Two Trending Topics and September 2022 In Belize – a tacogirl Short Informational Listable

The month of September in Belize is known for a few things: The Battle of St. Georges Caye, Belize’s Independence Day, parades & parties, and crazy hot weather. It often feels like 96 degrees in the shade and the voice inside my head sometimes sounds like the Wicked Witch when she was at death’s door in Wizard Of Oz – I’m melllting, melllting 😀

I feel extremely lucky to be sharing the same birthday month as my country. It has changed my life in great ways – since moving to Belize, I have grown from celebrating one day to randomly celebrating during all 30. And with the town being decorated, it’s a constant reminder to celebrate myself and my second country – dual citizen, Canadian and Belizean as of Sept 9, 2020. That was a fabulous birthday present, an email on the afternoon of my birthday apologizing for the short notice and asking if I could get to Belmopan the following morning. Click through to read my interesting adventure on Getting Belize Citizenship during Covid.

As you can see in the picture below, I’m not the only one celebrating. The other day, I caught this motorcyclist stopping for a fist bump with a friend in the middle of Middle Street, also known as Pescador Drive.

Sadly, the Belize flag went half mast on my birthday in respect, for the death of Queen Elizabeth II. She passed away at Balmoral Castle, United Kingdom.

The day was blazing hot and I chose to celebrate my 55th trip around the sun by going on a selfie date, browsing in all the larger stores in town with air conditioning.

Trending Topics For September In Belize And A Random Mask Study

As I mentioned above, Sept 8th marked the Queen’s Passing, and worldwide people went into mourning. As a result of this unfortunate event, the topic of Belize dollars being replaced was Trending on Trip Advisor.

Below is one of my favorite pics I found of the Queen during Covid – photo credit from Goddyunited Jokes. She had the best hats and I love how, in the yellow ensemble, she is ‘smeyeling’ with her eyes. My British friend Cindy is also great at that.

Recently, I decided to do a customer mask study while waiting in line at Atlantic Bank – one of the few places we still have to wear face masks. During the brief time I was there, about 10 minutes, 8 of 10 people in line or at the teller were black masking it, one wore hospital blue and the other a nice bright green – not the same shade as the queen 🙂

Trending Around Town

A sure sign September is one of the quietest months in Belize is the renovation work being done around town. In the first picture, the front of Atlantic Bank is getting spruced up. Picture two shows where a building was leveled at the corner of Almond Street and Caribeña Street – the northwest end of town. Next comes a pile of rubble in front of the now empty, My Lites store on Pescador Drive also known as Middle Street.

Caramba and Elvi’s, two popular downtown restaurants are getting makeovers.

A few days later a more finished version of Elvi’s Kitchen, a popular local restaurant rich with history.

And lastly, another work in progress is the first part of the Central Park benches and planters getting re-painted. After posting it the other day, this pic trended on tacogirl.com Facebook page, and people definitely had opinions on the white paint. Personally, I can’t wait to see what color comes next. It’s like unwrapping a multi-layered present. It reminds me of the hot potato game that was often played at birthday parties when I was a kid. A lot of excitement got built up as the layers of wrapping were torn off the prize every time the music stopped. Only this is the reverse, the excitement will grow as the next layer gets added.

September Weather in Belize

It’s been hotter than two goats in a pepper patch 🙂 Thankfully, last weekend brought us some rain. It came late at night, early in the morning, or as the odd daytime shower, depending on where you were situated on the island. At one point my friend Staci was experiencing rain in Boca del Rio while in town I just enjoyed a view of dark skies over the reef without the showers.

Many of my friends and family are starting to experience the shift from beautiful warm sunny days to cold and crisp weather. Thankfully, on Ambergris Caye, there are absolutely no signs of the impending frigid temperatures of fall or winter 😀 And for those of you planning winter vacations, don’t worry, even when we do get a cold front or two a few months from now, most of you would find it balmy. Unless of course, you are like me – I was pre-acclimatized for tropical life long before moving to Belize 😀

The Countdown is On

It’s less than a couple of hours until we say Happy 41st Birthday Belize. This year, the San Pedro Town Council is starting early by throwing a big Pre-Independence Party that started at 9:00 pm, featuring DJs till 4:00 am – with Dj Ana and Ultra Simmo, Dj Bigz, Dj Debbie, and Latino Boyz. This will be followed by J’ouvert where any islanders willing to push beyond 4:00 am and relive their younger years staying up till dawn will enjoy the pleasure of parading through town. This fun middle-of-the-night tradition is getting everyone revved up for the big birthday parade tomorrow afternoon.

I will leave you with a few recent September Celebration pictures, we’ve already had two parades so far this week. The following two pictures below are from the daytime school kid’s parade which passed by my apartment for 15 minutes or so.

As usual, this city girl heard the parade long before seeing it. It was in Central Park first and slowly rat tat tatted its way around the corner heading south past my veranda.

Last but not least a sunset pic of the second parade celebrating Central American Day. It was heading towards the ceremonies at Saca Chispas sports and event field on the lagoon side of town and illustrates another great reason to put September in Belize 2023 on your travel schedule.