Edgar Spence admittedly is in the golden years of his life. I probably know very little about him, less the fact that he was nice to me one hot day in Belize City. And according to what he told me that day, Mr. Spence arrived to Belize from the island of Jamaica so many years ago it really doesn’t matter to him and in turn means little to this piece. What does matter is that these days Mr. Spence drives his polished gold Impala station wagon along the main thoroughfares and through the twisted back streets of Belize City, a task which requires a lot of knowledgeable navigation in a place notorious for getting drivers lost.

The luck of the draw afforded my family and me the great fortune to befriend Mr. Edgar Spence in his taxi one day not while it was parked patiently awaiting the next cab fare outside the cruise ship tourist village or the marine ferry dock which takes most travelers from Belize City to the cayes of Ambergris or Caulker. Nor was the old American station wagon belonging to Mr. Spence parked in a row of taxis in downtown Belize City where it’s easy to catch a ride.

No, we caught up with Mr. Spence after we requested a taxi following our visit to the Old Belize Museum located at Milepost 5 on the Western Highway. Called up at random by the kind and accommodating ticket seller at the museum where my wife and I had spent the morning touring our four year old son, trying our best to explain to him the history of the country we love by the Caribe Sea. Mr. Spence was not just polite, but we instantly realized that we were in the presence of a real gentleman.

As my wife and son sat comfortably in the back seat of Mr. Spence’s Impala, I sat up front and listened over the morning show of Love FM as he told me about the trials and tribulations of years taxiing folks like us around the side streets of Belize City. And although Belize City gets a lot of bad press in the guidebooks, indeed it’s the residents of the city like Edgar Spence that always seem to dispel the harsh words from travel writers that have plagued the tourist industry in the town for way too many years.

Belize First Magazine

But even Mr. Spence admits that crime can be a problem in the city and he surly has seen his share of crime in Belize, twice to date having had a gun pointed at him in failed robbery attempts. However, as he explained, “What are the taxi drivers of the cities in the far frozen north faced with these days?? Isn't senseless crime spawned by poverty and drug addiction prevalent in our lives whether we live in Paris or Chicago or Timbuktu or Belmopan”

These words of truth spoken by a one Edgar Spence that day in the sweltering heat of Belize City resonated loudly reminded me and mine that taxi drivers across the planet make the rest of our lives ever so safe and comfortable. They provide this security for a handful of dollars, especially at times when we are lost or without wheels or between bus rides. Collectively the taxi driving men and women allow us strangers the luxury of a place in their car without prejudice, without so much as a question as to who we are or where we have arrived from. They only seem to require to know where we need to go.

In the end they allow us into their world seemingly without concern for their own personal safety though they insure us of our own with care and patience in a time that seems more troubled day after day. And if we are lucky as in the case of my family’s close encounter with Mr. Edgar Spence that day in Belize City as he drove us from the Old Belize Museum to The Great House, we departed his ride touched by his sense of humanity, and therefore we became ever changed.

I ask you, if it were not for the men and women that ferry us about in the front and back seats of their private taxis like the Edgar Spence’s of the world, would we not all be standing around on street corners with those foolishly overpriced and outdated guidebooks asking each other which way to go? Talk about a lonely planet, thank you Mr. Spence for allowing me and mine to catch a lift, and for enlightening us as to the joys and simple beauty of your Belize City.