The long Easter holiday drives Belizeans and visitors from every corner of the country to rivers, lagoons and seas. And, sadly, there are inevitably drownings. But, on Easter Sunday - there was an unusual one which claimed two lives.
Two males, one a man, the other a teenager were having a swimming race under the Iguana Creek bridge when both of them went under.
I went west today to get some answers:
Too often the lives of locals and even visitors are claimed by the strong and unpredictable currents in running rivers out in the West. No matter how experienced a swimmer one may be no one can determine where the undercurrents lie in these deep bodies of water.
The most recent drowning incident took place on Easter Sunday, where, 40 year old Esau Castillo and 15 year old Edwardo Garcia entered the river near Iguana Creek Bridge for a quick swim, never to be seen alive again. Their co-worker Elizadro Paz spoke with us today about what he saw that evening before his friends went under.
Voice of: Elizadro Paz, Carpenter
"I was there to do a barbecue with my kids and they are trying to swim in the river and I was taking care of my kids so I didn't know much about what was happening. When I heard that someone went into the river then I walked down there but u didn't see anyone go down in the river."
"After that Mennonites came and tried to help. I saw two of the guys there who went in where they went down and they went into the river and took him out and I think about seven minutes after he came out from the river."
Jo-
"So this happened a few minutes after?"
Elizadro Paz, Carpenter
"Yes seven minutes after Esau Castillo came out but it took a while for him to come out. Esau Castillo was going to have 40 years and the other one I don't know exactly how old he is. He just came on Saturday to visit and we didn't know too much about him."
According to Paz everything happened within a matter of minutes. And he never imagined that he would go from working with Castillo and Garcia to working on their caskets.
Jo
"This river is this somewhere you go to swim regularly?"
Elizadro Paz, Carpenter
"Yeah because it's close here so we normally go there."
Jo
"Is it dangerous?"
Elizadro Paz, Carpenter
"Not for me because we do not go behind the bridge there it's kind of deep and I think it has a turn but yeah I didn't go there. Normally when I go there I go on the side where it is shallow so yeah."
Castillo's family tells us that he leaves behind his wife and three children. As for teenager Edward Garcia, he is from Melchor. He was in Belize visiting.
Notably, the Spanish Lookout Fire Department Search and Rescue team found the bodies fairly quickly using a drone.
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