Most people who visit our area are very nice, and overall we enjoy the folks who come to Belize as visitors. "But" even so, a lot of otherwise pleasant people seem unaware of the difference between tourism and tresspassing; beachcombing and theft.
To assist in a better understanding and to encourage a positive relationship between locals and guests, I thought I'd post this set of guidelines about a few things that are really not ok to do ..... (believe me, they all happen way too often!)
Please do NOT:
1. Enter private property (homes, yards, gardens, vacant lots - hotel-rooms/accommodations)without permission. It's not ok where you come from and it's not ok here.
2. Attend weddings and funerals to which you are not invited - these are private affairs, not cultural exhibitions.
3. Walk into local churches in bathing suits, carring food & booze, and/or smoking cigars.
4. Take lawn ornaments from homes & hotels as souvenirs - even we Belize-folks like to keep a conch shell or two around.
5. Take other people's dogs for long walks, abandoning them "somewhere", and/or taking them into your hotel room for a few days. They are pets - they are loved and missed when they vanish.
6. Send your bored and antsy 12-year old out to drive a golf cart up and down the beach for amusement. This ruins the beach-time of everybody else, and it's illegal for anybody to drive under the age of 19 and without a license. A golf-cart is a vehicle that can easily injure/kill babies and pets if improperly handled.
Simply put - Locals as well as tourists deserve to have a nice day every day in paradise.
Thanks for understanding.