San Pedro Daily
|
Ambergris Caye, Belize Sunday July 15, 2007 Belize's only Daily- Seven Days a Week |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Our Community: Making Belize a
“Safe Dive” Destination: Eleazar Portillo
 Belize
boasts the second largest barrier reef in the world. With its
underwater beauty and amazing sites, it offers many spectacular dive
escapades for adventure seekers. Recreational diving offers a wonderful
escape from everyday life, but even though it is considered a
relatively safe sport, it poses certain risks to those who choose to
participate in it. Fortunately, aside from its wonderful scenery,
Belize also has the only recompression chamber in the region (the next
closest chambers are in Mexico and Honduras). Since the chamber
provides such a priceless service, keeping and maintaining it in
“top-notch” shape is of great importance. This week, The San Pedro Sun
is proud to introduce a man responsible for “making Belize a safe dive
destination” – Eleazar Portillo of Subaquatics of Belize Limited.
In early 2000, Eleazar made the move to San Pedro Town where as manager of the Subaquatics of Belize Limited (recompression chamber), he handles the books and overall day-to-day supervision of the entire operation. A gratifying experience, Eleazar began interacting with patients as well and discovered he had an interest in the medical and technical aspects of the business. To increase his potential, he chose to enroll in various international courses and conferences in hyperbaric medicine offered by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) Divers Alert Network (DAN). Eleazar has participated in as many courses as the chamber would allow, and is now a Diver Medic, certified by the internationally recognized Diving Disease Research Center (DDRC) in the United Kingdom. He is also preparing to undergo one of the most prestigious certifications in the field – Hyperbaric Chamber Technologist (HCT). As a Diver Medic, Eleazar has hands-on experience in operating the chamber, and with patients - from admitting them to the ward to carrying out neurological examinations. He is the official technical and safety officer for the facility, and is trained to maintain and repair chamber equipment. Eleazar has traveled to different parts of the world for certification courses in the field and also travels for the company to cross train staff in other parts of the world. Although he never thought that he would someday take a dive course, today, Eleazar is a certified Scuba Diving International (SDI) dive instructor. “It took me a while to adapt to life here on the island, but always being on the move has made the change a lot smoother,” he commented. In his free time, Eleazar enjoys recreational diving, hiking and exploring, both under and above water. “I love being in touch with nature and having traveled many places, I can tell you that Belize sure has a lot to offer,” he said. Read More Belize Puts 4-5
Offshore
Oil Blocks Up for Grabs There are 4-5 vacant oil blocks in Belize
out of 21 blocks in the
country, geologist Pedro Cho from the natural resources and environment
ministry's geology and petroleum department told BNamericas.
The government has not seen the need to launch formal bidding for the available blocks. Instead, interested companies can approach the department to review available information, Cho said. The blocks are in deeper, offshore areas. There is a possibility Japan's Japex Geoscience Institute (JGI) may help update and verify offshore oil data, including the 4-5 blocks, he said. JGI is helping Honduras with similar work. Seven production-sharing agreements have been signed to date and there are six applications pending for different blocks - not including the 4-5 vacant ones, the official said. Belize Natural Energy (BNE) currently is the only company producing oil in the country, roughly 3,000b/d, as well as further exploratory work, said Cho, adding that the bulk of oil is exported and only 4-5% remains in Belize. Much of the crude is exported to the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration. BNE was the first company to find a commercial oilfield in Belize in the country's 50-year exploration history. In May, Latin American and Caribbean infrastructure financing firm CIFI committed US$5mn as part of a US$30mn credit facility to help BNE develop a recently discovered oil field of 25M-50Mb sweet crude, BNamericas reported previously. Other companies in advanced E&P stages are Allan Oil carrying out exploratory drilling and US Capital Energy conducting seismic work, Cho said. Read More WISH WILLY'S RECIPE OF THE
WEEK
 Ingredients :
3 big
potatoes Method 1. Boil the potatoes until
soft enough to be mashed. Mash them down.
2. Blend together the chopped herbs, mango powder, salt & pepper, chillies and margarine to form a paste. 3. Stir the mixture into the mashed potatoes and mix thoroughly with a fork. Tip: Instead of potatoes try sweet potatoes. Cook them until tender, mash and continue from step 2 Read More NOTICES/LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR
San Pedro Town Library
Needs Volunteers for Summer Program San Pedro Town Library is
about to start its summer program for children. This runs for
three weeks, five days a week with an educational field trip at the
end. It starts on Monday the 16th of July. If you have the
time to help, please contact the Senior Librarian, Iracela Acosta on
206 2028.
#####
Holy
Cross Anglican School
will hold Summer School for
entering
Standard III, IV, V students who received less than 75% in Math and/or
Language Arts for the previous school year;and for ALL entering
Standard VI
students starting on Monday, July 16 at 8:45am. Classes will run
for
two weeks and are designed to provide a basic review in core
subjects. Cost is $40 per
student. For additional information, please call the School at
226-3456.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
the parrots begin to jabber. Sir Winston Churchill |
|
 www.grandcaribe.bz debbiewade@gmail.com
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
© SAN PEDRO DAILY, PO Box 45, San Pedro Town, Belize. Designed by Casado Internet Group  |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
