The "odd jobs" day

Last night, per Dads request, we watched "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Basically, we are getting more and more exhausted and a tad too relaxed at the end of our journey.

Today, Ernesto took us into Belmopan and drove us around like a regular chauffeur. I think we bored him, but otherwise it was a good time. We stopped by the market and got dad some more oranges, stopped in to a hardware store, dads favorite bakery, the forest department office, and dads favorite supermarket. I purchased the ingredients for a sound pasta. Hopefully it tastes as good as I hope :)

Then, we went to the Valley of Peace and Ernesto dropped us off at Mrs. Chocs house. Stanley took us on a tour of his aunts house, which now has new tenants, and I surveyed the house garden. Basically, it has every kind of fruiting tropical tree that you could possibly think of, and then some! Mrs. Choc made us a lovely lunch, complete with juice, and I got a glimpse of the 3-week-old Choc grand baby.

Ernesto returned with his son, Carlos, and a bike that I ended up buying for my summer trip. It is a pretty pink girlish bike with sturdy wheels. Unfortunately, the last rider was a tad taller than I am, so poor Ernesto had to adjust the seat for me down as far as it could go. I am very pleased with it. On the way out of town, we picked up Ernesto's family again, and he dropped us off at Banana Bank. Thus begins our long, 4- day weekend to see San Ignatio and Cahal Pech (Maya ruins), bug the forest department some more, and do some things around here.

As I was sitting here, some middle-aged Taiwanese guy, from this large Holy Oil church group, walked up to me. I greeted him in Mandarin, and surprised him by saying that I had actually visited Taiwan and picked up a few limited phrases. He then proceeded to teach me how to say "hello, and God bless you". It pretty much went in one ear and out the other, so when he returned to test my new knowledge he almost had to reteach it to me. In case I run into him again, I have spelled this phrase phonetically in my iPad for easy retrieval!