When my friend Meghan visited last month she really wanted to know “what does an average day look like” for us. What do we do? I think it’s a question she herself gets asked often enough, having moved from New Jersey to Kalaheo, Hawaii. People are curious about the difference in lifestyle for those going about their day-to-day in a tropical locale. So here is a rather boring glimpse in to a typical day as an expat in Placencia, Belize.
Rise and Shine
I wake up whenever the heck I please; no alarm clock in this house. I don’t have “a real job” but I do have a kid so we’re up and at ’em by 7am anyway. We tip-toe around the house until closer to 9 in case our renters below us in Driftwood Gardens Guesthouse are trying to sleep in. During these quiet, lazy hours we have some screen time and a leisurely breakfast. At 9:30, one of us will drop Mitch off at school via a 5-minute bike ride. He is not required to wear shoes and chooses to go barefoot every day.
To each their own
This morning I had a Volunteer Fire Department meeting. I’m on their board as a fundraising coordinator (save the date for our biggest and best event- Floatchella! coming up on August 14). While I went to that, Phil had an over-the-phone meeting for work (he works remotely auditing charts for an agency that provides physical and occupational therapy). We were both finished by a little after 10.
Do you even lift, bro?
We do a work out almost every day; sometimes that is a jog up to the Flying Pig and back, sometimes it’s a homemade Tabata or Kettle Bells routine, but in recent months it’s been a quick drive up to Sirenian Bay Resort to use the fancy gym (read more here). After the gym we returned home for lunch and a shower before getting in to the chores.
Endless Laundry
I tended to the pool and did a load of laundry. There is ALWAYS laundry to be done at this house! Between the linens for the guests’ rooms and our personal assortment, we do a minimum of a load a day (my record is 9 loads in a day- washed, dried, folded and put away). If it’s a hot, sunny day (and most of them are) I will save the expensive electric on the tumble drier and hang my wash on the line to dry.
We didn’t have any room turn-overs today so I only had to do a bit of my own cleaning around the house.
Shopping
We rode our bikes down to the veg stand for some produce and chit chat. Fresh stuff comes in on Tuesdays and Fridays but I typically hit the veg stand around 4 times per week. We don’t do large shopping trips to the grocery store either, but rather pick things up on a daily basis as we find we need them. I prepped some food like carrot sticks and cucumber slices in anticipation of the hummus I’ll make tomorrow.
Wrap it up
Before I knew it, I was on my way down to pick Mitch up from school. I tried to sell some raffle tickets I’ve been neglecting to push for Placencia- Stronger Together. We came home and cleaned the kitchen, made dinner, took more showers (this time of year I could take 3 showers a day), and did some reading. This was an unusually quiet night for us because we more often than not, go out somewhere most nights. Wednesdays we usually go to the Brew Barge for volleyball and Fridays are almost always Tipsy Tuna happy hour, Thursdays I like to meet up with some girlfriends for a kid-free cocktail and conversation. On any given night, if you were so inclined, you could find something fun: live music or DJ, trivia, bingo or other bar games, even painting or craft nights. (click here for a schedule on nightly events around the peninsula) Our social life here is just as rich as it was in the US, just much more casual and a lot more affordable.
So, that’s it- a snapshot of a regular boring day in Belize.
