The only district we didn't have time to travel to was the southern most part of Belize, the Toledo area and Punta Gorda. Toledo is another farming area, know for rice and cacao. YES! Chocolate! Toledo holds most of the true rain forest of Belize. Their Chocolate Festival is next month.
During our visit in Placencia, we spoke to a few about the "Doctor Fly" and the "Bot Fly" We learned how the Doctor Fly will land on you and coat an area of your skin with an anesthetic, then return to the site to bite the area and worse. The Bot fly is known to leave it's larva under your skin. A local from the Seine Bight Village of Placencia stated her son got bit by a Bot Fly, they smoke out the larva. When she pulled out the worm, it was still wiggling. I (Mandy typing) wigged out and was fearful of any fly during that time. Well enough about flies!
We traveled back to the Cayo area of San Ignacio/Santa Elena, known as the twin cities, to get a better feel of the place and people and prices.
People from the surrounding areas go to the big social event every Saturday...The San Ignacio Farmers Market. This market is a mix of everything, not just fresh fruit, veggies, and meat. There are food vendors, gently used clothing booths, kitchen wares, avon, bath and body sprays, cd's and DVD's and chickens. If you have something you would like to sell on Saturdays, just show up and display your items! I have found many clothing labels found in the US. If you take the best of the best used clothing donations from 2nd hand stores in the US, this is what you find at the market. The US couple selling chickens have lived in the area for 2 years. They live comfortably on her social security disability on a 20 acre farm. The weather here doesn't bother her MS.
Saturday night we attended a Battle of the Christian bands from the surrounding areas. About 400 people filled the chairs and bleachers of this large grassy park. They had food stands to benefit the local churches. Mike was thrilled to have 3 homemade tostadas for 50 cents USD. This event was held in Spanish, but when we knew the English versions of the songs, we sure sang along. It is so nice to find similarities between our own church and the culture here. It has been unseasonably hot and dry here in Cayo, even the locals are complaining about the 91 degree heat of the day. Once the sun falls, the cool Carib breeze is heavenly. Most people eat dinner around 7pm, once the sun sets. The majority of the restaurants have outdoor seating to take advantage of the "always beautiful" evenings.
English is the "official language" of Belize, and all the schools teach in English. There still is a population of Spanish speaking only here.
We headed over to the local ice cream joint and met another new friend. She and her husband lead worship for many of the Christian Churches here. They have lived here a year and said it was the best decision they had ever made. She had a craving for cookie dough ice cream, but it was not available anywhere in Cayo... so she now makes chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate/peanut butter cookie dough, and oatmeal cookie dough and sold it to the ice cream parlor to mix in the ice cream...she made signs of "Cookie dough ice cream sold here". It is so popular, they run out of it most evenings. She said "I could never do this in the States. Belize is such a young country, if you have an idea here, it is easy to make your dream a reality. There is OPPORTUNITY here." Imagine life with no governmental red tape to stop ingenuity.
We stopped and talked with a licensed pharmacy. There are no prescriptions needed in Belize. I priced a few of the items we currently take:
My dog takes prednisone 5mg once a day...a months worth will cost us $3 USD. This costs me $12.50 back in the states.
Piroxicam 20gm (anti-inflamatory) once a day will cost $4.50 USD for a months supply.
Tramadol 50mg (light pain pill-Mandy is still recovering from knee surgery) 25 cents each USD.
Ambien 10mg (1/2 a pill can get me to sleep) so the cost would be $7.50 USD a month.
Albuteral inhailer (asthma) will cost $5USD, I pay $20 in the US just for my co-pay. Funny thing, with the moist air here, I haven't needed to use my inhaler to open my lungs before I go to sleep.
Valium 5mg is 5 cents USD each. I suffer from airplane panic, like many others.
We all suffer from allergies in the US. We have not had one symptom of allergies here.
A doctors visit (if you need one) is $25. For the Belizeans, health care is free.
We stopped by and talked with the local Veterinarian to learn of any issues with ticks/fleas. People just use "Frontline" drops for preventative maintenance and commonly found heartworm meds. Veterinarians do not charge for an office visit, one only pays for any vaccines, meds, or grooming.
I pay my US Veterinarian $49 for an office visit, and then $25 for 2 months of doggie allergy pills. In Belize, the this same visit would cost me $3 USD.
The town businesses are all closed on Sunday except for grocery stores and restaurants. How nice is that! Sunday night we attended Calvary Chapel Cayo, a congregation of about 20-30 people. The pastor drives an old school bus to pick up the members who don't own a car to bring them to church. The message is spoken in English, but there was a Spanish interpreter who sat in the back to help the one Spanish only speaking couple who attends. The church is only 3 years old and growing. The worship leader strummed on guitar many of the songs we sing at Central Christian. He says he struggles because he has learned these songs from listening to the Christian radio station here. He wished he knew more or knew the right chords for the songs. I told him I will send him the sheet music, with chords, and worship tapes right from our own church. He was so excited to have the opportunity to learn more songs. The pastors son (14 years old), plays the conga beat to the songs by beating on an empty 5 gallon water jug held between his knees. We rode along on the church bus with Pastor Patrick as he took home a few people, our son stayed back at the church and had a great time "hanging" with the pastor's son. Our son did not want to leave.
During the bus ride, one of the church kids was fascinated to hear we are from Las Vegas. I asked if he had seen Las Vegas on TV? Again, I have to learn not to say such silly things..his family like many here do not have a TV. He looked inquisitive and said he learned about Las Vegas in his Geography Class. He then told be about all the wild animals in Belize and asked if we had any wild animals in Las Vegas. He was fascinated with my description of a coyote. He asked if I could bring a picture of a coyote next time I visit.
If this country doesn't steal your heart, the kids will.
Monday morning we left this amazing place to head back to Belize city to drop off our rental car and take a boat to Ambergris Caye where we haven't been in 6 years. We bought property on Ambergris 10 years ago with the intent to build our retirement home. It will be interesting to see how things have changed. Will our retirement dream continue to be on the island or will it be the mainlands of Cayo, hmmm....
Overall, we put 1,015 miles on the rental car driving around a country that is only 180 miles long, and about 90 miles wide. By the end of this portion of our journey, we no longer needed maps to direct us, we know the roads of this country quite well now.
Cayo will get about 60 inches of rain a year, although it never rained while we were here. They are waiting for the rains to come and cool them off. In Nevada we are lucky to get 4 inches of rain a year, but without fail, we will always have rain after Mike washes the vehicles. Before we left Cayo, Mike had the rental vehicle washed and detailed for $7.50 US. As we left the Cayo area, we saw the rain clouds forming in our rear view mirror. Looks like the "Nevada Rain Dance (car washing) Ceremony" will work here too.
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