“We don’t need them, those black people, we don’t need them” – racist Mexican gangster
This was our last night on Caye Caulker; during the 4 days
we had spent here I had developed mixed feelings towards this place. We had planned to go to this pizza restaurant
owned by a friendly Canadian guy for our last night, nothing particularly heavy
as we had to catch the morning ferry to mainland Belize the next day. What started as a normal quiet night ended up
being something very different.
We passed the pizza restaurant on our first night whilst we
were walking around trying to find a hotel.
“Come to my place guys, I will make you a nice pizza!” the Canadian
owner hollered at us across the street from his restaurant.
When we did finally come on our last night he seemed
grateful “ah, you guys finally came, come out of the rain and have a seat”. He came and sat with us bringing a bottle of
tequila from behind the bar. After a few
shots and a bit of small talk he left to man the bar.
The pizzas here were very expensive with one medium sized
pizza costing more than our 2 hour ferry ride back to the mainland Belize. However considering we had already done a shot
with the friendly owner it would have been rude to leave. Maybe that is why he does it.
Meet Sean
It wasn’t long before a local guy came and introduced
himself. “Hey, what is happening guys, I
am Sean” he said whilst he sat himself down at our table. Sean was afro-Caribbean with short hair and a
baseball cap. He looked pretty average
other than slightly bloodshot eyes and a few missing teeth. It wasn’t long before the conversation
steered itself towards drugs. “We are
alright Sean, thanks” said Myles but that wasn’t the end of the interaction.
Sean was out with 2 backpackers who he had befriended on a
previous night and was trying to organize a night out with all of us. “I will introduce all of you guys in a
minute” he said whilst he got up and left to rejoin his other friends.
Meet "Marvin"
As soon as Sean left another local guy took his place. I can’t remember his name but it began with M
so I will call him Marvin. “Heyyyy
what’s up guyyys” he said in his weak spaced out voice. He was a mixture of afro-Caribbean and
Rastafarian with medium length slightly dreaded hair and a red tee-shirt.
After he found out our names he made a big deal out of the
fact that all our names began with the letter M. “heeeyyy.... Mmmm” he said whilst pointing at
Myles and I. He clearly wasn’t all there
mentally. A walking advertisement of how
drugs can fry your brain. However he did
seem friendly enough.
He said that he was basically Sean’s boss and dealer and
that all the drugs Sean had came from him.
Whilst saying this he produced a large bag of cocaine. “I want to talk to you outside in a few
minutes, I want to have a private discussion” he said pointing at me. Out of Myles and I he had singled me out with
special interest. I was surprised that
the Canadian owner of the pizza restaurant had turned a blind eye to all of
this.
Meet "Jimmy" and "Sven"
After Marvin left Sean returned with a Canadian guy called
Jimmy and a Finnish guy called Sven.
Again these are all made-up names because I can’t remember their real
ones.
Jimmy was a medium height skinny guy wearing a vest and
baseball cap with curly hair sticking out either side. He was generally nice enough but seemed a bit
dense. Sven was your stereotypical
Finnish guy with pale skin, blue eyes and very short albino blonde hair. He seemed quite intelligent but was obsessed
with drugs and techno music, two things that don’t interest me.
After a brief conversation Marvin called me over from outside
the restaurant. It was our “private discussion
time”. I left the restaurant and Marvin
was around the corner a few steps into a dark alleyway. “What do you want?” I said knowing that he
was obviously going to offer me drugs.
He produced the bag of cocaine and scooped out a large heap. “Try this man, free of charge” he said with a
big friendly smile on his face. I felt
like he was treating me more as a friend than a potential customer. “No thanks Marvin, you know I don’t do
drugs”. He looked a bit surprised that I
turned it down but he was still smiling.
He took the spoon and inhaled the mound himself. I left the alleyway and never saw Marvin
again.
Dark side of the island
When I got back Sean had finished organizing our night
out. The plan was to go to Mermaid bar
which was a bar for locals and have a few games of pool, after we would go to I
and I Reggae Bar where Sean wanted to introduce us to some local girls he knew. “I got these 4 stunning girls out tonight, you
should meet them...” he said with a big grin on his face. “I think we are alright thanks Sean”. But we did agree to go out that night, more
out of curiosity and that fact we didn’t have any other plans.
The Mermaid bar was very different from anywhere I had been
to on the island. We were in the Caribbean
and everywhere here had that Caribbean feel to it. However the Mermaid bar was distinctly
Hispanic; it was just like being in a bar in Mexico. There were a lot of Hispanic people in the
bar as well which was odd as I hadn’t seen any since arriving on the island. Where have all these Mexicans been hiding
over the last 4 days? There were 2 pool
tables surrounded by some old worn out sofas.
Sean had organized some double games between us and some locals.
Whilst waiting for my turn one of the guys in the bar came
and sat down next to me and introduced himself.
He was a short, slightly stocky heavily tattooed Hispanic guy wearing a
white vest and a silver crucifix around his neck. As always the offer of drugs quickly came up
in conversation. After that the
conversation steered towards gangs. “You
know the mafia, the cribs, the bloods?
In Mexico yeah? We have that here
too!” he said boastfully.
Coming from a middle class suburban upbringing I knew next
to nothing about gangs or gang culture.
The one sided conversation continued; “We need you lot here, tourists,
we need you on this island... we don’t need them though” he says pointing at
Sean “we don’t need them blacks here”.
The conversation had turned deeply sour, not like it was much of a
conversation to begin with.
I was sat next to a deeply racist Mexican gangster. Looking around the bar it didn’t seem like he
was the only gangster either. I suddenly
felt quite uncomfortable being here. I
felt like bailing but Sean came back and declared that we were moving onto I
and I.
We didn't really feel like clubbing any more but considering
I and I was just across the road from our hotel Myles and I decided we would go
for one more drink.
“The girls are at I
and I now, you are going to love them” Sean said to the group with a big smile
across his face.
Let's get out of here
I and I. I had been
to this place before and it was a relief to be here and not in the dodgy Mermaid
Bar. Myles and I went to get a beer
whilst Sean led Jimmy and Sven to the dance floor. We agreed this would be our last beer before
making our escape.
The fact that neither of us do drugs meant we had begun to
drift away from the group. “Come on
guys, I want you to meet these girls” Sean had come back from the dance floor
to get us. Sean was growing on me a bit,
although I found him annoying he did care about us having a good night. I still didn't trust him though.
He led us to the edge of the dance floor and pointed at
these girls. Jimmy was already there
dancing with his girl. It only took one
look to know that she wasn’t old enough to be at this bar. “Mate, she is no older than 16” Myles said to
me. I knew Jimmy wasn’t very street
smart but I didn’t think he was that much of an idiot.
“Right, this is just getting weird now, let’s get out of
here” Myles turned and said to me. This
night had started off a strange and had become just become weird. “Yeah, let’s go” I agreed with Myles and we
left without saying good bye to our new friends.
So overall this had been a weird night, I had been offered a
frightening amount of free drugs, spoke to a racist Mexican gangster and been
offered some underage girls. Travelling
is not all about sightseeing during the day.
Experiencing the night culture of a place is just as important, although
you do have to be careful. Getting too
drunk or high can land you in a world of trouble.
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