while I was studying the manual for the underwater camera she gave me and asked if they could come by with some fudge brownies - yum. I took the opportunity to get last pics from their season walking down the road towards our house.

I am quite excited about the camera - Ruthie said it will be a great starter model - I will be checking to see if those pesky jellyfish are gone so I can test it out.

Here they come

Chunky and Ruth

We miss you already and you have not even left yet

Mobile Party Posse

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:51:00 +0000

What a fantastic afternoon - nothing like hijacking your friends front yard on the beach with a full out bbq party.

John Henry Grilled up a storm - chicken wings - burgers and pork chops we had enough food to feed a small army and then some. Chunky was agreeable to having some wings and chops for tomorrow - last day of their San Pedro season and it saves them on cooking. Molly was definitly agreeable to have the left over half burger.

After dinner some of us played Yahtzee while others went straight for the hammocks.

Party posse moved over to the hot tub at Caribbean Villas. I came home to clean the coolers and get blog done. Was going to go back and join them but they were already on the move and then everyone suddenly fizzled out fast.

p.s. Joe I somehow managed to loose that good pic of you in the hammock I swear I uploaded it and did not see it this morning. We will just have to have a do-over.

Joe holding up m&m's

Chunky helping the boys start the bbq

Molly loving the beach

Chimney starter

Dick and Carole popped by for a quick hello

Chicken wings marinated in mango tango sauce

Ruthie telling a story

Hanging out at the bbq

Burgers are up next

Coconut time - worlds most inexpensive dog toy

Pork chops in fruit marinade

Cindy and Molly

John Henry raking the coals

More coconut husk for the bbq

Chunky putting the grill back

Paul Ruthie Cindy

Chops are cooking

Cindy Ruthie Joe

Along comes Lorie

Molly looking for belly rubs

Burgers are up

Chow time

Hammock time

Back to Yahtzee

John Henry and Joe

Looking at baby fruit bats

More Yahtzee

Yard Sales and bangers

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:36:00 +0000

Tuning in live from Lime while we wait for breakfast.

Paul read in the papers about a yard sale at Corona Del Mar so we decided that was a good Saturday morning thing to do.

First person we saw there was Nancy - she told us there was another one at TMM so we hitched a ride with Steve Lee and had a look. Happy to say that we did not buy anything from either sale - did not see anything we could not live without.

Since we were already in town we decided to hit Lime for breakfast - it's already jumpin. Sharon shared the last of a Galaxy bar with us another fringe benefit of being friends with people on the Lime Challenge. For all you banger fans Lime has a fresh shipment in.

Paul texting Cindy and calling Chunkyruth - looks like we may end up at the pool for some aquafit after breakfast.

Steve Lee has great timing on our way home from breakfast he found us again and gave us a lift back home.

We all agreed Paul's pool idea was a great one. Chunky led the class for the most part and we all chimed in with reminders of things Madame makes us do. By the time we got to the deep end we got a bit more floaty minded and did not quite make our full routine.

Cindy kept mentioning she was starving and needed to eat so it was decided the best course of action was to go to Catamaran for an after pool snack. Whole there Cindy decided we should have a bbq tomorrow and that we should do it by the water so she called Chunkyruth and asked if we could hijack their bbq in he afternoon. They were agreeable so we set to making plans.

We parted ways but not for long as we were all going to meet up again at Pedro's. Cindy had to work - Paul wanted to watch the basketball game and some of the fight and I was looking to get a few rounds of Yahtzee in before Cindy got Busy. Got to meet up with Heather and Andrew - they had a great 2 tank dive and saw 5 sea turtles.

Paul and Nancy

Paul heading to second sale

Lively crowd at the end of the bar

Yum - they do great scrambled eggs

Helda took this one

Pool time with Cindy Chunky and Ruth

Soon they will be back in Minnesota for a bit

Hungry monkeys off to Caribbean Villas for some food

Lovely day

Paul and Molly played coconut

Cindy and I played poker dice

We all ate nachos

Molly thinks the world will end if she does not get a nacho

Yahtzee with Cindy at Pedro's before she got too busy - my Dad's dice cup set

Kyle's pic of him playing a joke on his dad

mmmm pizza tonight we had 1/2 garlic shrimp and green pepper and 1/2 bbq chicken

Happy Labor Day

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sat, 02 May 2009 00:16:00 +0000

This morning I put pics up from yesterdays Island Academy fundraiser at Pedro's - was a great time. Still need to add text but will fill that in over the weekend.

It's Labor day in Belize and I decided to take the day off. This evening I did get around to doing some work on the school blog with an April update and May wish list.

