Belize Winter 2025 - Part IV

Monday January 27

Last night we walked to the brew pub to watch the Chiefs and the Bills  play in the AFC championship game. It was fun. There were plenty of other American football fans there. Some of them were there for the previous game where the Steelers annihilated the Challengers. I heard someone at breakfast calling the Challengers the Redskins. I guess old habits die hard.

I got a margarita and we got some wings and settled down to watch at least some of the game.  The wings were a lot better than the burger and nachos we had the other day. We watched the 1st half and the start of the third quarter. It was fun talking to fellow fans, some for the Bills, some for the Chiefs. Now that the Chiefs are so dominant everyone loves to hate them, but for me its fun to root for a good (or great) team for a change, kind of like when the Cardinals are good. And Mahones is just fun to watch, as is Andy Reid, stoic and mostly calm on the sidelines. And to see who Taylor Swift is sitting with. Last game she had Caitlin Clark with her; last night it was Travis Kelce’s mom.

When we left the Chiefs were still ahead but not by much. We stayed up until they won. Off we go to the third Super Bowl in a row, pretty cool. And to think 20 years ago when we first moved to Austin I had not a clue about football. Cody got me started and then Lee and Dan got interested as well. At first it was mostly college ball. Really it’s only been in the past few years, since we moved to Minnesota, that I’ve gotten interested in professional football, and even basketball last year when the Timberwolves got hot.

So today is our last day, we leave for the little airport on Caye Caulker at 11:10. This will be a long travel day; I’ll report back tomorrow! 

Back Home, Wednesday January 29

We’ve been home for a day now. We’re glad to be home even though it was a nice vacation. We liked the laid back vibe on Caye Caulker and the inexpensiveness too. The dogs are all just fine, even Heather seems happy and much better than when we left. Rita even gave them baths this time, and said Harper was fine and didn’t freak out. We want to know her secret!

The puddle jumper from Caye Caulker to Belize City was fun. iIs only a 10 minute flight, and the view over the water was just gorgeous. We were able to fill out the departure form online before we left and  ended up with a lot of time to kill at the airport in Belize City. But the rest of the flights went smoothly. And going through immigration in the US was nothing compared to how it’s been sometimes in the past. We have Global Entry and they now use facial recognition so that took all of a minute. And it seems like customs is now selective about who they check. Anyway we wound our way through immigration in Houston and that was that.

When we got to our gate for our flight to Minneapolis we still had an hour and as luck would have it there was a Texas BBQ place right next to our gate, so we split some sliders and a salad. It was pretty good, the real thing even in an airport!

We both managed to sleep a little on the flight to Minneapolis. It was after 11 pm when we landed, a long day. And oh joy! The ParknFly van was right there waiting for us, and we were dropped off at our car first too.

We were home in bed before 1 pm. Unfortunately we had to get up because our housekeepers were coming. But we went to breakfast in Excelsior and then got the dogs and took them for a walk. Even Heather trotted right along, with a couple breaks in the stroller.

We really liked getting away from the cold for a week. In a month we’re going to California for a couple weeks too. Winter will be over before we know it!

We’re talking about where we might go next year. We thought Portugal but it’s not warm enough. We’d still like to go to Costa Rica someday, so that’s a possibility. Then Lee suggested Palm Springs. Warm, sunny and we could combine it with an Emi visit. Maybe!

The biggest downside of our trip for me are the bug bites I got. Probably sand flies from what I’ve read. I’m putting hydrocortisone cream on the bites but it's not helping very much. They were really bothering me last night. I’ve got a call in to my doc to see if I can get something stronger. Dr. Google says the welts from the bites could last up to two weeks. Ugh! (the nurse said to take an antihistamine, so I went back on Claritin and that definitely helped! All better now.)

Belize Winter 2025 Part III

Saturday January 25

We woke up to blue skies! Yay! No rain today, and none tomorrow either. It’s windy but who cares!

