Firstly, you only have to be 18 to drink in Belize. Not saying they actually enforce it (I sincerely doubt they do) but that’s their law. So literal shots out to you college freshman spring breakers – woot woot!
Most importantly though, these mofo’s give you drinks to go – and it’s legal! You can literally drink and drive here. EXCEPT (very important – EXCEPT) it is illegal to BE drunk and drive. And we all know how relative the word drunk is. That gives a lot of room for opinion so don’t be an idiot. If you pull up to a police checkpoint and “cheers” the guy, that’s not technically illegal in itself, but gives more than probably cause to start f****** with you.
Regarding the police here, I do have to say, for the most part they are pretty legit. They don’t fuck with tourists unless you give them good reason. Same can be said (generally speaking) for the locals. They may be a little “corrupt” as far as our definition goes (like being a drug hook-up, which I will get to at some point) but they know tourism (ergo tourists) are an economic life support system.
Back to their checkpoints. They have them randomly along the highways and in town. They also change location frequently. You’ll see cones and a stop sign marked “Police Checkpoint”. Every time but one, I stopped and they didn’t even get out of their seat, they just waved me on like I was an idiot for stopping. The last day of my trip however, I got stopped in San Pedro in the golf cart and they asked for my driver’s license…
…ok…
Thank God I actually had it on me.
He took it from me and then started looking around in the golf cart. At this point I was second guessing the information the locals had fed me about “open containers” and would have started sweating if I wasn’t already drenched in it.
Another police officer came over and they started speaking in what I can only assume was Spanish??
Then they asked me to get up so they could look under my seat. FML.
Then he complemented my name.
Wtf.
…thank you…?
He proceeded to explain something to me but all I got out of it was “insurance” and “original copy”. He was laughing and smiling, which is all I cared about at the time, so I just copied him until he waved me on…. Jesus.
There was a local dude waiting for me, that I was following to the gas station, who watched the whole thing and was laughing when I told him what happened.
He said, “Oh, its because you’re a woman, they probably wanted your phone number.”
Apparently in Belize, its customary to woe a woman by making her shit her pants. Who would have thought?
Availability
Alcohol is everywhere. The selection, however, is limited. As far as beer goes, they have a local one that tastes like Dosequis and a surf–something lager one…it tastes like corona.
Hard Alcohol
Now, if you are a vodka connoisseur, like I, you are SOL. They have Absolute. And that’s absolutely it (no pun intended). They’ll have a couple Tequila’s – typically no silvers. But man, there’s rum selections for days and it is freaking delicious!! Or maybe they just water it down, idk. But I got this drink made in a pineapple (with noodle straws lol) that I literally watched him pour 3/4 of the way up with rum and splashed some juice in – and it tasted like heaven. I even ordered one to go! 😊
The same can be said about any of there blended drinks. Towards the end of my trip I started to be convinced it has to be watered down and started ordering shots. Thank God for Fireball. It’s appreciated globally.
Cost
It’s slightly cheaper than America, on average. Cheapest on the west side of the country and gets more expensive the further east you get…. Just like everything else. Even in this “village” I ran across, near the airport in Belize City, it was $5 per strictly measured shot of fireball. And this place considered a donkey, luxury transportation. I realize that’s probably the “white girl tourist” price, but that’s beside my point…
A Single White Female 