By Angel Nuñez
Today if you want to get a hotel room in San Pedro for your Easter vacations, you have to make a reservation from early January. Easter is a time when North American tourists flock to San Pedro to enjoy our beaches, the reef and of course our culture. It is also a time when Belizeans from the urban areas look for the cayes to enjoy their Easter vacations. This is very much so today as it was since the 1950’s.
The quaint and quiet fishing village of San Pedro was awakened in the 1950’s and 60’s by a rush of people coming to San Pedro to enjoy the Island and their friends and the Easter activities. Now here is the click. How could a lot of people be accommodated in San Pedro with no hotels available? This would seem like a contradiction or that I am making up a story or a lie. No, I am not.
Years Ago in San Pedro the business people of Belize City would come to San Pedro and contact their friends on the Island to arrange for accommodation. A family of up to five persons would receive boarding and lodging free of cost with another family in San Pedro. Additionally this family would also bring along a few other friends who were always welcome. Many times the host family would even render their own beds to their friends of the city and towns. The hosts provided cooking facility, beds and hammocks, and fun fishing trips.
Now we turn the coin around. Whenever persons from San Pedro needed to go to the city for medical services or whatever other business, they would stay at these same friends’ homes for an overnight or two. The Belize City friend would now provide a bedroom, food, and some vehicular transportation around the city.
This mutual friendship of the village people with the City folks went on for some 20 years for as long as there were no hotels on the Island. This friendship grew so much that it even resembled a family relationship. Mr. Net Vasquez an accountant of Belize City was so attached to my father that for some time I even thought he was our family. Even very recently Mr. Vasquez would come to San Pedro and never failed to visit my father. Our old friendships made during Easter and Years Ago are still strong today.
25 Years Ago Books Can Be Purchased At:
-Ambergris Today -Lala’s Store -Chico’s Meat Shop -Pampered Paws -Ambergris Jade -San Pedro BTB Office -Aquarius Salon (Kim) -S.P. Town Library -Di Bush –Richie’s Stationery -San Pedrano’s Stationery -Rum, Coffee & Cigar House
Contact the Author at: nunez_nest@yahoo.com
