Cool to shoot in Belize?

[vincelucero]

Hey folks,

We may be going to Belize for a job. Deciding between taking the Red, which would be killer for stock, or the good ole HVX. The thought of taking our baby to a foreign country both excites and worries me.

During spring break, my college buddies had a really bad experience in Mexico with the Federalies. In the brand new Land Cruiser, stocked with surfboards, (and a small amount of cannabis) they were taken custody and almost stayed there. Lost most of their items but got to drive home at least. I would have been with them if there was room, but got lucky and went with my friends sister and the girls instead.

Does anyone have experiences or stories of shooting in Belize or the surrounding area? Or any other foreign country for that matter? There must be some great horror stories filled with customs agents, pirates, and misfortune. Care to share?

 

[Ed Watkins]

I don't know about Belize, but I'm off to the jungles in Panama next month with mine. It's a scary prospect, but I'm hoping the following will make it as painless as possible:
1) Insurance (Worldwide cover, including theft, natural disasters)
2) Travel with the purchase receipts, leave copies of the originals at home.
3) Use an ATA Carnet or get a form signed by US customs when leaving the country.
4) Pack gear in inconspicuous bags for traveling, no RED stickers, or video equipment branding.

I'll let you know how it works out when I get back. :sorcerer:

On a side note,
I had a friend who just traveled to Ethiopia, to film, and ran into an interesting problem. She only had a light weight setup (HVX200, lights, grip kit) but when she got to customs they refused to let her through unless she paid an extortionate amount of money, or go into the town find the "Mayor" and pay him a fee. She wasn't going to pay the customs men their huge fee, and It was late at night so the customs officials pushed the crew out of the airport, sans the equipment.

The next morning they found the "Mayor", paid a considerably smaller fee, and went back to the airport. The customs officials then fetched their confiscated equipment from an unlocked broom cupboard where it had apparently sat unattended all night... and then asked them for a tip. :wacko:

 

[Poi Boy]

Hey Vince,
Take Red ! that is why your getting two isn't it ?
Aloha
-A

 

[Finner]

Maybe don't carry drugs with you in a foreign country.

Isn't this just common sense.

 

[Tom Lowe]

Belize is chill. Obviously the nicer the place you stay, the better the security. The police are not corrupt like Mexico. Are you talking about the islands or inland? Once you get closer to Guatemala and Tikal, it gets more sketchy, but damn I'd love to see a RED shot from the top of the pyramids at Tikal.

 

[Deanan]

Guatemala can risky if you're hauling equipment through the jungle. Tikal is amazing to shoot at if you can get there early in the morning before the crowds show up. You can't climb up some of the main pyramids anymore.

 

[Mark Thorpe]

Maybe don't carry drugs with you in a foreign country.

Isn't this just common sense.

Wonder why no one else picked up on this too?

How can anyone think that getting found carrying drugs in a south / central American country is going to instigate anything but trouble? They should have got slammed IMHO.

Belize is a fantastic place. I filmed Whale sharks there out of Placencia. Monkey River, Stan Creek, Dangriga and others are nice little Garifuna towns, just be careful of your wallets and shiny things. I spent a night alone in the Cockscombe Jaguar Preserve too!! Now that was freaky.

Great nature though.

Best,
Mark.

 

[Michael Hastings]

Maybe don't carry drugs with you in a foreign country.

Isn't this just common sense.

An awful lot of ugly americans just don't get that you aren't in Kansas anymore and all the planes, ships, and the 20,000 nuclear warheads that we have don't mean squat to the locals and it probably shouldn't - it's their country.

She wasn't going to pay the customs men their huge fee, and It was late at night so the customs officials pushed the crew out of the airport, sans the equipment.

