Western Belize Tourism, starting to slowly pick up.

Now the hysteria in the USA and some of Europe is dying down over their swindles and gambling with banking credit swaps and other examples of criminality and greed in their major financial banking circles, tourism seems to be picking up a bit around Cayo Western Belize.
Things haven't got back to normal yet, but there is a small trickle flow that seems to be slowly increasing here in March, after the dead months of December and January, during the height of the television media talk shows of self serving PANIC they have been spreading among their own countrymen.

BELIZE LOW BUDGET TOURIST STUDY REVELATIONS

A study of low budget visitors, using cabins, rooms and hostels in Belize, reveal that 80% of the tourist travelers staying overnight in both Guatemala and the country of Belize are European girls in their mid-twenties.
This has implications for advertising purposes by the Belize Tourist Board in our country of Belize, as we can focus advertising on this niche tourist group. It also has implications as to the types of facilities, the décor and services that should be applicable for the private sector

LIFE ON THE TOLEDO DISTRICT OF BELIZE FRONTIER WITH GUATMALA

Mules carrying corn over frontier, from Belize to Guatemala to sell.
Guatemala and Belize map

CHANNEL 7 BORDER AREA IN TOLEDO

Excellent video on television this past week, by Channel 7 news on the news on Friday night. With dry season coming on, it showed the trade between farmers of Jalacte area of Toledo District and the neighboring village on the Guatemalan side of the border. The trade is mostly corn going out and it showed a Belizean farmer taking four hundred pounds of corn on a two pack mule, freight system, climbing up and down the hills and track through the beautiful hilly countryside, to the village on the other side of the OAS boundary zone. The video showed the labor involved in picking milpa corn cobs by hand, carried home. Using a tump head band traditional carrying system, for both man and woman, then to the village and then beaten on a rack with a stick to collect the kernels in a blanket or cloth. The subsequent corn was put into 100 lb sacks. These farmers then loaded corn on a mule and trekked ten miles across the frontier to sell it to a buyer on the other Guatmalan side at the trading post. The market is insatiable as there is not much milpa done in the Peten. Most of the land is in cattle, for the Guatemala City market and local populations require corn to live. The Belizean farmer gets .25 cents Belize per pound and can sell all they can provide. Farmers on the Belize side then buy their necessities, in manufactured goods from the Guatemalan trader, to take back home to Jalacte and surrounding villages on the Belize side of the remote frontier. There are no border fences, immigration posts, or anything like that.
Looked at from the viewpoint of port city people in Belize, this is a hard life. Quite the contrary, it is a seasonal life for the farmer. He grows his own food, builds as big a house as he wants, dependent on the communal labor supplied by his fellow villagers and lives in comparison to a port city lifestyle, a much richer family life and existence than they do, who live the more materialistic lifestyle of Belize City. A shortage of money is not a disastrous thing, as it is in Belize City were all daily functions work on money. There may not be much money involved, but you only need money for materialistic things, sometimes a novelty processed food item, like a soft drink, or luncheon meat or something different like that. Rubber boots, machete, tools and files are most common. Though I notice that the Belize side of the frontier, the villagers had cell phones, from Guatemala and which worked from the microwave cell tower servicing the village on the Guatemalan side. There is no comparable telecommunications service in the communities on the Belizean side of the border. On the Guatemalan side, they had roads to their farms and electricity as much as they needed from powerful transmission lines. Not so on the Belizean side of the border. If you are in range of the Guatemalan microwave tower you can get internet, telephone, television and all the modern things. On the Belizean side none of that is possible, except through the Guatemalan system.
The arrangement is that families on the Guatemalan side send their children into Belize to Punta Gorda for schooling, mainly to learn English, so they can be tri-lingual and have a better chance in life. Also for some reason, the land being given over to pasture for cattle on the Guatemalan side, there is little farming going on like in milpa and no free jungle land available on the Guatemalan side. On the Belizean side there is a lot of jungle land to be used for milpa and new generations can live and raise families, building their house out of bush materials as big as they want, or need free of charge, except for labor and a few bundles of tying wire. The Guatemalan side, trading store, is more of a trading post for basics and the sale of the extra corn not used for personal food on the Belizean side. Many Belizean farmers had cell phones. Using the Guatemalan cell phone system of course, you cannot get service on the Belize side of the border from our communications monopoly. Obviously our frontier Belizean milpa farmers are living very well and have enough money to pay for some gadgets to raise their life styles.
The scenery was very beautiful, the thatched wood homes simple, old fashioned, but denoted a very comfortable and pleasurable way of life. I think our frontier with Guatemala is going to get a lot more rural Belizean settlers very soon, for this simple but excellent country life style. The reason is the advantages of modern services from Guatemala and trade goods, accompanied by a ready market for corn and beans in Guatemala. A small milpa farmer on our Western frontier can live a darned good lifestyle. KUDOS to Channel 7 for this informative video.

