Marie Sharp's products now at RAM Marina

Made in Belize, all of Marie Sharp’s hot sauces use the hot and flavorful habanero pepper.

Her jams and jellies are made with fresh all natural ingredients. Nothing artificial. No preservatives or other additives are used.

Hot sauces

Due to weather & growing conditions crops vary in color and texture and even slightly in flavor so you will see a variation in different batches of sauce.

Marie does not resort to pastes or artificial colors to make all batches look the same. All natural means just that, all natural.

Marie Sharp

She was overwhelmed with positive feedback and encouragement when neighbors and friends tasted them. That was when she decided to turn it into a family business.

Initially, Marie Sharp started their production in a small kitchen with help from relatives and an employee. With a determined business frame of mind, it has grown to over 20 employees in their factory in Dangriga, Belize, manufacturing for the local and international markets.  

Coconut Spread

Hot sauces include Exotic Sauce, Sweet Habanero Pepper Sauce, Mild Sauce, Hot Sauce, Green Habanero, Orange Pulp Habanero, Grapefruit Habanero, Fiery Hot, Belizean Heat, No Wimps Allowed, and Beware.

Jams and jellies include Pineapple Jam, Guava Jam, Coconut Spread, Green Mango Chutney, Mango Jam, Papaya Jam, Banana Jam, Orange Marmalade, Red Habenero Pepper Jelly, Green Habanero Pepper Jelly, Tropical Mixed Fruit Jelly.

Convenience Store Hours
Monday – Sunday = Seven Days
8:00Am – 8:00Pm = Seven Days

E-mail = This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone = 7930-5408

Marie Sharp ahora en Marina de RAM

Marie Sharp ahora en Marina de RAM

Caliente las salsas

Marie Sharp

Estaba abrumada con la respuesta positiva y el aliento cuando los vecinos y amigos de las probó. Fue entonces cuando decidió convertirlo en un negocio familiar.

En un principio, Marie Sharp comenzó su producción en una pequeña cocina con la ayuda de familiares y un empleado. Con un marco de negocios de la mente determinada, ha crecido a más de 20 empleados en su fábrica en Dangriga, Belice, la industria manufacturera para los mercados locales e internacionales.

Propagación de coco

Salsas calientes incluyen exóticos Sauce, Sweet Habanero salsa de pimienta, salsa suave, Enchilada, Habanero Verde, Naranja Pulpa Habanero, Habanero pomelo, picantes, Calor de Belice, No se permiten los débiles, y ten cuidado.

Mermeladas y jaleas incluyen Piña Jam, mermelada de guayaba, coco Esparza, Green Mango Chutney, mermelada de mango, papaya Jam, Jam Banana, Mermelada de Naranja, Rojo Habenero Pepper Jelly, Green Pepper Jelly Habanero, Mezcla de frutas tropicales Jelly.

E-mail = This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Phone = 7930-5408

Blowing out the candles

Olga was treated to birthday cake, a pinata, many toasts and at least two dunkings in the river -- a Guatemalan custom.

She is the very popular, always smiling, waitress at Las Mexicanas.

Feliz cumpleano, Olgita!

Got it!

Pinata lessons

PICKUP STUFFING -- The land trip from Tocoa to Batalla. How many people can you get in a Toyota pickup? Well, 20 in this case 17 in the back and 3 in the front. Still room for one more!

 By DANNIE MILLER m/v X Isle

  The region east of Trujillo, and towards the Nicaraguan border is generally referred to as La Moskitia, or the Mosquito Coast. It is very sparsely populated, inaccessible by land, and home to the largest tract of virgin tropical rain forest in the North American hemisphere.
  A good part of this area is protected by law under one of five distinct zones: The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, the Tawahka Anthropological Reserve, the Patuca National Park, the Cruta Caratasca Wildlife Refuge and the Rus Rus Biological Reserve.
   The area is populated by several indigenous groups, of which the Pech, Tawahka, Garifuna, Miskitos, and native Mestizos are the most predominant.

