Lots of photos..

Let's try this again, and I hope I don't bore you - if you don't like the road stuff, scroll further down....

Like I was saying last night, the road has been paved, which has greatly reduced if not eliminated the dust which permeated everything. Today I left my windows open, and unlike the past, there was no layer of fine dust covering all surfaces when I got home from work - a good thing because yesterday I cleaned all the screens and windows, and did a thorough cleaning inside. But about the road construction methods....

After initial grading, they put down a layer of brown gravel with lots of fines (dust) in it, as well as fist size rocks. Here's a photo and a closeup:

This photo of the dust being raised by a vehicle doesn't really show the true impact of this type of surface...

Then they cover that with a gray layer of crushed stone with the fines left in it, and this was the surface in front of the house for weeks...

There is usually a stiff breeze coming off the Carribbean that carries the dust long distances. I'm not sure how people tolerate walking along the road or riding bikes in the face of this, but they do, probably of necessity.

When it is time to pave, they put down a layer of sandy gravel, water it liberally, and roll it to a hard surface. They then put down a thick layer of liquid tar, and cover it with a uniform size of crushed stone, and roll it. (All this happens without interrupting traffic flow). Cars, trucks and busses then continue to use it for several days, further compacting the stone into the tar. Here's what it looks like, and a close-up:

After several days they come back and sweep away the excess stone that hasn't been embedded in the surface. As it is driven on, the surface gets harder and harder, here it is after a few more days, and a close-up:

And a couple of more photos as it gets more and more compact from use..

They pave about 1/10 of a mile a day, with day to day traffic doing most of the compacting. Bradley says they will be putting another layer on some time in the future, painting lines, installing reflectors, and 40 (that's forty) speed bumps. Speed bumps here are not your Stevens Ave raised humps. They are bumps that can't be taken at more than 5 mph. Will keep you posted.

The road hasn't been paved for a half mile stretch closer to town, and by the airport.

If you got this far in this post, here's the fun stuff:

The road gets to the airstrip, which goes from lagoon to ocean, and goes down to the end of the runway and around it. I neglected to heed this sign, and was buzzed twice by airplanes taking off just as I rounded the corner. I look now. What's amazing is that Belize has two competing airplines; Maya Island Air and Tropic Air. The former is more capitalized, and is building a new planning to build a new airstrip at the northern end of the peninsula and offer small jet service to Cancun and Guatemala City, among other destinations. For now, here are the terminals:

And here's a closeup of a typical aircraft in use. If the 12-20 passenger seats are full, a passenger can sit in the co-pilots seat. Done it!

A neighbor, Kathy, across the street from us in Portland had a bumper sticker on her car that said:"What if the Hokey Pokey is what it's all about?" (or something like that). The Hokey Pokey water taxi here is a scheduled service connecting Placencia with the village of Mango Creek on the other side of the lagoon. The 15 minute boat ride saves an hour long drive up the peninsula and down the mainland. It's a small boat that probably holds 20 or so at most. High School kids use it to go to school, and others commute to work here in town.

Here's a photo of the Post Office, taken on Sunday morning, when it was closed. There are no boxes, you just ask the clerk if you have any mail, and he looks through one or two stacks of 50 or so envelopes and pulls out yours, if you have any. I got a birthday card from my sister today, and because she had tucked in the flap instead of sealing it, the PO in Belize City had deemed it damaged, put it in a manila envelope, and I had to sign a form saying it was ok. This PO is a big step up from the former location, a very small room above the fish market.

The police station is a new facility as well... some times they have a sign in the middle of the street saying STOP, but no one does unless they come out of the station and stand in the road to check insurance or whatever..

I took all these on my way to my AA meeting on Sunday morning - more about that later. I'll end this post with a picture I took from the roof at the end of the day. Tomorrow, pics of the apartment!