parasites, zombies and bribes

On the way back from the island in belize we ate at one of the many food stands in belize city . The food in belize has a very creole southern feel….lots of rice and beans, stew chicken, plantans, etc. It is very good, but as ii goes youre pressing your luck with the quality of street cooked food. Shannon, one of the guys im riding with right now wasn’t so lucky. He picked up some sort of parasite and was up in the middle of the night and down for the count the next 24 hours. So we hung out in belize city for an extra day waiting his recovery. time square of belize city

Belize city is not where you want to hang out for any extra amount of time. It’s total poverty, dirty slum promotes pick pocketing and general hustlers nagging at you whenever youre out. Night time is out of the question as the post-apocalyptic-reggae-zombies ( that is the best description I can give…fully stoned, half dead, drunk, tore up look that isn’t pretty) take over the streets! So were confined to the hotel balcony and it felt like lockdown.
the view from the balcony of hotel lockdown got much better after a few beers and playing dominoes
thankfully they had a nice place for the bikes off the street
The next day Shannon was feeling good enough to ride… we headed out. As there are all over but normally wave you by, there was a police check point just outside of the city. They pulled us over and were hassling us about insurance (very young cops). Dan and Shannon were able to find an old receipt from mexico insurance they bought but I couldn find mine because the mex cops on the way in to belize took it when I refused to pay a bogus exit fee. So the little kid cops started saying its aginst the law and I have to go to jail for a day or two, blah, blah, blah. They had me pull my bike over to the other side by their checkpoint cabana where I was looking for any insurance paperwork on the bike again and then pulled me into the hut, saying “well you have to go to jail…..they did that for 10 minutes or so and I realized if they were really gonna take me to jail they already would have so I said …..No I don’t want to go to jail?? And sure enough one looked up half cockeyed….”you want to give something?? Like it was the first time he had ever had the thought…bastard. And I said ya just a minute. Went back out to the bike grabbed 50 belize ($25 us)) went back in gave it to them and smiling they nodded go ahead. So I got back to the bike started getting all my stuff back in order from rummaging thru it and they have the cohonas to come over all chatty cathy friends asking all kinds of questions about the bike where we’re going etc. I gave them the standard answer ‘that I am working as a wriiter-journalist for a motorcycle travel magazine down to South America and I don’t know how much the bike costs, etc, etc. (EVERYONE south of the US wants to know how much the bike costs and where I am going so I decided early on that photojournalist is the safest answer.)I could tell there was a bit of concern in there eyes and they stopped being so chatty as soon as I said it. So…after I was loaded up and started to pull off I rode up by one of them and and told him I’d put them in the magazine and rode of with the same kind of smile they gave me when they said… “you want to give us something”Leaving the city......
on the way out right in the middle of town on both sides a huge overpacked cemetary on the main roadThere is a river that runs right thru belize city full with water taxis and fishing outfits.
This is a commercial fishing boat.....I think they're crewed up...


Im in flores Guatemala now and its beautiful. Heading to Tikal, the largest Maya ruins sight in all of central america.