Bella Fights the Lions

Tom has been getting braver on his bicycle and has now ventured north of the bridge! Ay yi yi! North of the bridge! We're talking miles here. Of course, to get north of the bridge, you have to actually cross the bridge, and that took some doing.

Right about HERE!

First, there was the matter of the toll. It's silly enough to have to pay a toll to drive a golf cart across, but do you really have to pay if you're on a bicycle? The answer is yes, but it was only $2 Belizean round trip, so Tom decided that was no big deal. No, the big deal occurred when the bike chain broke as he was trying to pedal his way up the incline.

Our Man Henry

And that's how we happened to meet Henry.  It would appear that Tom is not the only one who breaks bike chains while straining over the rise, since the nearest bicycle repair shop was only about two blocks back to the south. Henry replaced the broken link in about five minutes and, in the meantime, readily agreed to pose for a picture. He told us he has already been in several magazines and news articles and I guess you can see why. (At first, I was going to tell you this was a picture of Tom after riding around a lot on his new bike, but I figured you'd never buy that.)

The Palapa Bar

So off we headed to the Palapa Bar and beyond. The Palapa has three levels. The upper tier is the main bar and restaurant where the food is great and the atmosphere is lively. The middle tier is primarily an entrance and service area. And the lower tier is the Caribbean itself. It is here that happy patrons float in inner tubes and imbibe from bottles of beer which are lowered in buckets by rope! The water is shallow enough to stand in and there have been no water accidents to date. It's a great place to go, and Bella gives it the coveted four-claw award.


Past the Palapa Bar, you go by a chihuahua crossing. It is of no particular significance, other than to say I don't understand why I don't have my own sign. If I do get my own sign, I want to pose with a better hat. We didn't go much further than here when Tom realized that he was going to have to go back in order to get home again, so we turned around.

And now we turn our attention to a much greater problem in the San Pedro area, the matter of lionfish. First, let me say that lionfish are beautiful. They puff their lacy fins and spines way out in an array of color and grace just before they release their deady venom. Yikes! The lionfish, mistakenly released into the Atlantic in the 1990's, have spread to the Caribbean and are in the process of killing anything and everything aquatic in their path. A totally invasive species, they will eat all of our marine life unless they are checked. (Having been put on a severely restricted diet myself, I appreciate their tenacity. When I say I could eat a cow, I'm not kidding. But at least I'm not being charged with ruining an entire ecosystem.)

So what's to be done with these critters? Groups of concerned fishermen, tourism board members, and hotel owners have begun the fight to eradicate these bad boys from our part of the Caribbean. Unfortunately,  one of the better suggestions to come out of the discussions so far, seems to be, "Eat More Lionfish!" (I do not make these things up.) The idea seems to be, if we can get the tourists to chow down on these guys, there will be less of them. If my faithful readers have any better suggestions, please let me know. And hurry. 

Bella on Lionfish Watch

Well, it's certainly not all doom and gloom here. Shelley continues to improve, there are still lots of "Big Burritos" at Micky's, and the sports fishing boats are still filled with tourists. I'm confident that La Isla Bonita will continue to be one of the most beautiful places in the world--unless we wind up with a chain of Lionfish Burger restaurants.

Y'all come visit. We'll down a few buckets of beer as we float in the water and come up with emergency eradication plans. You're gonna love Belize!