90. Clear, Blue Water - Part 1

Week 90  3/22/17

Time to go to --- Belize!

Our long-awaited and lovingly-planned trip is finally here. We and our friends Andy and Charlie awoke at 2:00 AM in Medway to begin our adventure.

After arrival in Belize City, we took a 20-minute hop via a Tropic Air prop plane to San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye. We were met by an El Pescador representative with van that took us to a waterside open air bar. We were offered a rum drink or local beer to sip on our boat ride, first through a canal.

After following the eastern coast for a couple of miles, we came to our final destination of El Pescador fishing resort where we were greeted at the dock by the two managers and the hospitality staff. Then we ate lunch under the pavilion and caught our breath after the long trip. (It involved a luggage snafu.)

Our rooms on the ground floor of the main lodge were just right, including a fishing rod rack and lots of room for hanging wet clothing.

 

This place is a cross between an adult summer camp and an all-inclusive resort. It was fun to meet the other guests during the post-fishing cocktail hours and at the group tables during meals. We met some posh world-travelers, some experienced adventurers, some repeat visitors (one couple on their 19th annual visit) and people who saved for a few years to come here.

The food was extra good and plentiful - full breakfast, lunch, cocktail and hors d'oeuvres hour and dinner.  And of course there were the rum drinks and beer.

The first night, Charlie and Paul had a fly fishing refresher lesson on the dock with the head guide. Then all four of us listened to the fly fishing orientation. Our fishing guide is Cinoeh.

All guests seem to go off to bed around 9:00, even though the lodge will keep the bar open until midnight if anyone is still up. Fishing begins early. Many groups set off at 5:00 or even earlier. Regular breakfast begins at 5:30 and we were up before sunrise every day. With the 2-hour time difference, this wasn't hard to adjust to. 

The first fishing day was begun with a bit of equipment adjustment.

The resort staff brings supplies to the dock for each fishing party in the morning - lunch and drinks, bait and so forth. (Fly fisherman don't need the bait, but Paul did some spin rod fishing, so the guide brought along shrimp.)

Paul, Charlie and Cinoeh left on their first day out -- happy campers all.

Andy and I hung around El Pescador all morning, taking a dip in one of the pools, reading in the beach chairs, and meeting with the hospitality staff to plan our next three days. The last two days of the trip, each of us would taking a turn fishing with our husband, or at least going along for the ride.

In the afternoon, we took a cab to San Pedro, where golf carts are the most common vehicle. They are licensed like cars. We could also have rented bikes or taken a water taxi.

We visited a chocolate "factory" (kitchen) and bought some to taste, then to a few shops, a park, and a church. Andy spent a long time looking at some beautiful work by a jeweler, but in the end, didn't buy anything.

We wandered into this interesting restaurant and almost bought a snack or drink, but decided to head back to the lodge, since Paul and Charlie would soon be returning from fishing.

The first day was a success. Many bonefish for Charlie and several bonefish and permit for Paul. Charlie proved to be the bonefish champ. One day he caught a bonefish on every other cast! Throughout the week, both caught a variety of other fish as well, such as jack fish, snapper and barracuda. Alas neither Charlie nor Paul caught a tarpon. The resident tarpon are smaller, but very few were caught this week. One 50-pound tarpon, however, was caught by a University of Colorado student on spring break. The larger, migratory tarpon will arrive in a few weeks. Some are over 100 pounds. 

Paul's 3-foot long 12-pound barracuda.

This place at the end of the long dock was one of our favorite places to sit, especially at the beginning and end of the day. There had been a thatched shelter here until last year, but the entire dock was rebuilt after a hurricane took it down.

The tide is only about one foot. and the water is very shallow with miles of flats. There is a barrier reef about 1/2 mile east, and running parallel to the coastline. Sargassum seaweed constantly washes up to the beach and on some days builds up, making swimming from the shore not very pleasant. To avoid the seaweed, we could swim off the end of the dock. Several staff people were employed to rake up the seaweed and pile it behind the buildings where it decomposes. The sand coming out of the decomposed weeds is shoveled back onto the beach.

