Don't forget tonight's feature on Belize on Bizarre World.

Episode Description

Andrew swims with sharks and sting rays in Belize. He explores an ancient cave, and sinks his teeth into Mayan-style pork brains and the country's most prized rodent!

http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Bizarre_World/Episode_Guide_Belize

great, thanks for the reminder - tivo'ing now!

dvr set...can't wait to see AC/Belize...one week to go and we will FINALLY get there...unless we get another call from II canceling something else...HOPE NOT!!!! lol

Check out a preview at:
http://sanpedrosun.blogspot.com/2009/09/every-tuesday-night-people-are-glued-to.html

Dumb question - are we EST?

eastern time is 2 hours ahead of us at the moment

Recorder set. 10 pm AZ time on Travel Channel. It's past my bed time (except when on AC), so I will watch tomorrow.

I am a Directv customer so I've tivo'd it for 7pm and am now watching it at 8pm live. So far, really great - haven't seen the AC part of it

Just watched the AC portion of this... was very brief but interesting. I'm enjoying the rest of the program throughout Belize

By the way Gela,
when they start the sunday BBQ again in BC's ?

Really interesting, but would have loved to see more on AC..The people are wonderful in Belize...so welcoming...loved the Rojo portion of the program!

Here's a blog post Andrew wrote after visiting Belize: http://bizarre-blog.travelchannel.com/read/belize-on-the-fringe

Loved his article, any small errors may be overlooked, especially in light of his final sentence:

"Like other countries, if you only sit on the beach eating burgers and drinking pina coladas at the hotel you might as well be in Florida."

Seashell, I don't think he was being negative about Belize's beaches, he was saying that if you don't explore the rest of the country that you are missing out on the complete culture. I have to agree......Belize has a lot to offer other than just it's beachs and beautiful blue/green waters.......damn, which I was on our beach sipping a pina colada......take that back....a Belikin will do just fine

Correction on the Blog food-comments ..... the gibnut is the Royal Rat, not "Royal Ray". Easy typo to make, but quite a difference in the type of critter one dines on.

Loansum . . I did not think he was making a commentary on the beaches. I thought he was making an absolutely fantastic statement on how to enjoy Belize. And as Diane just pointed out, there was at least one "any small errors may be overlooked", as I had noted in my post.

It was AWESOME, although the beetle butter recipe stirred my stomach, and made me feel a little bit vommitous, I watched it twice last night. I could have done without the crazy snake guy too. But I liked the distinct mix of cultures he showed, and I felt like he really depicted the villages well.

Seashell, I stand corrected!

:^)

OK, folks move along, move along . . .nothing to see here . . .

No popcorn required.

(thanks Loansum, very nice)

Was a good show.

I only saw about 10 mins but i thought it was kinda ridiculous. Swimming along the sea bottom picking up conch? Does that really happen around here? Do they really make ceviche just out of conch eyes or is that for the shock value? That guy with the snake? Is that what Belize is really about? Maybe I missed the point.

B.S., the name of the show is "Bizarre World"......he's looking for the bizarre parts of a culture, while throwing in some of the more tranquil aspects.

Thats exactly how you get Conch. I did notice all were empty apart from the Horse Conch though.

"Ceviche de Ojitos" IS actually a dish served here on the island... It is, however, more of an old San Pedrano recipe rather than a "Mayan" recipe as alluded to in the show. For the filming, we procured a bucket of conch eyes (mmmmm) from our Mgr Fin's uncle... It would be more accurate to call the dish "Conch Face Ceviche" I suppose as you cut off more then just the conch's eye... you also cook the conch first, to soften it up, then cure it in lime, etc. We don't serve the dish here as, if nothing else, conchs do not yield much "eye meat." We DO serve another dish though with we prepared for Andrew called Ceviche Xec (pronounced "Shek") which IS a Mayan/Yucatec recipe and is delicious. There was a lot of REALLY funny moments and dialogue filmed here which sadly did not make the final cut... Still, it was tremendous fun to have Andrew, his wife and crew here, film with him and be able to cook for them the night prior.

RE: the rest of the show, it was great to see some of the lesser traveled areas of Belize... I loved the "art park" in the jungle.

-J

The show was great publicity for Belize and while, as in most TV programmes, there were some inaccuracies, it gave a great taster (ha ha I don't excuse this pun) of the different cultures that make Belize the magical and awe inspiring place that it is.

Belize is rich in cultural diversity and ancient history. I thought that it was pretty well represented. Kudos to Jeff for learning about lesser known local recipes and sharing them.

My only concerns would have been from a conservation point of view. The eating of wild game, such as gibnut is starting to have a negative affect on the ecosystem of Belize. They are not nearly as numerous as people think and outside of protected areas their population has been impacted. I have eaten wild game in Belize (Gibnut and Armadillo)and thoroughly enjoyed it but after being educated about the impact of poaching (most people don't know that you need a license to hunt and a separate license to sell game meat), I've changed my ways. More concerning though is if this type of food becomes a tourist attraction as this will put a huge pressure on wildlife populations.

My DH wants to eat the grubs now!!

Some time ago there was a TV show that described a program in Guatemala that promoted teaching villagers to raise gibnut for their own food and as a cash crop in the marketplace. Maybe thats a good idea for Belize also

How else do you get conch? Or do they actually come from those big white freezers in the grocery store???

Jesse, I had heard there have been attempts to breed gibnut here but that they are quite tricky to breed as they won't reproduce in cages, require quite large compounds and are difficult to contain because they dig. I'm sure someone will manage it eventually though. There are people in Belize breeding guinea pig for meat, which are quite similar though smaller. Cuy (guinea pig) is a popular food source in other countries in Central/South America.

The story I saw had them running loose in the villlage...kids playing with them as pets along with chickens and pigs.

That sounds cool Jesse. Who knows, maybe someone will work that one out over here.