St Georges Caye day in Belize City

When you are already living in Belize, there’s nothing like an adventure to celebrate St Georges Caye day in Belize City. We caught the 12:00pm Maya Air flight to Municipal Airport. As soon as we were off the plane Gonzalo Heredia met us and offered to drive us to our destination, the Princess Hotel. It was a short cab ride and cost was only $10 BZD. As we drove through the streets we saw a few decorated buildings and lots of colorful red white and blue pennants in honor of September Celebrations and St Georges Caye Day.

Heading to Belize City to celebrate St Georges Caye day.

Flying into Municipal Airport in Belize City

Small island near Municipal Airport

Our destination the Princess Hotel and Casino

Cab ride from Gonzalo Heredia

Paul and Jason checking in at the Princess Hotel

View from our hotel room at the Princess

My first choice was to go eat Indian food. I would have walked but the front desk said the road was under construction, plus I know Paul and Dr. Al do not like me walking around Belize City. I scored a cab outside the Princess and we headed to the Sumanthi Restaurant, unfortunately it was closed. Good-bye Garlic Nan, hello hot and sour soup, grilled lobster burger with a lime juice chaser. As we pulled up to Chon Saan Palace my cab driver and I agreed you can always count on Chinese restaurants to be open and well decorated for the holidays.

I took a minor detour and did a pass by the ITVet Community College to check out the St. Georges Caye party that was happening. A line up and my empty stomach kept me from going in so I headed back to Chon Saan.

When I sat down at the restaurant I had a Sex in the City moment when the waiter came over with 2 menu’s even though it was clear I was solo. It was almost as if he was hoping my date would magically appear. Not so tonight, as he was getting busy at the poker tournament that was being held at the Princess.

The restaurant has a big screen TV and as I ate my meal I got to watch Sir Barry’s Belikin Bash on mute with Serious satellite radio 80’s Jam playing. I must say it was pretty funny watching Belizean rappers shaking their booty to Tears for Fears.

When I got back to the hotel I stopped by the Princess poker room to check on the players, they were just condensing the tables from three down to two. Jason was out but Paul was still in the game. Jason said the pot will be around 22 grand- fingers crossed Paul makes it that far.

Decorated house in Belize City

Celebrations for St Georges Caye day at the IT Vet Communicably College

Chon Saan Palace

Hot and Sour soup

Grilled lobster burger

Lobster tank at Chon Saan Palace

Big poker tournament at the Princess Poker Room

Three tables of poker players in the big tournament

I decided to go relax off my food coma and check back in a bit. When I got back the deal was done, and I had a very happy tacoboy on my hands. After they got down to the final table everyone voted to do a chop pot and agreed that the short stacks would get so much and the big stacks got more, so he fared very well.

We decided to go celebrate at the Calypso Seafood Restaurant on the water, at the hotel. We have eaten there before, agreed it was worth going back and were not disappointed. The food is good and he prices reasonable.

View from our table at the Calypso Seafood Restaurant

Seafood chowder and garlic bread

Fish and chips

After dinner we decided to celebrate some more and blow some money at the Princess Casino. We both like playing slots for fun and decided $20 each of nickle tokens would last us a while. We bounced around trying different slots and poker machines. I kept waiting to find and sure enough the last machine I sat down at was the right one and kept giving me winning combinations. I quickly got up over 1000 credits and when Paul came to check on me he was impressed. He was also tired and told me I could either stay and play on my own or we could leave when I got down to 700 credits – of course that did not take to long betting 3 credits at a time.

Princess Casino

Paul playing slots

The casino was crowded for the holiday and they had a buffet and live music

Hot peppers turned out to be my lucky machine

I got up over 1000 credits

Here is the video of cashing out my big win, it was fun to be the one whose machine was making all the noise and drawing a crowd.

I won enough to fill a bucket with coins which turned out to be $76 BZD – not bad for an hour or so play. It was no match for Paul’s win below it. My win got me a pair of Independence Day parade shoes from Brodies and 3/4 of a magazine. 🙂 His is going to get spent on a trip to Canada in the spring.

This is what $76 worth of coins on nickle slots looks like

Paul’s big win from the poker tournament

The next morning we went down for the complimentary breakfast buffet. I was disappointed that there was no bacon and it was not picture worthy. Cut up hot dog pieces do not = ham , nor do small shaved pieces they put in at the omelet bar. I do not even want to think about why the salami was neon pink 🙂

After breakfast we packed up our stuff and called Gonzalo to drive us around town for a few errands and back to Municipal. The boys waited in the cab while I quickly hit Brodies and the mall across the street so I could get more combs, and $5 reading glasses. Our next errand was for Pedro’s Hotel so we drove to the big vegetable market to pick up their order.

We had just enough time to drop the fruit and veggies off at Maya Cargo and make the 12:30 flight. When we got back to San Pedro Felipe came to get us and we managed to squeeze ourselves and everything else in the cart.

Loading the plane at Municipal Airport

Unloading vegetable order from Belize City

Maya Air cargo guys loading up the golf cart

Paul managed to squeeze in with all the vegetables