Veggie Vacations

From Chaa Creek, we were able to take a canoe into town (San Ignacio) – it was 7 miles downstream, which doesn’t sound too difficult, but I guess my arms are weak! We were TIRED!! We got to see some beautiful birds, and also Belize’s one and only suspension bridge:

We walked around San Ignacio – some tourist-aimed shops with postcards and magnets, and some tour operators, but otherwise people just going about their business.  Plenty of produce sold right on the street too!  This was a nice little park right in the middle of town:

We had an amazing lunch in San Ignacio at a Sri Lankan restaurant called Serendib, where I had a good vegetable curry for a ridiculously low price.  Potatoes and rice, yeah a bit too much starch, but I got my veggies and our bill for 3 people was about $14 US.  Yeah.

We then embarked on a long car trip to Placencia, a small town on a peninsula on the Caribbean coast of Belize…

As we traveled onto the peninsula, we were horrified by the destruction of the jungle that was going on… making way for the construction of oversized vacation homes and resorts.  After visiting Placencia, we would choose in the future to stay at one of the hotels right in town to support the locals rather than support one of the ‘big’ resorts that are mowing down nature…Also, the little restaurants in town did a much better job at feeding me vegan than the hotel did.

Our big hotel, Chabil Mar Villas, did at least give us a couple of bars of organic Belizean chocolate (we switched out milk for dark, which was vegan!), and a lovely villa with a full kitchen and a juicer.  We could have fit 15 of our closest friends in it with us!

I can’t say enough good things about Placencia!  We walked into town that day – what a cool place! Bustling with activity.  We bought some bananas and papayas, and some Belizean wine to have with dinner (Note – the Blackberry wine is REALLY sweet! Yikes!).  Produce was plentiful, but you won’t find any health food store type goods in Placencia (i.e. no soymilk!).

There are two streets in Placencia:  1- the street, 2-the boardwalk.  And you can drive a golf cart through town.  We walked through, making mental notes of places we wanted to visit on our next trip into town.  After a good night’s sleep…

…and then we were ready for a day at the beach!

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I walked on the Asbury Park boardwalk last week for the first time… ever, actually.  Cool place! I highly recommend taking a walk there – lots of bars and restaurants with beautiful views of the oceans.

My friend and I walked up and down and eventually decided on Langosta Lounge, which was self-classified as “vacation inspired cuisine”.  We waited at the bar so we could get an outside table, where they served some unique and interesting drinks – how often do you get fresh ginger in cocktails?

Nice thing about the menu was this: several dishes had an “as vegetarian” option, and the veg option was cheaper than the original.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ordered something “without the chicken” etc. and have felt slighted when they charged the menu price anyway.

I decided on the vegetarian version of Lobster Bangkok which had an impressive mound of vegetables in a coconut curry sauce over black rice (major points for black rice – I love it!) topped with fresh mango.

There was also a vegetarian Moroccan dish with lentils and couscous that sounded delicious, as well as a salad with macadamia nuts and grilled pineapple.

And when I asked if the Bangkok was vegan, the waitress told me that one of their chefs is vegan, so they know how to take care of us! More points.

Highly recommended.

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Well, it’s April, so Memorial Day is essentially just around the corner and summer will be upon us before we know it!  This year, I’m in the market for a new sunscreen – it must be vegan, not tested on animals, not contain potentially harmful ingredients, and not burn my eyes if I sweat.

In the past I’ve used Ocean Potion, which does not test on animals and smells like orange sherbet.  But the ingredient list is pretty long, and although I didn’t recognize any animal ingredients, I’m not 100% sure that it was vegan.  I’ve also used alba botanica sunscreen – definitely vegan, safe, and cruelty free, but not waterproof in the least.

So, I turned to the Environmental Working Group for some guidance on safety…turns out, I had a lot to learn about sunscreen:

‘SPF’ only refers to protection from UVB rays.  For protection from UVA rays, a mineral (usually zinc or titanium) must be one of the ingredients.  Also, zinc and titanium are not absorbed much into the skin, so they pose little risk.  However,

To find out which sunscreens were truly cruelty-free, I went to Leaping Bunny.  Have you seen the leaping bunny logo yet?  According to their website, “The Leaping Bunny Program provides the best assurance that no new animal testing is used in any phase of product development by the company, its laboratories, or suppliers.”  Sounds good to me!

So, I cross-referenced EWG’s top sunscreen list with Leaping Bunny’s list of cruelty-free companies.  And the winners are:

- Kiss My Face Paraben-free sunscreens

- Jason Sunbrellas Mineral Based Sunblock

Can’t wait to test them out for water resistance!  Just a note – keep in mind that more companies are continually being added to the Leaping Bunny list…

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