 This is the where fishing rods can be dried. Craftspeople sold wares on the beach here.

89. Rose Art Museum

Week 89  3/15/17

On yet another very cold week, we decided to stay inside and drove to the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis, which has been on our list for a while. It's fairly small, and shows mostly modern and contemporary art from the 1960's and 1970's. One part of the museum lets the public witness how exhibits are prepared.

This work is by Fred Eversley

A permanent exhibit has been set up with furnishings from the mid 20th century. Visitors are invited to play records, sit and read etc. We played a Dave Brubeck record and looked at magazines for a while.

Here are two items in the glass case that we don't have in our attic - an Oscar and an Emmy. We could't read the inscription.

88. Library Crawl - new and old

Week 88  3/9/17

On this cold day we decided on an indoor adventure. Neither of us had been inside the new Millis Public Library so we headed there first. We ran into several people we knew, looked at the beautiful and functional space which is well-organized and light. They have many community programs and meetings.

In the meeting room was an art exhibit. The drawings of these anthropoids are all life-size.

Next stop was an old library, the Bacon Free Library in South Natick. This small library is in it's original building and is very cozy and welcoming. I'd been there before and had conversations with the staff.

The Natick Historical Society museum downstairs was closed but I knocked on the door and we were let in. We had a nice chat with one of the curators.

Here Paul looks at a baseball from a factory in town which no longer exists.

We saw display cases focused on Horatio Alger who was born in this town, as well as Henry Wilson who was a Vice President of the United States. There were cases for some of the newer luminaries of Natick as well.

The library director here is great. She set up many book clubs, exhibits and events including an annual original art auction. The cupcakes are from an earlier visit when she hosted a reception for children's book illustrators.

87. Our Great Gatsby

Week 87  3/3/17

We always look forward to our annual weekend in Chatham with our Riverside Fishing and Poker Club friends at Our Great Gatsby, a 10-bedroom house that we have shared for a March weekend for about 12 years. We get a good rate in March.

On the way, Paul and I took a detour to the bay side of Cape Cod at Brewster, where we followed "Point of Rocks Road" and discovered a tiny beach with three parking spaces. Paul is pointing to a rock with a point on top.

Paul has a couple of new pictures of the gathering which I'll put here when he gives them to me. 

86. Moose Hill

Week 86  2/23/17

On this sunny day we didn't expect the snow to last, but at Moose Hill in Sharon, which includes Audubon and Trustees of Reservations trails and facilities, the snow hung on, especially in the woods. We'd been here before in the summer on the Trustees property so we walked on Audubon trails today. It was school vacation week, and many families and children day-campers were also enjoying the place. Both visits we greatly enjoyed the temporary art exhibits in the Audubon building. This time the theme was "skies."

Evidence of maple sugaring (not a good year in 2017, alas), and yarn-bombing of a tree stump.

Paul saw a few cork trees, which seemed unusual. 

85. Politics and Art

Week 85  2/15/17

We visited the Davis Museum for the first exhibit in the US dedicated solely to Carlo Dolci. This exhibit included loans from across the globe including the Louvre, the Met and even two from our familiar Ringling Museum in Sarasota which we visit annually. The Madona shown below is very familiar to us.

Elsewhere in the museum there was lots of action! In response to Trump's immigration policies, the director, Lisa Fischman, (shown below at rear) and her staff were in the process of removing or draping works that were created by or donated by immigrants.

We loved this exhibit of African art and were able to see most of it before the drapes were pulled down. 

In the evening we attended a lecture/panel/talk/conversation between Mark Lilla of Columbia and Tom Cushman of Wellesley. Tom is a frequent golf partner of Paul and one of the few conservative faculty at Wellesley. In this Freedom Project he attempts to offer speakers with many political points of view. A recent piece piece by Mark Lilla, "The End of Identity Liberalism" in the November 18 New York Times has been controversial, and the discussion was lively. We heard that several of the posters were defaced.