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.
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| Ahhhh. Just looking at this view is a stress-reducer. |
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| 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!
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| Andrew's gift to me for our "leather" anniversary. So clever. |
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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| One of the paintings he had just finished. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
