Belize - Monday 6 December 1999
I wake up earlier than I expected: half-past 8. Wolfgang is already up, having breakfast with Liz and Maria. I join them later at the restaurant. There's a cozy breakfast place, Glenda's. Good coffee, delicious cinnamon rolls, and excellent freshly squeezed orange juice.
I mention that Sinterklaas has visited. Unfortunately, no poem, but we do have delightful chocolate letters. We're having them for breakfast. Fortunately, they haven't melted during the trip, although they're a bit soft. Still, it's lovely, a little bit of Sinterklaas after all.
At the beginning of the afternoon, we gather at Popeye's bar by the beach. They have hammocks there. We lounge the entire afternoon. We don't have direct sunshine the whole time, and we're even in the shade, yet it's very pleasant. However, the cheeseburger tastes awful.
We're listening to the radio the entire time. Quite amusing: first, we hear a news program, a combination of an American AM news station along with news from Belize.
It turns out to be Love FM, and later, they switch to music. Their station call is a spoken jingle with the music of Crockett's Theme (from Miami Vice).
They play some nice Christmas songs, some of which are never heard on the radio in our country. One song is quite funny:
Grandma
got run over by a raindeer
coming home from our house Christmas
eve
Some folks say there's no such thing as Santa
But as for
me and grandpa, we believe
We all go to watch the sunset together. On the way, we buy delicious frozen bananas with chocolate sauce. A bit later, we meet a nice girl who looks very Dutch. She asks where we bought those bananas. She also wants some! I call after her, "Don't you want to come watch the sunset?" but she doesn't respond.
The sunset here is beautiful. Wolfgang and Liz find the most beautiful spot without others around. We stay until it gets really dark.
While Wolfgang goes online for a bit, the group disperses. Gail and Maria leave, and we hadn't decided on anything for tonight. With the rest of us, we agree to meet at the Oceanside Bar. The mixed drinks with rum, vodka, or gin are cheap; it's happy hour. Liz orders a special mix with grapefruit juice. Very tasty: she likes it so much that she treats us to a round.
At the Oceanside, there's a jukebox. It struggles a bit with the quarters, but it plays nice music. We play half of Bob Marley's Exodus CD. The food is also good; honestly, it's better than yesterday's.
We look for another place to have a few drinks. A quiet café with nice music, cozy by the water.
We decide to sit on a pier for a while and look at the stars. The sky is incredibly clear here. We even see shooting stars...
