Ship time was set back 1 hour today. Our gang met up on Deck 4 at the My Fair Lady restaurant at 8:30 for a good breakfast.
We went back to our rooms to change shoes because it seemed unusually cool and wet outside and we were scheduled to take City Bus Tour with Rum Factory today. We waited in line for a tender to take us ashore, followed by a surprisingly long tender ride in the rain.
Our bus driver Victor wasn't going to let a little (or a lot) of rain get in the way of his tour. He pointed out the tall monument that marks the grave of Baron Edward Bliss, who spent 3 months anchored here and wrote a will that left the bulk of his fortune to Belize. So far it has provided over $900,000 to Belize - pretty good for a guy who never set foot on it!
Lots of English actually settled here, attracted by the natural beauty and the vast fortunes to be made from local Mahogany trees. Now the trees are protected and harvesting is managed.
Victor pointed out that the Mosquito Coast movie was partially filmed here. And he spoke a little Creole for us, which he said is really just their normal English, just spoken really fast and slurred together.
He pointed out an old English-style house of an elderly English woman who, after she passed, was embalmed and put under the house in rocking chair.
Victor said this area is a little below sea level, which makes for good fishing but can be tough in bad weather. Hurricane Lisa (2022) was hard on lots of houses here. But people are still living houses like this one:
The Nazarene high School is this long yellow building; it would look better in nice weather.
Victor talked a lot about life in town. I thought it was interesting so I made a lot of notes.
Laws: You get 15 years in prison for robbing a tourist. If you have an unauthorized gun, you get 5 years plus 3 months per bullet. And there is a $500 fine for littering, or 3 months in prison. There is an 8 pm curfew for girls and boys, and if they don't comply the parents have to appear before a judge. And the police don't carry guns, and they drink beer instead of coffee!
Housing: You can find a nice hotel for under $600 a month and $275,000 can buy you a middle class house on the ocean front. This area looks poor and run down, but this is old capital; Victor said the new one is modern. I like old better than new but poor is always difficult.
People: The population is about 50 percent young people. Every Friday night there is a big party for singles, and currently the attendance ratio is about 10 women to 1 man. There are 5 languages here: Creole, Spanish, English, Garifuna, and Mayan. Unfortunately they have several gangs in town, including Bloods and West Side Crips.
Travel: Gas costs $8.06 a gallon. When the bus made a turn, Victor would tell us where the road led to: 92 miles to Mexico, and Princess Margaret road would take us to Houston, Texas. There are only 4 traffic lights in town. Taxis here have green license plates.
Food: The locals eat a lot of rice, beans, and chicken. Generally they go home for a big lunch, then eat lightly at night. There are mostly Indian stores and Chinese restaurants here. Mennonites supply the chicken and milk and make great ice cream. They don't have many fast food chains, only Subway and Pizza. The other fast food for burgers and chicken is Chicken Express, which are owned by the Mennonites.
Stores: The big cigarettes factory is surrounded with rolled razor wire. There are a lot of Guatemala sidewalk stores. Bridies store is their local version of Walmart, with a large warehouse that is properly painted yellow.
General stuff: They have a Prime Minister, not a president, and they have crocodiles in the river that goes through town. Olympian runner Marion Jones donated a lot for a track (her mom is from Belize) but Victor said it hasn't been completed yet. Besides mahogany, Belize exports cashews and lobsters. Almost all of the government and large buildings are painted yellow - don't' know why. They call cricket basketball and call baseball soccer. They have 2 local TV stations. And there is a swinging bridge that connects the north and south sides of the city. It can only be used from 5 am to 6 pm because it is manually operated by a 4-man hand crank.
Next it was time for our Rum Factory tour at Travellers Liquors.
Inside was nicer than rainy outside.
Out to the street again, past more houses that have not faired well through weather and age.
Some roads were so flooded that they were unnavigable.
We were dropped off near the dock to wait for our tender back to the ship. It was a nice area, with shops and an open air restaurant. We settled in and ordered some beef nachos that were quite good.
Time to say goodby to Belize!
Then back on the tender, with the rain settled down to a light drizzle. The guys who work on the tenders are very casual about the whole thing.
After all this we still had time to get to the Windjammer for a snack before! Then I played cards and Randy napped until it was time for dinner.
