Iconic Ruta Maya Finish Relocated, Fans Push Back

For the first time in almost thirty years, the La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge is shaking up its finish, and the ripple effects are already being felt. Instead of ending at the iconic Belcan Bridge, paddlers will now cross the finish line at the Grand Resort near Haulover Bridge. Organizers insist the change boosts safety and crowd control, but longtime spectators and vendors say the move cuts into the very tradition, and livelihood, the race has built over decades. News Five’s Paul Lopez has the story behind the shift and the storm it’s stirring.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

It’s the biggest shake‑up to La Ruta Maya in nearly three decades and it’s already turning heads. The race committee has decided to move the iconic finish line from Belcan Bridge to the Grand Resort near the Haulover Creek Bridge. Vice Chair Roberto Harrison confirmed the switch to News Five today, setting off fresh debate about what this change means for the legendary river challenge.

 

Roberto Harrison, Vice Chair, La Ruta Maya Committee

“It is final that the fourth leg of the race will finish at Grand Resort. After a lot of debate and back and forth the decision is final.”

 

According to Harrison, the safety and security of spectators are among the primary driving force behind the decision to change the finish line’s location.

 

Roberto Harrison

“And that can’t be overlooked. When you have an open space where anything can flare up in the natural course of having these big events. So, we said we had to do it and I think that is final as far as the race committee is concerned.”

 

But what does this change mean for the hundreds of spectators that traditionally view the ending of the race on the Belcan Bridge and inside the Belize Civic Center compound free of cost. Well, an entrance fee will be charged at the Grand Resort.

 

Roberto Harrison

“Keeping the police force in place at all levels is a very costly one for us. Surely I think we will, I don’t have the final figure of what it will cost to get in their, but in the same way we recover some of the cost at Burrell Boom. The same will be done at Grand Resort.”

 

A News Five Facebook poll shows the public strongly rejecting the finish‑line change. By two this afternoon, more than eleven hundred people had voted, and ninety‑three percent said they oppose the move. Only fifty‑one supported it, while thirty‑two were undecided. But the controversy doesn’t stop there. Race‑day vendors in the Belize River Valley are also frustrated, this time over a Forest Department rule that requires them to buy a hundred‑dollar permit to sell game meat.

 

Victoria Chi, Forest Officer, Belize Forest Department

“The people who are going to go and sell game meat for Ruta Maya will need to come into the Forest Department to get a dealer’s permit to actually allow them to legally be selling game meat for Ruta Maya. But they still need to respect the closed season.”

 

We spoke with one vendor who has decided not to sell her food during this year’s race, after participating in the event since its inception.

 

Voice of: Belize River Valley Vendor

“From back then I sold my food. We could have cooked anything, game meat, any game meat, deer meat, gibnut, hicatee, anything because that is what the people they come out to look for. And we never had to pay no fee then, we never use to pay no permit for anything and nobody use to come harass us. This harassment started when it went to Henderson Bank. Police come check sih if you have hicatee and all kind of thing. From then they start with that. But, we never had no problem before. We could have sold anything. But the stall fee was only fifty dollars then. Last year we paid a hundred and fifty dollars. They raised it to seventy-five and then they went to a hundred- and fifty-dollars last year. Now when I call and they said the fee is now a hundred dollars, so they drop it back down, but they still did not drop it to where it was.”

 

The vendor argues organizers want to boost profits without factoring in rising food costs. And with the finish line moving to the Grand Resort, what happens to the vendors who’ve long relied on selling at the traditional Belize City endpoint?

 

Roberto Harrison

“They will be allowed to go in there. That is not an issue. Just like how they do it at Burrell Boom, Banana Bank, it is the same conditions that will be applied using the Grand Resort. At the end of the day tradition has to be changed sometime in the interest of success. At least, that is how I see it.”

 

The Haulover Creek Bridge is the main gateway into Belize City along the George Price Highway, and some worry the new finish line could snarl traffic on race day. Harrison says the committee will leave those traffic concerns to the experts, the Traffic Department and the Belize Police Department. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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