DECEMBRRRRRRRRR

December has arrived and has brought a welcome reprieve from the heat and humidity.  Who know there was a “winter” in Belize?  For the past couple of weeks, the mornings have been cool (relatively speaking – in the 50s) and the days have been warm and pleasant.  Note to self (and any potential visitors) – this month is a lovely time to be here!

We headed out to the coast for a change of scenery the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We were both getting over colds (brought on by the change of “season” no doubt) so it was a lazy, relaxing weekend at the beach.    

Ahhhh.  Just looking at this view is a stress-reducer.

We drove to Placencia for the weekend, but there is an airstrip there.  The road goes around the end of the runway.  A few weeks ago, a plane clipped a car as it was taking off and ended up in the water.  (No one was hurt.)  Maybe not the BEST airport design.

On December 10, Andrew and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary.  It fell on a Sunday, so we were able to celebrate with a late lunch at a steak house just outside Belmopan that’s only open on weekends.  Delicious!

Andrew's gift to me for our "leather" anniversary.  So clever.

With lots of folks heading out of town for the holidays, we’ve gotten to put our dog-sitting skills in to practice.  Two of our recent house guests, Gerti and Leif.

Not technically a house guest, but this white lipped mud turtle did hang out in our yard for a couple of days.

We took a trip out west to a town called Bullet Tree in search of a local artist named Walter Castillo whose paintings I've admired for awhile since they depict colorful and happy scenes from Belize.  Andrew figured out where his studio was located, so we headed out for the day with another work colleague.  We found his studio (that he referred to as his "joyshop") at his house, and he spent an hour showing us his work, talking about his view on life, and giving us a true taste of Belize.  (And also a taste of coconut water from coconuts his friend cracked open for us.)  It was one of the most authentic Belize experiences we've had here.  We bought a few of his prints, but I aim to own an original before I leave here. 

One of the paintings he had just finished.

Our visit with Walter Castillo in his "joyshop" - he was quite a character.

We broke down and bought our first artificial tree.  Last year, we just put up lights around our DC apartment, but this year we’ll be having friends visit for Christmas and New Years (!!!) so it seemed we should make a bit more of an effort.  And I’m sure the fake tree will come in handy in Africa in a couple years too.  We had a bunch of embassy folks over for a “White Tapir” party last night, and the tree came in handy as the focal point for the collection of Belize-themed gifts that were exchanged.

Merry Christmas to all!

It’s hard to believe this year has almost come to an end.  Maybe it’s because there aren’t any REAL seasons here to mark the passing of the months.  Maybe it’s because we’ve found so many new and different things to do (at work and play), we haven’t gotten bored.  Whatever it is, I’m expecting that next year will be a blur too.  But come June, when it’s 115 degrees and feels like 122 with the humidity, Decembrrrrr won’t come soon enough.

AND THE WINNER IS...

HARARE, ZIMBABWE!  

I love that their flag put a bird on it.  

I'll be serving as a Political/Economic Officer in Harare starting in May 2019.  I hear it's really quiet and there's not much going on.  HA!  We'll be keeping an eye on the events down there for the next year and a half.  In the meantime, there's still LOTS of time to visit us in Belize!  We'll be here until February 2019, so come see us!  If we don't see you here, then we'll hope to see you while we're back in the States for a few months before we head to Africa.  And if we don't see you there, then maybe we'll see you on a safari in a couple years.

For the less geographically inclined, we'll be here.

In the meantime, we wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving.  On this day of giving thanks, we're so very thankful to have our wonderful family and friends.  This will be the first Thanksgiving in MANY years that we aren't spending with you... and the first time we'll be celebrating a Belizean Thanksgiving (whatever that may be).  But no matter how near or far you all are, we'll be thinking about you and raising a toast to all of you this evening.  Cheers!

There are a few turkeys in Belize.  This one was walking down the road a few days ago.

PANAMA

We recently returned from a 2-week cruise to celebrate my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary.  There were 11 of us traveling all together, including other family and friends.  We left from San Francisco, transited through the Panama Canal, ended up in Fort Lauderdale, and made a number of ports of call in between.  Fair warning that this post is going to be heavy on vacation photos… because it was a spectacular vacation!  We had amazing weather all along the way, good fun at every port, and a fantastic visit with family, old friends, and new friends met along the way.

First up, San Francisco.  They don’t make days there any nicer than the one we had as we sailed out.  Trust me. 

Ahoy mateys!

I mean, seriously, how many days a year does San Francisco look like this?

Heading out to sea.

First port… Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Andrew and I walked the town a bit, with a stop at Slim’s Tequila Bar, which is the self-proclaimed smallest tequila bar in the world.  And then we hired a water taxi to take us out to Los Arcos at the tip of the Baja Peninsula. 

This was the view from our cabin when we woke up that morning.

Sampling the goods at Slim's.

Water taxi to Los Arcos - and our cruise ship in the background.