The next morning they found the "Mayor", paid a considerably smaller fee, and went back to the airport. The customs officials then fetched their confiscated equipment from an unlocked broom cupboard where it had apparently sat unattended all night... and then asked them for a tip. :wacko:

Customs problems are fairly common in most of the small countries I've been to. But the normal case is the shooters/producers haven't applied for the proper permits (and I'm no better) and often they would be in their rights to simply turn you away. I've usually been able to bluff my way through, sometimes after an hour or more of waiting, arguing, etc. but you have to walk a pretty fine line between being arrogant/argumentative and polite/contrite. You really have to try to figure out the psychology and politics of who you are talking to. But again, it's their country.

 

[Dominic Jones]

On a side note,
I had a friend who just traveled to Ethiopia, to film, and ran into an interesting problem. She only had a light weight setup (HVX200, lights, grip kit) but when she got to customs they refused to let her through unless she paid an extortionate amount of money, or go into the town find the "Mayor" and pay him a fee. She wasn't going to pay the customs men their huge fee, and It was late at night so the customs officials pushed the crew out of the airport, sans the equipment.

The next morning they found the "Mayor", paid a considerably smaller fee, and went back to the airport. The customs officials then fetched their confiscated equipment from an unlocked broom cupboard where it had apparently sat unattended all night... and then asked them for a tip. :wacko:

That's pretty much business as usual for African customs, in my experience.

Expect to pay some bribes (sorry, "fees"!) to "expedite" your journey through customs, especially with expensive kit (which means any film kit at all - a PD-150 would still count as high-end kit in most African countries). Dollars and/or good cigarettes and Scotch have all served me well in the past.

This is not an attack on Africa, just to be clear - it's just the kind of endemic corruption that you tend to get when there's a wealth differential of the kind there is between the "west" and a lot of African nations. That said, some can be fine - I strolled into Ghana last time I was there with tons of kit and no customs hassle at all. So it's not a given, but I would expect (and therefore budget for) some additional costs if traveling to most parts of Africa, just fyi...

 

[FELIPE.AGUILAR]

take the Red!
Belize is a small, relaxed and sovereign land, check out the Blue Hole, they also have a cool zoo in the outskirts of Belize city. Be sure to try the "bamboo chicken" and wash it down with a Belikin.
have a good time and a great shoot!
F

 

[Tom Lowe]

Wonder why no one else picked up on this too?

How can anyone think that getting found carrying drugs in a south / central American country is going to instigate anything but trouble? They should have got slammed IMHO.

Belize is a fantastic place. I filmed Whale sharks there out of Placencia. Monkey River, Stan Creek, Dangriga and others are nice little Garifuna towns, just be careful of your wallets and shiny things. I spent a night alone in the Cockscombe Jaguar Preserve too!! Now that was freaky.

Great nature though.

Best,
Mark.

Mark, I can't remember if I asked you this already on another thread, but did you get a chance to shoot at the blue hole?

 

[timflorianhorn]

Hi!

We just came home from a three week trip to Belize. We had no problems at all. The camera worked all the time - it´s the dry season right now.
We had no trouble with Customs or Police. You son´t have to be afraid of crime... It´s sooo laid back there. Amazing!
Let me know if you want to shoot in the south of Belize (Toledo). I can hook you up with some locals there.
It´s a fantastic place to be...

Tim

 

[Mark Thorpe]

Mark, I can't remember if I asked you this already on another thread, but did you get a chance to shoot at the blue hole?

Hi Tom,
I didn't really have any spare time from the Whaleshark commission I was there for, to do too much traveling within the country. I did get a few days to go and check out the rain forest after the main shoot. I decided against diving due to super saturation from 5 weeks of four daily dives. I went inland and hired a Mayan Indian to guide me through the Cockscombe Jaguar Preserve. I'd say screw the zoo. Do a night in a tent in the Preserve, I guarantee you wont sleep. Never heard so many screeches, grunts kakaaws and bleedin' yelps in my life! Sheesh. get up at 4am with the guide to lead you through the forest and you will see more snakes, Fer de Lance fer chrissakes, humming birds, frogs, toads and other cool stuff that a zoo pales by comparison.

