A Jeanne in the Kitchen

The loose ends of Belize will end my Belizan tour, with photos of odds and end things. They show everyday life in Belize.

Belize was once a British settlement, and was known as British Honduras from the 17th century until it got its independence in 1981. The name was changed to Belize in 1973.

Before Belize was colonized by the British, the largest influences came from the Mayans, until the Spanish came in the 16th century. The Spanish and the British both laid claim to Belize until the British finally took it over in 1798.

I hope you enjoyed our Belizan trip and our adventures as much as we did. There will be many more adventures yet to come. We just have to experience them first. Life is an adventure. Live as many adventures as you can when you can. ‘Til next time.

Part of the fun of traveling is finding new places to eat, and eating like the locals. I love going to as many different restaurants as possible while on vacation. Every place is different and unique. One place Larry waned to try was a restaurant called Caliente. It was a mixture of Mexican and Caribbean foods. We love both, so it was a win/win for us.

Larry was making friends with our server.

Of course we ordered some delicious libations and more seafood.

I ordered the Caribbean bacon wrapped shrimp, that I shared with Larry as well.

And Larry ordered snapper with a spicy butter sauce.

Both were very good.

We sat on the balcony with this lovely sunset as our view. Life is definitely good indeed. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Enjoy all the sunsets in your life. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Belize borders Mexico and Guatemala. They share a common history with the Mayans and Mayan chocolate, among many other shared commonalities. The cacao bean, or the “bean of the Gods” is also grown in Belize, though on the mainland and not so much in Ambergris Caye. Mayan chocolate is very popular all throughout Belize as well as Mexico. On one of our non-diving days, we took a chocolate making class and learned how to make Belizan/Mayan chocolate.

We were back at the Belize Chocolate Company, also known as the Chocolate Boutique.

The class started with a short video of how the cacao is grown and processed.

Everything was explained and then the demonstrations began. This is the cacao bean or pod. The white “slimy” interior is removed first to reveal the beans. Each pod contains roughly 50-60 beans. Once the beans are removed from the pod, they are fermented in boxes that are covered in banana leaves and then sun-dried.

Once dried, they are then roasted in a big roaster. There are 2 locations in Ambergris Caye/San Pedro. One is the shop, where we were, and the other is the production site, a little bit further down the road.

Every bit of the pod and beans are used. Nothing is wasted. The shell is used to make both mulch and cacao tea. The nibs are left, and that is what is broken down to make the actual chocolate that we eat, or drink, as the Ancient Mayans originally did. The Mayan word for chocolate, “xocolatl“, meant “bitter water”. And believe me, it is BITTER! Nothing like the chocolate we are used to eating, that’s for sure! This name reflects the original consumption of chocolate as a liquid beverage, often flavored with chili peppers and other spices, similar to a mole sauce. The word “chocolate” itself is derived from the Mayan word “xocoatl”. The nibs are then ground down to form a paste. The paste is the part that is used. The ancient Mayans drank it with nothing but boiling water. Today we add sugar and dried milk.

Pouring the chocolate nibs out to be ground into the chocolate paste. These large bowls are family heirlooms, passed down from the generations. They are used to grind anything from chocolate to corn.

Grinding down the cacao nibs is truly a talent. The technique is in the wrist, and is all about speed and applying the right amount of pressure. We all got a chance to try out our chocolate making skills. None of us were nearly as skilled as our instructor. 🙂

Once the nibs are ground to a paste, they are mixed with boiling water to make a thick paste. We tasted it at every stage. I will be brutally honest with you; it was AWFUL this way.

Next we added the sugar, for the dark chocolate and the sugar and the dried milk and ground it all some more to make the milk chocolate. Dried milk is used so it doesn’t spoil and has a longer shelf life. If you like dark chocolate, the general mixture is 70% pure cacao to 30% sugar, but there are plenty of other variations as well.

The chocolate was very good once the sugar and/or milk were added.

This is how the Mayans and the Belizans make both their dark and milk chocolate. To make their white chocolate, the cocoa butter that has been extracted during the pressing process is mixed with sugar and dried milk. It has many different uses, both edible and non edible. To make it edible, again, sugar is added and blended into the cacao butter. We all sampled the dark, milk and white chocolate. They were all very good and all very different. The Mayan chocolate is not nearly as smooth as the European chocolates we are all accustomed to.

The class was very interesting and informative, though I would have liked a little more hands-on experience. You can take group classes, like I did, or you can have a private class, that will allow for more hands-on experience. I enjoyed the chocolate class a lot. It was a fun, unique learning experience.