Next port… San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.  This small beach town was still recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Katia a couple months prior.  Locals told us all the boats in the harbor had been either sunk or washed ashore, and there were still several sailboats half-buried in the beach.  But my parents and we walked around the town a bit, found a donut shop and a local brewery that a friend had told me about and that satisfied my craving for all manner of carbs, and bought some of the local rum to have on hand as we sailed onward.  An excellent stop.

Welcome to Nicaragua!

Looking over the options at Dia de los Donuts.  You don't know how excited I was to have my first real donut in almost a year.

And some rum for the road...er... sea.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katia was evident on the beach.

Next port… Puntarenas, Costa Rica.  It was HOT and we watched finishers of a running relay race coming into the finish line.  I have no idea how these people can run in this climate.  I’ve tried several times now and have given up. 

A lovely old stone church in Puntarenas.

Central America has AMAZING sunsets!

And the sunsets are even more enjoyable with some local Central American rum. 

And then… the Panama Canal crossing.  We started the passage about 7am and it took the better part of the day to transit through from the Pacific to the Caribbean.  100+ years later, the canal is still a well-oiled machine, and it was completely fascinating to see it in action first-hand.

Moon on the morning of our Panama Canal Transit

Panama City over yonder.

Under the Bridge of the Americas and into the canal we go. 

Some local wildlife along the way.

There is less than a meter on either side of these big ships passing through the locks.

Through the first set of locks and into the Culebra Cut.

The Culebra Cut - basically a 9-mile ditch cut through the mountains to make the whole thing work.

The spectators in action.

Heading through Gatun Lake and it's submerged hilltops-turned-islands.

A ship coming into the Gatun Locks along side our ship.

1913!  They don't make 'em like this anymore!

View of the lock gates from the back of the ship.

We made it!  The last gates before we head into the Caribbean Sea.

Next port… Cartagena, Colombia.  Six of us ended up stumbling into a private tour of the town and in particular the old walled city with its super cute cobblestone streets, colonial churches and buildings, and fortress walls.  My favorite stop of the cruise.

View of Cartagena from a hilltop monastery.

The intrepid explorers - us, my parents, and our family friends

The old city walls are no joke!

Such a lovely old city with its town squares.

Art imitates life, 21st century style.

Adorable!

This church had just gotten a fresh paint job before the Pope's visit in September.  Spiffy.

I loved the old street signs - and since the street names change every BLOCK, there were a lot of them.

And lastly… Aruba.  We’d spent a week here with our friends Meg and Chris several years ago and had fun walking on the beach there again.

Ahhhhh-ruba.

It was a fully relaxing two weeks away, and I came back to work on Monday feeling very rusty.  But by Friday, I felt like I’d already been back for a month.  Oh well.  On to planning the next vacation!  (Which is still TBD.)   At any rate, we had a wonderful time exploring new places and visiting with our family and friends at the same time - a two fer!  So glad we were able to celebrate my parents' 50th with them in such a special and memorable way.  Happy anniversary, you two!

And now, we are also anxiously awaiting news of our next assignment.  We should find out any day now.  I’ve put up a poll on the right-hand side of our main blog.  If you’re on your phone reading this, check out the desktop version to submit your vote for where you think we’ll be headed next… and stay tuned for the announcement very soon!

FALL FUN

*Note: This post was written a few weeks ago, but I’m just getting a chance to post it now because a lot has been going on the past few weeks… which will be featured in another post very soon!

Happy Fall everyone!  I always associate October with autumn, and even though there are no turning leaves or cooling temperatures here in Belize, that has held true here as well. 

First of all, there was my birthday.  This year, I was serenaded with “Happy Birthday” live on-air while promoting some embassy programs on a national TV show.  The show is more “Wayne’s World” than “Today Show” since it’s filmed in a house-turned-studio in a residential neighborhood here in Belmopan.  But it was definitely memorable.  After work, Andrew arranged for a happy hour with several colleagues at a local watering hole following by birthday cake back at our place.  A very happy birthday celebration indeed.

My Belize TV debut.

The weekend after my birthday, several of us went on a tour of the local brewery – Belikin Beer.  The facility was modern and had a very nice bar to sample some of the varieties after the tour.  We learned that they brew and bottle about 3 million bottles a year… and export none of it.  That’s just under 10 bottles/year for every man, woman, and child in this country with a population of about 380,000.  Well done, Belize.  Drink up!

Touring the Belikin Beer factory...

...and tasting some of the final products.

Our tour and tasting companions.

And of course, fall also means Halloween.  Costumes and candy are not a huge tradition here, although there will be a party for embassy families on the housing compound.  However, as seems to also be our tradition, we will be out of town for the Halloween celebrations.  We’ll be on a cruise through the Panama Canal with my parents and several other friends and family members (but are planning to don some costumes while on board). 

A shrub turned Jack-O-Lantern, courtesy of the landscaping crew on the housing compound.

The other big upcoming news is that we will soon find out where we are headed on our next assignment.  Even though we’ll be in Belize through at least February 2019, our next post will be determined in the next several weeks.  Enter your guess as to our next country – or continent – in the comments and stay tuned for the result!