Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Dec 7, 1999 Thanksgiving in MexicoThanksgiving in Mexico with Carol's friends was a good combination of traditional and local color. Carol and J.B. are back in Bacalar, located about 10 miles from Chetumal (just across the Belize border) on a beautiful lake called "Lake of the 7 Colors." The water is very clear and still and the combination of vegetation, a bright sandy bottom and differing depths produces spectacular colors--many more than seven. The overall affect is turquoise, with many shades of blue and green and even some violet in the right light. So many changes throughout the day, it seems you could sit and look for hours and never be bored. But even though Carol's house is right on the lake and the hammocks were up, of course we had too much to do for me to test that theory. The Thanksgiving dinner was turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, spinach salad, and all the rest served as a sit-down dinner outside on the patio and accompanied by margaritas, Mexican champagne and French brandy. There were about two dozen guests, about half U.S. folks who live in Bacalar year round, some "snowbirds" from the U.S. who winter at an RV park somewhere near Cancun and are friends of the hostess who also used to do that, two local (Mexican) couples and another Mexican woman and the guy from the Netherlands she used to be married to, along with their children. After cooking and eating and cleaning, everyone sat down again for a while and one of the Mexican men entertained us playing the guitar and singing many Mexican ballads and a few rousing something else's that had the singer rolling his eyes comically and the Spanish speakers grinning and winking. Lots of fun even if you don't have a clue. One earnest young botanist (doing interesting things in the forest) tried to explain the songs a few times, but it was not a success. The phrase "lost in translation" does have a literal meaning. Fairly early to bed Thursday so we could get up early and go shopping Friday in the Free Zone, also called "the Frontier." This is in the no-man's land between the borders and is a duty-free place with lots and lots of imported Asian junk. Well, and other things, too. There's a nice duty-free shop like you see in every major airport in the world with booze and perfume and there are a few grocery stores (?) and an electronics place or two, but mostly just little shops with artificial flowers and already-rusting cheap tools and shampoo and elaborate, tacky plastic children's toys. But Carol and J.B.(and an ex-pat friend, Penny) knew what they wanted and were willing to shop for it, so we had a successful day. Five hours of marathon shopping with only two stops for juice. They bought kitchen utensils, wastebaskets, roll-around vegetable storage cart, juicer, ironing board etc. Lots of household stuff. I bought Christmas lights, wine (3 bottles of a very nice Cote du Rhone at US $6 each) and a chicken-roasting pan. Another tropical roulette game getting back into Mexico. You go the customs counter and push a button. If the light comes up green, you walk through without inspection. If it comes up red, you get to take everything out of your bags and show them the receipts and get everything matched up. With four women who had re-balanced the loads and traded off packages several times, this was quite a lot of fun. So it didn't really matter that only one of the first three got the red light, they all had to unload in order to get past the inspection. I was the last one and I had to hand up receipts and about half what I was carrying to help the matching. But then I got a green light, so we were off again. The four of us had a wonderful late lunch at the best restaurant in Bacalar, a pitcher of watermelon juice and beautiful little crispy 4" chicken tostados all around. Three a piece with avocado. The experienced eaters ordered theirs without beans. Because the beans are made from powdered, dried beans and are kind of pasty. The total bill was about US $7.00. Carol said when they first discovered the place, they thought, "Why cook? We'll just eat here every night." But as it turns out everything tastes the same, so they got tired of it. And then there are those instant beans. We were going to go to the movies that night (there are no movie theaters in Belize so I was up for it), but there was a party in the movie "theater," so there was no movie. This is a large roofed, open-air building where you sit on folding chairs and smear yourself with insect repellent and they show the movie on the white wall. Probably you can drink beer too, but as I said, we didn't get to do it. So we spent a lot of time talking and comparing notes on our experiences and plans (Carol has them, I don't) and I watched them organize their household and negotiate repairs to the place J.B has bought there. Some of our observations about changed perceptions, priorities and tolerances.
With that I'll sign off. |
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