Noni products

If you have been hearing a buzz on the river about Frutas del Mundo, hang on to your seat -- you will be hearing a lot more here in the near future.

Not only does Frutas del Mundo have an amazing farm which is a prime example for eco-living, a selection of exotic fruits the likes you’ve never seen, do edible landscaping for self sustaining living, make and sell bio-water filters, composting toilets, conduct workshops on grafting and propagation, but we also have a growing line of Noni products and have more surprises coming up. 

We are also in the process of opening an eco-friendly garden center in Seja where many of our fruit trees are now available.

Noni fruit

If you are not familiar with Noni I will try to give you a brief history of what has been discovered over hundreds to thousands of years.

The medicinal properties of Noni were discovered, more than 2000 years ago, by the Polynesians, who imported the fruit from Southeast Asia. Noni has been reported to have a range of health benefits for colds, cancer, diabetes, asthma, hypertension, pain, skin infection, high blood pressure, mental depression, atherosclerosis and arthritis.

Due to its recent popularity and a mass marketing campaign it received great notoriety as well as an equal smear campaign led by pharmaceutical companies to discredit it.

Now I wouldn’t recommend anyone to abandon any medical treatment they are currently receiving for any malady, but I do recommend that you try this while being monitored for your ailments so both you and your doctor can see for yourself. Diabetics who constantly monitor their blood sugar can see for themselves.

Now back to Frutas del Mundo. Locally we grow Noni trees and harvest the fruits where we have sanitary facilities where we process the juices for wholesale and retail distribution.

Noni juice production

We also dehydrate parts of the Noni for capsules and create skin creams. Some of our friends/customers have facilities where they make shampoo and tea that we proudly help distribute.

  At this time orders can be placed by calling 4076 2091 and I will set up a time to meet in the Rio for delivery. Or you if are interested in becoming a distributer or have any other questions about Frutas del Mundo, please contact me at the same number.

P.S. Lost and Found didn’t get lost. It’s still in operation in Seja at the new Frutas del Mundo and operating via by phone and the website Here.

(Editor's Note: The article below about Don and Lodi was originally published in July 2007 in the Chisme-Vindicator. If you missed it, here's your chance to meet them. And we'd like to publish your boating story.)

By Roy McNett
  It only took Don and Lodi Hutson 25 years to get to the Rio Dulce .. and they sure as heck don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.

s/v ANON in Belize and looking GOOD!

   Originally from the Dallas / Fort Worth area, Don and Lodi started sailing 27 years ago on freshwater lakes in the Dallas area.

   Their first boat was a 21 ft. Santana on which they learned sailing basics. Then they bought a new 30 ft. Seidelman to sail on Lake Grapevine near Irving.

  They did that for about 8 months then decided to try it on salt water and had the boat hauled to Clear Lake, Texas on the Gulf Coast.

That did it.  They loved it, and sailed from Clear Lake to Corpus Christi where they moved aboard. After three years in Corpus Christi, they thought, “Hmmm, maybe we should just go on to Belize.”

   But the weather window didn’t appear so they cruised the ICW to Tampa Bay, Florida then later to Sarasota for three or four months.

Honduran patrol boats on the hard

We both had heard stories about the naval yard and wanted to see for ourselves what the conditions and facilities were like there. We were pleased to discover that the yard is like most other places we have used and the prices were the best that we have ever paid including Thailand where they almost paid us for coming there.

Anyway, to haul out and be launched is based on the weight of the vessel and for Welkin a very heavy 40’ cruiser at 15 tons gross cost us $145.00 US. I’m not exactly sure how big their travel lift is but it will accommodate a vessel somewhere in the neighborhood of over 100 tons. Honduras has 3 or 4 pretty large cutters for patrolling their coast line. They can also lift catamarans approaching 30 feet wide, and at the same rates. No extra charges for the very wide cats.

Travel Lift

We had been told to gather all parts and supplies needed because there would be very little to find in Puerto Cortes. Right on all counts except for a couple of good ferreterias you should bring everything you need if it is for an extensive haul out. If all you need to do is clean and repaint the bottom then there should be no problem.

