Jake Gordon

Capital Village and Belizean Quirkiness

15 August 2003

Another day of travelling. Started at 8am in the Cayo district of Belize, after deciding not to do a US$80 caving trip today, and just got to my destination at 10pm in Tulum, Mexico!

Back in 1961 a hurricane destroyed a lot of Belize City, capital of Belize. The government decided that they couldnt be sure it wouldnt be ravaged again, so they went and built a new capital ‘city’ in the middle of the country. Belmopan - what a city! Its like, tiny. About as big as Danny Divito.

Bear in mind that Belize is small at only 250,000 people.

Love FM, the kinda government run/sponsored radio station in Belize was pretty interesting/cool/not-like-back-home. Imagine a local radio station, where they dont mind making mistakes all the time, and dont seem to have any concept of time. They have a death report (or whatever you call it) where they say people whove died, and what time their funerals will be if you want to go(!) then they play some Bryan Adams and Abba, before an advert telling Belizians, in a very Carribean way (they speak English here, although a very jolly/rude-boy version) “bee nice to tourists, dey r gud for de economy” and othe amusing ads. The news is very in depth “three men where shot. Adam Smithy was shot in the leg and arm; Paul Jones in the left ankle and waist area. Both men are at Smithy hospital but are recovering well” and according to someone I met, once they said “could the owner of the white car, registration D-3322 parked outside the Phillipan school in Belize City please move as you are blocking the way for others”.

Yeah, and the newspapers are also very ‘Parish News’-esque. There are more mistakes and inconsistencies than in the News Shopper!!!

And just to finish off, seeing a picture of good ol’ British Queeny on all the notes and coins is quite bizarre.

Anyway, I’m back in Mexico again now.


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by Jake Gordon, some rights reserved