Tourist security(?)

The day before yesterday was not a very good day for tourism in Belize. There has been isolated robbery attacks in this area before; Kristina told me that a robbery of four tourists in the Caracol region (the most distant excursion and the towns star attraction, at least before ATM) had created a lot of discussion about how crime was on the increase and what should be done about it.

Well, this time the bandits hit a group of FIFTY tourists close to the ATM caves (much closer to civilization), held them all upp at gunpoint and made their way with all their belongings! The town is buzzing with the news, and this morning I actually saw Wanted posters in the city, just like in the wild west! There’s now a 10.000 $US reward for these guys! (And that is a lot to these people, although it only seems to buy you two washes of your car :-) - see the Canoe trip entry.)

The ambience in town is very subdued and everyone is gossiping about what happened! People seems convinced that there are bandits from Guatemala that crosses the border to do the robberies, and that is probably correct – crime in Guatemala, especially against tourists is MUCH worse than in Belize.

And I’m moving on to Guatemala? Well, just another reason to be even more careful then...