A Country Wedding

I haven't told you yet about the lovely time I had as a guest at a Mestizo wedding at the beginning of December.

Almost as soon as I arrived in Belize I was invited by Maricruz to spend the weekend in San Estevan, in Orange Walk District, at the home of her parents. The occasion was the nuptials of her nephew Amir. Naturally I was pleased to be asked and looked forward to the visit, even though I didn't have any finery fit for such an event. I figured nobody would be looking at me, and I could just enjoy observing the celebrations.

We set off for San Estevan, about 60 miles to the north of Belize City, at 6.30pm on the Friday night. No sooner had we left the city than Evan pulled the truck over, explained how tired he was after his busy day, and asked if I'd mind driving the rest of the way.

There were no street lights, cats eyes, or white lines, I'm used to driving on the left, not the right, and it's five years since I've driven a vehicle with a manual gearbox. Oh well, I thought, if you're willing to risk the life of your daughter, your sister and yourself by trusting me at the wheel I'll give it a go.

Mercifully, we arrived without incident to find preparations for the wedding reception in full swing. Evan's wife Maricruz had travelled to San Estevan earlier in the day to start cooking for the 150 guests. After being shown to my lovely room in the big beautiful house I hurried down to the huge yard where marquees and a stage for the band were being erected, tables and chairs were being set out, and elaborate decorations were being garlanded and draped on every surface.

My interest was in the cooking and I followed Maricruz like a shadow as she directed the proceedings in the enormous outdoor kitchen area. Plump chickens reared by Maricruz's mother had already been necked and plucked. About eight of them were already simmering in a huge cauldron on a wood burning open fire while more batches were being prepared. This dish was called black chicken, a favourite delicacy in this part of Belize, and involved stuffing the birds before cooking them slowly in a liquid with ingredients that included burnt paper and crumbled tortillas.

Red chicken, another popular dish, was prepared by rubbing the birds inside and out with a mix of spices and chillies and stuffing them with a mixture of ground meat, spices, olives and big fat raisins before stitching up the carcase with needle and twine. These chickens would be roasted, again on the open fire. In the meantime, other members of the extended family; aunts, cousins, sisters; peeled vegetables for potato salad, chopped and liquidised cilantro, peppers, chillies and tomatoes for seafood ceviche and dips. This was a masterclass in traditional mestizo cooking and I was loving it.

Every now and then I looked up at the black sky filled with millions of stars that were so bright with no light pollution on this balmy December night in the countryside. Magical.

The next day all the cooks and helpers were transformed into sophisticated guests, dressed in their best for the wedding at the Catholic church in Orange Walk.

The party afterwards was a wonderful affair, where each family arrived and presented their gift to the happy couple before settling down to an evening of feasting, drinking and dancing. Many of them brought their own contributions for the table; huge bowls of rice and beans, piles of hot fluffy tortillas, crates of Belikin beer.

Long after I leave Belize I'll treasure my memories of being welcomed into this cosy home and treated as a special guest by kind lovely people who didn't even know me.