SNORKELING IN WISCONSIN OR IN BELIZE!

Getting ready for OUR TOURIST SEASON IN BELIZE, it is nice to compare our emerald green warm waters ( 82 degrees F ) inside the Great Barrier Reef, with that of snorkeling in Wisconsin, USA at this same time. Then we have breadfruit trees, papaya growing, fresh coconuts, bananas ten for .50 cents, white sandy beaches and willing dusky maidens in short shorts. You could snorkel at this time of year in lots of worse places than Belize.

Saturday morning photo at Twin Towns Macal River market.

Two Mennonites selling Yogurt made by Janet at her Saturday stall, along with some other homemade delicacies Janet Lohr is a Mennonite widow with a small farm about two miles out of the Twin Towns area of Cayo. With five daughters, she has 32 cows. The cows this morning she said, are being milked at around 15 gallons a day. There is not enough milk production in Belize, so there is no trouble selling fresh milk. The young 18 year old girl visiting, is another Mennonite by the name of Melanie Shetla. Her family immigrated to Belize from Indiana, USA. The Mennonite community originally moved into Belize about 50 years ago and cleared jungle land. They are now the most industrious immigrant Belizeans in the nation and produce most of the agriculture and industry and manufacturing. There are dozens of different cults, or sects divided by charismatic preachers, each with their own intrepretation of the Bible. They build and maintain their own roads and schools.



Flute player at the Macal River Twin Towns market in Cayo District. The Western Belize Recreational Area and Agriculture economy. This was a Saturday market in the morning photo. This man plays a mean saxophone, he says he learned in New York City where he was a professional street musician. Now back in Belize without saxophone, or money, he would dearly appreciate if someone would donate him a saxophone, to earn a living with in Belize. He has no money to buy, or import one. I've known him for about five years here. What he has is a good quality wooden flute. Sometimes he gives lessons.

BELIZE EXPORTERS COMPLAIN CORRUPTION KILLING ABILITIES!

REPORT ON EXPORT PRODUCERS MEETING IN THE HEARTLAND OF BELIZE

There was some encouragement in the newspapers this week, with various tales and articles of the investments being planned by the Belize UDP government into the productive agriculture sector. The meeting went over two hours at the round table. While the initial response to the UDP announcements were positive. The conclusions reached after two and a half hours, was that it will come to naught. Many reasons were given for a negative outlook. Three come to mind immediately, as I sit here at the computer.

1) The first issue was the cost of taking a container from the fenced gate at the port to the ship side by Luke Espat port authority monopoly. It was quoted as $500 usa, which must be paid in foreign exchange. There is no service offered for this fee. You do it yourself with your own truck. The lifting aboard is free if the freighter has cranes working, but there are add on fees, if the port has to do it. This was reported to the meeting.

2) There was the issue of exporting. Apparently if you deal in commodities in any volume, you have to have a license. Said license requires you raise you value added sales price to the buyer in the foreign country, a minimum of 25% to give to a bureaucrat, for the Cabinet Minister, who is reported to be a get rich quick Cabinet Minister. ( don't know who that is? ) We didn't discuss names. Due to political sensitivies.

3) Oil refinery producing diesel in Shipyard is not making money and probably will quit, it was said at the round table meeting. Prices quoted at $7 Bz a gallon for locally refined diesel and $4.50 if you buy imported Mexican diesel. The problems were explained to me, but I forget the technical details. Other than I vaguely remember something about an EXCISE TAX. Don't remember the details, as I'm getting old, and not to alarm anybody at the meeting, I didn't take any written notes. Plus the original price of crude was set at World Price and there was no TWO TIER system in place to give locals a better price for the original crude from BNE, or some associated front company, before doing the refining or something like that?

I DONT HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THE EDITOR OF THE BELIZE TIMES, SO I APOLOGIZE FOR NOT SENDING THEM A COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF THESE BULLETINS ON DEVELOPMENT IN BELIZE. I LOOKED THIS MORNING BUT NO EMAIL WAS IN THE BELIZE TIMES NEWSPAPER.


