Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Nov 2, 1999 Observations on TransportationAs I think I've mentioned there's not much in the way of paved roads in Belize. There's a big project to pave the Southern Highway and most of the Hummingbird Highway is paved, and also the roads between the major population centers in the north. But in general, roads are sand and gravel and a few boulders, some dramatic potholes and one-lane bridges. And people drive like the devil is after them and straight down the middle of the road. Except where there are giant speed bumps where a dead stop is advisable before a first-gear climb-up and roll -down to get over. These are by the rural schools. In town, people also drive very fast and with a fine insouciance. If the car or bus in front of you isn't going quite fast enough, just tap your horn and whip around them on the right or the left, doesn't really matter, scattering pedestrians, dogs, bicycles, chickens, limeade carts, etc. as necessary. I haven't seen any accidents, but I haven't figured out why. The walking and bike riding pace is quite leisurely, it's just the driving that is breakneck. I wonder how many tickets some of these kids get when they move to the states to go to school and have things like actual speed limits, stop signs, center lines, etc. Fortunately not too many people have cars and there is more bicycling than driving. Partly because gas is US $2.50/gal and it takes a lot of gas to negotiate these roads. I have become a pretty good bike commuter, myself, but still have some trouble. I can't, for example, ride a bike and carry an umbrella fully open over my head at the same time. Many of the daddies can do that AND tote 2 children on the cross bar and one on the handle bars and all their book bags and lunches, making sure that no one gets wet. Reminds me of the full families on motor scooters in Asia (but without the grannies, who tend to chubby here). Of course, no bike helmets. Because bicycles are the preferred transportation mode, they are also valuable. So no one leaves a bicycle even for a moment without locking it and you take it inside with you whenever possible. Here at the office, there 's always at least one bicycle in the back of the room and often three. At first I left mine (the one Tony loaned me) here or locked up at Pelican under the watchful eye of the guard dog boys pretty much all the time. This is because my apartment entry from the street opens immediately onto the stairs, which are quite steep. There's no place to put the bicycle except in the main living area. It's very difficult to get the bike up there and even harder to get it down. The few times I did it was a source of great amusement to the neighborhood eight-year-olds and some pretty spectacular bruises on my shins. But I didn't think any of the kids could do it any better even if they don't bruise so easily. Eventually, I made a deal with Mr. Serano, the landlord, to lock it up in the shed with his bicycle and rain barrel. This isn't a great solution because it means I have to find him whenever I want to get the bicycle or put it away. But it works. One of my other adventures as a bicycle rider was getting the tires pumped up. There aren't many gas stations in town (3 or 4) and none of them is close to my usual routes. So when the tires got low, I started asking around trying to borrow a tire pump. But of course, in this community of very few jobs, someone is making a living pumping up bicycle tires. Go to the church and turn left, in two blocks look for the yard full of old bicycles. Call out for James and for $1, he'll come out and pump up your tires. You can't win an argument with him about how firm you want them, though. Possibly he knows more about riding on sand, but *I* intend to stay on the road. You can also get around by taxi. One of the guidebooks said you can tell a taxi because it has a green license plate. That turns out to be the truth but not the whole truth. If you just try to flag down a green plate vehicle, you may think you're invisible, because other public use (I think) vehicles also have green plates. So you might be trying to flag down the water meter reader. In general, it costs BZ $5.00 no matter where you go. Unless, you want to make a stop for a hostess gift (like a BZ $23 bottle of Ernest and Julio's best), in which case it's BZ $10. I haven't figured out how to find the phone numbers of the taxis yet, so if Clara's brother isn't answering his cell phone, I have to call Pelican and have them send someone to get me. The reason I can't find any phone numbers is that the whole country is in one phone book. Works fine for the white pages which are separated by area and/or city. But the yellow pages are all together and hardly anyone bothers to list outside of Belize City. Just one more mystery I may or may not unravel in the next 3 months. Maybe I'll tell you more about the buses another time. And maybe I'll just repress the whole experience. p.s. Dawn and I had a great visit snorkeling, shopping in Guatemala, Mayan ruins (this time I *did* climb to the top of El Castillo), opening of the new hospital, crowded bus ride, bumpy ocean ride, RAIN in the rain forest I may or may not get around to telling you about it. p.p.s. Books have started to arrive. Two bags (5 boxes) made
it on Friday, while I was out. Starting to sort things out today. |
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