Pink Pooch Sighting

It turns head wherever it goes - this adorable dog is indeed pink. Our cameras caught her walking the beach during the fishing tournament this weekend. Her owner says she did the dye job with pink Kool Aid!

Dia de San Pedro Fishing Tournament

It was not a good weekend for the Dia de San Pedro Fishing Tournament. Bad weather threatened to dampen the celebrations and the seas were really rough, making the fishing a bit more challenging. Nevertheless, fishermen did reel in some game fish to win some good prizes. Roberto Guerrero came in at the last hour to impress the waiting crowd with a 45 lbs Sailfish.
Complete story on Thursday's edition of Ambergris Today Newspaper.

Top Boat - $4,500 plus Trophy – Sly Dog – Captain Roberto Guerrero Sr. (527 pts.)
2^nd Place - $2,500 – Cristina – Captain Alberto Bradley (65 pts)
3^rd Place - $1,000 – Seaduction – Captain Elito Arceo (58 pts.)
4^th Place - $750 – Aaliyah Marlee – Captain Enrique Marin (30 pts.)
5^th Place - $500 – Lancha Verde – Captain Barry Bowen (22 ½ pts.)

Top Female Angler – Karen Canul aboard Fish Tales
Top Junior Angler – Emmanuel Samos aboard Sly Dog
Heaviest Sailfish – Roberto Guerrero Jr. aboard Sly Dog
Heaviest Wahoo – Gerald Leslie aboard Flying Fish
Heaviest Dorado – Alberto Bradley aboard Cristina
Heaviest Tuna – Adrian Heusner aboard Mad Storme
Biggest Barracuda – Andy Nuñez aboard Contender
Captain’s Award – Roberto Guerrero Sr. of Sly Dog
Smallest Water Vessel – Gerald Leslie – Flying Fish

1^st Place Calcutta - $3,930.00 – Roberto Guerrero – Sly Dog
2^nd Place Calcutta - $1,965.00 – Alberto Bradley - Cristina

Traffic Accident

A minor traffic accident occurred yesterday afternoon around 6p.m. south of town around the Banyan Bay area. A taxi driver lost control of his vehicle and slammed into a utility pole, injuring one of his passengers.

Unofficial reports say that the taxi driver claims to have lost control in the steering wheel and could not avoid ramming into the pole. A female passenger sustained minor injuries to her face when the airbag deployed on impact. She was taken to a nearby clinic for medical attention.

Police and traffic wardens rushed to the scene. More updates as they become available.

Rising Floodwaters down South Wash Away Temporary Bridges

Southern Belize is once again cut off from the rest of the country. The temporary causeway that was built to replace the Kendall Bridge has been washed away. The Sittee River began to rise since yesterday causing the temporary structure to completely wash away. So currently no vehicular traffic can access Southern Belize. The BDF has already deployed a boat to assist people in cross the river.

Also causing havoc is the Mullins River which is submerging roads and levels of all rivers in the Toledo District are already above normal and rising.

Here in San Pedro, it rained all last night, canceling the opening ceremonies of the Dia de San Pedro Festival and flooding many yards once again, but nothing close to what Tropical Storm Arthur did about three weeks ago.

Belize can expect the rain to continue because according to the Weather Bureau, a tropical wave is crossing the country. They forecast up to 4 inches within the next 24 hours.

Belize Volleyball Association

The Belize Volleyball Association in conjunction with the Caye Caulker Volleyball Association wishes to announce that the first of the five male qualifying beach stops will be held at Caye Caulker this Saturday, June 28^th commencing at 9am. The remaining fours stops will be rotated between Belize City, San Pedro and Caye Caulker. Female qualifying stops will be announced later. The emerging top male and female teams from these stops will represent Belize at Nicaragua at the Central American Senior Beach Volleyball Tournament in August.

Interested teams are asked to contact the Belize Volleyball Association at 223-1725 for more information or present themselves at 9am at Caye Caulker Central Park.

