A Fish Tale

I must apologize for being lackadaisical about the blog lately. We're in between adventures, and I'm not particularly inspired with any new photos or tales.

Yesterday, we realized if we were going to take advantage of our frequent flier miles to score a free ticket this winter, we needed to act. We'd been on the fence for a few months trying to decide on a new destination. We're not abandoning Isla Mujeres by any means since we're headed there for a month in mid-November, but we feel the urge to explore more. So, we decided on Belize for our February trip. I've been captivated by the photos on a blog listed on my sidebar -- Picture Belize, by AJ Baxter. Once we get back from our September trip to Florida, I'll start cementing our plans. Right now we're thinking about spending time in multiple destinations -- Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, and Placencia.

All this planning made me think about some favorite moments from our travel to Yelapa last year. Yelapa had an air of innocence and eagerness about it that was so refreshing. For example, the first afternoon we arrived after dropping our bags at the house, we started walking the village trying to find our way to the town waterfall. As we passed the lower bridge down by the beach, a young boy who was fishing in the stream eagerly yelled, Are you lost? What are you looking for? Can I show you the way?

Before we could even answer, he was out of the stream and by our side. He ran up the path leading us through all the turns until we were headed in the right direction. Before we had time to offer him a few pesos and thank him, he was running back down the path with a smile on his face. A few days later, he discovered us searching for Tacos y Mas. Once again, the smiling boy ran ahead to show us the way, then quickly skipped back to where he came from. I wish I had a photo of him to post! If you've ever visited Yelapa, I bet you know him!


Yelapa is also the kind of place where waiters eagerly bring out the fresh fish for show and tell when you're looking at their menu. We had just settled into chairs one day at a palapa on the main swimming beach when this eager man dashed out to show us his fresh fish. We weren't hungry since we'd just consumed breakfast burritos, but ended up ordering guacamole and chips just because the waiter was so eager to please us. We also ate a piece of chocolate coconut pie purchased from atop the Pie Lady's head, but that's a whole 'nuther story!

I need to add, when the property manager was helping us wheel our bags down the cobblestone path to the main village pier the day we left, locals we'd never met sitting at the little tienda a few doors down bid us adios and eagerly inquired if we enjoyed our visit and would be returning someday. Ahhhhhh.

Cheers to all the eager friendly smiling faces of the world!