a town called silk grass

ok, it's not actually a town. more of a village. but it IS called Silk Grass, which for some reason i find particularly amusing. my friends Ashli and Todd live there, and i just recently went for my first visit. i keep telling Ashli she needs to write her Peace Corps story, and title it "From Lucky Strike to Silk Grass." she got all the placements with cool names, lucky girl.

anyway, i had to go to Dangriga for a WASH project workshop (that's Water and Sanitation Hygiene for those who are wondering), and decided to stop in Silk Grass to see how the village life has been treating A&T, and to do a taste test of Ashli's increasingly famous pizza-from-scratch. it's pretty fantastic, by the way, as are her Bisquick cinnamon rolls (cribbed from Clare). Silk Grass is located just south of Dangriga on the Southern Highway, amid acres of citrus groves. Belize's top two agricultural exports are citrus concentrate and bananas, and the road between Dangriga and Punta Gorda in the south is lined with miles of orange and grapefruit trees and banana palms. as soon as i walked through the door of their traditional board house, Todd offered me a grapefruit picked from their neighbor's farm down the road. he's become an expert at doing as the Belizeans do and peeling off the rind in one long curly strip. you then cut the grapefruit in half and dig in. with your teeth. no spoons, and no sugar necessary. delectable.


Todd & Ashli's home sweet home



citrus groves



destination juicer

we rode our beach cruisers (the Belizean bike of choice) six miles up the highway and off into the bush to Mayflower-Bocawina National Park, where Todd works as a small business volunteer, helping develop business and marketing plans to bring more visitors to this largely overlooked park. we stopped to chat with one of his co-workers, but couldn't stay long, as the bugs in the visitor center were brutal and overly enthusiastic about finding fresh meat. after pausing to take in the sight of a (rather sizeable) crocodile sunbathing on the banks of the creek, we started up the deceptively easy beginning of the waterfall trail. i typically don't subject myself to trails that offer ropes to help guests drag themselves up, but the promise of a freshwater pool as a reward at the end kept me chugging along straight uphill for the next 45 minutes or so. so Todd, on trail clearing duty, forged ahead chopping down overhanging vines with his excessively large machete, and Ashli and i just tried to keep up without keeling over. and yes, the ends justified the pains. we arrived at the top of the trail to find ourselves the only visitors at a small, secluded, turquoise pool, complete with its own waterfall and easy swimming access. there's nothing better than a well-deserved dip in a freshwater pool on a hot and sweaty day.


aaaahhhh.






Ashli & Todd in post-hike/bike relax mode. despite our wildly differing living circumstances, this is a pose common to all Peace Corps Belize volunteers. it's called hammock time, and it's a highly prized commodity.

thanks for showing me a good time, kids. i'll be back.