San Pedranos Struggle with Rising Fuel Costs

On Ambergris Caye, the cost of getting around is fast becoming a daily struggle. As fuel prices climb, San Pedro residents say their budgets are buckling under the pressure. With golf carts as the main form of transport, even short trips are cutting deep into weekly earnings. Some workers, earning just two hundred to three hundred dollars a week, say fuel alone is eating up a big chunk of their income. Now, frustration is growing. Islanders are calling on the government to step in and tackle the lack of affordable transportation options, warning that without relief, getting from point A to point B could soon be out of reach for many.

 

Celestino Tzul, San Pedro Resident

“If you consider it as something that you will be entertaining yourself, that’s one thing. That’s an option. But when it’s your livelihood, when it’s your transportation to work and everything, you have to consider it, do I keep using my golf cart? Do I need to change from golf cart to something? Because the average person, some of them is are earning from 200 and two fifty to three hundred. You take away rent, you take away the expenses on gas, and then you take away the expense of food. Some people are barely even making it through the week. The gas price is very very high.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Are there any transportations on the island beside golf carts and cars and taxis? Are there any I don’t know, systems that are cheaper?”

 

Celestino Tzul

“Recently they added a busito service. To say that it is working the way we need it, I don’t think so. There’s still a gap in the expenses.”

 

San Pedro Resident

“We’ve been having issue also with the gas been coming to the country. Average gas, we’ve been getting like average gas and we have to spend money and spend money on maintenance every week on each golf cart. We’ve been getting high-cost gas. The gas high cost up to fourteen twenty-nine dollar at the gallon.”

 

Some residents are now in the process of organizing a peaceful protest next week in order to voice their complaints about the rising cost of living and fuel on the island.

 

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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