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Can you metal detect in Belize?

Turn your question around the other way: Why WOULDN'T it be ? :confused:

But seriously now: Watch out for any answer you get, that seems to spell out dire sounding "no's". For example , someone tells you "no", but then you find out how they came to that conclusion: They asked .

Like asked a travel border consulate who then couches the answer in terms of shipwreck salvor laws, or exporting gold bars across the border. Or a purist govt. archie there who promptly couches the answer in terms of protected monuments cultural heritage laws (that were not meant, nor ever apply to any other than the pyramids or sensitive monuments) . Or a hotel clerk who thought it would bother mating turtles, or some such nonsense.

And this is often ALSO the way the well-intentioned compendiums get their info. You know ... those web links where various past people have attempted to capsulize the laws of each state or country. You'll see various dire sounding language in a lot of them. Yet ... oddly ... no shortage of md'rs (and dealers, etc...) in those countries. Showing that obviously ..... someone fetched the "safe" answer to their "pressing question" from a bored bureaucrat desk-jockey.
 
Yeah, don't ask, just go ahead and do it. Foreign police are always soooo understanding of Americans + foreign jails aint That bad anyway.


:sadwalk:
 
Champ Ferguson said:
Yeah, don't ask, just go ahead and do it. Foreign police are always soooo understanding of Americans + foreign jails aint That bad anyway.


:sadwalk:
Click to expand...

Champ, do you see what you've done with this statement/post ? It merely presumes: "illegal" & "jail". If those premises are true, then sure, everything else you're saying does indeed logically follow. But what you are doing is the psychology of:

"Assuming what you are trying to prove, as evidence of your proof for it".

Why the starting implicit premise ? Nothing's been shown/proven yet.
 
USA rules (+ moral grounds, thought patterns, etc) don't apply outside the USA, Tom. [size=x-small]Sadly, sometimes they don't even apply within our boundaries as well.[/size]
Suggesting someone challenge a foreign government over anything on their home turf isn't very smart. How could you live with yourself if someone got locked up in a foreign jail because of advice you gave?

My position is to KNOW what the rules are, written and unwritten, and only then proceed as your intellect guides you.
 
Remember Out of country rules are different than USA rules.
Out of country laws, and penalties, are for certain different.
 
Champ Ferguson said:
USA rules (+ moral grounds, thought patterns, etc) don't apply outside the USA, Tom. Sadly, sometimes they don't even apply within our boundaries as well.
Suggesting someone challenge a foreign government over anything on their home turf isn't very smart. How could you live with yourself if someone got locked up in a foreign jail because of advice you gave?

My position is to KNOW what the rules are, written and unwritten, and only then proceed as your intellect guides you.
Click to expand...

Champ, re-read what I've written, and you'll see that I never said "it's not forbidden". For all you or I know, it may indeed have a law or rule there that says "no md'ing". All that I was pointing out to the O.P. was to look carefully at whatever answers he gets. To see if they are actually codified somewhere. If there's a law or rule, then BY ALL MEANS obey it. So I was not saying to "challenge a foreign government".

And as for areas outside the USA (any other country besides the USA and Britain), there seems to be a prevailing notion that every non-western culture is crime and corruption ridden. Or if it's any eastern country, then *most certainly* swashbuckling warriors on camels roam about to cut people's hands off for the slightest things.

I got the same earful in the early 1990s when I went to Mexico to detect for a month. As I got ready to leave, persons in my md'ing club were saying similar things: "Gee is it legal to detect in Mexico?" and "they will confiscate a detector at the borders" and "you can be mugged and killed by the cartels", and "don't drink the water", blah blah. But it turns out .... they're people just like you and I (fancy that). In fact, some of the nicest people I ever met. Oh sure, don't hang out in dark alleys in the bad sides of town at night. Sure. But I think that some Americans are convinced that any other country that's not western/english speaking, is somehow doom waiting to happen @ the drop of a hat.
 
Elton said:
Remember Out of country rules are different than USA rules.
Out of country laws, and penalties, are for certain different.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree. What I "disagree" with is some of the answers that get floated on md'ing forums, when the subject of foreign countries (heck, even types locations within the USA too). That ... when you look deeper into someone's dire notions, yet no one has any chapter and verse law to cite. It's just "something they heard" . And they link you to another post where "someone heard it", etc... And so on back to infinity.

Or perhaps there is something dire sounding (no different than how dire ARPA sounds, eh ?), yet when you look closer, you see it's for protected monuments, or federal land. And has no bearing on the tourist beaches, private land, modern objects, etc...

As for "culture" differences , sure: Don't throw caution to the wind.
 
Elton and Tom, I apologize if either of you took my posts to be an attack on Tom. It is certainly not what I intended. Tom and ii poke at each other on various forums and the oft-repeated dance is never with malicious intent.
 
And I mean no ill-will to you guys either. It's all just pro & con talk. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle ? ha
 
Here's a blogpost that may interest you Tom.

https://detectinganattitude.blogspot.com/2018/03/dangerous-detecting-and-new-world-order.html
 
As a visitor in a foreign country, I would ask a local police officer before using a detector. Even if you don't get arrested, just having your machine confiscated would be terrible. A foreigner does not have standing as a guest of the host country. Having said that, I am sure there are American expat detectorists in Belize that have better info. Good luck and be safe. Peace Roy
 
Champ, thanx for the link. But ... what's the point ? :shrug: What was that all about ? A rant about paranoid md'rs ? Supposed dangers from homeless people waiting to descend on md'rs, and so md'rs have to keep pepper spray and guns at hand ? MD'rs walking about like zombies turning over heaven and earth to find one more clad dime ? I have no idea why you linked that to me. What does that have to do with whether or not another country has any express dis-allowance of md'ing or not ?
 
Nothing about this thread (apologies to OP); just thought of you when I ran across it and thought you might enjoy it.
 
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