Belize - Laughingbird Caye National Park

Here's a photo from and a link to more spectacular photos of Laughing Bird Caye National Park - from the Southern Environmental Association's Facebook page. Laughingbird is visited by many, many Maine Stay guests while on snorkeling trips.

The Maine Stay - Belize - TripAdvisor Review

I don't usually like to "toot our horn" here... but this review written by one of our recent guests, Heather Anderson, is so well done and terribly flattering to us and the Placencia Peninsula, that I just had to share...

We just returned from 9 days at the Maine Stay. We could not have asked for anything more. We were a large group (8 people), and Drew and Karen accommodated us perfectly. The cabanas were spotlessly clean, and had everything we needed. Karen nicely noted that if we needed anything at all (ie. bigger pots, different cooking utensils) to just come across the street and she would be happy to lend them to us. They provided us with great information about the peninsula and its surrounding attractions. The bathrooms were beautiful and again spotless. The beach is soft, clean sand, dotted with several palm trees for some shade and privacy. the property is also covered in beautiful hibiscus plants and other vibrant flowers. The water was gorgeous, jumping off the dock was tons of fun. There are beach dogs - but they are harmless! they just want to say hello, maybe get a few pats from you and just check out what you are doing. we loved them. The beds were extremely comfortable, and the rooms were air conditioned, so sleeping here was perfect. for a day time nap, relax in one of the many hammocks on the deck.

As for things to do on the peninsula - the saturday night buffet at Roberts Grove is AMAZING (all you can eat lobster - need i say more??) another great find was The Secret Garden restaurant down in Placencia Village - fantastic food and friendly service. they were also one of the few places that serves American breakfasts - nice to have a little taste of home once and a while! If diving is your thing, go with Avadon divers, they are located just south of the air strip. Ann Marie and her brother run the company and they are such wonderful people, and our day out on the boat was amazing. we saw dolphins, rays, millions of fish, lobsters, you name it, we saw it. Their lunch was incredible too.

I could go on and on about the house and Placencia, but I suggest you book this house and get down there to experience it yourself. Oh and be sure to drop in on Drew and Karen - their house is the coolest house i have ever seen and their knowledge of the country is really cool, they know anything you will want to know. Their dogs are adorable, and they have birds too!!

TripAdvisor Review 20 August 09

Xunantunich - "tunasandwich" - Belize Mayan Ruin

Check out the YouTube video of one of the Mayan ruins that many of The Maine Stay guests visit. This is a delightful day trip to the San Ignacio area and is easily combined with a visit to the Cahal Pech ruins about 15 minutes from Xunantunich. Read what Wikipedia has to say about Xunantunich and Cahal Pech.

Belize Pickles... the California Method

My son Steven sent this email... check out his recipe link below!

So, someone at my office brought in a ton of cukes from their garden, really big ones, and I took home a bunch, cuz it was like, free food, and that's good, because free food means I can buy more ipods, and anyhoo, I was never going to be able to eat these cukes before they went moldy, cuz there were like too many of them, so I figured I should somehow try to extend the life of the cukes, and then I remembered there were these things people made called pickles and preserves and stuff like that, so I started to look into it, using the interwebs, and I found a basic recipe, after some searching--the first several recipes I found had sugar as an ingredient, and I said no, no, no--so I kept looking and found something that was more true, and found a way to do this experiment without special canning equipment and huge vats and special jars and lids and seals and sterilization and all that, because I didn't have the time or energy for that, and to this basic recipe I added about eleventy different spices because I was feeling mischevious, and I thought it would probably be a bust, that things would turn out to be inedible, but I didn't care too much, cuz the cukes were free and it was darn easy to do, so I experimented and went wild and added in the spices like the spicy guy that I am, and wouldn't you know it, these pickles turned out to be the best pickles i've ever tasted, they are mega-delicious, and I brought several jars of them in to work, and people often bring stuff in to work to share, so usually it's like, ho hum, thanks, but people who I don't even talk to a whole lot went out of their way to stop by my desk and rave about how amazing the spicy pickles are, and to please share the recipe, so I was at this point obligated to write it all up, and thus I bring you this internets page that I made, which is passed along with love and best wishes and hopes that the pickle gods may allow your preserved cukes to turn out just as deliciously, and that you may enjoy in the crunching and spicy goodliness of which you might partake if you undertake and execute to the equivalent of my own pickle making abilities, yeah good luck with that!

Aww yeah, that was one sentence.

snipurl.com/spicyp
recipe by Steve Travers