Surviving on ceviche, living on borrowed time at 18 degrees latitude.
Walking the Beach Road
Sun sets at 5:15 pm local time on Ambergris Caye. At 8 pm Thursday evening a couple hundred drinkers were whoopin’ it up beachside outside Wahoo’s Lounge. I kept walking past my destination restaurant towards the noise on the beach side of Wahoo’s.
Wahoo drinkers surrounded an oversized playpen set-up on the 50 foot stretch of sand that separates Wahoo’s from the sea. In the middle of the playpen strutted a rooster, prancing atop a mat with squares numbered from 1 to 100. Drinkers cheered the rooster’s each step, fluffing the side-netting – screaming for the rooster to deliver.
As I approached the ring, the nervous rooster almost chicken-shit right in the spot he stood inside his playpen. A ringmaster shouted, “No good, mon. He just take a leak.” Half the crowd groaned, the other half began calling for the rooster to move; some re-fluffing the side-netting, some enticing the bird forward with a shake of their Belikin beer bottle.
I had stumbled into the famous Thursday Night Chicken Drop on Ambergris Caye.
The rooster broke into a spin move, flapped his clipped wings (a balletic effort, rating a 10 on my CHICKEN DANCE scale) and . . . dumped.
“Number 27,” shouted the Ringmaster, “Please confirm Scoring Judge.” The Ringmaster looked upward at Wahoo’s overhung deck.
“Confirmed, number 27.” Shouted back a huge black man wearing a T-shirt lettered CHICKEN SECURITY. The Chicken Security man hoisted his beer and said, “$100 dollars to the holder of number 27.”
There wasn’t a Rooster-booster in attendance that didn’t give a shit.
“That’s me,” roared an expat from England. “Next round for the house is on me.”
Couple of hundred beach drinkers erupted into cheer for the rooster and the Expat.
Dining local: Estelle’s
Thirty minutes after the Chick Drop concluded, the roar again rose beachside at Wahoo’s Lounge.
“Another Drop,” I asked by waiter. I was seated at the adjacent restaurant to Wahoo’s.
“No mon, that the crazy guy that get the coconut.” The waiter pointed. A gaunt Rasta man was shimmying straight up a 30 foot royal palm anchored in the sand behind Wahoo’s Lounge. 8:30 pm on Thursday night.
“That Crazy Leo,” said my waiter, “He go for the coconuts. Some day he fall.”
IPhone cameras flickered below the palm tree as Crazy Leo reached the pinnacle and grabbed his coconuts. I remained seated at my table under the deck at the neighboring Estelle’s Restaurant. Could be another drop.
9 am Happy Hour.
My gas fueled golf cart chugged over the bridge connecting the South Island to the North Island of Ambergris Caye. HAPPY HOUR BEGINS AT 9 am read the sign tacked to the utility pole. Rain’s Rooftop Restaurant began earlier than most.
Then, up the road a half mile, another sign tacked to a utility pole advertised, John’s Escape Bar, 7 AM Happy HOUR.
Step off your bar stool and into the water.
Belikin Beer
Describe as a Euro Pale lager, Beer Advocates 2.98 rating translates as POOR. Belikin beer’s tagline is “The Beer of Belize”. The name “Belikin” comes from the Maya language and means “Route to the East”. For those counting, the alcohol content is 4.8%. Perhaps important if you start your beer day at Rain’s 9 am Happy Hour.
My beer rankings; #1 = Excellent, #2 = Very Good, #3 = Acceptable, #4 = Poor
Ranking upgrades can be earned if the beer is served
a) with a view of the sea and within sound of waves, b) at a beer temperature below 40 degrees and ambient temperature above 80, c) by an attractive woman in a swimsuit who smiles directly at me, d) with a Jimmy Buffet tune in the background, or e) within 120 seconds from placing my beer request.
Each Belikin beer I sampled in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye rated excellent. Disregard Beer Advocates 2.9 rating.
