Catching Up

Here is what is for news in Belize!

Phil's Doctor Visit
Phil had his first fallow up to all his adventures in July. He has been taking his meds and making changes in diet and all that good stuff. Dr Cuellar was very please to see Phil's cholesterol down to 113, hdl34 and ldl at 51!! TOO LOW! YEAH! So his meds we adjusted a little and he will be rechecked in mid November. Phil is feeling GREAT and staying very active. He truly loves living in Belize. He was just chuckling to himself that he is still in shorts...

First Visitor!

On October 7 my former Cosmetology Instructor (form 1991) and DEAR FRIEND, Jeri Flom came to Belize. She was invited down form Butterflies Spa to share her 48 years of knowledge of the Beauty Industry with us at the Spa. We had great training and wonderful visits! It was a teary good bye for me when she left. I love that Classy Lady!

Tropical Storm... close enough for us!
When I returned to Belize at the start of October, the rainy season moved form being mostly at night to being mostly all day. In fact, I think Jeri had 3 days of sun in her 10 day visit. On the day she left (Th, Oct 16) she had to leave earlier than scheduled form the resort as the road in and out of Hopkins was flooding some. That night the winds picked up and the rain came hard! There was a tropical storm moving through norhtern Honduras. And as it goes in life... the order that was to be delivered anytime in the past few weeks... arrived at 11:45 that evening. I am not sure whom I feel bad for the most... Phil who unloaded the truck or the driver who came all the way from Belize City to Hopkins and was going back all the way.
The next morning I took these photos of the line where the waves broke. Phil said they were well up and over the dock where we do massage.

Now, Mind you this is the normal wave line below...

A home burned, but love remains

One of our Dear Friends who works at the resort, her home burnt down last weekend. And in the same fashion of support that we had here when Phil was sick, the community pulled together to support her too. Its sad to loose everything you own...I can't imagine! But love concurs all! Here is Kim and her son and Me with her daughter... Look at those eyes!

And now the weather...

It doesn't seem like October here. But the weather has gone from the 90's to the high 70's...low 80's tops with cool breezes. I actually feel cold at times. You can click on the weather icon to the right to see our forecast and radar. Chance of rain every day... that's the rainy season for ya.

Much Love

Phil and Vicki

Staff Day 9/15/08

Thought I would catch up on a few fun things. This was in September. Our Spa Staff took a day to have some fun. We started at Old Belize first for lunch. http://www.oldbelize.com/
Eunes, Ray, Desiree, Pat, Reina and Erin
We met a Local Celebrity! This is Rene Villanueva, Co Host of the LOVEFM Morning Show. We all love his voice!
We also learned just how brave our Eunes is! She did the zip line at Old Belize!
Signing her life away...

That is her up top with Erin who took some photos.
Here she comes!

This is the water slide at Old Belize. We all thought we would love to do the water slide until we saw it. I think I would pass out going up the steps! For the brave at heart, that is for sure! It was fun to see people fly down it!



Next stop was Bacab Eco Park! http://www.bacabecopark.com/The girls went on the horse back tour Ray did some R-n-R at the pool...
Very nice pool!!

Here in MN

Well, I am here in Minnesota, but Phil is still in Belize. He offered to stay behind and work while the resorts are closed for maintenance. He says he is keeping very busy!

I have been busy shopping and seeing family and friends...its a lot to fit in! Fun and exhausting at the same time.

I return to my Hubby and Belizean home on Monday. I'll have my laptop then and post a few photos.

What Happened to August?

So here it is... the 8th of September!

Happy Birthday Grandma!! And Happy Birthday to Freida too... she is 2 years old.

So to give a little recap, we made it home form Guatemala. Phil's recovery went well. He is feeling great and is back to his usual self.

We returned to a full month of August. It started with BETEX The Belize Tourism Expo. This was the first year that the Travel Agents and Wholesaler came to the country and went to a different resort each day. In the past they all meet at the Princess Hotel for a one stop 3 day expo. For 3 days we gave tours to groups of both Almond Beach Resort and the Spa and in the evening meet with indeviduals in a small booth setting. I loved givng tours. It was so fun to see their faces as they looked at the our beautiful suites....mouths wide open. I learned a few more things about our resort and about the industry. It was a good time... tiring for every one involved, but good non the less.

The next big event here was 8/8/08. We had 3 wedding here at the resort! Some on the beach, some on the dock. Sometime the couples will have the drummers come and drum. Above are some of the employees of the resorts who joined the drummers and sang in Garifuna as the bride came down the isle and after as well. Great people and smiles around this place!

At the Spa we had manicure and pedicure booked all day on the 7th and about 10 Updo's the day of. It was a fun time in the Spa! Man, the girls can do some beautiful updos!

One of the couples that got married that day was Kim Ly and James...form Friendly Fridly MN!! Kim Ly's sister's boyfriend's Dad (did you fallow that?) lives in Scandia and James works for Minnesota School of Business (where I taught for 2 years) in Richfield (where I attended massage school). SMALL WORLD!