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what’ya gonna get”, Forrest Gump. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well, and eat your daily dose of chocolate. ‘Til next time.

Before we went to Caramba for dinner Eating Our Way Around Belize – Part 4, we were just strolling around, taking in all we could. We found the Traveler’s Rum store and decided to stop in. We asked if they did rum tastings, and that they did. They had quite a display of all their rums. At first we said we only wanted to try some, but Yvette, our lovely rum hostess, said to really experience the rum in the Belizan way, we had to try them all. Twist our arms. We agreed to her terms, but we told her to just give us little, tiny tastes.

I told her to smile pretty for the camera. She asked if I was going to make her famous. I told her I hope so. 🙂 She was a lovely lady, and very informative. Travelers Rum is a locally owned and family run business that has been handed down through generations. It has been around, winning various awards for its rums, for over 70 years.

Here we are, well into our rum tastings. Yvette is pleased with herself. We have made it through all of the tastings and we’re still standing. 🙂

Prince Harry and I are toasting with his favorite rum.

We travel all over the Caribbean all the time. We have tried so many Caribbean rums too. They are all different, and are all good, with their own unique styles. Of course we bought some to take home with us too. We bought a coconut rum, which I have already used it to make a coconut rum cake, but more on that later. 🙂

Salud! A Votre Sante! Lift a glass in good cheer.

Have you ever been to a pick-your-own seafood restaurant? I never had before, but Caramba in Belize is just that.

There was all kinds of fresh seafood available. It is all stored on ice to keep it as fresh as possible until you pick what you want for the chefs to cook up.

Caramba also has a full menu, which we actually ordered our dinners from. We got there in he nick of time. It was pretty quite when we first arrived, but by the time we were ready to leave, it was filling up quickly.

I ordered some chili mole shrimp.

And Larry ordered the snapper. I shared some of my shrimp with him too.

One of the items on the pick-your-own table was giant sea scallops. I LOVE scallops, and had to partake in the pick your own experience, even if only for a tiny bit. So I picked one HUGE scallop.

Here I am picking out my one scallop. It was fun. The staff was very accommodating and had fun too.

The chef cooked it to perfection for me. I had a lot of my delicious chili mole sauce leftover that I used for my lone scallop. Delicious!

After dinner, Larry saw an ice cream place across the street from Caramba, and he hadn’t had ice cream all week, so he had to indulge in some Belizan ice cream for dessert.

Larry was, well, “happy as Larry”, an old Australian term.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well, and if ice cream is your thing, eat your ice cream. It will help keep you happy. ‘Til next time.

You all know how much I love my birds. Belize offered some beautiful birds too.

There were lots of Chibi Chibis. There was a pair building a nest at our resort too. We watched them building their home daily. They were building it between layers of the roof of the outside pool bar, right across from our unit.

We saw another one building a nest up at Tranquility Bay, way up north.

There were lots and lots of Frigates flying high above us, over the sea.

Great-tailed Gracklings are very common all over the Caribbean.

When we went up to Tranquility Bay, we saw lots of Ibis at the seashore.

We saw some Sand Pipers too, but I was only able to get 1 good shot of them. They were kind of hard to see, because they were hidden in sargassum seaweed, which was particularly heavy this time.

Of course there were brown Pelicans, Laughing Gulls and Cormorants too. But again, I did not get many shots of them this time.

There were Caribbean Meadowlarks.

We did see some real parrots, but alas, no pictures. This is the best I could do as far as parrots go.

And we saw some Green Herons and Egrets too.

I thought this was another crocodile at first, but I think it is just a rock formation. It sure looks like a crocodile though.

Of course there are many other types of birds to see too. We weren’t specifically bird watching though. This is just what we saw this trip. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

Usually when we travel, we just get some fruit for breakfast and eat a small snack for lunch. We almost always split meals too. We don’t eat out too much at home, but we do when we travel, at least for our main meal of the day. There were a couple of times we ate leftovers from previous meals. It helped that we had a microwave and refrigerator in our unit too.

One of the places we ventured into was called 303 Belize. The owner is an ex-Coloradan, who ironically sat next to us on our flight home too. He was going back to Colorado for a vacation to visit with family. 303 is one of the main Colorado/Denver area codes. Again, we dined with a nice ocean front view and memoralbia from home. We met so many Coloradans on this trip.

Old skis were creatively repurposed.

