San Mateo

Below is a map of the general area that we spent our time in.  You can see San Pedro Airport near the bottom, where we arrive and depart from.  Up near the top is the channel that we cross over to enter San Mateo.  San Mateo is the area to the left after you cross the bridge.  To give you a sense of scale, it takes about 20 minutes to walk from Ruby's (our hotel which is about 2 blocks from the airport) to Holy Cross Anglican school which is pretty much the first thing on the left after you cross the bridge. A 20 minute walk is about a mile.  You can also see that our section of the island is only about 1000 feet across at it's narrowest points.  It makes for a community in which everyone who is not a tourist seems to know everyone else who is not a tourist and even the tourists get to know each other and the local community fairly quickly.

Here are a few views of San Mateo from the bridge.  Below is the view to the left, facing west.

And to the right, facing west.

Note the newer, hot pink building that looks a little out of place in the pictures above and below?  Since the roads have been built, people are starting to build nicer buildings in the area.  

Here is an other shot of the prolific amount of trash dumped in the area as fill.  

A completed road.

Teacher's bicycles at school.