After the weddings came a 3 day photos shoot form Kristy Duggan. Beautiful photos of the Spa and of our staff and the resort as well. I myself can wait to see the new photos on the website.

All of a sudden, August went by with a few reports of the State Fair... I love the idea of Chocolate Dipped Bacon!

So now it is September and we are looking at one week until we come home to MN and MI for 2 weeks. We will arrive home on Monday Sept 15 in the late evening. We will be going to Michigan on Wed, Sept 18 and retuning to Scandia on Tues Sept 23. We go home to Belize around the 29th. We hope to spend time with everyone and do some shopping!!

Phil is watching the Vikings as I type. I have to say my new number 4 tattoo is healing well...that is a joke, Mom... We get New York stations on the Dish so I will be able to follow my boy, Brett all season long...

Much Love

~V and P

Flores, Guatemala

This is Flores. It is a peninsula Island, and a tourist town. It is very clean, very safe and is Very affordable. Our hotel was 125Q a night which was about $18-20 US!! We didn't get to do too much here, as it was a bit of a lay over and Phil needed to rest, but it is on our list of places to go back to .
The night we arrived, we checked into our hotel and then went for dinner. Lots of neat, fun little places to choose form.
We didn't get to do out door seating, and it Flores is in an area where it is hot and humid again. Felt so strange again to have the temperature change.
We had a beer to toast good health. Gallo is the beer of Guatemala. We loved it...much like a Miller. All the shops are open until 10p.m. More shopping! People come to vacation here as its a central location to many tourist attractions like the Tikal ruins. So people, much like at our resorts, get up early and are off to their tours. They come back in the afternoon and then like to stay up, have a nice dinner and have a few drinks.

We were up early to catch a bus that was leaving at 7:30, but we had a change of plans with some post hospital stay stomach issues... nothing major, just a little delay.

Our Hotel
Taxi
So neat... like from a movie...

The gateway to the City.



A beautiful Church

We were able to get a taxi for a fare price and left Flores around 11:30 for our home in Belize... about a 5 hour drive I think. (just under 2 hours to the border)

One more short chapter to post...

Guatemala Part Two

This is our new "Extended Family". Bonny, and (L to R) Jose, Pamela and Juan. They speak about as much English and I speak Spanish. But one thing is for sure, Love only has one language. I was able to show them photos on my lap top of some Minnesota Winters, and the beauty of where we live in Belize. A few evenings we wold have fresh corn tortilla and refreid beans with this wonderful white cheese before bed. And in the mornings, it was the best coffee! Andrea, who I don't have in a photos was also staying with her aunt Bonny while I was there to help interpret for us.

The few days that Andrea could not be there, Sheyla was. Sheyla had open heart surgery a few years ago and her twin brother just had the same 6 weeks before we arrived. That is apart of their compassion for helping people like Phil and I. Sheyla also took me shopping one afternoon and I will talk about that in a bit.

Friday July 18, Phil got out of the hospital. On the way home, we stopped at the Market. They are long covered platforms with vendors on them. Now, each platform is maybe 50 yards long. We drove in and they were on both sides of the drive... and we stopped at number 22, and there were more ahead of us. IT IS HUGE!! So clean and nice. Its the biggest market I have ever seen.

Fruits and grains and seed and spices....

Fruits I have never seen before...
These were interesting.... Cant tell you the name...
So after a little view of the Market, we went back to Bonny's house. This was Phil's first time there. Its a very big home and its up in the mountains. The turns are sharp, the woods are beautiful! Did I mention that it was about 60-70 degrees there! I thought it would be warmer there, but is cool and reminded us of Minnesota and Michigan in the fall.

The top of the car port is a helicopter landing pad...

The upper part of this area is the Pool... the lower is the work out room.

Phil on the chopper pad

Most places are very highly secured. You see things like this all around the homes and the communities are all gated. You see Police and Security with big guns at every mall, store, bank (on the roof tops at he banks), restaurants, most everywhere.

Lots of Roses in this area of Guatemala. LONG, long stems

Eucalyptus Trees too

On Sunday, Shayla took me shopping. We started at a very large shopping mall. It had 3 floors and you would thing you were back in the USA. It was not as big as the MOA, but it was bigger then the Dales. It was SO crowded! Like Rosedale Mall at Christmas time! So we looked around for a bit and then we went to see some different shopping. This is a "tourist shopping area". It is near the big Zoo and was recently built for Mayan arts and craft sales. Man, they have beautiful things!! This is me holding a quilt that I fell in love with.

Then as we were heading back to the house, Shayla stopped at a bakery. You walk into this little family owned place and you pick up your basket and tongs and pick out your good. Breads and sweets, Big "coffee cakes"... Oh my... and DONUTS!!

On Monday, Phil had his last check with his Cardio Doctor and we were ready to go. We stopped for some lunch, and I got a photo of some of the motos. Imagine 20 of these in McDonald's Logos out front of your local McDonald's! Neat! I think I am glad that they don't deliver in Minnesota... Man, that is too convenient!

Then it was off to the Air Port. This is Taca Air. We took them back to Flores, Guatemala.

Flores is a beautiful place and that is the next post...