Sarawee Village
Stann Creek Valley Road
21st March 2011
Dear Editor:
Over the years I’ve noted that reporters and other media personnel continue to err in their reports about geographical locations in Belize. Through the years I’ve ignored these errors, but your account of the brawl in Progresso Village in the Amandala of Sunday 20th March, has prompted me to help clarify these inaccuracies.
First of all, Progresso is not located in the Orange Walk District, but is found in the Corozal District, and I believe that the villagers of that community vote in the Corozal South East constituency. This situation is similar to that of Gales Point. Over the years I’ve read of and heard about Gales Point being in the Stann Creek District. No such place. Gales Point, of course, is in the Belize District and the villagers vote in the Belize Central constituency.
Believe it or not, media personnel have also written about Punta Gorda District and the town of Toledo. Not in Belize! We do have a Punta Gorda Town in the Toledo District, though.
Finally, there is no “…Pomona Valley, Mile 12 on the Hummingbird Highway,” as advertised during the recent La Ruta Maya canoe race. As far as I’ve known, the Hummingbird Highway begins where the Stann Creek Valley Road ends, near St Augustine R.C School at Mile 23, and ends in Belmopan, where it meets the Western Highway at the Guanacaste Park.
Until recently, a portion of the Stann Creek Valley Road, from where it begins near the Drums of our Father Monument in Dangriga, all the way to the Southern Regional Hospital, was renamed the George Price Drive. All that stretch of road from the SRH that passes through the communities of Sarawee, Hope Creek, Pomona, Alta Vista, Steadfast, and Valley Community to St. Augustine Primary School, is the Stann Creek Valley Road.
Dear readers, please correct me if I’m wrong.
Sincerely,
Anthony A. Zuniga