So were old scuba tanks. The owner, Jim I believe, said he moved to Belize for the diving, but he doesn’t get to dive nearly as much as he wants to. I know that feeling. 🙂

Again, we ordered more ceviche. Every place makes their own style, with their own unique personality. We also ordered a salad and some fish. NO, we didn’t eat everything, but we did split it all. 🙂 Once again, everything was fresh and delicious too.

Life is delicious. Enjoy every bit. Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

On one of our non-diving days, we filled part of our day by taking a food tour of Belize. It is the same exact tour we took three years ago, and went to the same places, but it was still deliciously fun. It is a walking tour that takes place in Downtown San Pedro. All the places we went to are owned and operated by local Belizian families.

Our tour guide was Norma. We met at the local town square, then walked to our destinations from there.

Our first stop was at Briana’s for some traditional rice & beans and stewed chicken.

From Briana’s, we went into Saul’s Cigars and Coffee House to sample some rum creams and learn about the cigar making process.

Saul is pouring his very tasty rum creams for us to sample. Ironically, this gentleman and his wife in the background took this same tour with us 3 years ago too. Small world. 🙂

These are the rum creams we sampled. One was a coffee flavored cream, another was coconut flavored and the third was chocolate. I liked both the coffee and the coconut best, probably in that order too.

Learning about the cigar making process in the other room.

Our next stop was El Fogon, which means the hearth or fireplace. In this case, it meant, cooked over an open fire.

Here we enjoyed some refreshing rum punch along with some salbutes and conch fritters.

After finishing at El Fogon, we moved on to The Fry Jack House. Fry jacks are like sopapillas and can be topped with anything from sweet to savory. Larry and I had stopped in on one of our diving days too, after diving, but we ordered something different.

When we went on our own, we split a fried fish fry jack and a Nutella fry jack.

When we went with the tour, we had a fry jack topped with honey and powdered sugar and a chicken fry jack. All are very good.

Our last stop was at the Belize Chocolate Company. We also went back a couple of days later for a Belizan/Mayan chocolate making class, but more on that later.

The group picture for this year. It was a deliciously fun tour. We liked it so much that we went back and did it again. We have now done this tour twice. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well, and “live, love, eat”. ‘Til next time.

Whenever we travel to the Caribbean, or any other place known for its fresh seafood, we eat as much fresh seafood as we can while there. This trip was no different. We ate a lot of fresh seafood and a lot of fresh ceviche. If we can dine with an oceanfront view, even better. This was one of our beach front finds.

They had a swing on their deck that we had fun with until our food arrived.

Of course we ordered ceviche. This time we ordered octopus ceviche.

Then we ordered a couple of other seafood dishes as well. I ordered something with shrimp, that looked very much like the ceviche dish, unbeknownst to me at the time of ordering. But it was all delicious.

Larry ordered snapper.

As Wolfgang Puck always used to say, “live, love, eat”, and that we do too. 🙂

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

The whole purpose of our trip to Belize was to DIVE!!!! And Yes, I did get to dive 4 days, and as expected, the diving was GREAT! However, due to high winds that closed the channel, I couldn’t dive as much as I wanted to. 😦 On the days I did dive, I saw everything I was expecting to see.

We saw lots of nurse sharks, especially at Hol Chan, an area where they swarm because the fisherman have been feeding them there for years. Hol Chan is now a protected marine park. All the marine life is protected by law and no one is allowed to fish those waters. Divers call nurse sharks “the puppies of the sea”. They are curious, friendly sharks. They even like to have their bellies rubbed like dogs do.

We saw black tip reef sharks. Black tips are also curious, non-aggressive sharks. They look way more intimidating than they really are.

We saw hawksbill turtles. The average lifespan of the hawksbill is between 50-80 years, but some live to over 100 years old.

We saw large green moray eels. Again, green morays look scary, and they can bite if they feel threatened, but they are not usually aggressive. Just like with anything, if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone.

We saw a few spotted eagle rays and a lot of southern stingrays.

And of course, we saw a lot of other tropical reef fish found in all the Caribbean waters. The only thing that I noticed different were the toadfish. We see splendid toadfish in Cozumel all the time, but they are a different color than the ones in Belize.

This one is what we see in Cozumel.

These are what we saw in Belize.

So even though we see a lot of the same marine life, there are differences too.

No. None of these pictures are mine. We have ruined so many underwater cameras. We think because we live at a high and dry altitude, and when we store the cameras, the O-rings dry out, but we forget about it until it is too late. So when we take the cameras underwater, they flood. Even after as many dives as we have, from all over the world, we still have a lot to learn. 🙂

This is what we saw underwater in Belize. This is why we continue to keep going back there.

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.