FOR TODAY'S BELIZE WEATHER, CLICK HERE

Click for our Daily Tropical Weather Report.

Specials and Events

Last night's TV news on Channel 7, Channel 5 and CTV 3
Also with the most recent Open Your Eyes, and the Dickie Bradley Specials

The San Pedro Sun

Letter to the Editor: San Pedro Town Wolfe’s Woofer: The Fly
“Dennis! Dennis Wolfe!” I turned around to see my old friend Randy hurrying up the street after me. We shook hands and I asked, “How is life back in Texas?” After we talked awhile I said, “You were taking Spanish lessons the last time we spoke. How is that working out for you?” “Not too […]

Letter to the Editor: San Pedro Town Library
Dear Editor, The San Pedro Town Library would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to Minister Heredia, Blue Water Grill and Tropic Air for their generous Donations. Our Dyslexia Summer program was a great success thanks to their assistance, and our children had a great opportunity to learn strategies to help them cope in school.

Doctor Love: Friends
Dear Doctor Love, I love my girlfriend but we have been having a problem that seems to be getting worse. We have some friends in common but mostly I have my friends and she has hers although my friends are the ones she spends the most time with. My friends, both male and female, like […]

Misc Belizean Sources

Fishing Report August 17, 2014 - August 23, 2014
It’s summer time in the tropics everybody! And the fish are here and happy. We have migratory tarpon moving all around the banks – we have permit showing up so big they look like tarpon. We have flat calm conditions where you can see a tailing bonefish from a long way away. People ask us: “When is the best time to be here?” Well, we can plan and hope – but for the angler’s this week, they got to experience one of these “best times.” Thank you to all of angers this week for your positive approach to each day. Sure, there were defeats, but each day you returned to check in and see - as they say here in Belize, “What’s happening?”

CTV3

Trouble Continues To Brew In Progresso Village
Yesterday we told you about parents in Progresso Village who are up in arms after their request for the removal of one of the teachers and the principal of the school, whom they claim to be ‘incompetent’, have fallen on deaf ears. And with a new school year coming up, they plan to protest until a tangible solution is met. We spoke to a parent yesterday and she shared with us that they were waiting the arrival of the Seventh Day Adventist union leader Pastor Leslie Gillette to meet on the matter and that they have submitted their concerns to the District Education Officer in Orange Walk. Today we contacted Education Officer Carla Alvarez who informed us that the concerns have not gone on deaf ears, but that she has submitted the complaints to the Management of the Seventh day Adventist School to allow them the time and opportunity to address the situation. Alvarez told us she is expecting a report from who guaranteed that the situation will be looked into. If in the event that the issue is not resolved, the Ministry will have to intervene since it is affecting the performance of the students and their education.

Corozal Cops Investigated For Theft
Over the past few days several reports have been made to the Corozal Police Department indicating that police officers are involved in the confiscation of property without the proper procedure being followed. In simple words they are stealing from citizens. For Officer Commanding the Corozal Police Formation, Andrew Ramirez, this is unacceptable behavior and will not be tolerated. Andrew Ramirez – OC Corozal “It is a very disturbing aspect in regards to making a complaint of, not only police officers but there are other agencies that have been accused of taking away properties and it must be guided that it is theft at the end of the day, whenever you cease a property (1) you must issue the person with some kind of receipt or certain kind of proof that it is coming part of government property even a Custom Officer taking away items they must give you a receipt, we had a complaint just recently and when the lady came in on Monday and reported that the police took away properties I immediately got annoyed because I thought it was my officers who constantly on a weekly base I inform that I will not support it and most of it if you want to refer poor people and these are people that stretch their dollars and I mean you take away these items for what, keep it to yourself , no, whenever the government agents cease anything they cease on behalf of the government and there is process that must occur for it to be accepted under the government properties, if an officer takes it away from an individual and keep it to himself that is theft.”

