sorry this is so long in coming, but the real world beckons.....school uniforms, clueless bosses, etc......anyway, where was I??? OK, Beth slid down the fire escape and almost breaks her arm..............alright, long night of worrying(just by me, everyone else seemed to sleep comfortably)...it got worse..in the middle of the night, I went looking for my wife's purse, probably for a xanax or something. of course I cant find it..all I remember is bringing Beth in from the golf cart and no one bringing in her purse(beach bag) which just happened to have most of our travelers checks in it, and a good amount of cash....I turned the place upside down and couldnt find it, checked the golf cart, everything...in the morning, I checked with the front desk, so they are looking for it, Beth, Mac and Julie are all looking for it.....no dice.....panic sets in, yeah I know you can get replacements travelers checks, but have any of you ever tried it???not that easy.......for some reason Mac goes to open the front window, and voila!! the purse falls out from the inside windowsill.......ALL IS GOOD......so now it is only 8:00 and I have run the emotional gamut, but it ended well....also, Beth seems to be not crippled, so we decide to explore the island...we head south on the golf cart and decide after all that mess to start drinking pretty early(like we needed a reason), stopping at every little hole in the wall store for a beer..end up at Ramon's for a little while, beautiful place, great beach, rooms seem to be very private, beautiful pool...spent some time at the Purple Parrot Bar(I think thats its name), smoked a cigar, played with their pet dog, and then kept going.....went fairly far south, but there were a bunch of large(construction) trucks on the road, we got tired of pulling over in the weeds and letting them pass, so we headed back north......went to Coconets to email some pics...seems my wife kidnapped a container full of pens, letter openers and such from her office, and the office manager is very anal about them....so we took pictures of them everywhere and emailed the pics back with a ransom note....I thought it was pretty funny....met William, the crazy Dutchman, and Steve the owner, who we actually met at the jam session the night before....seem like good people....OK, north of the cut we start driving, the road is very bumpy, but it's nice to be by ourselves...pass Sweet Basil and Hamilton's, stop at the Palapa Bar...great place....200 feet out over the water, and about 25 feet up...they give you markers and let you mark all over the exposed beams and the bar, so of course I'm writing GEAUX TIGERS all over the place, while Beth is writing notes to our kids to take pics of and email back to them......next stop, Captain Morgan's....at first we werent sure where to park, but find a spot on the north end by the office, lot of construction going on...head for their pool which is huge and they have a great pool bar...have a few drinks and realize this is not the pool we remembered from last time, they have another bigger pool next to the restaurant....so we head north again, stop at Capricorn's around 11, sit at the outside bar.....we decided to have appetizers there for lunch, the bartender was great, forgot his name, but he was fun....had shrimp ceviche and a fresh mozzerella/tomato combination on some kind of bread that was amazing...we promised ourselves to come back later int the week...Regan and Merrit were not there, so we didnt get to say hello.....kept going north, drove past all kinds of houses for sale on this end, still some under construction..stopped at Rendezvous...wanted to see Glen, as he emailed me a few times before we arrived, but he wasnt there either, a very friendly woman greeted us, and asked us if we wanted to sample the wines, we said OK....very disappointing, the reds were out on the bar and had already been opened, it seemed as if they had been sitting there in the heat for a week and almost smelled like a port, but the whites were both pretty good.....ended up at Mata Chica....gorgeous place, lobby and restaurant were amazing, jacuzzi right on the beach....girls were hungry again, so we got more ceviche, and some of the most amazing quesadillas I have ever had, I remember zucchini, mushrooms, lots of peppers.....awesome......finally we decide to head back, disappointed, I wanted to see Portofino, but the extra bouncy shocks we ordered for our golf cart just didnt seem to be working properly....stop at the Palapa bar for another drink and head home for a well-deserved nap.....we wake up around 7, Mac and Julie had gone to Mango's to check it out as Libby from the Hammock House also owns it, but there was nobody there, and they came back to see if we were awake....we decide to go see Chris at Casa Picasso.....south of the airport Julie spots a hardware store and decides to buy a fan for 20 US, and it was the best purchase of the whole trip...the AC in our bedroom didnt cool off the living room too well, especially when I wake up in the middle of the night and close my door....anyway, we get there and are the only ones there except for a table that ended up being Chris, Jen and another couple that live on AC that kept talking about anteater sightings on the island....I don't remember the entire conversation, thankfully...Chris was a great host, I recall appetizers of roasted garlic(which was so good Mac ordered some during his meal),and some type of stuffed peppers...amazing.. had entrees of lobster crepes and a stuffed pasta dish which is escaping my mind right now.....manicotti, that's it, and it was fabulous...did I mention the Martinis???? Beth had Picasso' dream and fell in love with it, I dont know what was in it except for the dragon fruit garnish, but let me tell you it worked...I had a ginger martini(great), and a watermelon martini which was also very good...dont remember what Julie had, but I remember Mac saying that was the best old-fashioned he ever had......no room for desert after this night, say goodbye and head home.....I think that's enough for one day, don't you????

join us next time for Trip Report Part 4: The Timeshare Blues

GEAUX, GEAUX, GEAUX!!!!!

Nice report. My wife and I also carted waaayyyy north of the cut and stopped at a few watering holes. ok,.....all of them. Makes for a nice relaxing day.

You're right about the reds at Rendevous. Stick with the whites. The Chard was good enough that we bought some for the condo. Had a freshly corked red at dinner there and it was dreadful. Can't even imagine what it would be like if it had been open in the heat for a few hours. Too bad you didn't stop at Belizean Shores and catch the view, front and back, from the 3rd story bar/restaurant. Amazing.

Jay,
To settle your score (was it here in this topic?) When you were here we used the patiya fruit to garnish the Picasso's Dream, aka Dragon fruit, so maybe both of you are right? This week I am using star fuit, aka Carambola, and also messing around with guava, since it's in season now. Happy Mixing!
Chris
Casa Picasso

I win!!!

I wouldn't order a glass of water, much less wine or food at Rendevous. Worst place I've ever been.

cajunman-
Great posts, great pix.
Deja Vu for me as well. See my report from Topic: "Trip Report-Days 5 and 6 + Epilogue", from March of this year.

The part about the women and their bags is uncanny. If I didn't know you I'd call plager...plagar...plagir...copy cat!

All in fun, sounds like ya'll had a good one!

KCJD

that's hilarious.....how's your wife's ankle???actually, we never went to San Pedro, I've just been making all this stuff up after reading all the trip reports......yeah, right.....glad an honest person found her bag.........