MMM, Food.

Well, I just finished a delightful evening entertaining friends with some tacos. MMM, tacos. The food in Mexico and Belize did something to me. I can't exaclty say what it was...The farm of a house keepers that we went to. With avocados, pineapples, guava, bananas, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cilantro, habaneros, lime, mango, carrot, chickens, boars, royal rats, coconut. I had my first fresh coconut here. Big and green, not like the brown ones you usually see. Chop the top off, drink the delicious milk. (it's clear and almost tastes like it's carbonated) Then slice off some off the side, split the thing in half, and use your slice for a spoon to eat the meat. Don't worry if you can't eat it all the dogs will finish up.

Or maybe it was the street vendors, all with very cheap food. Small portions. A snack for $.50 makes me happy.

Or maybe it was the fresh fruit stands. No refridgeration, but at least you know the stuff came from a place very close to the street you are walking down. The climate is about perfect for growing most produce.

Or maybe it was the fact that everything was fresh and cheap. Some things were odd. On the island, Mellissa noted, Velveta was kept in the fridge while fresh queso on the shelves. Also a rat got into the candybars. Not a big deal if you ask me. Just dont buy cheese, and make sure your candy bar is not chewed into, or you M&M's a buch of rat turds! It wasn't that bad in actuality, but I just feel 18 hours is the most to let some cheeses set out. After that I just can't eat them.




Breakfast-The Most Important Meal of the Day

It's such a great time of day on vacation. That time when you wake up. Not get up. Wake up. You still lie in bed. Maybe rise enough to get a peek at the sunrise. Oh Glorious Oceanside Sunrise! But you're not awake. You just wake up, thinking, about the crazy dream you had last night. The one that was procured through a day of not hearing much english, expectations of the new day, and something you have never seen before. But more than that you're thinking of breakfast. You know what it is going to be. Eggs, rice, beans, maybe some quesso, maybe some fry jack or toast, and usually a fried plantain. Delicious! In Mexico, Heuvos Rancheros, or Heuvos Montellenos are king, maybe have some ham or fresh fish with it. In Belize bananas.

Another nice thing about Belize...Habeneros everywhere! Almost any place you eat will have spiced your food with them, and most use them as a garnish. So many good hotsauces. I could get used to this.


FRESH FISH!


I had been thinking about fresh fish since the day I decided, the thought of the beach, was the only thing that could get me through christmas time at the shop.

I have always had an intersting relationship with seafood, lakefood too. It's not that I don't like it, or didn't. Some of my best food memories were of camping with my dad catching many trout in a day and cooking up the best of the catch in a foil packet with lemon butter and olive oil over a very large pile of coals! Sometimes though I just haven't been able to do it. I once ate a shrimp with the shell on, it almost ruined it for me. I could never do shell fish. Oysters, clams, the texture was just too much. My grandma used to take me to the all you can eat seafood buffet at the casino. The frog legs were great, best meat I had ever tasted. After about four of them, though, I started thinking about the animal I was eating and could eat no more. Luckily for me I have overcome these childish notions of food, and am now willling to try just about anything.

When I was a kid we used to ride our bikes to the creek and fish out crawfish. We all thought they were kinda cool, but definatly gross. What kind of animal only has one claw! Last year I finally ate one. Yup, I'm not from the south. It went a little like this....

I was sitting at the bar one night, actually one of THE nights, you know, fat tuesday. The cook from the BBQ joint down the street came in and traded a couple or five pounds of crawfish for a beer and a few shots. They sat for a while. Like a big pile of bugs, or roaches, roaches of the sea. no one really ate them. We dared each other, but still no. So, I says to mayble, I says "If you eat one I'll eat one." and Mayble says, she says, "Ok." So we tried them. Ripped 'em in half, tore the meat out of their bellies and stuffed it in our mouths. Wow. Delicous. A girl comes in the bar. She starts eating the crawfish. She does it a little different though. Instead of throwing out the head...she sucks the brains out! So I says to Mayble, I says "I'll suck the brains out if you do." And Mayble says, she says "OK." So we do. We start sucking the brains. The brains of all the little roaches we tore the bodies off of. Delicious. So maybe I learned something. Maybe I learned something that night, from a little drunk southern girl. Maybe I learned that it might be good to have an open mind, about one of the only three things that matter to our survival. The other two are always the same; maybe we should thoroughly enjoy the one necesity we have that can be spiced up, and is available in many, many different forms. I will never pass up a chance to have a new food.

But, I regress, back to Belize. Ahh, fresh fish. Belize is maybe 70 miles (at very most) wide. This means that the ocean is within an hours driving distance from the most mainland part of the country. Most places being located on the ocean or rivers. Mmm, fresh fish. The ceveche is amazing. So simple, so perfect. Dinner on the island...you walk down the street past ten or so places all with chalkboards with their catch of the day. There is a good chance you saw that very fish pullled in that day, at least brought off the boat. Red snapper abound. Also shrimp, grouper, and barracuda. All of which are not to good environmentally, as mass fishing and rising mercury levels have harmed the waters, but are all caught here by local fisherman, on small boats, just making a living. It's nice knowing the meal your eating was just pulled from the ocean in the last two or three hours. I could get used to this.



