2013 Beach Olympics

We had our Beach Olympics on Sunday July 7th and I went down to check it out.  It was a great day, blue sky, no clouds and hot, hot, hot!

There was food and drinks for sale.

One of the teams was the Firefighters and it looks like Tommy and Shannon are ready to burn up the sands!

One of the Greek Gods (Goddesses) of Placencia.  Dionysus (also sometimes called Baccus) looks like she is ready to rock and roll.

Same team, Stephanie is getting the beer funnel ready.

Keith the Toga guy, I noticed throughout the day that he kept changing shoulders.  He later told me it was so one shoulder wouldn't burn more than the other.

I think Stephanie is ready.

Patrick was tending bar, never did figure out the reason for the helmet.

The water bed wrestling.  Now to be honest, this was before the event.  Yes, that is Kareem practicing his head plant in the water.

Here we have the Firefighters lined up against the Scotia Bank team.

We have some broken noodles, but the fight goes on.

Lost noodles and teams seem to be trading noodles back and forth.

The winners of the first water bed wrestling (?) match is the Firefighters.

Keith seems to have misplaced his toga.

Here we have an example of the Jaws relay as shown by Lynn and Eugene.

Starting line up of the Greasy Watermelon Pass.

An example of the Flipper Race.

There were a lot of teams:
Firefighters, Greek Gods of Placencia, Scotia Bank, Atlantic Bank, Wallin's and Tropic Air just to name a few.  There was so much going on that I just could not be everywhere at once covering everything.

Everyone had a great time and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Kudos to everyone who worked so hard to make it a success.  I can't wait for next year's event.

2013 Lobsterfest

Wasn’t that a Lobsterfest!!!!

 

We had three days of non-stop lobster, music, parades, marching bands, more lobster, duck races, games of chance, more music, and even more lobster.  Did I say there was lobster?

This past weekend was Placencia’s 15^th Annual Lobsterfest, and I think it was the best one yet.  I know for sure that the weather was the best it has been since I started coming to it in 2009.

It all started on Friday morning with a ‘Walk for Cancer’.  I didn’t get up early enough for the start, but I did see the finish.  Three Cheers for the walkers. 

We had a parade with a real marching band.  They came all the way from Corazol just for us.  Then things just got busy.  We had lots of different bands playing constantly, they come from all over the country… as well as some local talent and some jams.

There was a duck race, which was a little different.  I had only seen them put into a river before.  The water was flat calm and it took a while for them to get started.  Once they did, there were five winners.

There was a lobster cook off, now how cool is that?  We had Thai lobster soup for lunch, grilled lobster for dinner Friday night, Saturday we had lobster/snapper/shrimp bouillabaisse for dinner, and on Sunday night we had lobster skewers.  That is probably enough lobster for this week.

There was a Placencia Lobsterfest Trivia Challenge, a steel band, the Seine Bight drummers and dancers, a Lionfish Cookoff, a great fire dancer, the T-shirts were the best yet, and so many other things were happening, it just couldn’t all be taken in.  One would just have to come back another year.

Placencia Sailing Regatta 2013

Well, yesterday was the first of two days of the Placencia Sailing Regatta.  We walked down to check it out and take some photos.  I got a great shot of the halo around the sun.

Halo around the sun

According to their face book page "The Placencia Sailing Club is located in Belize. We are the 4th sailing club in the country. We teach children how to sail in optimist boats and race in regattas."

In actuality, they do far more than that.  I was watching the people yesterday and it was a drawing together of the community as a whole.

Preparations underway

The kids were great, and determined.  The waves were high and it was difficult to launch the boats off the beach, there were boats swept over and kids tossed out.  But to give credit where credit is due, they flipped their boats over, climbed back in and bailed the water out before starting off again.  Some couldn't get back in so they pushed or pulled their boats back to the shored, emptied the water, reset the rudders and center board and off they went again.

He's down

He's back and bailing

Sometimes the waves just won't cooperate

But perseverance wins

There were a few unsung heroes, one of them our friend Keith from Above Ground Coffee.  He was out to his neck with a boat, helping the kids launch off the beach.  He got that one off and went to the next one.  It was then that I found out that he can't swim, but there he was up to his neck in waves helping one after another.  Keith wasn't the only one either, there were a number of helpers all doing it for the kids.

Lots of volunteers 

And the race is on

Everyone on their way.

Yoga

I am taking up yoga and my first question is:  Am I nuts?????  The answer is:  possibly, but I am going to give it a good try.  Do my best… Am I nuts?

I was nervous walking to the first session on Friday but I went.  It was at 6:15 a.m. and that will answer my previous question with YES!  I am so out of shape and this session showed me just how much.  It was a ‘Gentle Flow’ class for beginners with sitting and stretching, a lot of sitting and stretching.  Agnes and the other students were wonderful, no one made fun and everyone was supportive.

Breathe, Sharyn breathe, yes I am still breathing.  After the first session, I felt pretty good until the next day when I experienced cramps in my thighs and stiffness in my shoulders.

The second session was ‘Basic Flow’, also for beginners.  This one is more standing and stretching which I found much easier and more rewarding as I could actually do some of the positions.  YAY!!!!!

