Margarito the Midget
No, there were no renowned celebrities, artists, actors etc. twenty five years ago like we have today for the Costa Maya Festival. The few that came around just walked around the village like Mexican Jorge Rivero, American Harrison Ford, and nobody even approached them for an autograph nor a photo, and we never got the […]
Big Time Baron Bliss Day
With the big festival of Costa Maya right around the corner, I have been narrating big events in old San Pedro like the Tenth of September celebrations and then the Annual Meeting celebration of the fishing cooperative. I would say that another event awaited with anticipation was the Baron Bliss Day Regatta. Baron Bliss was […]
Big-Time September 10
Today there are so many cultural, social and civic events that the town waits for eagerly like Costa Maya, Mother’s Day, Miss San Pedro Pageant, Lagoon/Reef Challenge, September Block Party, Food Festival & Lobster Fest, to mention just a few. However 25 five years ago, back in the 1950’s, there were very few events that […]
Multi-purpose Sea Weed
For the past month or so during my morning walks down the beach I could not help noticing the great amounts of seaweed on the shoreline. And that will not change because it has been drifting to our shores “Since Adam and Eve”, as my good friend Norman Eiley would say. And it will surely […]
Run…Let’s See the Seaplane!
Last week the landing of a seaplane caused a bit of excitement because it is something one does not see everyday (See page 6 for story). Imagine the landing of the first plane in San Pedro 25 years ago in the 1960’s. The sound of the engine caught everybody’s attention. Every woman left her kitchen […]
Lobsters for the Gringo Market
I say these are lobsters for the gringo market because they were not to be consumed by Sanpedranos. The locals, up until today to a certain extent, could only eat the small, more succulent, free, and tastier ones. The large ones were strictly for the export market. Pictured here from left to right are Nubia […]
Señorita, Here is your Sun Tan!
On my walk down the beach I witnessed an incident that reminded me so much on the early days of tourism, and I’ll tell you why. “Señorita, señorita, se le olvido su sun tan,” said one of the waiters of Rico’s Restaurant at Banyan Bay to a young U.S. tourist. I stopped to see what […]
Piles of Coconut Husks
On my walk down the beach last week I noticed the guys drinking coconut water from coconuts pulled near the beach which is public access. This week I noticed a small pile of some fifty coconut husks, and my mind went to those old days of coconut harvesting, and of course of the many uses […]
Recycling
I watched with interest last week the children of San Pedro marching in a demonstration pro “recycling”. “Great”, I thought, “finally the children of San Pedro are being taught to recycle, to make do, to save and economize, to protect the environment, to improvise and be innovative.” And then I thought I would write about […]
The Free Coconuts
On my walk down the beach last week I noticed a small number of coconuts, about seven, lying right on the edge of the sea. They were chopped off at one end with a small whole, so it was obvious that someone had enjoyed their sweet, refreshing water. However I wondered who would be so […]
Beach Fishing
This week on one of my early morning walks down the beach I stopped by Banyan Bay beach area to chat with an old friend, Mr. Pablo “don Rancho” Kumul and a young security guard, Roberto. “What a lovely day! Great to go out to sea.” I suggested. “You don’t need to go far out […]
Those Rustic Tree Trunks
During one of my walks down the beach I observed this huge tree trunk that was dumped at an angle right on the beach. The guys raking the beach will not be able to remove it but I am pretty sure the resort will use a tractor or some heavy equipment to remove it pretty […]
A Walk Down The Beach
During my daily exercise walk down the beach, I meet a lot of interesting people and most of the time they remind me of incidences of 25 years ago. Today I stopped to chat by the area of Xanadu Resort with a young man, perhaps 12 years old, who was raking the seaweed on the […]
Digging a Sea Turtle’s Nest
The other day I was taking my morning walk down the beach between the area of Corona del Mar past Banyan Bay up to The Royal Palm and I noticed the beautiful white sand along the beach and my mind could not resist reminiscing the days when my dad took me to the beach to […]
Aguamala “The Man-Of-War”
I was taking my morning exercise walk down the beach last week and saw a Portuguese Man-of-War on the sand and surely my mind went through several stories about these dreaded, dangerous and venomous animals. I had not seen an “Aguamala” (man-of-war) in several years because I did not go to the beach very often. […]
The Magic of the Lobster Pats
The Sanpedrano fishermen earned their living using these lobster traps locally known as lobster pats or crayfish pats from the 1950’s through the 1980’s and to a very limited extent still used today. Let’s first build one. Three rectangular frames are built and then covered with bamboo or palmetto strips. Notice the opening at the […]
Villager’s Fishing Rules: If it is in your net but it jumps in my boat it is mine!
Fishing rules have existed 25 years ago and beyond. They were not laws from a moratorium, the police or from government. They were simple laws agreed upon by sensible fishermen who cared for one another. First of all, fishing traps were not allowed in front of the village. They had to be on the shore […]
Relationships with your EX
Last week Teen Talk Columnist Eni Gonzalez revealed through her inspiring interviews that most teenagers would happily continue a friendly relationship with an ex after breaking up. Not so twenty five years ago. No, no, nooooooooo! Once breaking up, the relationship was not only zero, “but below zero”. In fact here are a few things […]
Our Jumbo iPods
In terms of playing back music systems, we have today moved from small to smaller to tiny. We have gone from small tape players to walkmans and Discmans and now to the MP3 players (add any other types I don’t know about) which can be hidden in the palm of the hand. The fun thing […]
No Shop Signs
There was a time in San Pedro when the few stores on the island did not have any signs with their names. Renowned photographer Sanpedrana Kay Scott, who came to live on the Island in 1982, recalls that when people needed a certain item, they had to recall which store was which, but that was […]
Public & Private Piers
There was only one public pier and about three private piers 25 years ago. The public pier was used in several ways. During the season when snapper was running, fishermen went to the pier at 4 a.m. to catch by hand line a dozen or two of snappers for the day’s meal. Also at this […]
Boat Building In San Pedro
Building a sailing boat requires special talent, a skill only a few people were gifted with. Building a skiff also takes special skills. Now building a fiberglass boat or skiff is a science of casting chemicals and materials into a mould which is another art. Although Caye Caulker takes the honors in boat-building, we had […]
Ever Heard of Coconut Apples?
Apples don’t grow in San Pedro, but have you heard of coconut apples? Those grow abundantly in San Pedro, and they are delicious. They are called “manzana de coco” so translated literally, it is coconut apple. Everybody ate them in San Pedro 25 years ago, especially children. Here is how you grow coconut apples. When […]
Lent, A Time of Sacrifice
Twenty Five years ago, when the time of lent came, it was a time of sincere sacrifice. Lent was not only about fasting, but a time to sacrifice. Most men took time to give up smoking and drinking since those were two of the most common bad habits. So the only smoke there was in […]
Some Unpleasant School Days
Though there were many happy days in school, it is not to say that there were no unpleasant experiences. Some of them we would like to forget, but really can’t. The first ones that come to mind were those that dealt with the dispensing of discipline. The most popular way of punishing school children twenty […]