Eva's - San Ignacio, Belize

We finally arrived in San Ignacio after a couple neck-cricking red-eye flights, and we were starving. We picked a promising place called Eva's, but the peaceful lunch we envisioned went south pretty quickly thanks to some local men who walked over after we sat down. I was really hoping we wouldn't start this trip on the wrong foot so I guess I was hoping those men didn't have feet. 

All that flying made us pretty thirsty so we started with some Fruit Juice. The pineapple was a sweet sip of the tropics, and the papaya was the nectar of the Mayan gods.

We had barely taken a sip of our juice before the men at the next table started trying to talk to us. "You're so pretty." "Are you sisters?" We ignored them and figured it was just part of the local flavor.  

Then we decided to try some local flavor we could actually enjoy. The Escabeche, a chicken stew loaded with onions, was a salt n' vinegar potato chip in liquid form, not a far cry from Chinese hot and sour soup, minus the hot. I loved the flavor of the soup, but the large amount of practically-raw onion wasn't all that edible.

Every meal in Central America should include Rice and Beans with Stew Chicken. The rice had beans mixed in and had a nice touch of flavor. The chicken had a decent stew on the outside, but the inside was about as tasteless as the leering men who kept up their commentary throughout our entire meal. "I want a Chinese girl. I like Chinese girls" was about as gross as the mayonnaise-soup potato salad. I usually love plantains, but the little slice on this plate was about as ripe as those men were mature.

So I finally made it to San Ignacio, and after Day #1, I can only hope a chant from my childhood gym class rings true for the rest of my stay; "First is the worst, second is the best..." Now that we've seen Belize's trash, I wouldn't mind seeing some of its treasure.