On the Passing of Chef Curtis Wolf
February 18th At 6:00 am this morning I learned a good friend of mine had passed away. And I’m heartbroken. For 17 years Curtis Wolf was the executive chef of a luxurious hotel in downtown Greenville. In my world chefs are prone to jump back and forth between jobs searching for just the right circumstances, […]
The Best Bites of San Pedro’s DFC
After seeking out the best eats of DFC, the working-class neighborhood of San Pedro, Belize, I believe I’ve been humbled thanks to a young lady from Honduras and the green bananas she cooked for us. Recently we joined culinary forces with Rebecca Coutant, the force behind San Pedro Scoop, the most widely read and followed […]
Mayan Chocolate and Cotton Trees
Juan offers me the cacao pod. About the size of a Nerf football, its color is deep orangish yellow with a few tiny dark brown spots and it’s textured, with deep ridges running horizontally. It’s also light, the whole thing weighs less than a pound. I run my knife into its outer hull, which is […]
Mangroves and Howlers
Raymond is slapping his four-foot-long machete on the Cohune Palm then he barks to the tribe of Howler Monkeys racing across the treetops. His command was a husky “AhhRoof!” that he repeated six or seven times over. Imagine our surprise when one of the young males clambered down to within twenty feet of us, easily […]
The Hummingbird Highway to Placencia
Hello Google. How do I say “Which way to the beach in Mayan?” There’s four highways in Belize. No kidding. Four major highways crisscross this country of nine thousand square miles. The Philip Goldson, Western (George Price), Southern, and the Hummingbird Highway. If your destination is off one of those highways by twenty miles there’s […]
The Jaguars and Speed Bumps of Belize
The big cat quietly scrunched up its body, coiling its muscles as a competitive swimmer would on the starting blocks. Her mass was being converted to momentum, she was kinetic energy, clutching claws, and sharp teeth wrapped in a priceless fur coat. At that moment I was unsure that Carlos even realized how close this […]
Parrots & Horchata in the DFC
On our first morning here back in November we were excited by bird call from a host of tropical flyers. Squeaking Kiskadees, trilling hummingbirds, clucking kingfishers, warbling warblers, jabbering Grackles, boo hooing White Wing Doves, oddly quiet mockingbirds and the most provocative were the parrots. The common parrot here on Ambergris Caye is the Olive […]
Salt Water and Sea Turtles
A soft pull or a gentle tug. That’s how to get your snorkeling partner’s attention. Something more dramatic could mean a spinning propeller is bearing down on you. This was a hard yank. I turn to Amy on my left and she’s pointing down and there, twenty feet below us, effortlessly gliding through the blue, […]
Christmas ‘cakes
Sourdough coconut pancakes with fresh coconut and bananas give the taste of the islands to Christmas morning.
Christian
“I was nine years old and the air tank on my back was as tall as I was. I remember how beautiful the water was that day and it was just me and my uncle on his boat, out by the reef. He adjusted my mask and asked me if I could breathe. I took […]