San Pedro is a beautiful island (isla bonita), just ask Madonna. Unfortunately some of it is masked in between the development of hotels and resorts. We decided to venture away from the downtown of tourist shops and overpriced food to other parts of the island where people live their daily lives. We brought an artisan friend, Jorge, that we had met the night before. At the high school we found people playing music and consequently enjoyed dancing to a Selena song. Free music and dancing! From there we wandered through a few of their local grocery stores. Belize stores are the best ever. These ma and pop stores have what you need and nothing more. They are small, quaint, sometimes a bit dusty without the white atmosphere and florescent lighting of huge, overwhelming grocery stores in the states. Really, shopping in Belize is like shopping in someone's house. At times, literally. And, they have the best shampoo fragrances ever. Wandering the isles of canned food and bags of plantains made us a bit hungry so we went to a restaurant that a woman ran out of her house. Delicious home cooking for less than half the price of downtown food. Her friend's daughter would peek out at us and then hide and it became a continuous game. By the end of the meal she was brave enough to come poke me and run away laughing. After the good meal we set out once more and met a local artisan in his studio. His vibrant paintings reflected the bright attitude of the island, despite being a country plagued by the repercussions of years of colonization. 

To me this backside of the island is the most beautiful part. It is too bad that many people who visit will never get to see it.