Comparisons

One of Dr. Catapano's blog prompts, which we have to finish before we leave the country, has to do with comparing the inland culture and the island culture of San Pedro. My last post had to do with all the cool things that we did, but even though they were awesome, they were definitely "tourist" events. This post has more to do with the culture of the two villages -- San Pedro and San Ignacio -- and how I found the individuals there.

It's so amazing how small, and yet how diverse, Belize is. San Pedro, as I said in the last post, is literally only a few hours from San Ignacio, and yet one is a small coral island, and the other is nestled between the mountains. San Ignacio also seemed a little more busy and popular, probably because it is a nexus of several tourist destinations, and also an area where buses congregate on their way between several towns and villages.

The people of San Pedro and San Ignacio are both very friendly, but you certainly see more western influences in San Pedro. That's mostly because there are more resorts in San Pedro, and more tourists from countries like the United States and Canada. San Ignacio surely had its share of tourists, but most of them seemed to be there for outdoor adventure stuff, like I talked about in the last post. Thus, there was only one resort in San Ignacio, and most of the homes and restaurants seemed a little more downscale.

Which isn't to say things weren't as western. There were certainly just as many western amenities and comforts around for the tourists. However, you could tell that the locals just lived a little bit differently than they do in San Pedro. Things were more laid back, there wasn't really a night life to speak of, and there was more farmland, and more people of Mayan descent -- or so I was told.

All in all, I am a sucker for creature comforts, so I would probably want to be a teacher in San Pedro, if I had to choose. However, both areas of the country were beautiful in their own right, and I am thankful that this trip gave me an opportunity to see them both. I'm a beach bum at heart, so of course San Pedro was always going to win out.