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Food Soup - Big Rock Falls | Tour Tip
Secret of the Pine Ridge: Big Rock Falls

Food Glorious Food
Chapter 1, Soup

For years (8) I have been bragging about the dinners at Pine Ridge Lodge. The cuisine that our guests enjoy is the exact same food both management (Vicki, Richard & Gary), and the girls eat. Both Vicki and I (Gary) love great food and go to great lengths to search for new & interesting recipes or ideas to experiment with in Belize. While she is in the USA, Vicki collects recipes from television, cook books, magazines and the Internet. Frequently Vicki modifies these recipes to take advantage of the foods available in Belize. To watch Vicki and the girls create a new meal in the kitchen is like watching a high-pressure skull session in a dot.com company, suggestions fly around the kitchen. Both Richard and I make every effort not to disturb the ladies; it just gets them angry. The results of these collaborations produces dinners made with the freshest available ingredients, in an imaginative fashion.

Our dinners generally begin with soup. Nothing settles hunger like delicious soup. After a long day visiting Caracol, Belizeês greatest and largest Mayan ruin, or any of the Mountain Pine Ridgeês many natural wonders, people come back to the lodge ready to eat and discuss that dayês adventures. In order to satisfy their hunger and keep them in a good mood we have a hearty soup ready in order to taking the edge off their hunger. Then our guests enjoy sharing their experiences with the other guests and staff and the rest of dinner can proceed at a leisurely pace.

We once had a tourist sneak into the kitchen before 6:30AM to steal the recipe for our tomato orange soup, originally found by Vicki in the October 1996 issue of Bon Appetite. If she had waited for us to get up we would have gladly given her the recipe. Any of our recipes are available to our guests. My personal soup favorite is a recipe for five-bean soup Vicki created in January 2000. Of course in a country that believes a day without beans is like a day without sunshine, we have black bean soup, lentil soup, curried lentil soup, harvest lentil, split pea, etc. Not only are legumes the basis for our soups but we have numerous vegetable soups, all made with fresh vegetables, fish stew, corn chowder, zucchini soup, gazpacho, chicken noodle, smoky corn chowder, pumpkin, onion soup etc. I could continue listing our soups but it would sound like Bubba from the movie Forest Gump speaking of shrimp. Any of our recipes are available from Vicki or me. Next issue you will get Chapter 2 of Food, Glorious Food.

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Tour Tip

When visiting Belize do not forget a good flashlight and fresh batteries

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Secret of the Pine Ridge: Big Rock Falls

Big Rock Falls is the kind of place you dream about. The water comes rushing down the Privassion River. Then flies over granite boulders, a 150-foot straight drop into a pool suitable for swimming set deep in the forest. It is so beautiful that it graces the cover of our brochure. We once had a guest who thought waterfalls were the coolest things in creation. When he arrived at the lodge, he announced he would stay one evening for each waterfall he saw. He stayed ten days. Of all the waterfalls, including the 1000 Foot (Hidden Valley) Falls, he visited, his favorite was Big Rock. Its setting, its easy accessibility and its large swimming area make it the most perfect of the Mountain Pine Ridgeês many waterfalls.

To get to Big Rock Falls turn right (south) upon exiting lodge; proceed approximately _ mile until you see signs directing you to Five Sisters Lodge turn right and continue about 2_ miles, following the signs to Five Sisters (remain on the left). After roughly 2_ miles you should look to your left and should be able to observe a place to park your car, head in. Leading from this apparent parking spot is a trail, follow it. After about 10 minutes you should come to a clearing where horses have been tethered. Look around the outside of the clearing for another trail leading away from the clearing. Follow this –next” trail for about 10-15 minutes and you will arrive at the river (Privassion). Look to your left and you will see (and hear) Big Rock Falls. Make your way along the side of the river, over the granite rocks to the pool. Now you are ready to go swimming, or perhaps have a picnic. The lodge can provide you with a picnic lunch for your day trip.

Most people are tempted to swim underneath the falls but I have never heard of anyone succeeding. You can get close but the force of tons of water dropping 150 feet gives meaning to the phrase of –"swimming up stream.”

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