We take our time, drinking coffee in our room, banana pancakes again in the resort restaurant. Around 10:30 we grab our bikes and ride to the Split Ferry. The ferries (there are a few different ones) are basically pontoon boats that are large enough to hold a golf cart, a couple of bikes, and some people as well. The channel is small, it only takes 5 minutes at most. Soon we’re on the north island.

There’s not much there, a few resorts, a few restaurants, lots of construction though of what looks like condos and fancy houses and resorts. The roads are the same Belize roads though, packed sand and potholes.

We tool along following the signs for Bliss Beach. We’re not sure what it is but we’re going to find out! It’s about three miles from the ferry to the beach. it turns out to be a nice beach where you can enjoy the ocean, sit in a lounge chair, and grab a drink. No food though, and we’re getting hungry, so we opt to turn around. We ride about two miles back to the Happy Lobster and have lunch there. I have conch fritters and Lee has a lobster and we share. They are spiny lobsters which means they don’t have claws. They’re split in half and it’s easy to pick out the meat. The conch fritters are excellent as well. They’re served with a chili lime dip that’s spicy but delicious. Just use it sparingly! I get another Mexican coke as well.

We bike back to the ferry. As we’re riding the ferry back my hat blows off! Oh no! It’s the hat I bought on the Big Island in Hawaii during our trip there for Dan and Kelsey’s wedding. It’s easy to see it in the clear blue water but we can’t reach it. The ferry captain says he’ll try to get it on his next trip but I really don’t want to wait around. All of a sudden the girl at the next dock over jumps in the water and rescues my hat! I thank her profusely and she tells me to wear it backwards if I’m facing into the wind. Good idea!

Back at the hotel I decide to get in the pool and swim a few laps to cool off. Well, the water is FREEZING. I only swim around 250 yards before I have to get out. Lee says it’s mostly rain water after the week we’ve had and he’s probably right. There hasn’t been any sun to warm it up, that’s for sure.

Sunday January 26

We had a pizza delivered for dinner. It was pretty good, mostly a nice change. 

In the morning it’s another beautiful day, and less windy too. We have a reservation to go snorkeling at 9 AM. We meet our guide out on the dock. I’m nervous; it’s been at least 10 years since we’ve done this and because of all the wind yesterday it was pretty choppy.

But our guide was really nice, and knowledgeable. He knew the names of lots of different fish. The first place we went he got in the water with us. Alas I had a problem; my mask leaked. We tried to fix it but my face is really narrow and sometimes I need a kid’s mask. I tried to make the best of it, just dumping the water out occasionally.

We floated around looking at all the different fish. The coral was brown but we expected that. Poor coral. There was a fairly strong current and I was still nervous. I had a life jacket around my waist so that I would be a little buoyant. Lee took his off; he didn’t need it. Of course we had flippers too. I tried to stay pretty close to our guide, but at one point I accidentally got a mouthful of water and that freaked me out. I couldn’t seem to keep up with Lee and the guide. The guide took a look at me and asked if I was ok. I shook my head no. He grabbed me, told me to just float on my back and relax. I floated, but didn’t relax, sigh. Once we got back to the boat and I was out of the water I was fine. He gave me a water bottle and told me to drink some. I was kind of mad at myself for having a little panic attack but oh well.

We drove to another site. Here there were a BUNCH of nurse sharks and sting rays. We got in the water again and just floated there for a bit while the sting rays swam underneath us and the nurse sharks bumped us with their big brown bodies. It was pretty cool but now it was Lee’s turn to be nervous, so we didn’t stay in the water very long. The sting rays are neat, they have big eyes and seem to be looking at you speculatively. The nurse sharks weren’t scary at all. Apparently they don’t have actual teeth but the insides of their mouths are very sandpapery. They are called nurse sharks because they suck up their food, like a baby with a bottle.

