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Lobsterfest 2015….What if it rains on my trip?……..Beach art ideas!

Remax Vip Belize : Cave tubing
Lobsterfest 2015 was a great success again! The only negative was that it was really windy, so the duck race was cancelled, but everyone had a great time. The supposed “rainy” season hasn’t been so rainy, only a few showers here and there, mostly at night. It was REALLY hot here about 2 weeks ago, but this past week has been perfect–enough cloud cover to keep the temps down, a nice breeze, and not such oppressive heat 🙂 Here are a few pictures from Lobsterfest:

Remax Vip Belize: Lobster Trip
 Lobster pies from The Galley….yum
Remax Vip Belize: Lobster pies from The Galley
 Dave doing a Rotary Announcement…if you hear his voice you’ll know why he gets picked to make the announcements…:)
Remax Vip Belize: Rotary Announcement
 Rotary Club booth
Remax Vip Belize: Rotary Club booth
 Find out all about the sea creatures that you pretend aren’t swimming in the sea with you….
Remax Vip Belize: Swimming in the sea
 BTIA and Humane Society booths…
Remax Vip Belize: BTIA and Humane Society booths
 Embassy booth
 Remax Vip Belize: Embassy booth
 There were no shortage of Belize shirts to be bought!
Remax Vip Belize: Shortage of Belize shirts
My personal favorite….thanks Sue for capturing how everyone loves Lobsters!!! Please note Sticks is actually smiling.
Remax Vip Belize: Loves Lobsters
Many people ask about rainy season, and you will find you get a lot of different answers. Basically, it rains MORE than dry season, but usually at night, so besides waking up to a wet ground or puddles, you don’t know it is rainy season :). The tropics are so unpredictable; you can have several days in a row of rain in dry season, which happens from time to time, and long stretches of dry in the rainy season.

Terrible thing to see on your beach vacation, courtesy of google.

Remax Vip Belize: Beach vacation

It is a huge disappointment to come here and have it rain for many days in a row, but this doesn’t necessarily happen at any certain point of the year. With the constantly changing El Nino, it can be impossible to predict weather patterns and changes for people trying to find the best time to come. Basically, your chances of coming and having your trip ruined by rain are SMALL, statistically, but if it does happen, the best advice is make the best of it. :-/ (no one likes hearing that, including me!) BUT, here are some rainy day activities that have proved fun for people:

-Plan your inland excursions–spend more time than you thought at excursions you might not do if it were great weather (ATM Cave tour, Cave tubing, Xunantunich, Ian Anderson’s, the zoo). You might get cheated by not doing Monkey River, Cockscomb, or snorkeling, but the excursions are still totally awesome, just not the local ones (and you have an excuse to come back!). Also, the local excursions will still go out, just bring shoes you don’t mind getting muddy and a poncho (yeah look like a tourist!!) and you can still have a great time.

ATM Cave tour, google image as you can’t take pics in the cave anymore because tourists broke skulls by dropping their cameras on them >:(
Remax Vip Belize: Tourists broke skulls
 Cave tubing (google image)
Remax Vip Belize: Cave tubing
 Xunantunich (google image)
Remax Vip Belize: Xunantunich

-There are still plenty of restaurants you can enjoy indoors–Dolce Vita, Mojo’s, Wendy’s, Robert’s Grove, etc are great places where you will stay dry.

Wendy’s (google image)
Remax Vip Belize: Wendy's
 Google image of Dulce Vita, proof people are having fun there!
Remax Vip Belize: Dulce Vita

-There is a new indoor “mall” going in, in the heart of the village. While there is no definite establishments announced yet, word is that there will be plenty of indoor shopping, a gym, and movies to do some indoor fun. You can also go bowling indoors at Jaguar Lanes!

Google image of the new mall going on…..it’s not done fyi in case you were concerned.
Remax Vip Belize: Jaguar Lanes

-Make sure you book where you have wifi/cable/books/games, (ahem, we have all these, just sayin’!) so you can enjoy some lazy days inside! These are underrated in my opinion 🙂

This takes care of several days here, and you could still say you had an awesome trip!!

BUT let’s forget about rain…it has been great weather here, and we have been putting up a lot of cheerful beach art, which is always fun to look at when you are getting excited about your trip!