Missing Person:

- Milton Antonio Avila, 23 year old, Honduran mechanic of Sea Grape Drive reported that his father Luis Alonzo Avila Manzanares, 50 year old, Honduran Construction worker of the same address left home since Friday, June 6, and has not returned since. Manzanares is of fair complexion, slim built, about 5’ 5" in height, has brown eyes, black curly hair with long beard and mustache. He was last seen dressed in a gray pants, red stripped shirt and barefooted. Anyone who has seen or knows of the whereabouts of this person is asked to kindly contact the Police at 226-2022 or 911.

Police Dept. Keeps Beautifying Boca del Rio Park

As part of Police Week, coming up in July, the San Pedro Police Department is continuing in its efforts to beautify the Boca del Rio Park. Police officers have already planted many different types of shrubs and trees, have erected a new swing set, fixed the old swing and installed two benches by the basketball court.

They are waiting for a little prolonged sunshine for them to paint the basketball court and install new bang boards and they are waiting for eight more benches so they can install them around the park.

Mechanical Games Get Stuck

More mechanical games are making their way to the old football field, but the hardest part is getting there. The narrow streets of San Pedro have proven to be a bit problematic for these large vehicles carrying the rides from getting to the field. Just a couple nights back, this large truck had difficulty making its way around back street coming from the airport towards the field. It took many helpers, a backhoe and bulldozer to make sure the truck did not hit any buildings and tug on any power lines. When more building go up it will be impossible for these large vehicles to maneuver their way through town.

Lobster Fest Block Party Draws the Crowds

It was a very busy weekend, with graduations, parties and soccer match dates, but the Lobster Fest Block Party proved to be a huge success once again with an even bigger turnout than last year. The crowds made it to Central Park on Saturday, June 21 for the block party that culminated the week-long celebration of the opening of the lobster season.

Rico's Bar and Grill of Banyan Bay Villas did it again by wining Best Lobster dish at the Block Party, just a couple of weeks after claiming second place at the annual Taste of Belize culinary competition in the city.

Top PSE Scorers Awarded

Shaniece Lord from the Berniece Yorke Institute of Learning was today awarded the Jane and Michael Nembhard award by Education Minister Patrick Faber. Lord won the distinction by placing first in this year’s Primary School Examination. At official ceremonies held in Belmopan, Lord was honored along with the other 25 top finishers in this year’s examination. Among those 25 were Alexya Perez and Ismael Kay of San Pedro Roman Catholic School who ranked 21st and 18th, respectively, out of 6,000 plus students nationwide.

Education Minister Minister Faber delivered the keynote address in which he challenged the young students, saying that ultimately the success of each of them depends on the work they put into themselves.

“It depends on you; it was still up to you to do the work, to put in the hours, to study hard, to have a desire to learn and to excel,” he commented. “You are now approaching, if not already approached the point where more and more will be up to you. You will continue to have the support of your parents, of your guardians, of your friends, of your family, of your teachers and principals but increasingly more responsibility will be entrusted upon you to make your own decisions. You will begin to take charge of your own lives and you will grow into adolescent and ultimately into adulthood. Your parents and teachers will be there to guide you, to motivate you, to help you when you need help but more and more it will be up to you to take responsibility for your life and the choices that you make.”

Shaniece Lord was also presented with a lap top computer. Denesha Grant from Holy Redeemer placed second overall while Jacky Cheng from Sacred Heart in the Cayo district placed third.

Of note, both Ismael and Alexya got higher scores than anyone else in the Orange Walk District. We truly are proud of them. Congrats to the teachers of San Pedro RC School as well.

Four New Officers Added to SP Force

On Thursday, June 12, the Police Training Academy graduated 68 new police officers, 64 men and four women. And out of these new graduates four were assigned to the San Pedro Police Department.

The San Pedro Police Department had long awaited for more police officers to arrive so as to assist in fighting crime on the island. The four police men are PC996 Trevor Ramos, PC719 Mariano Cho, PC323 Adalberto Cano and PC927 Jeffery Martinez Jr. With 31 officers on the island together with the help of neighborhood watches and the entire community of San Pedro we can help to alleviate the crime situation on the island.

Power Outage

The staff of Ambergris Today was forced to go outside for work as a transformer blew out and that had most of middle street without power for most of the day. Power just came back at 3:30pm. The AC is such a blessing on this hot day. But the girls had to resort to writing their articles instead of using the computer.