The third site, the coral gardens, was very shallow. Once again Lee and I got in the water by ourselves. The current here was really strong but finally my mask seemed to be seated properly and it quit leaking. We would kick against the current and then float down and look at all the fish. I saw a white fish with pink stripes that was beautiful.

After that we boated over to the other side of Caye Caulker and looked at the tarpons and pelicans. People are allowed to feed the tarpons here so that’s what we did. We had to be careful of the pelicans; they would take your fingers off, but all the tarpons did was bump your arm and make you drop the fish. Lee and I both fed them. It was awesome!

That was the end of the snorkeling adventure. It was fun once I recovered from being scared. It’s the ocean, and open water that does it for me. I love to look at it but getting in it not so much.

Belize Winter 2025 Part II

Thursday, January 23

After our afternoon expedition we went back to the hotel for a while. We just lazed around. I took a shower and a little after 5 we walked down to our reservation for dinner, Pasta La Casa. It’s a very popular Italian restaurant that gets very good reviews. They have two seatings, 5:30 and 7:30. The tables are communal and we sat next to another couple, Susie and Bob. They live in Oregon and have done a lot of traveling in their old age. We compared notes on places we have been, what we like to do. We have similar hobbies, Susie also crochets, bakes, and gardens; Bob plays guitar but is also an artist, pen and ink. So we had plenty to talk about. 

The food was very good, as was the wine. But something strange happened with our main course and it took a long time to arrive, like an hour! It’s like they forgot us, but that seems impossible, we were all there for the same reason and there were only two items on the menu! It did eventually show up and it was delicious, although I think I enjoyed it more than Lee; he said there was an awful lot of cheese on the pasta. That was ok by me!

I slept a lot better last night, although I did wake up with some mosquito bites. We’ve done our usual morning routine, coffee in our room then down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Today I got two scrambled eggs and banana bread. I almost got the banana pancakes again!

It’s actually chilly today, low 70’s for the high. I think even Belize is being affected by the polar vortex! We’ve kept the bikes for another day and in a while we’ll go down to the brewery for lunch and a beer flight.

Later:

The brewery was fun. Lee was finally able to get an IPA and I got a coconut porter. We got food as well, but the burger and nachos were pretty mediocre. They have good TV’s though; we may go back to watch the Chiefs vs the Bills on Sunday.

The afternoon was a little TOO lazy for me; Lee took a nap; I finally went for a walk, all the way down to the Split and back. It was just as well that things were slow, Friday was busy!

Friday, January 24

Well we’re sitting waiting for the ferry back to Caye Caulker and I’m on my phone so we’ll see how this goes.

I woke up at 4:30 am this morning to get ready to go on our guided tour of the Mayan ruins at Lamania. We needed to meet our taxi at 5:50 to make it to the 6:30 ferry on time. This is the earliest we’ve been up in a while.

It’s dark and rainy out but Max our driver is prompt and his golf cart taxi has clear plastic shades so we get to the ferry on time and dry.

The ferry is full and it leaves a few minutes late but soon we’re on our way to Belize City. There we meet Juan who helps us find our driver, boat captain and guide for the day, Julian. We pile into J’s ancient van and soon we are tooling around Belize City picking up the other people on our tour. 

Finally we are on our way to Orange Walk, from where we will take a boat to the ruins. Along the way we learn interesting factoids from J, and sampling of which are below:

a) Belize City is no longer the capital. They moved it inland to Belmopan after a hurricane hit Belize in the ‘80’s and Belize City flooded badly.

b) Lamania was just discovered in the 70’s which explains why I don’t remember hearing of it 50 years ago.

c) J is Mestizo, Mayan and Spanish mixed. His grandparents are full Mayan and still wear traditional clothing.

It takes an hour to get to the boat. I’m very impressed by the highway, mostly smooth paved 2 lane the entire way. J says there are no speed limits in Belize, just periodic speed bumps and police checkpoints to keep people in line. It seems to work pretty well too. You wouldn’t want to hit one of those bumps going 50 that’s for sure!

