“Most of life’s pleasures are small”  I used to tell my first wife, who, at the time, was looking for thrills.  I’ve told you about some of the thrills (altogether too many for me) but here are few little pleasures of Belize.  All of the prices are in Belize dollahs, ($1US = $2 BZ) and a shilling is a quarter of a dollah.

BELIKIN BEER.  “The Beer of Belize”, it says on the bottle, and in fact, there’s a $500 fine for getting caught with cheap Mexican beer here.  In bars, Belikin is fairly expensive; $2.25 plus a shilling deposit on the bottle.  Hotels can charge as much as $5.

Every other day, the delivery truck stops by my house and they ask me if I want a case (24), which costs me $49.50.  They also deliver Cokes, Sprite & Fanta, so we have a case of those around all the time.  Having them come is a delight to me, thinking about having beer delivered to my house.  “Hey Bellikin Man!” I say, “thank you very much.”  (If you remember the old Culligan Water Softener commercials, you can get the intonation just right.) We have two little refrigerators, so I can keep about 15 or so cold at any one time.  I need about a case a week, especially since my friends have started stopping by more often.  (I like to think it’s because they like my company, but the beer probably has something to do with it.)

Belikin Beer is a lager, a little more hoppy than Coors, probably more like a Busch than anything else, but the alcohol is over 5%.  The bottle holds 9.6 oz, small enough that you can down it before the chill is gone.  It is just about the perfect beer for this warm climate. 

In case you have a problem with the morality of drinking this beer, let me tell you that I believe that beer, like wine, is a gift from God.  It has no chemicals or additives. Like almost everything else, it is good for you if taken in moderation.  (It keeps your kidneys working right.)  St. Paul said “Everything from God is good” and so I silently thank God for Belikin, but audibly I thank Barry Bowen.

Belikin Beer is produced by Bowen & Bowen; Barry Bowen is one of the richest men in the country because he has a monopoly on beer & Coca Cola.  So, “Here’s to Barry Bowen.  He’s got my money, and I’ve got his beer.  I hope he’s as happy as I am!”

UPDATE: (Feb 2002)  A case of Belikin went down to $38 dollah a case, to beat the (illegal) competition. It's legal to import American beers, but EXPENSIVE.  A can of Budweiser is $6 dollah.  

THE CORNER STORE.  It is about a block away.  I can buy anything (well almost anything) in small quantities.  If Mike can open the package, he will sell little quantities of the contents.  For example, you can buy one cigarette for ten cents. (Not one of my vices, thank God.) 

Bread comes every morning at 7AM, and I can go over and get a fresh loaf of bread and three eggs for 2 dollah. A dollah more buys a cold bottle of fresh squeezed OJ (no concentrates here.)  We don’t have a toaster here yet, but I’ve figured how to toast bread on my Coleman griddle, which sits over two burners on the stove.  I toast it, and Charlotte butters it.  If we run out of margarine, I can run over to the corner store and get a stick of margarine for two shillings.  The weekly papers are dated Sunday, but they come out on Friday. I get them from Mike for a dollah apiece, and they form part of my weekend reading. 

Recado is a spice which you use to cook Belizean chicken, a 1” ball of red recado (wrapped in handiwrap) costs a shilling. The recipe is: 1/2 Chicken, 1 envelope of chicken bullion, and one ball of recado.  Mike sells all of three of these for about $2.50, and that’s a couple of meals for two.  I throw in some onion and bell pepper and serve it with rice; a typical Belizean meal. (The Belizeans leave the bones in; I try to pick them out.)

FRUIT.  We have some banana trees and plantain  (pronounced “plantin”) trees in the back yard, and a plum tree in the front yard.  Plantains look like a banana, but the fruit has an orangish cast to it.  You fry long slices for about 30 seconds in a little butter, and serve them with breakfast.  You can get them in the states for a price, but down here they, like bananas, are 8 for a dollah.  The bananas are picked when they are ripe (just a tinge of green left on the ends) and like vine ripened tomatoes, they are sweeter and more flavorful.  We buy four or six when we go down to the market, and eat them right away. 

Limes are six for a dollah; they are smaller than a Florida lime, round like a California lime, and everybody uses them instead of lemons, which seem to be non-existent.  They are good in lime slush, which is made in a blender.  I bought a blender to be able to make this drink, but I haven’t figured it out yet.  I think I need crushed ice. 

Watermelon is in season now, and you can buy as much as you like.  We buy a half or quarter of one, because I can pick the really ripe red one that way, bring it home and chill it.  It is about two shillings a pound. 

Guavas, mangos and star fruit grow here.  The tamarind, mentioned in the bible, grows here (my neighbor has one) and many berry and fruit trees that I can’t even identify. Coconut trees everywhere. Suffice it to say that nobody is going to starve to death.

MORNING.  Kipling said “…the sun comes up like thunder, outa China, cross the bay”  Here, closer to the equator, the sun does come up faster, so you have to look closely to see the sunrise.  It is beautiful, across the bay, and we sometimes walk down to the market in the cool of the early morning.  The fishermen fish at night, and put in to the market about 6AM, and we can get fresh fish for two or three dollah a pound.  My man filets it for me for another dollah. 

About Coffee.  Of course, we brew coffee in the morning.  Belizeans almost universally drink Instant, which definitely does not come from God.  Belize grows some coffee but for some reason, it is about $12 a pound.  Mexican coffee is about as good, and a lot cheaper; we go to Chetumal and get it for about 40 pesos a pound.  ($4 US)  It seems to be a little more fragrant than the American coffees, which have traveled a long way to get here!!  Because of the heat, we don’t drink coffee all day; a pot usually lasts a couple of days.  We made it in our old aluminum percolator for a long time, but I eventually gave in and bought a no-frills Proctor-Silex for 40 dollah because the pot is glass and day-old is better. 

RUM is made from sugar, and we have a lot of it here.  I really like the sugar, which is raw, and much more flavorful than US sugar.  I think with the right marketing campaign, they could sell a lot of it in the US, but that’s not my problem.  They produce a lot of run, which sells for 10 -15 dollah a litre.  Charlotte likes Rum & Coke, but there’s too much sugar in a Coke for me.  Most rum drinks are too sweet for me, but I will occasionally have a rum Gimlet, made with Belizean Lime Squash mix.  The various squash mixes, Orange, Grapefruit, Wild Berry, and Lime, are made in Belize City, sold for about $6 dollah, and designed to be mixed with about 4 or 5 times as much water to make the drink called Orange Squash (or whatever flavor.)  Undiluted, Lime Squash tastes very much like Rose’s Lime Juice, but it doesn’t have the “I’ve been on the shelf for six years” flavor that Rose’s has.  You can probably make a lime slush with it, but I don’t know how.

Clearly, I have a lot to learn about lime slush and a lot of other Belizean things, and I will share those learnings with you as they come to us.

Love,

Sr. ric

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