View as you walk up to casita/cabanas
Remax Vip Belize: Casita/cabanas
 A very exciting find….a decrepit lobster trap…now art. And thanks to Sue for pointing out that this is a cold water lobster, not a tropical lobster. Everyone will have to deal with my error and I will deal with being laughed at.
Remax Vip Belize: Lobster trap
 New signs so you don’t forget which unit you are in.
Remax Vip Belize: New signs La Castia
 Whale shark. In case you miss the words.
Remax Vip Belize: Whale shark
 View looking to the back of the property, where the house is going up and up!!
Remax Vip Belize: Canbas Sildwalk
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What’s new at Caribbean Beach Cabanas in Placencia!!

Remax Vip Belize : New at Caribbean Beach Cabanas in Placencia
The long break in blogs is due to friends’ visits, weddings, being BUSY here, and I have been in the US for a lot of the last couple months, leaving my husband Dave in paradise to work :). Thanks to his efforts, there have been a lot of great changes to our place, and many of them are going to be very exciting for upcoming guests!!One of the great changes….we just upgraded our wifi so that it is STRONG!! you will be able to get a strong signal throughout and even out past our property now–even in the water (not recommended :))! This is quite a feat in Belize, where you have to ship in everything you need 🙂 Dave was “excited” to learn all that programming 🙂

Remax Vip Belize: Quite a feat in Belize

We also have two brand new bikes for guests to use! Two of them are old fashioned beach cruisers that have baskets for groceries, and the other two are great for longer journeys up the peninsula.

Remax Vip Belize: New bikes

We purchased two huge inner tubes for using in the water…the type that you generally see on excursions. They allow you to really sit up and float in the sea (for those like me, who are a bit wary of creatures!)

Remax Vip Belize: Inner tubes

I have been working on a ton of new art, and Dave built a large new welcome wall as guests enter the property. We are going to work hard to recycle bottles and make art out of them!

Remax Vip Belize: Work hard to recycle bottles
More homemade art that is excited to be hung around CBC…
Remax Vip Belize: Homemade art

Thanks to Keith and Lacey’s wedding, we now have an arch to incorporate into the entrance….

Remax Vip Belize: An arch to incorporate into the entrance

We have redone our signs, both at the entrance to the main street and at the sidewalk….

Sign at the sidewalk….
Remax Vip Belize: Sign at the sidewalk
 Sign at the main road:
Remax Vip Belize: Sign at the main road

We also LOVE the wood carvings that the locals make, so we will be adding a whole new family of animals to the landscaping! Including a lizard that I love!!

“We can’t wait to live at CBC! We are excited to be put in our final places :)”
Remax Vip Belize: Wood carvings

There will be even more improvements as we move forward…..we are so excited to make Caribbean Beach Cabanas the first micro resort that is walking distance to the village!!

The water has been GREAT…although rainy season is upon us :). Rainy season consists of night showers, short bursts, awesome skies, fun thunder at times….and a bit more muggy. Here are some recent totally undoctored pictures of the sea!!

Remax Vip Belize: The sea
Remax Vip Belize: The sea
Remax Vip Belize: The sea
AND……

The biggest change is that we are working on a large new unit in the back of the property! The walls are up and it is starting to look like a house! Our guests during this transition have been wonderful. We hope they all return to see the final product! The outside of the house will be done in July but the inside will take a bit longer of course. Here are some images from the back of the property, in chronological order!

The blank slate that was the back of the property….
Remax Vip Belize: The blank slate
 Day one of construction!
 Remax Vip Belize: Day one of construction
Remax Vip Belize: Day one of construction
Dave and some of the crew!
Remax Vip Belize: Dave and some of the crew!
 First week…
Remax Vip Belize: First week for construction
Remax Vip Belize: First week for construction
Remax Vip Belize: First week for construction
 View from sea side…
Remax Vip Belize: View from sea side
 View from sidewalk…
Remax Vip Belize: View from sidewalk
Remax Vip Belize: View from sidewalk
 Cement pillars…
 Remax Vip Belize: Cement pillars
 Block starting for the septic!
Remax Vip Belize: Block starting for the septic!
The start of concrete work!
Remax Vip Belize: The start of concrete work!
  Sticks for the house are going up!
Remax Vip Belize: Sticks for the house are going up!
Remax Vip Belize: Sticks for the house are going up!
Remax Vip Belize: View from sea side
It is starting to look like a house! View from sea side…
Remax Vip Belize: View from sidewalk
 View from sidewalk…