After about an hour we transferred to a large speed boat and away we went up the New River. By now it has stopped raining, and it stayed dry for the entire boat ride and the tour of the ruins. I have no idea how he found his way through that curvy many channeled mess but I guess he does it all the time. We sped along taking the curves at an angle and me with my eyes shut half the time.

Pelican Outside a Mennonite Village

Periodically he’d screech to a halt and point out something of interest, a bird, a crocodile, a Mennonite village. The river got very wide and became a lake, and then we were finally there.

So Lamania was pretty spectacular. We climbed one of the temples and walked around a lot of them. When we were finished with the tour we had a picnic lunch cooked by J’s mom. And I had a Mexican coke too! I was starving!

We checked out the little museum and then it was time to reverse the process. Hour long speed boat ride back to Orange Walk. Ancient van ride back to Belize City. We were the first one’s dropped off, which was nice, but we missed the 3:00 PM ferry by about 20 minutes, which meant we had to wait about an hour for the 4:30 ferry. 

While we were waiting for the ferry it started pouring again. After all of J’s stories about Belize City flooding the copious amount of water coming down started to make me nervous. It was still raining hard when we got on the ferry, but somewhere along the way the rain stopped and the clouds actually parted a little.

We were very glad to get back to Caye Caulker. No Max waiting for us but that was ok; we didn’t mind walking back to Weezies. A couple of showers and soon we were down in the restaurant once again, drinking wine and eating pasta. We’re both really tired and we’re glad we don’t have any big plans for tomorrow.

Heather July 17 2008 - January 31 2025

Heather oh Heather, I miss you! It’s been only a couple of days since we had you put to sleep. There is definitely a hole where Heather used to be in our family. We feel it, and the other dogs feel it too. Both Harper and Sophie have been extra clingy and Harper has been staring at me a lot. I’m sorry, Harper I know you don’t really understand, but it was time.

When we moved back to the US from Hong Kong and finally got settled in New Hampshire Lee really wanted a dog. I was ready too, but still a little trepidatious because of Marley, our dog in Missouri that was hit by a car. Even though it had been over 6 years I had been traumatized. But I took a leap of faith.

Lee had researched Westies and thought that was what we should get, a little dog that thinks it’s a big dog, smart and feisty, friendly and enthusiastic. He found Diane’s Westie’s online and signed up for one of Diane’s open houses.

Now Diane advertised her open houses as a chance to meet her dogs and see if you thought a Westie was right for you, and that part was true. But the thing I figured out after we got Harper and got to know Diane better, was that she was also checking YOU out, and seeing if you were someone she would trust with one of her dogs.

So we went to her next open house. We sat down in her den with a group of other potential Westie owners and Diane let her dogs come down to meet us, and vice versa. I will always remember my first glimpse of Heather. She came scampering down the stairs on her little legs with a big smile on her face, so happy to meet new people and get some pets! She was just the cutest little thing, and we were smitten.

We put our names on Diane’s waiting list and specified that we wanted one of Heather’s puppies. Heather was only a year and a half old at that point so this would be her first litter. Diane said that it usually took around 6 months to get one of her puppies but strangely enough when Heather had her puppies in December we got a call right away. Did we want one? Yes! So in February of 2010 Harper came to live with us and our Westie journey began.

 

By 2014 Heather had had 5 litters of puppies. She was due to have another in June of that year, but something went wrong. The puppies caught a virus and one by one they all died, except one. Diane kept that one puppy (Faith) and decided not to breed Heather again because she was so upset when the puppies died. 

When Diane’s mamas and papas retire sometimes she keeps them. But she can’t keep them all, so sometimes she gives them away. She asked us if we wanted Heather. By this time we had 2 Westies, Harper and Cosmo. We said we didn’t want a third dog. But Diane had already decided so she just waited us out. Other people wanted Heather but Diane knew where Heather belonged. It took us about 6 months but finally in December of 2014 we caved and Heather was ours.

