The La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge - it is the annual three day, 179 mile canoe race from Cayo to Belize City. It is man, or in this case, three men or women against Belize's rivers. This year's race began on Friday night from under the Hawksworth Bridge in San Ignacio Town and ended yesterday afternoon under the Belcan Bridge in the city. 93 teams of three started but it was the team from Belize Bank that came out on top - winning their 7th out of the last 9 races. Here is the photo finish win between team Belize Bank and team BNE. Today we spoke by phone to the winning captain Armin Lopez who is back in Cayo recuperating.
Armin Lopez, Captain - Team Belize Bank
"It so worked out that we won the race again. We were racing together with BNE and Fruta Bomba and thanks to God we won the race."
Keith Swift,
Is this victory any sweeter than the previous ones?
Armin Lopez,
"Well we worked for it because we had more competition so I think yeah, we feel happy about it because I felt BNE would have won this race because we weren't in that good of a shape so I thought those boys would win the race this year but it didn't happen that way so thanks to God we won again and I really appreciate the fans and everybody."
As we mentioned - this is Belize Bank's seventh victory out of the last nine La Ruta Maya challenges. That means that again this year, Lopez and his teammates will take home the Kinich Ahau trophy and other prizes including a round trip ticket to Texas. The team sponsored by Belize Natural Energy placed second and the team Fruta Bomba sponsored placed third. The Belize Bank team won overall but that doesn't account for the station prizes.
