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The Beauty and the Beast
I love traveling in countries people don’t know exist, and one of these is Belize. It has some of everything: party/diving islands; jungle rivers; amazing caves; traditional villages; and probably the current world record in “most scumbags in the smallest area”.
Truth be told, I spent most of my time in the first four places, and slogans like ‘Beautiful Belize’ is what comes to mind when I think back despite some of stories below.
Exhibit A: Drifting down a jungle river in Northern Belize, spotting crocodiles and having spider monkeys jumping into the boat.
Exhibit B: Spending time in a traditional Mayan villages with less than 500 inhabitants, living in palm huts with local families, eating food cooked in clay ovens, playing football with the boys, and exploring the surrounding caves in my ‘spare time’.
But not everything is picture perfect. Belize City is another story! I have rarely felt less safe in a place than there – and I’ve been in some doubtful places during my travels. It might not be that dangerous, but the feeling of not being in control of your situation is always there. It’s the biggest city in Belize, but not the capital, which means that every scumbag, beggar and lowlife comes there. At the same time the city has nothing really acting as protection with the lack of upper class politicians, so security is inadequate. Combine this with the fact that the population is less that 75,000 people so the area you visit as a traveller is pretty much limited till two squares connected by a river that runs between the city. So all the touts and hustlers go there, and if it’s impossible to avoid going there at least a handful of times each day, meaning that even the beggars will remember you and the bad excuse you gave them last time you walked past. It takes some imagination to find an excuse good enough that it will not backfire the next time you see the drug dealer who tried to sell you drugs five minutes ago…
On top of this, Belize City has the same same reputation as Guatemala City, Johannesburg, and Nairobi (Nairobbery): ‘If you go there, you will most certainly get robbed’. This is of course an overstatement, but I took my precautions (I will tell more of these when I'm updating you on my travels in Guatemala).
Basically, always have your valuables out of sight, keep them on you if possible, and if not always have them locked away. In Belize City I kept everything on me, in that way knowing that I would only loose anything if I got robbed on the street, and in those situations you have some control of what and how much you want to handle over if you keep your wits about you. For this strategy to work: never flash anything you don't wanna loose in case bad guys were watching you. It turned out to be a smart move as I didn't get robbed. Especially because my hostel room got broken into while I was out. There are no dorms in Belize, so everybody gets a cheap single room, which lock is basically a hatch-lock, kind of the same size that my backpack is locked with. This wasn't how the burglar(s) got in though, they went through the window, kicking in the mosquito net. After this they could easily cut the lock on my backpack, the only risk was for me to come back mid-day, but not very likely when you are out and about in a city this size... Having left nothing of value behind the burglars found nothing but dirty clothes and had to leave empty handed.
Those stories are only for Belize City, though. People everywhere else in Belize are lchill, friendly, and fresh. The Caribbean lifestyle is everywhere there, and it feels more like Jamaica than Central America. If you get the chance to visit, it’s a sure destination for divers, party people, nature lovers, and history buffs!
Greetings from Guatemala, where I’m still alive after driving the "Death Road" of Central America, but only on my way to Guatemala City (by many believed to be in the top 10 of the 'Most Dangerous Cities in the World).
Truth be told, I spent most of my time in the first four places, and slogans like ‘Beautiful Belize’ is what comes to mind when I think back despite some of stories below.
Exhibit A: Drifting down a jungle river in Northern Belize, spotting crocodiles and having spider monkeys jumping into the boat.
Exhibit B: Spending time in a traditional Mayan villages with less than 500 inhabitants, living in palm huts with local families, eating food cooked in clay ovens, playing football with the boys, and exploring the surrounding caves in my ‘spare time’.
But not everything is picture perfect. Belize City is another story! I have rarely felt less safe in a place than there – and I’ve been in some doubtful places during my travels. It might not be that dangerous, but the feeling of not being in control of your situation is always there. It’s the biggest city in Belize, but not the capital, which means that every scumbag, beggar and lowlife comes there. At the same time the city has nothing really acting as protection with the lack of upper class politicians, so security is inadequate. Combine this with the fact that the population is less that 75,000 people so the area you visit as a traveller is pretty much limited till two squares connected by a river that runs between the city. So all the touts and hustlers go there, and if it’s impossible to avoid going there at least a handful of times each day, meaning that even the beggars will remember you and the bad excuse you gave them last time you walked past. It takes some imagination to find an excuse good enough that it will not backfire the next time you see the drug dealer who tried to sell you drugs five minutes ago…
On top of this, Belize City has the same same reputation as Guatemala City, Johannesburg, and Nairobi (Nairobbery): ‘If you go there, you will most certainly get robbed’. This is of course an overstatement, but I took my precautions (I will tell more of these when I'm updating you on my travels in Guatemala).
Basically, always have your valuables out of sight, keep them on you if possible, and if not always have them locked away. In Belize City I kept everything on me, in that way knowing that I would only loose anything if I got robbed on the street, and in those situations you have some control of what and how much you want to handle over if you keep your wits about you. For this strategy to work: never flash anything you don't wanna loose in case bad guys were watching you. It turned out to be a smart move as I didn't get robbed. Especially because my hostel room got broken into while I was out. There are no dorms in Belize, so everybody gets a cheap single room, which lock is basically a hatch-lock, kind of the same size that my backpack is locked with. This wasn't how the burglar(s) got in though, they went through the window, kicking in the mosquito net. After this they could easily cut the lock on my backpack, the only risk was for me to come back mid-day, but not very likely when you are out and about in a city this size... Having left nothing of value behind the burglars found nothing but dirty clothes and had to leave empty handed.
Those stories are only for Belize City, though. People everywhere else in Belize are lchill, friendly, and fresh. The Caribbean lifestyle is everywhere there, and it feels more like Jamaica than Central America. If you get the chance to visit, it’s a sure destination for divers, party people, nature lovers, and history buffs!
Greetings from Guatemala, where I’m still alive after driving the "Death Road" of Central America, but only on my way to Guatemala City (by many believed to be in the top 10 of the 'Most Dangerous Cities in the World).
BelizePhotos
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Spider Monkey, unfortunately we wasn't allowed to take pictures of the ones in the boat
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Jungle-river trip
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My room after the "nice little visit"
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Backpack lock
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Belize-famous rock musician, who still needs to fish to feed his family
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Cheap transportation, on the back of a pick-up
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Mayan village...
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... with a view
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Roughing it
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Exploring!
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Time for a swim
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All Indiana needs to survive