We had a kind of impromptu session with Ben coming to take pictures of the action.  I think we surprised him, as there were not a lot of people sitting cross legged and chanting.  Heck, I can’t even sit flat on the floor cross legged without a cushion yet.  I do say yet as I expect that with time I will be able to do many of the positions that I can’t do right now.  The ladies that showed up were actually quite advanced and I got to see some real class acts.  These women are incredible.

Okay, here we are at the milestone of six sessions, counting the photo op as one session, and I am happy to say that I have improved with each session.  I am feeling better and my joints and muscles are thanking me for it.  After just a few classes, I find I am moving just a little bit better and I am feeling good about each little milestone that I pass.  There is no pressure on me to push myself any further than I wish to push.  At this point in time, I am signing up for two sessions a week in the ‘Basic Flow’ classes, Monday and Friday mornings (no, not at 6:15) and the odd Wednesday afternoons.

I never thought yoga was something I wanted to do, but I am glad I tried it.  Anyone that would be interested in trying yoga should go see Agnes Balawejder-Busch at BB Yoga Flow up near the airstrip.

Agnes has been practicing yoga for nine years and has her Hatha Yoga Teaching Certification.  She is extremely patient as I can attest to.  Drop-ins are always welcome and you can reach her at (501) 631-7726 for more information or go to her website:  http://www.bbyogaflow.com/

Placencia Sidewalk Arts & Music Festival 2013

On a Sunday afternoon in February, the sun was shining and life was good so I thought I'd go check out the Placencia Sidewalk Arts and Music Festival.  That's a local event around here and we've all appreciated it for years now.  We see some of the most talented artisans and musicians come from all over Belize just to be here!

You can't imagine all the different people you'll meet as you walk down our little sidewalk by the beach.  Everyone is here.  The vendor booths line both sides of the walk and the place is packed with people!  This is a good sign.  Steve, one of my friends here in the village, felt the whole festival was set up better than ever.

Bob the Poet (one of the village characters) was selling his poetic cards and carvings of pumice stones.  Ben the Baker was sending some incredible aromas through the air of cakes, pies, cookies and all kinds of deserts.  He sold out by the way.  Not even samples were left over.  Barbara, who lives here as well, was selling her wonderful paintings on coconut husks!  She does the normal stuff too.  Rob, who was a tourist, moved here.  Rob does some fantastic tattoo work.

Bob the Poet

Ben the Baker

There were other novel ideas as well.  William and Jenica, from Mango Creek, came up with a way to recycle old plastic bags.  Imagine those useless old plastic bag stretched, twisted, and weaved artfully into a beautiful colorful bracelets.  They were selling like hotcakes!!!!

William and Jenica

The newcomers to Placencia were having a ball as well.  Roy and Sheryl from Wasilla, Alaska (where?) were enjoying the festival and the nice tropical weather.  They've gone to other festivals in their travels but really enjoyed the diversity at our festival:  arts, crafts, music, food, and tons of very, very, different people for all walks of life.  They'll be back.

I was getting thirsty so I aimed for the rum tent and found some happy volunteers rushing around to keep up with the crowd.  All four kept pretty busy most of the time.  Among them were Ally and Pamela.  They stated this was the best year yet for the festival; more vendors, more visitors, more food, and better organized.  Cool.

A very happy volunteer

At the very north edge of the Festival was Cyril who goes by the nickname of Ras Stine.  He has some wonderful bead and shell work as well as carvings.  He is here all year long, selling his goods.  He can be reached at inegryne@yahoo.com if you are interested in seeing what more he has.

Ras Stine

It's wonderful to see the festival progress as it has.  The layout of the festival was much more condensed and that made it so much easier to get around.  The music was left to one area on the beach which left the sidewalk exclusively for our artists to showcase their work, in peace and quiet.  Everyone I spoke with was happy with the diversity of the arts and felt the quality of work was quite high.

The weather is really good this time of the year, warm, calm, and sunny.  It's also just past the rush of vacation travelers around Christmas and the New Year, so it's calm and easy to get around.  This is an event worth planning your vacation to Placencia Village, Belize around.

Birds of a Feather

Saturday morning dawn was perfect.

 They just don't get much prettier than this. 

There were lots of birds on the beach, two great blue herons, an egret and numerous grackles.

 We think these two were in the middle of a mating ritual as they kept dancing and leaping about.

 The egret stayed at the other end of the wood wall, keeping to itself.

 These two were back and forth, on the wall, in the water, doing a little shore line fishing and then back to their dance.

 They were both incredibly beautiful.

 We are not sure, but we think the grackle was a mediator of some sort, seemed to be either giving directions or cheering them on!

 We probably got to watch them for a good fifteen minutes.  People coming along the beach stopped and watched with us.

When they moved on, they only went to the other end of the wall and chased the egret off.

Valentine's Day 2013

This Valentine's Day we decided to go for a lunch run...

 Lunch started at Da Tatch

View of the beach from our seats.

View of our house from our seats.

Rum punches.

On to the Pickled Parrot.

Pickled Parrot.

Kareem serving Beliken and Cranbarrel.

A new coozie for my Belikens.

 The next stop was Tutti Frutti for gelatto.

Tough choices.

Choice is made... dark chocolate, pistachio and caramel.

Onward to RumFish for a glass of wine.

Sign in Ladies Room.

Wine glasses are such that don't get blown over in the breeze.

Sign in the Men's Room.

RumFish.

 After RumFish, it was time to head home and relax!!!!

It was a great day!