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Postcards from:
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August 2005Greetings from Belize City,
The bus terminal
in
Belize City is located in a dingy part of town surrounded by
ramshackle buildings with trash waiting to be collected. Many needed
paint and most appeared to be leaning off of vertical. Learning the
direction of the landmark
Swing
Bridge from several English speaking people I passed, I walked
to the area and several miles beyond to the Radison Hotel. Nearly
everyone speaks English in this former British colony, though some
use a form that is quite difficult to understand.
As expected, the Radison wanted shock level rates, though they did offer a 30% discount for my being so old. And, the helpful receptionist directed me to the more budget friendly Princess Hotel further up the coast... "too far to walk! " "Too far to walk," who does she think she's talking to?
Twenty minutes
later the receptionist at the Princess Hotel offered me a discounted
rate of $80 including breakfast. Located right on the water my
deluxe room overlooked the hotel's boat dock, very picturesque. The
first morning checking with the receptionist I learned my walks
should be carefully planned; "this is a very dangerous
neighborhood." My how that sort of advice changes one's perception
of a place. Moving my level of alertness to "code red" I walked that
first morning expecting the worst. Of course, the reality differed
not at all from what I've found everywhere in Central America: same
dangers one might face in any place with its normal share of
miscreants. Why upscale hotels scare guests with exaggerated
warnings I don't know. I suppose a disproportionate number of
victims do tend to be guests of the deluxe hotels... but only
because foreign visitors flaunt their wealth and ignore obvious
signs of predation.
After two nights exploring this unexciting city I grabbed an air conditioned bus northwest to Orange Walk to be close to the Lamanai National Park with it Mayan ruins. Until the next missive from Belize, Peace, Fred L Bellomy
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