Huge Road Improvements

Moonracer Farm is at Mile 9 on the Chiquibul Road, which means we are nine miles south of the Western Highway at Georgeville via bad dirt road, occasionally impassable with anything other than a high clearance 4WD vehicle.  We are also very near the junction with the road that runs directly into Santa Elena through San Antonio and Cristo Rey, which until this summer, was about twelve miles of bad dirt road with short paved portions in the two villages.  If we were going to San Ignacio or points west, we would take the road through San Antonio; if we were going to points east, we would take the Chiquibul Road.  We chewed up a lot of tires, had a lot of maintenance bills, and got really used to driving vehicles with lots of bangs and rattles. 

Just this summer, the government paved the road between Cristo Rey and San Antonio. We still have three miles of dirt between Moonracer and San Antonio, and there are still a couple of miles of dirt between Cristo Rey and Santa Elena, but the paved, improved road between the two villages is really, really nice. I never thought I would say that; when we bought this place ten years ago, we liked the privacy and isolation fostered by the bad roads, and actually spoke out against paving when it was brought up six or eight years ago. 

But, with many hefty vehicle maintenance bills, not to mention aging bodies, we really like the paving and use that road almost exclusively to drive to the Western Highway, no matter which way we are heading.  We also recommend the San Antonio/Cristo Rey road to our guests, and we are happy to not be greeting literally rattled guests when they arrive. With the three remaining miles of dirt between here and San Antonio, we still have the remote jungle feel, but we are much more accessible.  So, for once, here's to progress!

This is where the pavement used to end outside of San Antonio.

If you look closely, you can see red lines in the road, like it might eventually even have a center stripe!

Road improvements included big ditches that will, with any luck, keep the road from washing out as it did when it was dirt...complete with big, heavy concrete bridges for driveways.

Project isn't quite done...but it's close!