Posts tagged: Fireworks

Belize Independence Day – Real Time Entry 9/22/09

This past weekend in Belize was full of celebration and excitement.  As you walked, drove or biked through the streets of Corozal you saw a splash of blue, red and white on businesses, houses and blowing in the wind.  The Belizeans are flying their flag proudly this month in order to celebrate the 28th anniversary of their country’s independence.  Yesterday, September 21st, was their actual independence day but there were festivities happening all weekend. 

The main events happened Sunday all day and went right into Monday to bring in the morning.  A parade was scheduled for 1pm on Sunday and we really didn’t know what to expect since this would be our first experience with this holiday.  Around 2pm my friend and I took some bikes out to ride over to the bay front and catch the parade.  It was really hot riding around on those bikes since we have had very little rain to cool anything off so I brought some water along and we had our swimsuits on to take a dip in the bay.  We got over to the water in no time and ran in to some friends who had already staked out a place under the shade of a large tree – with Belikin beer in hand they were waiting patiently for the parade to pass by.  We couldn’t hear any music at all so we guessed that they still must be quite a ways off.  It was a long parade route so our new plan was to swim for a bit in the bay and then ride to the beginning instead of waiting.  So we hopped off our bikes and jumped in the water – despite the water being warm it was a cool contrast to the sticky heat that day.  We played in the water along with everyone else who had the same idea, bobbing up and down with the waves that were coming in.  I had my bikini on but I chose to jump in with my shorts Corozal style because I thought it would keep me a little cooler after I was out too.  After the swim break we grabbed our bikes and kept on moving. 

The parade must have started a little later than planned because they weren’t very far off the starting point by the time we arrived around 3pm.  The streets were jam packed along the main road in town – the entire town must have been out there lining the roads.  The music was blaring and the colors were brilliant.  The main focus of this parade was to showcase the various dance groups who had been practicing for the last month to compete for the 1st place honor.  There were also a few floats decorated by various businesses around town (next year we’ll decorate a Scotty’s float) and each float had a massive stereo system as their main focus so there was absolutely no shortage of music to dance along to.  The overall vibe of the day was exuberance and it was hard not to have a big smile on your face.  The parade lasted for about an hour and once we got to the end we were hot, sweaty and dehydrated so we headed back to the house to get some nourishment and a cold shower. 

Later that day after the parade the festivities would move to the Civic Center which is located about a block from our house and bar so we planned on making our way over there to watch the judging and join in on the celebrations there.  We ended up over there around 6pm and it was in full swing.  Everyone in town had moved to the Civic and the dance groups were just about to start competitions to be judged.  We got to see the first couple of groups before we had to get back to the bar to close up and do payroll for the end of the week.  The fun wasn’t over though, after we closed up the bar we headed back to the Civic where activities would be taking place all night long culminating with a grand fireworks display at midnight and dance to bring in Monday. 


There was a carnival set up on the Civic Center grounds that held about 7 rides – some for the kids and some for the adults.  I ended up on one of the rides which was far less scarier than the Ferris wheel a couple weeks ago – a quick side note on that Ferris wheel though, the rumor is that it was taken down because a man had been rocking back and forth in the bucket and his safety latch gave out and he fell to his death!  I have not been able to confirm this but it’s a little disturbing to say the least.  In any case, there were no problems with the rides Sunday night.  One thing about a carnival in Belize; safety measures are not as important as in the states.  One of the spinning rides brought the ride goers’ shoes flying about 10 feet from the overhanging power lines.  Next the wait for midnight began – I wanted to see the fireworks but there was still about three hours to kill before they would begin.  There was entertainment happening outside the Civic Center so I ended up watching that to pass time. 

Around 11:30 there was an official ceremony that included speeches from various political figures in town, followed by a 21 gun salute by the Belize Defense Force and then the show started.  They had really gone all out with this display of fireworks – it was about a 30 minute show and it was brilliant.  Again, safety not the main concern as the fireworks were shot off in a small field next to houses, parked cars and another field full of people.  I have never been so close to the lighting point of a major fireworks show like that.  The show ended with an uninterrupted onslaught of colorful explosions that overwhelmed the senses and left the audience agape.

After the show I opted out of the dance that would follow and continue in to the morning.  I headed back to the house in a mass of traffic (probably the closest thing to a traffic jam that Corozal will see).  It was definitely time for my bed. 

