Yoga at Ray Caye

Friday had a slightly more relaxed start - breakfast became brunch as we eased our way into the day.  I made an omelette with eggs we had picked up the day before at White Rock Farm, owned by our friends Chris and Sue.  They have quite an enterprise at their farm these days - chickens, ducks, geese, Guinea fowl, turkeys, goats, sheep, pigs, all kinds of fruit trees and vegetables.  They make delicious cheeses from their milk herds and from cow's milk they get from their Mennonite neighbors.  We stopped at the farm, which is on the Hummingbird Highway just south of Belmopan, to pick up our pre-ordered selection of cheeses, cured meat, bangers, marmalade, rum butter, lemons, and eggs.

multi-hued chicken eggs

We finished up all the fruit left over from the previous day's breakfast along with the omelette, toasted English muffins, rum butter, marmalade, accompanied by Belize grown coffee.

Then we headed up to the Ray Caye dock, a 35 minute boat ride from our dock.  Our transport to Ray Caye was on the boat pictured below.

"Our DevOcean"

The trip to Ray Caye was a little more than an hour going at 25 knots per hour.  Another health check upon arrival and then the welcoming rum punch.

Becki already looks relaxed in this beautiful, stress-free place.

The wind started picking up, so we were not able to have our pre- and post-dinner yoga sessions on the platform over the sea.

The slide into the sea.

Solar panels cover the dock walkway.

We had our session in the breezy yoga studio.  The class was only 15 people this time instead of 19, so there was more room to spread out.

Waiting for the first session to start.

We had 2 sessions the first day, 4 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday morning before we departed.  That left a good chunk of Saturday open for a boating/snorkel trip.

Taking the Hummingbird Highway to the Jaguar Reserve

We hired tour guide Gilbert Garbutt from Barefoot Services to do a private transport from Belize City to Placencia with some sightseeing and hiking tours along the way.  We took the George Price Highway from Belize City (the former capital) to Belmopan (the current capital) and then got on the lovely Hummingbird Highway to wend our way through the Maya Mountains into the southern part of Belize.

We even had color coordinated footwear suitable for hiking the trails.

After a few hours on the road, we stopped at Miss Bertha's for homemade "fyah haat" tamales for our lunch.  It is a popular spot for locals, so we were pleased to arrive before she was sold out.  The tamales were excellent.

The Poor Man's Refridge referred to on the sign is a cool spring to the back where folks can leave their beverages to cool off for later.

Along the way to the Jaguar Reserve in the Cockscomb Basin, we passed some of the old narrow gauge railway trestles that paralleled the bridge we were on.

Old trestles

The railway was built around 1930 and was used to transport bananas and logs to the coastal village of Dangriga until 1961 when the Hummingbird Highway was built over portions of the railway bed.  The highway has been improved several times over the years and is now a delight to travel along - beautiful views of the Maya Mountains with its many streams and rivers, tiny villages surrounded by small fields of produce and fruit trees, large citrus operations, and mile after mile of untamed jungle.  There are several National Parks along the highway and we went back to one of those parks toward the end of Becki's visit.

Becki with papier-mâché jaguar mascot of the reserve.

Passion flower on a vine adorning the toilets.

Gilbert led us on a hike to Ben's Waterfall.  It was pretty steep in places and a little slick in some muddy spots. 

Our guide leading the way up and up

and then down and down.

Gilbert showed us which trees were safe to grab hold of and which trees to avoid touching.  The waterfall at the destination was worth the effort.

I have some good videos of the waterfall, but our internet is having issues at the moment, so all I can upload are still shots.

The main fall.  The water is so clear and has a lovely blue color in the deepest part.

Looking down on the lower fall.

The jungle was so very lush and green and alive.  We didn't see any jaguars - that's a good thing - but Gilbert did say he could smell one.  I caught a faint whiff of it, but I would not have noticed it if he had not pointed it out.

