 |
| The sun reflecting on the water this morning. |
Arising this morning at 6:30, we hopped out of bed, anxious to start our and tidy up before the maids arrive. They’re scheduled to clean our villa Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 9:00 am. They seldom arrive within three to four hours of 9:00 am, always sweet and apologetic for the delay. We don’t mind. Its the Belizean way.
 |
| Today, windy but cool and less humid. |
Also, this morning, we’d invited a lovely couple we met, Lori and Larry, for coffee at 8 am, before we’d take off with Estevan at 9. They have been staying in one of the hotel rooms at LaruBeya and their coffee pot is not quite as good as ours.
This is their last morning here before moving to the Singing Sands Resort where we’d had Valentine’s night dinner, located about five miles north in Maya Beach, owned by our neighboring resort, Robert’s Grove. With Easter week and spring break upon us, most resorts are totally booked, including ours resulting in the necessity of Lori and Larry moving to Singing Sands.
Saturday night, we joined Lori and Larry for dinner in the village, riding along in their rented golf cart. It was a pleasant evening of idle chatter with yet another friendly couple from Canada. The dinner was mediocre with small portions and no alcohol service so we ended up at a cute little ice cream shop called Tutti Fruitti, a favorite for tourists and locals alike.
 |
| The ice cream display at Tutti Fruitti, a quaint ice cream shop in the village of Placencia. |
Recently, Tom and I decided we’ll only write restaurant reviews here in our blog that are favorable. As we’ve come to know and appreciate the people of Belize, and due to our huge readership worldwide, we feel it is unfair to “bash” a local restaurant, which ultimately may cause them a loss of business.
There are plenty of other candid reviews online that that tourist can read to form their personal decisions. Who knows? Perhaps it was an off night. Perhaps the chef was under the weather or perhaps, they were running out of food, resulting in the minuscule portions. Why complain? Why fill ourselves with negative energy when there is so much positivity surrounding us?
 |
| Another unusual piece of driftwood near our villa. |
When this morning our new friends had overslept and didn’t arrive until 8:30 for coffee, with more apologies than necessary, the maids showed up at 8:32 and… Estevan stood us up for the first time as we waited around for an hour fully dressed and ready to go. We looked at one another and shrugged. Oh well.
It just didn’t matter.
If our van driver doesn’t get us to our ship in time for departure, that would matter. If we arrive at a vacation rental for which we’ve paid in advance and there’s a vacant lot at the address, that would matter.
But, the rest? Nah. We’ve chosen a path in our lives that is wrought with the potentiality of rampant human error, bad service, bad food, late schedules, document issues, collapsed steps, and more. How we handle these scenarios defines our depth and breadth of our experiences.
We chose happiness. Tolerance is the price one pays for happiness. A small price to pay.