NICH/Institute of Archaeology Outraged over Tourist Urinating & Drinking at Caracol

Over the weekend, disturbing photographs surfaced on social media showing a tourist exposing himself at an archaeological site in Belize. It is against park rules for visitors to be imbibing on the grounds, but to have the tourist urinating in open court near a monument is seen as a clear disrespect to the cultural heritage of the country. Belizeans and others took to social media outraged by the incident and as we found out today, the National Institute of Culture and History and the Institute of Archaeology are also up in arms about the incident, even though the tourist has since apologized on social media.

Neil Hall

Neil Hall, Communications & Marketing Officer, NICH

“We at NICH, the Institute of Archaeology, who are charged with the safekeeping of these sites, find these acts truly deplorable and we are not taking it lightly. This is not something that happens often; actually it’s something that we don’t have any record of happening before because when it has been attempted before—in terms of the drinking at the site—we have either (a) told people they have to take their bottles or their drinks back to the vehicle or whenever they came from or (b) we’ve actually confiscated drinks from people while at the site. The fact that this gentleman was able to take this bottle on to the site is simply an oversight; he slipped us through some means. It was in his bag, in his pocket, in something and he managed to take it out there.  The urinating at the site is something that like you said is absolutely unacceptable and even this gentleman, he went on his page and he mentioned that he is truly sorry. However, we at NICH and the Institute of Archaeology are looking at the entire situation and looking at ways to ensure that this does not happen again. If that means some type of reprimand for that gentleman, then we shall see how we can implement as he is a tourist and might not be here tomorrow; might not even be here today.”