Paul aka tacoboy pointed out an interesting post on the message board this afternoon.

Short version... BEL (Belize Electricity Limited) buys electricity from a hydro-power company in Mexico. The Mexican company announced that due to problems with their own power plants, they will suspend the sale of power to Belize for 4 months, starting now. BEL advises customers to be conservative in their use of electricity. If Belize has no power at all coming in from Mexico for the next 4 months we may want to anticipate and prepare for frequent an prolonged lapses in power.

Monel just popped me on coconut phone after reading same post and asked if I thought it was going to happen. Although I am not sure if it is totally confirmed - I will not be surprised if it does. In any case it can't hurt to get flashlights and crank radio in order. Luckily we are close to Banana Beach as they have a generator.

For all those of you in the Lime Challenge tacoboy and I took a hit for you today and enjoyed a delicious high cal meal. We decided to make a late breakfast at home and had bacon with real maple syrup on it - eggs (fried in same pan after bacon was made) - cilantro & garlic home fries and toast. YUM.

Reflections of Belize by Joanne Frei aka Jobelize

Bets for Texts

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:10:00 +0000

Nothing like a good fundraiser party - music - gambling - great prizes and all you can eat Pizza were all definitly a big hit.

The tents outside transformed Pedro's into a magical party place where everyone enjoyed the sounds of Melodyman Escobar and Small World Band - jello shots - bingo - raffles - roulette . For the more serious gamblers there were inside tables to play blackjack and poker. The Island Academy Teachers did a great job making sure we all had raffle tickets - fresh bingo cards - jello shots and everyone who came out for the event looked fabulous all dolled up for Casino night.

Birthday Shout outs to Chunky and Charles of Estel's

Pedro's was a beehive of activity all day

Bets for Texts set up

Vegas Extravaganza

Multiple tents

Handmade decorations

Roulette table

Paul helping on inside decorations

DVD with island academy kids

Poker room

Pedro Lady Dixie and the inside dealers going over details

Vegas Extravaganza

Out door party area

Yard all lit up

Pizza time

Wade got a slice

Joe and Wade

Marty won Bingo

Chunky Ruth and I played bingo - none of us won but Rebecca Arceo shared her prize with Chunky and gave him a belikin hat and t-shirt. We did invent a new version of pictionary with beans.

Fun party

Jello shots

All for a good cause

Chunky doing a jello shot

Inside gaming tables

Good turn out

Making "Bet's for Texts"

Boys in the corner watching the game

Charles and Ruth playing Wonderwoman and Monel watching them

Ruth doing quite well

Helda and JZB trying their hand at roulette

Melodyman Escobar and Small World Band

Sharon Walter Michele

Outside party

Lara wearing Chunky's hat

Chunky and Lara

Ruthie Chunky Lara and Alaina

Cheers

Walter and I dancing - by tacoboy

Walter is a good dancer - by tacoboy

I have 2 left feet ha ha - by tacoboy

Alaina Carole Walter and I

Walter and Ruthie

Ruthie Walter and Chunky

Lara and Walter

Carole and Lara

Lara and Paul

We stayed so late it turned into Chunky's birthday - By Carole

Carole and Lara

Bowling time

Chunky aka birthday boy goes first

Paul and Lara with Alaina peeking out the middle

Joe joins in bowling

Definitely a fun night had by all

Good motivation

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:45:00 +0000

We are getting good motivation to keep exercising from all angles.

First off we have Monel dropping off peanut butter cookies to Paul at Pedro's last night - then we have all our friends texting and popping each other on the coconut phone to see who is coming to aquafit class and lastly going for breakfast with same friends at Monkey Bites afterward.

Paul Carole and I all checked our weight on the gym scale. We all decided it is kinder than Chunkyruth's bathroom scale and as a result not quite as accurate - Cindy verified which one was right from knowing her weight on 2 other scales.

Cheap flights to Belize - Saw this deal on Christine's facebook then saw Pedro's added to it a bit... Air Fare Sale to Belize on now $297 Return from Newark. Add Pedro's Grand Opening Special (45% off rooms - $28 US per night) and you've got a cheap vacation to Belize. Neither one mentioned where they saw the deal unfortunately - will let you know if I find out.

Full class - 13 of us today

Molly was glad when we were done

Off to breakfast

Hola from Gwen and Dave

Sitting outside at Monkey Bites

Molly

Coconut for breakfast

1000 free business cards

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:23:00 +0000

Funny how things work - I have been living up a few ideas to start running more contests on my blog and today I see a contest by Upstart Blogger and allbusinesscards.com to win 1000 free business cards - by the looks of it not may people have entered yet so I am crossing my fingers and giving it my best shot.

