The streets are very narrow, but crowded with cars, bicycles and pedestrians. Some streets are paved, some are gravel. Houses and businesses line the narrow sidewalks. They are built very close together with just a few feet between them. Windows are the louvered style which are anything but airtight. Security bars cover all the windows. Most of the buildings are two-story, painted either white or bold colors, but the paint is often dingy and/or peeling. Some are constructed with wood, but concrete masonry block is considered superior. It seemed that nearly half of the houses devote their downstairs to some form of business. The residential streets are lined with all sorts of little shops selling food, pharmacy, T-shirts, household items, tennis shoes, etc. Most of the food and drug stores just had a little entry way (maybe 4x6) where you stood inside the door. The merchandise and storekeeper were behind a wire fenced-in area. You told them what you wanted and they handed it to you through a little hole.
The downtown shopping area is much more like what we are accustomed to. There is a wide variety of goods available (most with brand names from here in the US), but the prices are extremely high. Clothing stores as we know them do not exist. Many Belizians are very well dressed, but most receive them from connections in the states.
There are only two air-conditioned grocery stores in Belize City. Air conditioning in homes is very rare. Banks and the fancy hotels are about the only other places you will see with central air.
On Fridays, some Mennonites who live in settlements up north, set up a market area for selling their beautiful hand-crafted wood furniture. Their prices are very reasonable. We would have liked to have found a way to bring home a rocking chair.
Saturday is "Market Day". Ken and Sandy only live about a block from the "Market". It is a bustling and colorful scene as the farmers display their baskets and carts of fruits, vegetables, fresh meat and live chickens.