After we hiked back out, Gilbert drove us to Placencia where our friend Jason picked us up in his boat to bring us home to Englishtown.  By then it was getting pretty dark and we were quite tired.  We dealt with the circus of the dogs meeting a new person, had dinner with Dennis, and then it was time to fall into bed after a long day.

We Had A Blast

My niece, Becki, came to visit us and we had a blast!  I met her at the International Airport just outside Belize City on the 5th of January.  I flew up on a little puddle jumper plane.

Taking off from the airstrip at Placencia.

Flying over the coast south of the village of Hopkins.

Hopkins occupies a narrow strip of dry land facing the sea and backed by low lying land that is flooded in the wet season, as it is now.

And Becki flew down from California on Alaska Airlines.  Becki's flight wasn't due in until after 5:00PM, so we decided to spend the night in Belize City and get an early start the next day.

Aunt and niece selfie at the airport.

Getting into vacation mode at the hotel after a long day of travel.

Becki choose a Belize beer - Lighthouse Lager from the Belikin Brewing Company - to get into proper Belize spirit for the start to our adventures the next day.

Hummer Shower

 I'm not the only who love a good shower.

A Knight in the New Year

Last night, around 9:15 or so, Clove's ears picked up and she held her nose high to sniff the air.  She trotted to the door to the front veranda, letting me know there was something out there she seriously needed to investigate.  Then I saw the lights out at sea - one really big boat, all lit up, and at least one smaller boat with search lights.  Was it the Coast Guard closing in on a drug runner?  That has happened before, although not right on our doorstep.  I crept out to the dock, keeping in shadows, to investigate and was relieved to see that it was a large yacht seeking anchorage in the lee of Great Monkey Caye.  It was still there this morning and is still there now.  I got a few photos and was able to dig up some info on the internet.

Here's what I saw this morning:

Fiery Dawn.

Big Boat, I mean Super Yacht.

The sun rising out of the sea.

Stern view, can't make out the name.

Beautiful curved lines. 

When the day was brighter, I got some better shots, but still couldn't make out the name.  With the binoculars, I could see the flag - it was dark green and black with a gold X going from corner to corner.  Google says "Jamaica".  I still could not see the name, but did make out an emblem.

This image was good enough to use Google image search.

Google image search revealed that this superyacht is the "Knight", flying a Jamaican flag.  At 49 meters in length, she can carry 10 guest with a staff of 9 and starts at $210,000 a week to charter.  Below are two photos from the charter website.

From Charter Website

From Charter Website

That is a gorgeous boat.  I noticed that one of the Monkey River tour boats picked up some of the passengers this morning for a river tour and other passengers are out exploring, maybe snorkeling,  in the smaller boat off Great Monkey Caye.

The smaller boat is the one I saw last night with searchlights, presumably guiding the Knight to its anchorage. 

My yellow kayak, a bit of which you see in the foreground, is more in keeping with our means.  But the Knight does make a pretty photo!

From the Garden

 I posted about our bilimbi tree a few weeks ago, with photos of the little flowers (here).  They are bearing fruit nicely and I harvested a small handful today. 

Flowers and fruits.

These seem pretty small to me.

Smaller than my thumb.

The cross section reveals the little star similar to star fruit.

Five-pointed star, like star fruit.

The tiny harvest didn't amount to much, but I sliced them and put them in a mix of diluted apple cider vinegar with sugar and anise seeds.  I made the slices thin enough so we can have them as little side with dinner tonight.

They will be tart and tangy - a good contrast to Punjabi Eggplant.

Timely Inspiration

I love to read other people's blogs; I guess it's the voyeur in me wanting to know how other folks live, what they do for fun, what they cook and eat.  I especially like to broaden my culinary horizons.  It felt like the stars aligned when I saw a fellow blogger mention  cream of apple and parsnip soup he and his partner served at a recent dinner party they hosted because for the first time in my life I had purchased parsnips!  I've never even eaten parsnips and had no idea what to do with them, so I was happy for the inspiration (Thanks Steve!).  I even had apples on hand - can't remember the last time I bought them in Belize - usually you can find only red delicious at the produce stands but this time I found Gala and Granny Smiths.  Other finds were wonderfully fresh leeks, which are hit or miss down here, and fresh cream from a Belize dairy.  I searched online for recipes, found 3 that looked reasonable, and combined the best parts to make my first ever dish using parsnips - Cream of Roasted Parsnip, Leek, and Apple Soup.

