Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Jan 10, 00 Caye Caulker - The HaircutWell, my trip to Caye Caulker was one of those mixed experiences. The water taxi from Belize City takes about 45 minutes and it was threatening to rain and the wind was pretty chilly. But since you're packed in with (officially) 31 other tourists and locals it's not too cold. Quite cozy, really. On the way, we stopped at a place called Caye Chapel (which I heard pronounced Chopper) which has a big hotel and the only golf course in the country, but is apparently not open to the public. It's just amazing to see this whole caye in rolling green grass and only a few palms and mangroves. This is some coal-mining family from Kentucky owning their own private island. Therese says the hotel has been available off and on, but when the owner decides to come, he just pays to have the guests moved somewhere else. So I guess the staff just quit advertising. We took several workmen out there and dropped them on a barge serving as a dock at a construction site. More holes of golf, I guess. I was uncertain what they had said (chopper sounds sort of like Caulker and you never can tell; the meat market in Dangriga is named Yearwood and pronounced yahrwoo), so I nearly got off the boat, but came to my senses in time. It's these little uncertainties in a foreign country that take so much energy, I think. By the time we got to the right caye, it was raining and the place I had planned to stay was full. So I decided to have breakfast and think about things. Found a little shop called Evita's Fast Food that looked nice and ordered a ham and cheese omelet and tortillas. This has proved to be a good thing to order when you're uncertain, because the ham and bacon here are wonderful (minimal preservatives), the eggs are beautifully fresh, the cheese is often nice imported Dutch cheese and the tortillas are usually freshly made. This time it was beastly. It was bologna and some orange stringy stuff. But the tortilla was nice and it only cost BZ $6. So I decided to stay cheerful. But also to hedge my bets. If it was going to rain, I wanted to be prepared so instead of one of the bare-bones guest houses, I sprang for the Tropical Paradise. This is a set of cabanas on the beach with its own dock and lounge chairs. But most important, the room I got (BZ $80, whew!) had hot water, cable TV *with* a remote control AND a reading light bulb on the wall above the head board of the bed! Well, it was still a hotel at the beach tacky wood paneling, Marley floor, shower ran right through the floor onto the sand and there was no bath mat, drinking glass, toilet paper holder, soap, etc. But it worked out fine. I went out to sunbathe and read and when it started to rain, I came in and watched the Comedy Channel (this actually was fun, because I haven't seen any TV since I got here). After I while I decided to go get a haircut. When we were in Indonesia we ran into some travelers (from Norway I think) who said they always tried to get haircuts in foreign countries, because it would give you some interaction with a local non-tourist-oriented business and tell you something about the economy and health and licensing standards, etc without being very expensive or risky. We did this in Indonesia and it worked out fine. As they say, one outta two ain't bad. Strolled down the road to a tidy little shop called Elvira's Unisex Beauty Parlour. Elvira was ready to take me right then. BZ $15 for a cut. So I sat down and she combed my hair and fiddled a bit and asked me what I wanted. I said, well, it was too long and I wanted at least an inch cut off and then it needed some shaping. So she fiddled some more and then said "I know what will look nice on you. Shall I give you a nice style?" "Okay," says I. Well. It appears that Unisex means Elvira only gives one haircut. I have the back and sides nicely tapered and it's left a little longer on the top (do any of you gentlemen recognize this as the kind of thing you say to a barber? Elvira knows just what you mean). I even got my side burns trimmed. I mean it is SHORT. Remember my crack about the little Mayan babies and the hedgehogs? I meant it admiringly, even affectionately, but Providence apparently didn't take it that way. Elvira said proudly that this haircut was called a "Mushroom Fade" and she really hoped I liked it. I just couldn't get over what a standard men's haircut it looked like. I expected a splash of Bay Rum at any moment, but instead I got generously dusted with talcum powder. I think it was Evening in Paris (wasn't that the dark blue box with silver lettering on your mother's or grandmother's vanity table?) The whole shop was covered with Evening in Paris by the time I slunk out. I'm ashamed to say I did not leave Elvira a tip. I guess I'm getting used to my lack of hair, but it won't grow much in the two weeks before I get back. So those of you who are going to see me soon are requested to say, "Oh, Paget, it's not *that* short." But it is. It's cool, though, just in time to come back and freeze my ears off. I'll tell you the rest next time. |
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