All You Can Eat Lobster Pizza @ Pedro's

Lobster Fest headed to Pedro's last night and The Fat Cats were there to entertain the crowd that was enjoying that "All you can eat" Lobster pizza. Everybody was happy eating, dancing and drinking. Tonight the festivities move to Mambo Restaurant at Mata Chica then to Blue Water Grill. The final stop is the massive block party and Central Park on Saturday, June 21, with fire dancers, tumblers, music, more Fat Cats, San Pedro Dance Company, cooking competition and the crowning of Lobster King and Queen. See you there!

The Fat Cats entertain

The staff of Ambergris Today was treated with some Jager shots. Thanks Peter!

Poker competition

Festival Time!!

The mechanical rides are here and that only means one thing. The Dia de San Pedro Festival is just around the corner. The rides come two weeks before the start of the festival that will commence on Thursday, June 26 and run through to San Pedro Day on Sunday, June 29.

Exclusive Belize/Mexico Pictures

Ambergris Today made the Al Dia Texas Newspaper as Gary Chism was the only professional photographer covering the Belize/Mexico match for Belize. Mr. Chism represented Ambergris Today and had press access to all the training sessions before the game and in-field presence at the game on June 15.

These pictures captured exclusively for Ambergris Today were taken by professional sports photographer Gary Chism and are available for sale by him at Ambergris Today. A percentage of the proceeds will be donated to the Belize Foofball Team as Mr. Chism commented that he has grown to love Belize through his photography experience.

Belize Fans Send in Their Football Pictures

Belizean fans who attended the FIFA qualifying match in Houston's Reliant Stadium commented that they had a wonderful time and are very proud of their Belize Team. They left the stadium cheering, with their heads held high, unlike the Mexicans who were disappointed by their team's performance. Belize showed the world how good they are, despite all the negative criticism towards our country. International expectations were low for our Belize team, but after the match Belize proved them all wrong. - These pictures are provided by Ali Urbina; more to come. Keep posted!

These last two were submitted by Richard Price

Summer Means Coral Reef Ed-venture

- Press Release - Coral Reef Ed-ventures is back at San Pedro once again! This summer is the ninth summer of the environmental education program sponsored by the collaboration of Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Smith College (Massachusetts, USA).

The program is free and open to all children between the ages of 7 and 11. Coral Reef Ed-Ventures consists of a variety of fun and exciting games, stories, crafts, projects, scientific experiments and even field trips.

The program will be held at the RC School starting Monday, June 30 and running until July 11 from 9:00a.m. to 11:45a.m. Permission slips are available for pick up at the public library and the Hol Chan Marine Reserve Office and should be handed in by participants on the first day of the program.

An advanced Coral Reef Ed-Ventures program will also take place for students ages 12 and up who have attended the regular program in the past or who have a strong interest in learning more about the coral reef. The week-long course will take place starting on June 23, and run until June 27 in the afternoons from 4:00p.m. to 6:00p.m. at the Lion’s Den. The course will provide a more in-depth look into some of the environmental and human-induced factors faced by the Belizean coral reef today and involve a larger group project. Pick up a permission slip at the library or Hol Chan and bring it to the first day of the program.

The advanced and regular camp will conclude in a graduation ceremony, performance, and party where all participating students will be presented with prizes and a Coral Reef Expert Card.

The teachers will also be showing movies on Tuesday evening, June 10 and Wednesday June 18 at 7:00p.m. at the Lion’s Den. Look for posters around town for movie titles. Popcorn will be served!

The Coral Reef Ed-Ventures team can’t wait to see you there. The Coral Ed teachers from Smith are Katie Donovan ‘09, education major; Madeline Weigner ‘09, geology major, marine science and policy minor; Trea Schumacher ‘09, biology major, marine science and policy minor; Penny Luo ‘08, biology major, marine science and policy minor; Andrea Gohl ‘08, geology major; and Hannah Dunning ‘09, English major, environmental science and policy minor.

The Lime Presents Miss Bikini 2008

It was a packed house at Jaguar’s Temple Night Club that witnessed San Pedro’s first ever Miss Bikini Contest organized by The Lime on Friday, June 13, 2008. Capturing the crowd and judge’s attention was Gina Wallace who was crowned the first Miss Bikini. More on Thursday's edition of Ambergris Today.