Who Will Be the Next Reina De La Costa Maya?
Seven beauties from Belize, the rest of Central America and Mexico are getting ready at this time to compete for the coveted La Reina De La Costa Maya pageant. It is all happening in San Pedro and is part of the Costa Maya International Festival held yearly on the island. Activities started earlier in the week, building up to the international pageant tonight so San Pedro is buzzing with a number of events and will be playing host to thousands of visitors. Last year, San Pedro resident, Michelle Nunez, won the title so there is pressure on Marcia Moody to keep the crown in the jewel though competition is tough. News Five’s Duane Moody caught up with the delegates as they did a round of interviews with the judges. Here is his report:
Duane Moody, Reporting
The annual Costa Maya Festival opens tonight with the La Reina De La Costa Maya pageant where seven delegates from Central America and Mexico compete for the coveted international title. Following preliminaries on Thursday night, today, the confidently beautiful women sashayed onto the pier at host hotel Ramon’s Village where yet another round of competition, the interview segment, took place. Meet the seven international beauties:
[Delegates introducing themselves….]
Belize has won the title four times since the inception of the pageant, with Leilah Pandy, Maria Jeffrey, Destinee Arnold and Michelle Nunez; Nunez is the current titleholder whose reign comes to an end tonight. It’s added pressure for Belize’s delegate Marcia Moody, but she says she’s ready.
Marcia Moody
Marcia Moody
“Of course it always comes with an added pressure whenever the host country has the crown and I feel a bit pressured right now because I want to perform and bring the crown back to my country. But I believe that my self-confidence will allow me to do my best tonight.”
The Ministry of Tourism has been supporting the international festival on the prime tourism destination in the country. Minister Manuel Heredia Junior says that it’s an economic boost to the island during the slow season.
Manuel Heredia Jr.
Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
“The idea behind that was to promote tourism both locally and internationally and it has been growing every year with good international artists, more and more people from the main are coming to the island to look at this; particularly Friday and Saturday are the two days that are more packed up. But the idea was to really in the slow season promote tourism and it is really good because most of the restaurants, hotels are fully booked out for this weekend. The economic boost that it has; everybody makes a living money off of that. The artisans, the hotels, tour guides because some of them come and they want to go to Hol Chan, they want to go elsewhere. So it is indeed and economic benefit for the island and Belize on a whole.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
Get all the glitz of the pageant this Saturday on this station when we air the pageant beginning at six p.m.