Unfortunately we didn't see a Jaguar but after the rains of the night previous we did find the tracks of one large cat, probably a mom, with the smaller prints of a cub next to those about 200m from my tent site. The Indian guide had gone home and just left me alone in the middle of the place on request. Now flash to an image of the Blair Witch DVD cover and yeah, thats me alone in my tent whimpering for company!!

The negative upshot of the experience was that I picked up a hitch hiker in the form of a Bot Worm. The little buggers bury eggs under your skin, in my case under the skin of my scalp. I was traveling to Fiji straight after Belize and after about three weeks in Fiji I started getting a massive pain in my head and a lump the size of a egg, looked more like a Tom and Jerry style thwack to the bonce!! Two weeks later on my return to Europe as I was boarding a train i Munich I gave birth, literally! The pain was coming from the Bot Worm larvae as it was pushing a snorkel type arrangement through my sin to breath. That pain was tripled as the larvae actually ate its way out to the World on a packed train. It must have been reminiscent of John Hurts scene in the Alien movie all those years ago.

We'll I kept the little bugger, took it to a tropical disease center in Germany and found it to be harmless. To then get my own back I had it set into a paperweight, christened it 'Billy the Bug' and it then sat on my computer table for a number of years before I lost it during a move. Such is life.

So yeah, Belize is great!!

Have a blast.
Mark.

 

[Tom Lowe]

Sheesh! That Bot Worm sounds horrendous. I think I have seen a video of some lady with that same thing. Grotesque!

 

[Greg M]

take the Red!
Belize is a small, relaxed and sovereign land, check out the Blue Hole, they also have a cool zoo in the outskirts of Belize city. Be sure to try the "bamboo chicken" and wash it down with a Belikin.
have a good time and a great shoot!
F

agreed, Belize is an awesome place. I lived there for a year when I was young and fell in love. The people are great and customs is reasonable. As mentioned in other posts be wary in Guatemala, its an entirely different place and requires lots of cash for bribes, although Tikal is truly amazing and worth the journey. Thats a shame about the pyramids...my most memorable experience, shot a ton of pics from the top.

btw- be sure to visit Punta Gorda...wonderful place.

 

[Tom Lowe]

Wow, you actually lived there, huh? Must have been nice. I've probably spent about 6 months there, grand total, including 2 months living in a little apartment on the grounds of the Victoria House on Ambergris. That whole country is really magical.

In terms of Tikal, I would love to go back there with a RED for a sunset shot or my DLSR to shoot at night. It's easy to sneak around the guards. You just hide out in the woods until the guards go home, then it's up on top of the pyramids! And really, speaking of magical, Tikal at night is about as amazing as any place on earth.

 

[Mark Thorpe]

Yeah, can't agree more.

Tom, just posted my first night shot with the 400D nothing dazzling by your standards but check it out.

Mark.

 

[Greg M]

Wow, you actually lived there, huh? Must have been nice. I've probably spent about 6 months there, grand total, including 2 months living in a little apartment on the grounds of the Victoria House on Ambergris. That whole country is really magical.

In terms of Tikal, I would love to go back there with a RED for a sunset shot or my DLSR to shoot at night. It's easy to sneak around the guards. You just hide out in the woods until the guards go home, then it's up on top of the pyramids! And really, speaking of magical, Tikal at night is about as amazing as any place on earth.

I went to visit a friend, and ended up staying for a year. I had $2k in cash and it took a year to spend it all so I had to come home. (but this was in 1980)

Do they still have the grass huts at Tikal that you can rent...I stayed there for several weeks...I dont recall ever seeing a guard...and tourists were non existent.

 

[Tom Lowe]

No I don't recall any grass huts there, and the rules say you have to leave the park altogether once the sun goes down. The little town with all the hotels is a couple-mile walk from the pyramids.

That's awesome being able to live off 2K for a year! Legendary.

 

[Deanan]

Yeah, lots of places to shoot from without being seen but Temple I & II are decaying fast so climbing up them does at little more damage each time. I've seen guys sneak up to the top right after closing. Going out super early and staying past closing is sometimes the only way to get shots without people wandering around. Going out in the dark is hair raising