unbelizable

not a typical way to start out a post about a tropical island, but, hey, i never said i was typical anyway. here it is:


you wouldn't have wanted to miss this! as part of the fire-sale deal we got on our tickets to belize, we had a stopover in the dallas airport. while at first this seemed inconvenient, once grace mentioned to me those three sacred letters, BBQ, i knew this was all part of a larger plan. miraculously, unlike laguardia, newark and jfk, the dallas airport has edible food in a relaxing, non-toxic setting. cousin's is locally known bbq that has an outpost at the airport. not only does it have the requisite brisket and ribs, but they also had a uniquely texan concoction that deserves to be documented here: frito pie. a bag of fritos is dumped on a plate and steaming chopped brisket is ladled over, along with a generous squirt of bbq sauce. add some sour cream, cheese and scallions (just for color!), and you've got yourself the single most delicious thing in the state of texas. i'd go back just for this, no joke.

anyway, on to more expected things. yes, there was this:

and lots of this:

and even a manatee, which was pathetically anticlimatic.

it was the single most relaxing place i've ever been, and in good karmic fashion, i got horribly, terribly, skin-peelingly sunburnt. and am STILL!


but let's focus on to what we're really here to talk about: the food. while you can't get the options you could in hawaii, what belize lacks in variety it makes up in freshness. lemon meringue pie still warm from the oven, sold to you "curbside" at an outdoor reastaurant? yup, and so sweet and tart it made my teeth hurt.

fish so fresh you actually saw the fisherman scale it on the boat, and efficently gut and slice it into the filets slathered with garlic butter currently on the grill?

i didn't have high hopes for the complementary hotel breakfast, but with fresh baked homemade biscuts and cinnamon buns, greek yogurt and granola, a wide variety of ripe, just picked fruit, and freshly squeezed juices, it soon became an extended affair.

we did make a huge mistake by not eating enough pupusas. we put them off for the first two days, too focused on seafood, and by the time we realized how delicious they are, spicy and crunchy and sweet, the stand was closed for the weekend.

and oddly, miraculously, enough, my intense craving for fried chicken was satisfied fully by the most surprisingly good fried chicken i've ever had. i would never have suspected i would get great fried chicken in belize, but that's part of the magic of the place.



**btw, we went to caye caulker. we stayed at the iguana reef inn, ate at rose's, jolly roger's, syd's and the papusa stand across from the soccer field. we hung out with the folks at ezboy tours, who are lovely and have a cute dog named foxy brown.