Ashley did a great post a while back about what every blogger should have on their business cards which I found to be very sound advice. Very handy card format for scatter marketing one's blog or website.

More to come I have to go the the e-vite sent out for Thursdays "Bets for Texts" fundraiser at Pedro's.

Went for a bike ride to town to drop off some stuff to be altered at Aida's shop - I figure getting 3 things altered is cheaper than buying something new. Besides it was time to cut up a couple of those granny length dresses I never wore and go above the knee ha ha.

Here are a few pictures I took on the way out of town of the face lift Wings ( our only department store on the island) is getting.

Delayed by pork chops

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:25:00 +0000

We were planning on heading to the park for the Eco Challenge party and stopping at Sunday Jam along the way - we got totally sidetracked at Catamaran. After seeing Cindy and Beth's pork chops that we decided we needed some too - good call they were delicious. Chatted the rest of the afternoon away with all our friends and had a nice time at the beach bar.

I still feel so lucky to be at the beach within a 5 min walk of our front door.

Steve manning the grill

Who can resist bbq - not us ha ha

Burgers ribs and chops

Mango Tango

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:21:00 +0000

1:23 pm
I just finished making 20 chicken veggie skewers for Chunky and Ruth's bbq this aft - almost time to walk across the road to Coral Bay better go get ready.

8:30pm
Was not planning on taking pictures today but then I remembered ribs + skewers + good friends = fun pics - it's the new math ha ha.

Ruthie's homemade salsa - has corn and beans in it

Boys talking bbq

Chunky showing is his chimney starter - a great way to light bbq

Watching water action

No lighter fluid with chimney starter - just a vegetable oil soaked paper towel

Presto hot coals

Ruthie

Checking the heat on the grill

Skewers first

Dick snapping picture

Yum - Lisette's mango tango sauce was great marinade

Almost time to pig out

Chunky and his coveted find on the island - hickory bits at a reasonable price

MMM ribs

Paul Dick and Carole discussing the bathroom scale

Garlic bread

Delicious spread

I just weighed in at 130 lbs on Ruthie's scale am up 9 lbs ha ha

Paul was 10 lbs lighter than he thought

Who could say no to dessert

Food Sale for Annie

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Today Saturday the 25th starting at 10:00am, there will be a big Food Sale in Central Park in front of the church. There will be plenty of great food and all funds raised will go to help Annie meet her ever growing medical bills. Even if you cannot attend yourself, please tell everyone you know (particularly if they are hungry).

If you know Annie Rivero, you’ll know that she has been extremely sick. She is currently having regular dialysis and is in need of constant and costly medical treatment. San Pedro has a wonderful community and they sure know how to rally round when one of their members is in desperate need of assistance. This was shown when so many turned up for the blood drive held recently to give blood to assist with Annie’s care.

San Pedro gets fit

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:38:00 +0000

The fitness wave is still sweeping the island. It is nice to see so many people at once working towards feeling better.

It makes me happy that people are experiencing great results from their exercise efforts.

Got in some extra exercise with a short bike ride this aft and some wii bowling at Pedro's.

Road work

Paul Lara and I on our way to the pool

Back road

Walking and talking

Fit crew - Lara Cindy Paul and Molly

Exercise does a body good

Here are a few pics Dave just emailed me from the other day's class.

My own time change

noreply@blogger.com (tacogirl) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:38:00 +0000

For some reason my internal clock changed and I am waking up at 5:30 am.

The upcoming Island Academy fundraiser was on my mind this morning so I decided to get up and get busy and post the info for Lady Dixie and Jeannie - look below.

Another thing I have been meaning to do - here are a few updates of the Bloggers who went to meet up in Merida this weekend and have posted about the fun time they had. If anyone else who was there gets pics up just email me and I will post your link(s).

What I do all Day... Still processing it all - They're Back - Wazzat
Isla Mujeres: Gringo in Paradise ... Lets go - the end
blah... blah... blah... Ginger ... We're having a blast - flickr photos
Debi in Merida ... 2and annual - Bloggers summit comes to an end

Shout out to Jack - hoiked the fence today on my way to the pool and B was working away in the yard while Rick and drummer Dan held down the fort I mean porch.

Seen some cheap flight to Belize and flight out of Cancun info posted on the message board - AA deals and Cancun to Chicago.

Island Academy - Education is a Big Deal

Vegas Extravaganza - Bingo - Black Jack - Belize Hold'Em

Pedro's
Thursday April 30th 7pm
Adults Only
Entrance $20 includes all the pizza you can eat
Entertainment Small World Band

Fundraiser to raise money for new textbooks for next school year at Island Academy.