O/W Town Council At Work
As drivers and commuters of Orange Walk Town’s San Andres Street, you may have noticed that the intersection has been completely repaired. Completed under the auspices of the Town Council, we asked Deputy Mayor Ian Cal, why that particular area was chosen when the cry is that other roads that are heavily trafficked are not treated with the same weight. And while we know that the cash strapped Council is doing its best with the little resources it collects from property taxes and such, Cal says its slow but sure progress for the residents of Orange Walk Town under the Belize Municipal Project. Ian Cal – Councillor, OWTC “One of the things that the council has decided and have seen it work is the cementing of intersections as you are aware we have done two and just last week we have completed another one which is right in front of Muffles College right, that is Progress Street and San Andres Street, reason being that the intersections are some of the areas that are most dilapidated; the friction that occurs with all vehicles and all the asphalt it erodes faster and so that is the reason we decided to cement those intersections and we want to cement more intersections, we wish we could cement the entire street but that is very costly, it is expensive so what we are doing is that we are cementing the intersections and we are addressing the dilapidated areas of the streets by manual paving now at the corner of San Andres what you saw there is manual paving, ...

Rehabilitation Of Central Park Sees Delay
The Central Park is also scheduled to see some major renovations, but we’ve told you about this plan for a while now. So why hasn’t work started? We posed the question to Cal today who said that the plan is finalized but the World Bank is causing a delay. Ian Cal – Councillor, OWTC “You know when you are working with the World Bank there is a lot of red tape, a lot of things that you need to meet and we have met all of those things and they are just finalizing the actual contract to who will get the, the bids have been issues and it is only finalizing who will get the actual contract to do this park and the information that we got last week is that it will start in September so as a September Celebration committee as well we are looking into where we will hold the festivities for September if it starts in September well we will have to see how we can work around that but of course we don’t want the work to be delayed anymore so if it is going to start September we will welcome it as well, we do want our park to finish.”

OWTC Youth Program Assists 140 Students
Two weeks ago we told you about a summer job program offered by the Orange Walk Town Council which saw over a hundred young people earning a small stipend for cleaning, raking and garbage collecting jobs around town. Today, that program came to a close since the youths are gearing up for their new school year. Councillor Ian Cal says the program was successful. Ian Cal – Councillor, OWTC “This year we hire actually a hundred and forty one students, we manage to hire we were saying a hundred but we manage to hire an extra forty one students for this year and as you know the proceeds comes from the Fiesta Rama last month and this is the same money that we use to give back to the young people, you know school is opening and the need a little money to buy school supplies, to pay tuition, and that is one of the ways that this council has decided to give back to the community and especially the young people and education is important and it has closed today, today was the final day and we have issued all payments to the young people and I guess they are happy because it was an experience for them as well.”

Men Charged For Over 2 Million Dollars Worth Of Crystal Meth
Today, 49 year old Ruperto Reyes and 52-year old Pascual Pineda, the two men who were alleged to have been caught with 30 parcels of Crystal Meth in the vehicle they were travelling in were to be arraigned in court. At midday Police were processing their court papers but they never made it out to face the Magistrate. We were told that they were going to be charged until Monday but hours after we were informed that both Reyes and Pascual were charged around four this afternoon at the Orange Walk Magistrates Court with one count each of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply. They were remanded to prison until September 30th when they are scheduled to re-appear in court. Samples that were sent to the National Forensics Lab for testing have confirmed the product to be methamphetamine. As mentioned last night it is a highly addictive stimulant that can have long-lasting effects on the body. Crystal meth is methamphetamine in the form of a rock-like crystal that users heat and then smoke, although it can also be snorted or injected.

The Reporter

Earthquake in California leaves 90 injured
At least 90 persons are left injured following a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Northern California early on Sunday. Three of the injured are critical and include a young child. One child was hurt when a fireplace collapsed. The majority of injuries are reported to be non-life-threatening, but still serious. This was the strongest earthquake to hit the Bay Area since 1989, when a quake struck during the World Series. The earthquake caused at least 30 water main connections to break and six major fires. It also caused more than 100 gas leaks and downed power lines.

