Home » Belize » Stupid white British tourist

(sorry it's a bit of a long one)
Wandering around Belize City, it's surprisingly hard to find anything you want. For example, finding a tourist information place was an hour's quest that eventually failed, all the places having moved countless times in recent years so that not even locals know where they are. Nevertheless, although slightly irritating from a personal perspective, this is a prime example highlighting what a dynamic and vibrant place this small city is, and one that is constantly developing and changing.

Stupid white British tourist

Simon Wadsworth
2006-09-04 18:56:56

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(sorry it's a bit of a long one)
Wandering around Belize City, it's surprisingly hard to find anything you want. For example, finding a tourist information place was an hour's quest that eventually failed, all the places having moved countless times in recent years so that not even locals know where they are. Nevertheless, although slightly irritating from a personal perspective, this is a prime example highlighting what a dynamic and vibrant place this small city is, and one that is constantly developing and changing.

After spending about 30 hours travelling (and what felt like a similar length of time sleeping once here), from Toronto, through Houston's "we do not take highly to persons joking about any act of security. You will be arrested" airport, I was welcomed into Belize with a huge 'Subway' billboard. At least it made a change from the Yellow Arches. A taxi driver then took me to the city, playing reggae music; a sure stereotype but one I wasn't going to ignore, in order to get me psyched; afterall, Belize is on the edge of the Caribbean and there's a tropical smell in the air.

If you look past the rundown old buildings on
stilts, Belize City is a bustling place with a lot of character, perched across the Belize River on the coast. I could have spent all day chatting to everyone who is amazingly friendly and themselves happy to chat with someone from 'the Queen's nation'. Belize is a relatively small, stable country, with a population similar to Leeds, UK. It extends from Mexico in the north, to Guatemala in the south, and from the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere in the east, to the Maya mountains 50miles to the west. There's so much to discover (not only in the city, but all across the country), and I really don't know where to start for these limited 2 weeks. Although, at least I have a headstart on the 2 middle-aged Americans sitting next to me while I write ...