Best of Mike #20

I have to tell you that we were a little nervous during our visit to Belize City.

We had heard that it was a bit of a rough place... and that many if not most of the tourists who visit Belize, go out to one of many resorts on the Cayes or Atolls.

We had decided to stay right in Belize City because we wanted to dive with our friend Capt. Hugh and that was where his dive operation was based.

Our hotel was right on the edge of the city and right by the water. To go diving, we went through the courtyard, out  the gate and crossed the road to walk down this pier to the get on the boat.

One afternoon we screwed up our courage and decided to walk to town and see what we could see.

In deference to some of the stories we had heard, we chose middle of the day. Figuring that if we were well behaved and watched the time we could be back in the safety of our hotel, before dark. And surely, the really bad things didn't happen before dark.

It was a nice walk. We saw a number of older homes (maybe even Victorian era) that had been turned into inns or restaurants. Met some local people along the way and even crossed a pretty canal with an interesting collection of boats.

But mostly, we noticed that on almost every street corner there was a soldier with a very large rifle.

None of our group said much, but each time we passed a soldier, we walked a little faster and looked at the local people with a little more suspicion. By the time we got downtown we were moving at the pace of a pretty good "race walker".

No one seemed to be interested in shopping. So, one loop, around the downtown area and we hightailed it back to the safety of our hotel.

I think it was one of the hotel staff who overheard us speculating on the need for that kind of security. With an amused grin on their face, they explained to us that it was not, in fact, a normal part of life there.

As it turns out, the President of neighboring Honduras was making a state visit.... and those "armed individuals" were actually policemen who had been station along the route as an honor guard.

The President was staying in the same hotel as us. So the route that he took from the airport was pretty much the same route that we took to walk to town and back.

I didn't meet the man. But our god-daughter, Danielle actually rode the elevator with him and two of his body guards after dinner that night.

However, that's a story for another time.