Kevin Bowen, is the third generation of a family of Belikin Beer bottlers. Kevin manages Belize Brewing Company’s modern plant in Ladyville – the producer of Belikin Beer. The plant’s grounds also house Belize’s Coca Cola bottling plant and the Crystal Water bottling facility. Kevin’s grandfather started Crystal Bottling Works. Kevin’s father, Sir Barry, began brewing Belikin in 1971. To assure quality, Barry Bowen hired a brew master from Germany and bought German equipment as well. Reinhard Häpp, brew master at Belize Brewing Company oversees brewing.
Ingredients included 100% high altitude pilsner malt.
My first sip of Belikin Beer reminded me of Stroh’s Beer – a Detroit regional brew that faded from the beer scene along with hippies as the 1960’s became the 1970’s. Stroh’s was fire-brewed; with a distinct taste. A taste I liked. Belikin Beer tastes like it is fire-brewed.
Several years ago, the popular Sir Barry died when his Cessna plane he was piloting crashed on approach to San Pedro Town’s airport on Ambergris Caye. Barry was only 64 years old. Sir Barry Mansfield Bowen, 64, a seventh-generation Belizean, the country’s most prominent entrepreneur and one of Belize’s wealthiest men, a former Senator and financier of the People’s United Party, died February 26, 2010, in the crash of a private airplane he was piloting
Grocery Check-out
I thumped my Belikin Beer six-pack in front of the cashier. He chinged his grocery store cash register – then palmed the bottle opener atop the register,
“Can I open one of those Belikin beers for you to drink,” he asked me.
Mestizo, the ancestry mixture of European and Amerindian is common in Belize. This grocery store Mestizo cashier must have been Irish/Amerindian. Years of British rule have instilled a civility rarely experienced by visiting American tourists. The responsible Irish ancestor must have been indentured by the British and released ashore in the British Honduras (Now Belize).
“Of course,” I replied to the cashier, attempting to act natural to a question never posed previously at the check-out counter.
He extended the cold Belikin beer towards me.
Morning coffee. Located 1.5 miles north of the Bridge off the main road. Mon-Wed and Fri-Sat: 7a – 3p, Thurs: 7a – 7:30p, Sun: 8a – 1p.
Marbucks also offers WINE DOWN THURSDAY , 4:30 til 7:30, wines by the glass, LIVE music & complimentary nibbles
Dining local: Elvi’s Kitchen
Doña Elvia, Mrs. Elvia Staines, owns Elvi’s Kitchen – a distinguished Ambergris Caye dining destination. Mrs. Staines, born in San Pedro, is an island Octogenarian . Mother of six children, Dona Elvia runs The Kitchen with her daughter Jennie Pinelo.
Elvi’s Kitchen started in the late 1970’s as a ‘hole in the wall’ takeout.
“I have always loved to cook,” said Doña Elvia. “I decided to open a small takeout restaurant.”
This take-out window she operated underneath her house was tagged Elvi’s Burger Isle. Doña Elvia cooked and managed the kitchen with the help of her husband and three other employees. For five years, it was burgers only, finger-licking burgers. The Doña Elvia added to their menu.
First Belizean rice and beans, then more local dishes. She built two palapas (picture a Tiki Bar) underneath the long-standing flamboyant tree adjacent to her house. People could stop and have a bite to eat underneath the beautiful tree.” Doña Elvia changed the name Elvi’s Kitchen. The area underneath the flamboyant tree was enclosed.
Today, Elvi’s Kitchen has completely changed with a dining area, bar and waiting area. The dining area, underneath the famous flamboyant tree. Elvi’s Kitchen seafood menu which they have specialized in.
Elvi’s Kitchen is recognized for excellent food, distinct service by Sol y Luna Central American Guide Book as one of the best restaurants in Belize.
Flamboyant tree grows through the palm thatch roof of the sand floored dining room that was built three years ago. The same tree that has watched over Elvi’s diners for forty years.
Reef, Casa Caye’s San Pedro dog, is an aging German Shepherd. Reef doesn’t care for drug dealers who shuffle their feet in the sand outside Caye Casa. Reef’s owner says the dog can smell drugs and menacing people.
Ambergris Caye’s airport runway delivers incoming visitors in the center of San Pedro town.