One other item, when BELTRAIDE came up in the open export orientated discussion and I have no personal experience with Beltraide, other than they never answer any mails, or give a response; so personally I just gave them up as a useless political department for employment of political party relatives and hacks at taxpayer expense. I always hope my opinions are wrong.
Anyway, I did ask those who knew BELTRAIDE people; if I wanted help in finding a market for BELIZE ALPS chocolates confectionary, if they would be helpful to ask? I had read somewhere in political articles, or government propoganda, that was a function of BELTRAIDE. We don't have the internet service in our part of Santa Elena Town and have NEVER been able to get it. So a market, or exploring for a niche market for chocolate confectionaries is very difficult to find for us in the boondocks of Cayo District. The answer was rather an expression of negative disgust. Rather unanimous; of a useless bureaucratic albatross department. It was a relief to have my personal conclusions confirmed at the round table and know I was not alone in this opinion.

BELIZE joins with Guatemala over border Mayan ruins of EL PILAR

Guatemala - BELIZE. The Mayan City of El Pilar was first mapped out by archeologist Anabel Ford in 1983. Anabel Ford had been working in the Mayan jungle since 1972 as a researcher from University of California, Santa Barbara, UCSB. The Archaeological site El Pilar straddles the borders of Belize and Guatemala.

Now the initiative to turn the site into a peace park will become a reality. A Memorandum of Understanding between Guatemalan officials and UCSB will be signed on the 22 of October in Santa Barbara. Guatemalan dignitaries Hector Escobedo, director general of the Directorate of Cultural and Natural Patrimony in Guatemala; Erick Ponciano, director of the Institute of Culture and History; and Vilma Fialko, coordinator of the Project of Archaeological Site Protection of Petén will sign the Memorandum as representatives of the Guatemalan Government.

The El Pilar Peace Park Initiative is a collaborative research project on both sides of the Guatemala and Belize borders. The signing of the MOU marks the 25th anniversary of Ford's discovery of El Pilar.

Several organizations dedicated to the preservation of archeological and cultural heritage will participate, Exploring Solutions Past ~ The Maya Forest Alliance, MesoAmerican Research Center at UCSB and Institute of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research, ISBER.

After the signing of the MOU, an exhibit focusing on El Pilar will continue through October 31. The exhibit includes maps of El Pilar, the Maya forest, and the forest garden, and wall-sized panels that feature photographer Macduff Everton's images documenting the research of El Pilar.

Anabel Ford explains that El Pilar at its most vibrant, the period from A.D. 600 to 900, had a population of more than 20,000 people who lived in a mosaic landscape of city homes and gardens. This contrasted with areas of forest reserve and agricultural fields, such as present-day traditional Maya forest gardens. Today, El Pilar is at the heart of a 5,000-acre archaeological reserve linking Belize and Guatemala and celebrating the culture and nature of the Maya forest.

http://folkmusicfl.tripod.com/adventuresinbelize/

SIX MONTHS WINTER APARTMENT VACATION RENTAL DEAL

WINTER VACATION HOME IN TROPICAL WESTERN BELIZE

We have now three apartments for rent. Normally they are an annex of FALCONVIEW BACKPACKERS ADVENTURE HOSTEL, for University age youthful world travelers and adventurers, we rent them in tourist season by the night, week, or month.
It has been decided that from our first apartment, which turned out very popular, that we completed two more apartments and are contemplating renting them for a block of six months to people who are escaping the cold of northern climates. If you would like a more economical rental deal, then a six months prepaid rental for just $2000 USA, would secure any six month block of time you wish. You can probably split the time and share it with relatives or friends.
We are located in the foothills of the Belize Alps and are a 100 house village, mostly civil servants, on the slope of Green Parrot Valley. We have fine views over our valley and also across the wider Belize River Valley to the Yalbac Hills. This is a rural suburb village of Santa Elena Town, which is part of the TWIN TOWNS, which includes San Ignacio Town.
The area has a steady low key tourism industry, built around the Mayan temples found here, underground caves and day trips up into the more remote Belize Alps. There are assorted things to do, along with attractions, like horseback riding, canoeing and kayaking the rivers and a small artist colony into Mayan pottery and oil painting artists. For more information check our website at: http://folkmusicfl.tripod/adventuresinbelize/
The major thing it is warm and the climate is one of eternal spring. Our summer is during April and May.

For apartment photos, take a look at: http://stellapinzon.tripod.com/apartmentwesternbelize/
We will have up photos of two new additional apartments by Xmas. They are just being finished. You can walk to the center anywhere in the twin towns in 45 minutes. Taxis around here are about $4 usa. There are car rentals. Most of our economy is based on agriculture and includes, cattle ranching, citrus orchids, regular Mennonite type mixed farms, small scale dairy farms and such things. There are spas, VERY EXPENSIVE luxury resorts ( $2000 us a night ), jungle lodges and that sort of thing.
As a base, our apartment is wonderful, you can go and explore the offshore Barrier Reef islands, which can be more expensive and come home to your apartment in a more low key type foothill affordable atmosphere. There is no rush around here. Do it today, or do it tomorrow.