Courting Time
When a guy realized that he liked this particular girl, he made his plan to try to reach her to communicate this message. He could not meet her at high school because there was no high school. Nor could he do it at a dance or discotheque because here were no discotheques and dances were […]
Everyday Miracles
“You can live your life as though everything is a miracle, or as though nothing is. One way gives you appreciation and gratitude, the other leaves you constantly searching. The choice is yours.” Last week on TV, CNN interviewed three of the passengers of flight 1549. If you can recall, this flight was named “The […]
An Era of No Crime
A lot of friends who like to read Twenty Five Years Ago like to ask me to write things or times when we did not have certain things like airplanes, electricity, ice or vehicles. And believe me I love to write about those times which I consider so romantic and idealistic. So it is with […]
Authentic Quality Time
“If you truly want to love someone, learn what love means to them.” An acquaintance of mine complained to me saying, “I don’t understand my wife, she says, “we don’t spend any time together.” I asked him how he spends his time. He explained to me that he works six days a week and every […]
La X’tabai, The Enchantress
Folklore stories and myths have a reason. We have seen how the Alux was meant to play tricks and scare farmers and bushmen so that they would be kind to strangers whom they met on the fields. Then there was La Llorona designed to scare little children and keep them out of the bush and […]
Acceptance & Resistance
Suffering is wanting things different when it’s outside of your control – Emmanuel Some things change, some things seem to stay the same. Years ago when I moved to San Pedro it was slow. We had arrived in slow season just after Hurricane Keith had roared through Belize. I remember standing on a lonely beach […]
The Cry of La Llorona
Llorona-This is what they would call you today and it was what we called those persons who were easy to cry. I mean you look at them and just say: “You will cry right now,” and you would see tears running down their cheeks. Of course if it was a boy you call him “Lloron”. […]
Hidden Values
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts – Albert Einstein It was my birthday last weekend and as a gift I received a trip to Hidden Valley Inn. Located in the Maya Mountains of Western Belize, Hidden Valley Inn is nested on 7,200 acres of private reserve. […]
"El Tata Balan"- San Pedro Folklore
Twenty Five Years Ago there were tales of many legendary characters and each one for a particular reason. The Alux, of whom I wrote last week, was intended for the villagers, especially the farmers who met strangers in the fields and bush, and they were to be kind to them for if they got the […]
Why, Love?
“If I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all the mysteries and all knowledge; And if I have faith, so as to move, mountains, but do not have […]
The Alux at Cayo Espanto
Espanto is a Spanish word meaning frighten/frightening. Twenty five years ago if someone were to invite you to spend the night at Cayo Espanto, you would ponder whether you would or not because of the presence of the Alux (pronounced Aloosh) on that island. Let me tell you about the Alux first of all. An […]
Father, Mother, Brother, Sister
“As a growing child, sticks and stones will break my bones, and words can also wound me” My mother and father’s Love included “tough love” which was to beat us when we disobeyed. Growing up in my time this was normal. It was the form of punishment in other homes and schools. Even my neighbor […]
Those Old Fashioned Swimsuits!
Saturday night as I enjoyed the Miss San Pedro Beauty, Elegance, Talent, Courage, and Intelligence Pageant, I could not help but recall to mind the use of swimsuits twenty five years ago. I noticed how those lovely young ladies modeled in swimsuits with so much poise. They seemed so comfortable; I bet some people in […]
Mayan Time Countdown
“Many are the ways to share The Mystery that is me (God) And the greatest of these is Love.” – (Essene Book of Days 1996 by Danann Parry The Palm leaves were dancing in the breeze and the sun was kissing the turquoise green waters as I stepped off my bottom step onto the noonday […]
There was “Purga and then LOMBRICERA”
My last column dealt with the much dreaded practice of de-worming kids with Castor oil or “Purga” as it was called back then. Now if you think that was torment enough, I was reminded by a friend who just read that article about another ordeal that plagued us children, and that was the “lombricera”. You […]
Wealth Consciousness
Wealth is the result of effective evaluations – Anthony Robbins Being outwardly rich is really no guarantee that you’re truly wealthy where it counts. It’s time to take a long look at what matters, what people think matters, and what the difference between the two is. Most people today have more abundance in their lives […]
That Dreadful Purga (de-worming medicine)
I can call this story: THE WORST EPISODE OF A CHILD’S LIFE TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO, and that is because today I will tell you the worst story of my life and I am sure it was so for all children. If there was one thing I detested of our childhood days in San Pedro […]
Get Real Responsible
“You are responsible for what you say, and also what do not say.” In last week’s column I wrote about clearing emotional baggage. One of the tools I discussed was traveling through your fears. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Little did I know how much those words really meant. In fact, I came […]
What City People Ate That Islanders Didn't?
Was talking to a friend the other day about things she eats and things she won’t eat. Of course we concentrated in game meat, which goes according to culture. What one culture eats another one won’t, and I found it interesting that at times one does not eat a certain food, but eats something quite […]
Emotional Baggage
“All emotions require an experience to carry it” – Emmanuel Waiting in an airport for my bags to appear on a carousel, I noticed a woman and her young daughter standing beside me. She was focused pensively on one particular bag as it went around on the merry-go-round. She wasn’t sure if that bag was […]
Getting Rid Of Rats Was Fun
By Angel Nuñez Without the use of sophisticated equipment we have seen ways of eliminating houseflies, mosquitoes, and the pigeons with the “Twenty Five Years Ago Formula”. Well, today there is this electronic plug-in that fits on the electrical outlet and emits waves that either chase away the rats, or prevents them from coming in. […]
A Man’s Tough Love
“There is no remedy for love but to love more” – Thoreau I was raised tough by my father. He would often say he wants all his boys to be strong; the world has no place for “sissy” men. As a boy, his punishment for disobedience was the strap. You were a man when you […]
Getting Rid Of Pigeons
In past columns we have seen how Sanpedranos dealt with the problems of some animals that became pests. We have seen the bottle with a hole in the lid to catch house flies. Then we used the smoke buckets to drive away the bothersome mosquitoes. Well, have you ever thought that pigeons can become pests […]
Wisdom of the Heart
It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. ~ Roy Disney Many years ago before I moved to Belize, I had made a decision to slow down and live my passion. Back then I had a business, worked long hours and hardly had time for myself, or my family. It always […]
Drive Them Mosquitos
My grandfather used to say, “The mosquitoes deserve to live too.” And my father used to say, “How can such a tiny animal like a mosquito bother you?” But the real problem is not the mosquito. When you slap and kill one, ten others come to you. Got the point? The point is that we […]