When on vacation, it is not very often that we think about going bowling.  Well, to be honest it had NEVER crossed our minds before.  But when staying in the Stann Creek district in Belize, we simply had to go once we heard that the only bowling alley in the entire country was just a few miles down the road.  So we left the resort, caught a taxi and spent our night at Jaguar Lanes.

Jaguar Lanes is not like any bowling alley that we had ever been to before.  Even the old bowling alleys we had been to that were leftovers from the 1950’s in the States would have at least 16 lanes.  Not here.  They have four lanes in the entire country.  Even the old lanes in the States that have been able to survive have upgraded to computerized scoring, but this night we had to rely on our old skills of keeping our own scores by hand.

It was already fairly late when we got our start, and uncertain of the possibility of getting a ride back, we asked our cabbie if he could to stay to take us back after bowling a couple of lines.  He told us that he was finishing his day and probably wouldn’t get another fare and he would be happy to stay.  When asked if we paid, could he join us bowling he sheepishly said he had never bowled before.  After explaining to him that we were far from pros ourselves he accepted.  We also had to share with him the American tradition of having a beer or two while bowling so it was also a few rounds of the local Beliken beer for all of us too.  I had never gone bowling with my cabbie before and certainly never bought drinks for him.

At the end of the night, he dropped us off back at our resort.  It was an end to another wonderful night made even better by spending it with our new found Belizian friend.

Placencia, Belize    November 2013

For more about Belize, check out our other post.

SAM_2392
Our cabbie looking back at the results of his shot during his first game of bowling.