Poor Heather! She had lived at Diane’s for 6 years and moving to our house was very scary for her at first. It didn’t help that Harper was not at all pleased to have another female dog in residence. She made very sure that Heather knew her place, which was at the bottom of the pack hierarchy. Cosmo was delighted to have another playmate but if Harper caught them playing together she would break it up. She was so mean to poor Heather! Eventually she relented, but it took a long time.

Once Heather was acclimated to living with us she was a lot of fun. Heather was well trained by Diane, and walked beautifully on a leash, unless she managed to get in front. She did NOT want to be the leader and would quickly find a way to get behind us, and if you weren’t careful, right underfoot. In fact right under my feet was Heather’s favorite place to be. The joke always was, where’s Heather? Well just look down and there she is!

Heather was a ball catching maniac. She loved loved loved to chase a ball, bring it back, and drop at your feet. Over and over, until her tongue was practically dragging on the floor and we’d have to make her stop. She continued to chase balls well into her old age, only stopping a year or two ago.

Speaking of tongues Heather had the longest tongue I have ever seen on a dog. In fact it didn’t entirely fit in her mouth and often when she was asleep a little bit of it would protrude between her teeth. I would joke that she looked like road kill! But it was just Heather.

Heather could be very anxious and sensitive. She was so afraid that she might be left behind that the one time she would frantically assert herself was when we were getting ready to do something, go on a walk, go somewhere in the car, get on our boat. Then she would push her way to the front, determined to not be left behind. One time when we were getting ready to go sailing and we were getting everyone into the dinghy, Heather got so worried that she jumped right from the dock on to the dinghy. Only she didn’t quite make it and fell, plop! right into the ocean! 

Fortunately she had on her doggie life vest so I could grab the handle and fish her right out. She was very soaked and bedraggled from that experience, but did she learn from it? No, we still had to watch her like a hawk when we were getting in the dinghy.

Heather loved sailing. I have so many pictures of her with her nose in the air, smelling all the sea smells, or smiling while on someone’s lap in our boat. I’m so glad she got that experience.

Heather was 10 years old when we moved to Minnesota. Changing homes was always really hard on her. When we moved to Waconia she got a bad urinary tract infection, and the same thing happened when we moved into our new house in Shorewood. She just wasn’t someone that handled stress well at all!

At Heather’s checkup when she was 13 her blood work showed that her glucose levels were very low. After more testing we discovered that Heather had an insulinoma, or a tumor on her pancreas. Usually these tumor are cancerous and even with surgery dog’s don’t do very well or live very long. But at 13 we didn’t want to put her through a surgery that might not even help. We decided to manage the tumor with diet and hope for the best.

We put her on small frequent meals (something we already did for Harper and Cosmo) and in another 6 months had her tested again. Although the tumor was still there it hadn’t grown and her blood sugar levels had actually improved. We concluded that Heather was one of the lucky dogs that had a benign tumor! 

What finally killed Heather was just plain old age. She was deaf, she had dementia. She couldn’t go on walks anymore. We bought her a stroller but she didn’t like it much. She started having accidents in the house.

It was harder than I expected to know that it was time to say goodbye. The little changes in her quality of life happened so slowly. We got used to them, sort of, one by one. Until we just had to face that Heather was unhappy. She was walking around with her tail between her legs. She couldn’t get comfortable in bed. She had an accident in the crate and was very upset.

We had the vet from Pet Loss At Home come to the house. It was a kindness that we could do that for Heather, who was always anxious at the vet. We said goodbye, let Sophie and Harper sniff her body once she was gone. We wrapped her in one of our Westie blankets and that was that.

I’m sad, and at the same time I’m kind of glad too. Glad that Diane waited us out and knew that Heather belonged with us. Glad that we had 10 years with her. Glad that she gave us Harper. 

Thank you Heather. Thanks for being part of our family. You will always have a place in our hearts and we will always love you.