South For the Weekend

Michael and I are still getting used to the idea of vacationing in the tropics on weekends. So we had to subject ourselves to another trip in paradise. Along with Michael's co-worker, Landy and his girlfriend Sole, we drove south to the resort town of Placencia.

We headed out on Friday evening in the Scotiabank truck for the four hour drive. Michael was the lucky driver being the only one who can knows standard. With the road being windy, pitch black and unpaved at times, Michael did a great job getting us there in one piece. Michael was convinced that we would get a flat tire and then some twisted 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' scene would ensue. Just remove the movie's evil character Leather Face and add in a group of scary banditos to make it realistic. Thankfully, the drive was uneventful. I was just happy to arrive at our final destination, Chabil Mars Villas.

The units at Chabil Mars are privately owned and rented out by a management company. The villa we stayed in belongs to one of Landy's clients resulting in a great deal for the weekend. The newly built two bedroom villa was beautiful. I wasn't too surprised by the interior as the villa owner also owns the only furniture and department store in Belize City, Mirab. As nicely decorated as it was we preferred spending our time outside. We ate all our meals on the villa's ocean view deck. Right beside the villa was an infinity pool and directly in front was a soft white sand beach and a simple but upscale pier. My favourite thing in the villa was the bed. It was pillow top, sink into softness, comfortable. It made me miss our bed in Toronto.

Saturday was a wonderful day. Michael and I swam, read and relaxed under the 'not a care in the world' blue sky. We're getting used to living in a bathing suit every weekend. Oh, the torture of it! With the exception of Friday night we didn't go into town. It's not that we didn't want to see Placencia, but after having dinner at a little open air beach restaurant Friday night, we realized that the town is full of tourists and we didn't really care about being there. We get enough Belize culture in the city. We just wanted to sit by the ocean under the sun reading Bryce Courtney and we did.

Saturday afternoon, Landy and Sole went into town to hit the bars. Michael and I stayed at the villa and had a quiet romantic dinner. It was nice. Michael tortured a frog with the repetitive and close up flash of our camera and we realized that quite a few bats live in the trees by the deck. We watched some Olympics and a chunk of the movie 'Castaway'. I think Michael's love for Tom Hanks is a little unnatural. Landy, Sole and a few people Landy knows from the local Scotiabank came back to the villa later that night. They were great people and we had some laughs with them before heading to bed.

Sunday we awoke to cloudy skies. Throughout breakfast we could see fish jumping in the ocean. Michael grabbed his snorkeling gear and we were off to the pier to see if he could catch a glimpse of the fish. Michael jumped in the water and started swim around. Before I even got in the water I heard him shriek like a little girl. The water was murky and he swam right into a fish. It scared the hell out of him and made me laugh hysterically. You would have thought he saw a shark by the way he screamed.

We left Placencia mid-morning. It looked like it was going to rain. We can't seem to get a weekend with two days of good weather. Woe is us! Landy and Sole were definitely ready to leave. They don't do the beach thing very often and were a little groggy after hitting the bars the day before. The drive home was fine. It didn't really rain but the sky didn't clear up either. Michael got us back to Belize City in the record time of three hours. We were happy to be back and were lazy for the rest of the day. We are watching a lot of Olympics. We know a lot about the American athletes as we only get American coverage. Since the Americans know they can't win in hockey this year we don't get to see the hockey games. It basically sucks. On the upside of getting American coverage NBC commentators are actually really funny sometimes and I think I'm falling in love with Matt Lauer. Very scary.

We enjoyed the weekend out of the city. We're happy that we are traveling around the country and seeing the sites, but I think we'll stay home next weekend. Scotty, Michael's spin instructor, is coming here with a cycling group next Friday so we'll try to hang out with them for part of the night. We're looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

I want to send a shout out to Patsy. It was her birthday this past Sunday. Happy Birthday Patsy! I hope it you had a super fantastic weekend.

Love and great big hugs,
Carly