Tuesday and Wednesday we got out and explored the countryside a bit. Tuesday we drove in to Dangriga to get gas and look for contact solution at the big supermarket there. No luck! We haven't been able to find contact solution anywhere here so Patrick has been wearing his glasses to conserve. The importance of this is that you can't scuba dive with glasses and we're planning to dive in Placencia and in Mexico our last week.
We looked for a restaurant for lunch that the locals were eating at, hoping to avoid the more expensive, slow touristy experience. We found a little cafe that seemed promising and ordered stewed chicken with rice and beans and sodas. The food came out almost immediately and was delicious. The whole meal cost $15 US. I'm now a committed fan of stew chicken. Yumm. The prices for many things here have been a surprise for us but it's because it's hard for Belizeans to get a variety of products. Many things aren't allowed to be imported into the country and/or are highly taxed. There are some things you just CAN'T get here, no matter how much money you have to throw at it.
One fabulous thing you CAN get here is Marie Sharp's habanero pepper sauce. After our lunch in Dangriga we drove to the Marie Sharp factory a little way out of town. Unfortunately we forgot our close-toed shoes so we couldn't take the tour but we peeked in. They were making fruit jam and it smelled heavenly. We sampled a number of the products made there, including habanero jelly, banana jelly (Otis' favorite), a sweet hot pepper sauce (good on pepperoni pizza!), and several of the other hot sauces. Patrick even tried two drops of the ultra hot "Beware-Comatose Heat Level" habanero sauce and survived it. We all enjoyed our time there.
Wednesday we headed south to Punta Gorda. On the way we stopped at Lubaantun, the Mayan ruins where a crystal skull of unknown origin was found.There was a photo of the explorer who was part of finding the skull (see below). He must be at least some of the inspiration behind the Indiana Jones character. The drive to the ruins was gorgeous. It was sunny and the travel bliss was in full effect. Horses grazed beside the road accompanied by white egrets. For a while we followed a horse and buggy carrying a Mennonite farmer, two towheaded boys and a load of watermelons. As we drove through the cheerfull village of San Miguel, three piglets came racing around the corner of a building towards us and stopped to graze near our car.
We had so much fun on our drive and at the ruins that by the time we explored Punta Gorda a little and had lunch we were late getting home.
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