OIB Moments - late Oct. & early Nov.

You may remember from my earlier postings, we had enormous amounts of rain the month of October. Late in October all the water that was causing havoc inland was making its way down to Belize City (which is at sea level). Of course at this time, I needed to be in Belize City to pick up George and Melina from the airport. I had heard rumors that the Boom Road (the only way I knew how to get to the airport) was flooded but still passable by trucks. So I decided to go for it. I was after all in a Land Rover and feeling quite invincible. I drove and drove on the Boom Road seeing water just reaching the sides of the road most of the way but I thought to myself, "This is going to be no problem."

Soon I reached a long line of cars, trucks, buses and people walking on the road. I obviously now had reached the trouble spot. I got in line behind a school bus and figured I would have to wait my turn to cross. But the line never moved and after about 5 minutes I hung my head out the window and asked one of the passersbys if they were allowing trucks to pass. The kind man laughed and said, "Oh yes. You'll be fine. All these people are just here to watch!"
Hmmm? So I got into the left lane, passed the long line of cars, moved myself up to the front, and put the truck into 4-wheel drive. In front of me lay about 20 yards of water flowing over the road. I waited for a smaller truck coming in my direction to pass and wondered how the water wasn't coming in the doors of their truck? Now it was my turn and men began to wave me forward. Do or die I guess!?
I was a little surprised at how deep the water became...about 2 feet deep with a bit of current. I was starting to wonder if this was a decision I was going to regret. About this time I noticed that even though I was in 1st gear I was creating a large wake and water was starting to seep in the doors. Uh oh!
I made it through safe and sound with nothing more then a huge adrenaline rush. Yikes! I don't think I'll do that again. It was a OIB (only in Belize) moment.

The following week, Melina and I were headed into Belize City to run some errands. We got to about Mile 8 on the Western Highway (8 miles outside of the city - and 2 hours from our home) to find again another long line of cars and people with their shoes off and pants hiked up walking on the road. There were young men spear fishing in the flooded mangroves on the side of the road and trying to sell their loot to passersbys.

Since I'd been in this position before, I jumped out and started walking with the crowd to find the front of the line. We waded in water about 3" deep crossing the road with the front of the line no where in sight. I finally reached some police officers who said a culvert had broken and the road was impassable. They also said the Boom Road was now impassable too (the only two entrances into the City). I asked one of them when he thought the road would be fixed and he chuckled, "By midday. Hope you brought a good book." It was 9:30am. We interpreted mid-day Belizean time to mean 3:00pm and although this looked like quite the party we decided to turn around and head back home. It was another OIB (only in Belize) moment.