River Scene, river boats at El Cayo Landing, British Honduras long ago
Here is a scene of the traffic on the Belize old river.
This river wharf was known as the El Cayo Landing.
Look over to Santa Elena, the beautiful beach with White sand.
To navigate the shallows of the river, the Public Works Department was responsible for keeping the channels open by blowing dynamite in the middle of the shallow and thus a deep channel was formed for the boats to pass through.
Mr Austin Waight was our local Engineer who was asigned this task.
Before roads were built throughout the country, all heavy cargo was carried through water ways.
People used rafts, canoes, pit pans, skiffs, sail boats and later barges, pulled by motor boats. Boats plied throughout the entire Country carrying people and cargo.
Many of these boats became a wholesome name, such as, I gweyn down south in a Heron H, Maya Prince, Sarawee, OCL. Or I gweyn north in a Africola or Romulos.
But the concentration of this was to the west.
There were, at any one time, over a dozen boats travelling from Belize City to Cayo. On many days, five such boats were discharging cargo and loading chicle, agricultural products and passengers.
In addition to serving the western towns, this route served the Department of Peten, with their merchandise and transporting chicle blocks for export from Belize.
Imagine these river boats also served along the way, some 100 hundred Settlements and Farms, which I have named before.
Belize was not built overnight. Belize was built by freedom fighters and nation builders over the years.
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