Settling in at San Ignacio

After 2 long weeks of traveling throughout the beautiful country of Belize, we finally got to settle down in San Ignacio and unpack our bags! No more living out of backpacks or handwriting papers by headlamps! We were reintroduced to the luxuries of life...long hot showers, computers, and WIFI!

Balcony view of West Street

Our home for the next 10 weeks is Martha's Inn. It's like 'Real World Belize'--3 floors of awesome rooms, each with its own balcony looking out over San Ignacio. We realized early on our neighbor recently purchased the new Adele album. She apparently really likes it. To top it off, we're serenaded each night by the lovely sounds of the local karaoke bar.

  Our first day we got the run-down of all the sweet spots around town. Along with a handy-dandy map.Our tour guide for the day: the lovely miss lady black bean. She is a local dog with a spunky personality who follows everyone around (hence her other nickname, shadow).

Jordan & her map of San Ignacio

A few cool spots around San Ignacio. What are you in the mood for?

Ice Cream? ----Sweet Ting or Cayo Twist
     Absolutely delicious soy ice cream and ice coffee that some of us have visited nightly since being    
     here

Burritos? ------ Erva's Restaurant

      Foot-long burritos wrapped in a homemade tortilla, the best in town! 

"Fast food" and on a budget?----Mincho's, 3 tacos for $1 and passion fruit juice




For once we look forward to Monday mornings! Thus begins 5 straight days of amazing Martha's breakfast. The menu includes banana pancakes, breakfast burritos or fresh fruit. Most importantly is Martha's Breakfast Special--eggs, choice of fry jacks or tortilla, beans, fruit, and amazinggg banana bread!

Tortilla making at the market

One of our favorite activities is the market. On Saturdays this is the place to be. You can find any kind of fruit or vegetable you could ever imagine, even better--10 bananas for 50 cents American. The Market is an activity that everyone partakes in. While strolling around the market you can bump into Mennonites selling cheese, Mayan women selling traditional crafts, and foreign backpackers passing through.

Bananas!

National elections are right around the corner meaning San Ignacio is booming with political activity. Everywhere you look there's blue and white flags for the PUP party or red, white & blue flags for the incumbent UDP party. The other day our usually quiet street was bustling with campaign parades. We expect more rallies and parades in the next few weeks, up until election day on March 7th.

UDP Parade!

The best part of San Ignacio is by far the people. Our first night out with the locals, we attended a bonfire with students from Sacred Heart Junior College at the Crested Caracara Reserve right outside of town. We shared laughs while feasting on a well-rounded meal of sausage, porkchops, and steaks. No forks necessary. It was really great to finally meet some kids our age and kick back and relax. We ended the night singing 4 Non-Blondes accompanied by the lovely Joe Awe on guitar.

 Lastly, our newest group ritual is family dinners every Thursday. Our first meal consisted of eggplant Parmesan, pasta, garlic bread, and candy cake. (Compliments to our chefs, Jordan, Storm & Hayley!) We shared some of fondest memories of our trip thus far, many of which included our goofy bus driver Elias.

--Submitted by John Neri, Jordan Walsh