Taco's. Better than Pizza?

The best part of the whole trip...Taco's. Taco's maybe arent' what you're thinking of. All taco's here are corn tortillas. Usually made that day. Small. I could usually eat six. Once with David, I asked for six shrimp taco's. He said, "why don't you start with 4 or 5." I said, "ok 5, I'm really hungry." I ate my six, and they were delicious. Later he asks me if I could eat Eight. I say, "Maybe, Six was good, I hadn't eaten much all day. Eight, though, Eight, Make my stomach very big, and painful." Nothing like a taco with some fresh lime and cilantro, though, especially when they're $.50 a piece.



AHHHH! The swine flu!



So I'm in Tulum one day, the next I'm in Orangwalk, then Caye Caulker. In Tulum everything is fine. Orangewalk, also fine. Caye Caulker, the guesthouse owner tells me that there is a new flu in Mexico. All of the people I meet can't belive that I am going back to Mexico. I hear that the border is closing. I don't really believe all of it. I was just there three days ago. It was fine. So I go on. People still keep talking about it though. Swine flew in Mexico. Stop eating pork. If I were one to worry this may be the time to do it. Luckily, I am not the type to worry at all. I waited til the day before I was planning on leaving Belize to look at the news. See if all these stories were true. See if the borders really were closed. See if the airline will move my flight to Belize City. See if I might possibly, for the love of god, be stuck here. stuck on an island with nothing going on. An island I could lose years on. See if maybe, for once, I might be the lucky one who gets to make that great and fatefull call to work saying sorry, I'm stuck here. I think I'm going to stay. See if maybe, my friends could take care of my dog for maybe just a few months until I found a way to make enough money to book her flight down here. It didn't quite work out that way. I checked the web. Seemed like a bunch of rubbish to me. Also the airline wouldn't do much but cancle out the rebooking fee on a flight. Some pandemic.

I get back to Mexico and all the border control is weraing surgical masks. The agents were still friendly but you see no smiles through the masks. The fee to leave Belize is something like $18.50 US. I get up to the counter and have $20 US.

"You must go get exact change."

"Um," tired and not wanting to get out of line to go get change and then go to the back of the line, I reply, "Can you just take the twenty and not give me any change?"

"Ah, yes, thank you sir."

I am through customs with a nod.

I try to exchange my cash, but only have $5 BZ. and that is too small for the money changers. I think they could have given me twenty pesos, but I gues I have some foriegn currency now. Go through Mexico Imigration. More dust masks, more rifles.

I arrive in Chetumel. I somewhat remembered where the bus station was, from our previous drive in, so I walked for a while before finding a taxi. The taxi was fine but I had no small change and ended up paying about 15 pesos more than the ride should have cost. Lesson learned. Always carry small bills, and change.

Once in Tulum, it was back to the familiar faces and places, very enjoyable. Here no one is worried about swine flu. The local newspaper sensationalizes the story on the main page, but also compares it to the cucucabre. It could be just a story to cover up other stories going on right now, it claims. No one is wearing dust masks here though, and the local vibe is that it is not a big deal.

I catch the collectivo a few days later. I am going home. David suggests the collectivo to Playa Del Carmen, and then to Cancun. He says it will be cheaper. It was a little cheaper. But...I get off the collectivo in Play del Carmen. I remember the city vagely from our bus ride through a few weeks ago. I start walking aroud looking for the bus station. I think I am getting close, when I see a map. Not areal map, who would look at a real map. It is one of those semi cartoonish maps. It says the bus station is about 6 or so blocks from where I am at now, but the oppisite way. So, I turn around, start walking. I get to where the map said the bustation was. Nothing. Just a walmart. I ask a few policia.

"Donde esta de ADO?"

"No comprende."

Okay.

Finally I stop by a hotel. The bell boy tells me the bus station is 2 blocks away. Off I go. Three or four block later I arrive at the bus station. Head to the ticket counter.

"Cancun airpeurto, por favor"

"(lots of spanish)"

"Habla englis? Mi habla espanol..eh..picado.?."

"Oh, there are no buses for that here. You must go to the other bus station. It is six blocks down."

Th man behind me gives me more specific directions.

The real bus staion is half a block from the beach. I looked at it. Nice but crowded. It's 11am and its hot! I've been walking around the city for over an hour and I need something cool. There is a Mcdonalds across froom the bus station. I told myself I wouldn't eat at a place like that the whole trip. (after all that pre trip excitment of food) But it was 95 degrees and I knew MC would have some ice cream, ice, and most improtant, AC. I walk in feeling like I just solved all the worlds problems. "Large Vanilla shake, por favor."

"no, no shake yet."

great. Haven't been too a mickey d's since. If it's 95 degrees outside at 7 in the morning you should serve ice cream at 7 in the morning.

At the airport the make you fill out a survey. Have you been coughing? Have you been throwing up? Have you had loose stools?

Then you fill it out and they point a gun at your head that take your temp. Not cool. I felt like coughing on all of the people who were wearing dust maks. I decided against it. Those people probably dont need any more fear in thier lives.


And that pretty much sums it up. Hope you enjoyed my stories!