Message in a bottle from Sweden lands in Belize

The Kattegat Sea, which is bound by Sweden and Denmark, is over five thousand five hundred miles away from Ambergris Caye. That’s a far way off considering that the distance between Belize City and Ambergris is just about thirty six miles. You may be thinking: what’s the relevance of this information. Well the distance between the Kattegat Sea and San Pedro Ambergris Caye is exactly how far a message in a bottle traveled to get to Belize. Last June, eight year old, Elina Sjöwall was travelling with her family from Sweden to Legoland in Denmark. When crossing the Kattegat Sea in a ferry she put the message in a bottle and threw it into the sea. And the bottle surfaced on the shores of San Pedro. Media reports out of Sweden have been having a field day reporting that a “Pirate Senor Chico” sent a response back to the Swedish girl after finding her message. The post card, with a view of a Belizean beach was sent back to Sweden by a man describing himself as a retired pirate who tells the girl ofa tale of buried treasures off the shore of Ambergris Caye. Elina and her family have been ecstatic over the response and are grateful someone took the time to respond. As for the message in the bottle, it is said to be continuing on its journey, as the retired pirate claims to have thrown it back into the sea. The identity of the retired pirate ‘senor chico’, remains unknown but his gesture is having a lasting impact across the world.

We’d like to thank Linda Glendell at the Varbergs Posten for the photos and Belizean Gloria Contreras, living in Sweden, for translating the information.