Your only problem might be the weather and depending on the time of year that might not bother you. The anchorage is completely exposed to the west and north so plan your trip to avoid any cold fronts or other weather conditions that might cause you an uncomfortable night on the hook.

The procedure there is straight forward. Anchor at least 200 meters off the naval slip way to avoid any close contact with their vessels and take your dinghy ashore. We landed ours on the ramp and pulled it up far enough to make sure it was not in the way. It will be clear when you get there.

Go to the machine shop and look for the engineer by the name of Padia and he will take you to the office to receive the bill for hauling. This bill must be paid at a bank in Puerto Cortes prior to hauling so you need to taxi to town to do this.

Before

Looking down into the volcano

“Stick! Stick!” “ Taxi! Taxi!”, chanted the Guatemalan children from the little town of San Francisco de Sales as Captain John and I descended the steps from the bus.  It was the end of the road and the place where the trail began on our tour to the top of the Pacaya Volcano, one of Guatemala’s three highly active cones, rising to a height of 2,250 meters.

We were far from Diamond Lil, the 38’ Bayliner that we call home, wherever she might be which these days is at Mario’s Marina on the famous Rio Dulce in Guatemala.  In order to break up the routine of life on the Rio for the 6 month long hurricane season most cruisers take advantage of the economical land travel around the beautiful and diverse country of Guatemala.

The destination -- Volcano Pacaya

“You simply must take some of the land trips”, we heard over and over as soon as we arrived at Mario’s.  Our fellow cruisers, many of whom had spent several seasons on the Rio, were anxious to share their “land trip” experiences with us and make suggestions and recommendations of where to go, where to stay and what to do when we got there.    As boaters we became as excited when planning a “land trip” as we once did when we planned our “boat trips”.  A little terra firma is a pleasant change when you’ve lived on board for long periods of time, about 2 ½ years in our case.

The colonial town of Antigua was high on the list of tourist attractions and climbing the active Pacaya Volcano was equally high on the list of what to do once we were there.  The weather in Guatemala is as diverse as the landscape and we had been transported from the oppressive heat, humidity and torrential rains of the Rio in rainy season to a highland paradise much more deserving of the “land of eternal spring” title that we had heard describe Guatemala when researching the country.

Taking the taxi

We were advised to pack warm clothing for the much cooler temperatures in the highlands.  I had dug these items from the depths of our forward hatch storage and we dressed for our excursion layered in t-shirts, sweatshirts and rain wear, wearing jeans, socks and shoes for the first time since our last trip to Canada, our home and native land.

Frutas del Mundo

Story and photos by Kevin Lock

In these days of extreme hardships in the economy and disaster after disaster happening worldwide, it’s a joy to discover small signs of hope. For many of us, we are lucky if we chance upon a person or project that only legends have told about in the past. Usually we just pass by these things because the story that is unfolding is being done humbly by one person’s passion. Such is the case here.

This is a story of adventure, dreams, and a passion to feed the poor by providing them nutritious fruits and seeds while teaching them agriculture as well as healing clear cut damaged lands and a story you can be a part of to share with others.

On a small farm not far from Rio Dulce Guatemala, lies a major contribution to those who happen by to discover Frutas del Mundo. Thousands of people have driven by a little roadside stand by this name and bought fruit trees and medicinal plant extracts but not discovered the source or the man behind it.

Johnny Appleseed

As a young man, a farm boy from Minnesota, Dwight Carter joined the Peace Corps and was sent to Guatemala with a friend. After visiting Wilson Popenoe Botanical Garden there, his life as a farmer raising only vegetables, was inspired by all the strange tropical fruits. So much so, that he and his friend bought some land here in Guatemala in 1987 and began “Frutas del Mundo”, or Fruits of the World.

The two bought 10 hectares (about 20 acres) not far from Lago Izabal and began a project that has metamorphosed into another hidden jewel here.