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Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
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Sue Williams on left, her daughter Lisa on right. Sue's mother, immigrated to Belize back in the late 1960's as I recollect and had a restaurant down by the Swing Bridge in the port of Belize City, where scattered immigrants and pioneers used to gather, particularly on a Saturday for breakfast and lunch, after a grueling trip from the boondocks to the only big city in the country of those colonial British Honduras days. It was here, old rural friends used to meet, after a day of shopping in the only large town then, on a Saturday morning. Sue's mother was a hardy crusty old soul, who arrived in Belize with her son, who had built a tri-maran sailboat, in California. They both sailed down to the Panama canal, went through it, and came up the coast of Central America and ended up in British Honduras flat broke. They started a restaurant called Mom's restaurant. Jim Black, her son, started a marina on the Northern highway, a couple of miles from the then, much smaller port town.

The older lady eventually died, the son eventually died, and Sue was the runner of the restaurant. It was a famous meeting place for at least 15 years or so, for pioneer farmers, Mennonites, plantation builders, parrot smugglers, marijuana smugglers, cash hungry Southern evangelists with their crusades, logging people and a host of oddball eccentrics passing through. Lisa, Sue's daughter, on the right in photo, used to go with me when she was about 4 years old, to stay with the Auxillou girls on Caye Caulker, a trip in those days made by sailboats, with an island village of no electricity. Eventually, rental prices in the port town for the restaurant got higher and higher, and eventually the restaurant was closed as uneconomical, as the port town expanded and grew. Sue went back to the USA for a few years, but gave up trying to make a living there and returned to Belize with her baby child Lisa. Sue has worked at Cave's Branch tourist place for years now and has a few acres across the Southern highway in the bush, inherited when her brother Jim Black died. Lisa has babies of her own, growing up in Belize and is an entrepreneur of some sort. She has also been in and out of the restaurant business, once or twice. True Belizean immigrants and salt of the Earth types. Rugged and determined going back to the history of colonial British Honduras times. You don't get more Belizean than this old British Honduras family. Four generations of them have lived, or died and survived in PARADISE. This was when pioneering in a wild untamed wilderness was the real thing.

WesternBelizeHappenings.blogspot.com

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
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from friends....


Lisa runs a confections shop in Placencia right now, and her kids are in the States with their father.

Also, one of Sue's best friends, Candy, wants to know if you've lost your memory (J), because "Moms was always closed on Saturdays -- Kathryn Black was a 7th day Adventist.

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The first meal I had in Belize was breakfast at Mom's after arriving by bus from Mexico the night before. It was very busy and the food was good.

There was no water taxi terminal then and at mom's you could ask for Chocolate and get a ride to Caye Caulker in his skiff with Twin 40 HP outboards. Held maybe 8 tourists and bags.

Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 12
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Originally Posted by Marty
from friends....



There was no water taxi terminal then and at mom's you could ask for Chocolate and get a ride to Caye Caulker in his skiff with Twin 40 HP outboards. Held maybe 8 tourists and bags.


Or you could take the 3 - 4 hour trip on Dave Roop's Mermaid

Joined: Apr 2000
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I thought I knew a little about the history of tourism in Belize, but obviously I don't. Who was Dave Roop and what was the Mermaid? Don't think I've even heard of them before.

Thanks.

Joined: Sep 2010
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Lan, do you remember any stories of "The Hooker", a 53' Hatteras Sportsfisher that spent quite a lot of time on AC in the late 70's/early 80's? At the time there were no telephones, no television, and no radio on the island. Visitors to the boat usually stayed at a small place that had about five or six thatched roof rooms, meals were served family style. I believe the couple who owned the "resort" were Canadian and had one or two little girls and a Canadian young lady was their nanny. I think I have some pictures from wayyyy back then. It would be fun to publish some of them and see if anyone can identify who, what, when, where.


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