Market and Manatee

The last week has been very busy. But there has been some pleasure along the way. Something that remains a twice weekly pleasure is our trip to the local market on Tuesday and Friday mornings. You need to get there early: certainly before 8am, but earlier is better - firstly because then it's a cool (!) 27 / 29 degrees, and secondly before all the best fruit and veg is bought by someone else.

Our shopping basket includes: onions and garlic, tomatoes and cucumber, papaya, pineapple, bananas and plantains, oranges, and if we get there early enough, coriander, aubergines, courgettes, and sometimes carrots. Also on sale are sweet potatoes and yams - but the ones we've had so far have been disappointing; bonnet peppers (still not got through our first bag bought in week one: they are HOT!) cassava, custard apples, cashew fruit (not nice, those), fish (mainly snapper: the big ones are best) eggs and honey (produced by the Mennonite community). We've also bought watermelon and cantaloupes, but they are relatively expensive.

We are still waiting for our freight: when the blender arrives we will make lots of fruit juice. It's expensive to buy prepared juice - about $4 / £1 a litre. But you can buy 8 oranges or a papaya for $1 / 25p. Fresh orange and papaya juice is lovely.

One wonderful surprise was seeing a manatee. The West Indian manatee ( a sort of vegetarian seal / walrus - referred to locally as a sea cow) is an endangered species. Belize has one of the largest populations, but it is seriously effected by the draining of coastal sites, where it lives, to build new hotels etc.

We had hoped to see them at some point, but expected we would have to make a special trip. Instead, one came to us: it was feeding quietly just next to our table, as we had lunch at a restaurant on the coast. The pictures aren't the best quality - I only had the camera phone with me - but they show you something of what the animals are like.