Belize : Friends and Scammers

He’s back! In this second travel memoir, The Man Without a Plan lands in Belize, a country about which he knows nada. But he quickly amasses an array of new friends – some of whom can even match his penchant for being in a near-constant buzz from industrial-quantity drugs and drink.

As ever, the characters with whom Steven ingratiates himself become his surrogate (dysfunctional) family. But Tracey, Devonais, Ask Bobby!, Valentino and a pack of kids led by the feral Molokai soon have Steven suspecting that his cheerfully transactional relationships are, in fact, ensnaring him in a web of scams. Will he be left for broke, stranded in this shabby paradise? Is his paranoia justifiable, or the result of continuous cocaine use? His response is to embark with the gang on a road trip along the coast, taking in shantytowns, hotels, beaches and, at a low ebb, jail.

Coarse, irresponsible and wilfully uninformed, Froelich is nevertheless observant and interested. Belize is about the ways in which chaotic, complex human beings find community, no matter where they’re from or where they’re headed.