Patrick Jones

Careless?
A San Ignacio man lost his shotgun early on Friday morning. According to reports, Rosendo Hugh Reyes was returning from his farm when he decided to stop in for a drink at Mariana’s bar around 1:30 am on Friday. He left his Harrington & Richardson shotgun, valued […]

Missing Lemonal villager’s body found in shallow grave August 24, 2014 8:40 PM Sunday, August 24, 2014. AARON HUMES Reporting:Who would want to kill Denvo Banner, 27? And why? Those are questions that the police and family of the deceased are now trying to find answers to. Banner has been missing for just over two weeks, having been seen last on August 9 at a party in Lemonal […]

Queen of the Bay Toledo 2014-2015 chosen
It was a full house at the Punta Gorda Sport Auditorium on Saturday, August 23 as hundreds of Toledo residents came out to witness the selection of the Queen of the Bay 2014-2015. Six beautiful young ladies took part in the pageant, namely Rodleen Sabal; Chelsea Flores; Michelle […]

Blogs

A Caye Caulker needle in a 64 gig haystack
During the course of my recent reformat, I was faced with backing up 64 gigs of pictures to my external hard drive and second copy on my flash drive collection. While in the process I needed to make room for my 2 2013 picture files to fit on one 16 gig drive, as a result I found myself in sort and delete mode. This eventually led me to my Caye Caulker pictures and a thumbnail of the picture below caught my eye. Sure enough when I opened it there was no mistaking it was our new neighbor Joe smiling back at me – talk about finding an unexpected needle in a haystack :) I clearly remembered taking the shot right before ordering conch fritters. I messaged the pic to Barb and Joe and we all agreed ‘what are the odds’. I decided to reference my blog to see when it was taken and if I had put that picture up. After finding the post and seeing the picture I chose, I remembered deciding between two and picking the one with Barb in it as there was more people and action . You can see Joe in the background of the picture I posted which is funny because when she saw the first picture (which was actually shot last) Barb commented that she would have not been far away while I was taking it.

A Preview of Rain Restaurant & Roof Top Terrace at Grand Caribe Resort
I wrote yesterday about my two day stay up at Grand Caribe Resort – and it was absolutely lovely. I had an excellent time…extremely comfortable and relaxing… The newest building on the property is being completed…and it’s almost there. Just the finishing touches being applied. This new complex is 4 stories high and is going to have quite a few functions… Victoria and Hugo, the former owners and creators of Aji Restaurant and Tapas Bar, have returned to San Pedro after selling Aji, having a baby and moving to Colorado.

Videos

Video: Caye Caulker Travel Video, 2min.
The 1000 or so residents have traditionally made their living from the sea, specifically from the spiny lobsters and red snapper that inhabit its warm waters. It has also long been a budget travelers mecca, but in recent years, Travelists of all ages and incomes have begun to appreciate the islands unique atmosphere. On Caye Caulker, there are no cars, no fumes and no hassles, just white sandy beaches, balmy breezes, fresh seafood, azure waters and a fantastic barrier reef at its doorstep. The easygoing attitude is due in part to the thriving Rastafarian culture on the Caye, which pulses to a reggae beat. If its not Bob Marley blaring from a boom box on the beach, its the latest in punta rock. Drumming groups gather on the beach and at local bars to get their Afro-Caribbean groove on. They play for themselves, but anybody is welcome to gather around and soak up the good vibes. The island is an ideal base for snorkeling and diving adventures at the nearby reef. The northern part of the island -- a tempting destination for kayakers -- is mostly mangroves, which are home to an amazing variety of birdlife. Other than that, all visitors should be sure to schedule in plenty of time for swinging on a hammock and enjoying the breeze (which is indeed a legitimate activity on Caye Caulker).

Video: Belize Dive Trip 2014, 36min.
Rob & Terra Wade diving in Belize (including Blue Hole) in August 2014, just prior to 25th wedding anniversary. Plenty of sharks and turtles. Show more

Video: National Youth Orchestra of Belize: Lord of the Rings theme, min.
a piece played by Belize's Youth Orchestra on August 23, 2014 at the Bliss Center.

Video: Belize 2014 Short, 9min.

Video: Belize Professor Robert Hill on the history of UNIA in Belize part 5, 14min.

Video: Belize Emerson Guild on Dialysis Treatment in Belize, 3min.

Video: The Belize Guatemala Territory Dispute, 9min.

Video: Belize-A day in the life, 10min.

Video: Prince Harry's Visit to Belize Belize Telemedia Limited rv Video of Xunantunich, 29min.

Video: Belize 2014 Extended 2 of 2, 14min.
This is the extended edition of the AVPC Youth mission trip to Belize, 2014 (2 of 2)

Video: San Pedro, Belize, 2min.
Going through downtown in a golfcart

Video: The Sound of a Jungle at Night (Belize), 1/2min.