When I woke up later that morning on Monday there were still events happening around town.  An official parade would take place that afternoon but the day began with rain and grey skies so I stayed in the house and planned on going out later if the rain cleared up.  I was still pretty exhausted from the night before (next year I’ll have to train for this nonstop weekend).  Later that night there was another dance in one of the public parks along the bay.  The rain had seemed to let up so we headed out around 8:30 to check it out.  It was the place to be, the music was loud, and vendors were out on the street, people were dancing, laughing and drinking – it was a party.  We stayed out there enjoying the people for a few hours and then headed back to the house with one quick stop at the Cactus Plaza for some late night tacos.  It was a fun couple of days and really a fantastic experience to get to celebrate with the people of Belize. 

What?!? Gunfire??

About ten days after our arrival to Belize the three of us were finally starting to get comfortable in our surroundings.  Despite hearing horror story after horror story from the expats here we were feeling safe and sound that night.  Will and I were watching the Portland Trailblazer game on TV – a small, but appreciated taste from home – mom was reading in her bedroom.  All of a sudden there are loud blasts close to the house.  Keep in mind we had been hearing all sorts of bad things about our neighborhood, in fact we had just found out that the previous owner had been attacked in the house and shot by the intruder – funny the little details people omit when trying to sell something.  She survived the attack, but the bullet grazed her head and caused vision trouble in one eye.  We were trying really hard to keep this new information off our mind and had been doing a great job of it until those blasts started to sound.  I just froze, my mom and Will have the same reaction.  No one said a word, I’m not sure any of us took a breath for about a minute while this was happening.  All that was going through my mind was that the noises sounded a lot like gunfire.  Will finally turns to me and asks if that sounds like gunfire to me.  I just nodded my head slowly.  At that point my mom comes out of the bedroom with hesitation, eyes wide and asking us what we thought the noise was.  A few minutes later Will looked out the window reluctantly to see if anything was visible – nothing.  The noise started up again so I went over to the window, heart pounding.  We had only been here for a little over a week and already we were going to be killed by random gunfire – outstanding.  I’m straining to see anything out the window and suddenly to the left of the house I see colorful bursts in the air – fireworks!  A wave of relief came over me and I yelled out “fireworks!”  We all immediately fell back laughing at ourselves.  We were all able to sleep easy that night and a little amused at our reaction to the whole thing.  Apparently in Belize fireworks are the standard practice for any holiday celebration.  We didn’t expect them that night because we weren’t aware of any holidays during that time, but there are a lot more holidays in Belize than at home so obviously something was being celebrated. 

The next day we were all happy to be alive and our task was to deal with the required liquor license for our business.  We had been procrastinating a little on this important detail because everything else had been going so efficiently.  We took the walk in to town and went to town hall to start the process.  We learned that we had to track down one woman who headed up the committee that issues these licenses.  We were given a phone number and vague directions to her residence.  The phone number was useless; we called about thirty times with no answer so we went on a quest to find her house.  After about an hour of searching and asking other people for directions we found a house that seemed to match the description.  In Corozal no one goes to the front door to knock – the typical method of operation is to pull up to the house and honk or yell at the house until someone comes out.  This is a little difficult to get used to, but we must follow procedure.  So we stood outside of her gate and yelled for awhile until finally someone came out of the house.  I asked him if Cathy was there and he said yes, disappeared back in to the house; finally a woman emerged.  I told Cathy we were opening up a bar in town and needed to get a liquor license.  She informed me that the committee had already had their final meeting for the year and that they wouldn’t meet again until January.  This meant that we would not be able to get our license for two months.  Well, we wanted to open in two weeks and without a liquor license it would be hard to call the place a bar.  I asked her, very politely, if there was anything we could do.  This would turn in to our first introduction of “buying” our desired result.  She simply said that we could pay $100 BZ for the committee to have a special meeting in order to grant the license early.  We didn’t have much choice so we said no problem.  We paid the money and Cathy said that she would be around to the business in the next week with the chief of police, fire chief and health inspector to check the place out.  At this point we were keeping our fingers crossed that this process wouldn’t take too long because we wanted to be open in two weeks. 

Everything else was in place for our Grand Opening on November 15th, but we wanted to have a soft open a week before that date.  We would have to sit back and wait on the liquor license but everything else was coming in to place.  We had found a local bakery, Popular Bakery in Orange Walk town, to make our hamburger buns.  They were even going to make us slightly larger buns for our “Big Bay” burger.  We had several leads on stores to get most of our supplies (alcohol, condiments, meat, cheese, etc) in Belize City so we had a trip to Belize City planned for the next week.  Belize City was formally the capital of Belize but after most of the infrastructure was wiped out in a hurricane the capital city was moved to Belmopan.  Despite that Belize City (referred to as Belize by the locals) is a larger city with a much larger variety of our restaurant/bar requirements.  Solomon was going to be our taxi again for that trip and we were eager to make that trip.

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