Plenty of counterspace next to the air fryer in the outdoor kitchen

I cut up the whites of the leeks and the parsnips for roasting.

Leeks sliced open on the bottom basket.

Parsnips on the top basket.  All spritzed with olive oil.  I put a spacer basket between the leeks and the parsnips for good air circulation.

Popped the baskets into the air fryer for 15 minutes at 400F while I cut up the green parts of the leeks and granny smith apples.

Nearly 6 cups of loosely packed leeks and apples.

Into a quart of duck broth from our Christmas duck.

After 10 minutes, the parsnips were just beginning to brown.  Turned the slices over and spritzed with more olive oil for the last 15 minutes.

Roasted leeks.

Roasted parsnips.

Added the roasted veg and crushed garlic to the pot and simmered for 15 minutes while thinking "oh my gosh - I hope the immersion blender is up to this because I really don't want to use the regular blender."

Kickass immersion blender.

One of the recipes called for seasoning with cinnamon, curry powder, cardamon, black pepper, salt, and dried coriander.  I had everything (except the coriander), so in it all went.

Fresh cream from the dairy, so wonderfully different to the cream you get in the US.

Stirred in the thick cream, heated to almost boiling and here you go -

Cream of Roasted Parsnip, Leek, and Apple soup.

A little greener than many versions because I used the leek greens and didn't peel the green apples.  It was/is/will be wonderful.  Which is a good thing because it made 3 quarts!

Outdoor Kitchen

We set up our outdoor kitchen a couple of months ago.  The biggest motivation was to keep the heat out of the cabana.  And the next biggest was to keep the smells out if we had the new AC running and all the windows closed while cooking.  We had been moving the air fryer and the small oven out to the veranda to use them, which was a big help but a total pain in the butt because we had to bring them back inside.  We couldn't leave them out there because the veranda faces the sea and the salt air corrodes the electrical components so quickly.  What to do to make it easier?  I decided to have our guys build a cabinet to house the appliances and even got to the point of drawing up the specs for it.  Then Dennis, smart guy that he is, suggested seeing what Ikea might have ready made.  The search was on.  Ikea had nothing suitable for outdoor use that met our needs.  The search moved to Amazon where there were many, many possibilities.  Those possibilities were quickly diminished by considerations of budget, quality (lack thereof mostly), size, availability, and shipping costs.  Finally there remained one clear possibility, which I ordered immediately.  

The next day after receiving the unit - oh wait, next day delivery is only a dream for us.  Five weeks later after ordering the unit, having it sent to our shipper in Florida  who put it on a boat to Belize, cleared our order through customs, and delivered it to our friend in Independence who owns a lumberyard and securely stores things for us until we come retrieve them, we unpacked the flat pack -  the process runs on as long as this sentence does!  The instructions list 149 steps, but it was actually straight forward for someone like me who loves to put things together.  I only needed Dennis's help to get the countertop in place.

Space inside the cabinet to store the toaster oven and air fryer away from the sea air when not in use.

Several reviews of the cabinet noted that the stainless top corrodes pretty quickly, so I am psychologically prepared to deal with replacing the top sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, I keep it wiped down using oiled wipes that are meant to clean guns.  They work a treat on other stainless steel items we have.  

The air fryer about to be used.

The new cabinet sits right outside the kitchen window with one of our dining tables  2 steps away.  We put in an electric line, but still need to use an extension cord.  So far it works very well and I usually even remember to put the appliances away after they cool down.  Best of all - if I turn around this is what I see -

Air fryer POV.