The San Pedro Boardwalk & Water Taxi Inauguration: A Look Around

After a few flawless weeks of weather.  Warm and sunny getting hotter as the month of March progressed, yesterday was an “off day”.  Some clouds moved in…HOW DARE THEY…and rain seemed to threaten most of the day.

BUT…it was absolutely beautiful.  Both at about 1pm when I went to town for lunch.

 

And early in the evening, just as the sun was starting to set, the entire town saw the most beautiful rainbow…double rainbow at times…that I’ve ever seen.  I full 180 degrees from shore to reef.  Amazing.  So amazing that locals, kids, tourists, EVERYONE was basically standing there with their cameras/phones gawking.

My pictures don’t capture it correctly but take my words for it.  GORGEOUS.

And now to the topic that has very little to do with the weather:  A few days ago, I was passing on the Back Street of San Pedro and saw this sign.

And quite honestly?  After the flurry of activity around this expensive re-do of the “Old Football field” or Saca Chispas at the back side of town last year, I had kinda forgotten about this big project.

A little background (more in this August 2012 post at the beginning of the project) and the plan that was posted by the site in late 2012.

The $6 million US project was planned to move water taxi traffic (both domestic and international) to the back side of the island to centralize arrivals.  It was also planned with a sorely needed REAL (like with grass and everything) football field and with a full board walk along the lagoon side of town.  A project to bring traffic to this area.

Here is a bit of what the area used to look like…

Boats, small docks and huts.

Farther north more of the same.  The fruit boats from the mainland would come in on Tuesday mornings – providing one of the shorelines more picturesque moments.

And the field was half sand and half grass.  Low lying land that flooded easily in rain.

And here is what I saw yesterday.

 

And as you walk towards these terminals and turn left along the lagoon, these kiosks…

 

And the boardwalk…

Down the boardwalk at the south end of the project, the restaurant The Sunset Grill has been closed for a few months at least…

And the condo project behind it.  Not sure if it is open either.

The docks and little houses to the north of the field look quite nice (the area where fruit was sold previously).

And the field…still waiting for grass.  Or turf.

And lastly, the dock area over the lagoon behind the taxi terminals.

The opening is tonight.  I am not quite sure how or when these large water taxis are going to start coming in to these terminals, this water looks incredibly shallow.  Is dredging planned?  Is the much talked about but never implemented plan of monitoring who comes to the island going to enacted?  Boat manifests?  We shall see..

Will the taxis that jam Front Street move back here to pick up customers off the boat?

It will also be interesting to see who moves into these kiosks and how business/traffic will be driven to this area.  Is the town planning to move all the vendors jammed along Central Park and the Front Street here?

Well…you can check it out yourself.  The ribbon cutting ceremony is tonight – March 14th at 6pm.

Let me know what you think…