Belize Delivers a Bewitching Blend of Culture, Nature and History

Ramon's Village Resort. Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.

As the Tropic Air Cessna 208 curves low above the Caribbean Sea, it’s impossible to take your eyes off the Great Blue Hole. This legendary marine sinkhole forms a near-perfect circle at the eastern edge of the Belize Barrier Reef, about 80 kilometres from the Central American coast. Measuring 400 feet across and 1,000 feet deep, it feels like a huge, calm, mysterious eye gazing back at you.

Belize is full of striking and moving experiences like this. Spanning less than 23,000 square kilometres, it evokes by turns the ambiences of Mexico, Tahiti, and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. The warm subtropical climate also makes Belize ideal for viewing wildlife and jungle foliage. Independent since 1981, the former British colony remains a Commonwealth country, and Canadian visitors acclimatize easily with English spoken even more widely than Spanish and Belizean Creole.

Great Blue Hole. Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.

Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed bread pudding with rum sauce when she stayed at the San Ignacio Resort Hotel in 1994. A two-hour drive west of the Belize City airport, this 27-room hilltop property offers accommodations fit for royalty with king-sized beds and private Jacuzzis.

You can spot toucans in palm trees overlooking the pool, but the hotel’s Green Iguana Conservation Project—which releases some 180 iguanas annually into the wild—is even more colourful. Discover how these large lizards are imperilled by climate change and predatory humans and how their unique biology includes a “third eye” and detachable tail. Then, hold an iguana under supervision for an unforgettable photo-op.

San Ignacio Resort Hotel. Photo courtesy of the hotel.

The visuals on an Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave tour resonate with fans of the Indiana Jones and Alien movies. Majestic, solemn, and bewitching, the cave extends more than five kilometres. Stalactites and stalagmites flourish beneath towering cathedral-like ceilings. Sporting a helmet and headlamp, you not only swim in underground rivers, but also climb boulders to view ancient Maya sacrificial offerings from broken ceramic jars to human skeletons.

Also worth exploring with a guide are the jaw-dropping Maya ruins at Xunantunich, which date back more than 1,300 years. Situated above the Mopan River on the Guatemalan border, the site features Belize’s second-tallest temple.

Standing 130 feet high, the imposing El Castillo pyramid boasts an intricate frieze depicting the Maya rain and moon gods. Spider monkeys clamber through the trees surrounding the adjacent pok-ta-pok ball court. Games played here to seek divine aid in ending droughts saw the winners sacrificed afterwards.

To satiate your hunger and thirst after an outing, the town of San Ignacio has options aplenty. Check out the lively open-air market with fresh mango and papaya fruit and the Guava Limb Restaurant, serving seafood specialties like shrimp ceviche and blackened grouper.

Xunantunich. Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.

Alternatively, for authentic Maya food, head to the nearby village of San Antonio for a cooking class at U Janal Masewal. Specialties include macal fritters with onion habanero sauce and vegetarian tamales. Dedicated to promoting Maya culture, the family-run business also teaches Maya hieroglyphics and makes pottery with jaguar motifs. Michelle Kwan, the ex-Olympic figure skating star and current U.S. ambassador to Belize, is one recent patron.

For a beachfront getaway reminiscent of Bora Bora, Ramon’s Village Resort in San Pedro beckons. Located on the idyllic island of Ambergris Caye, it’s a short flight from Belize City. Palm-thatched Seaside Deluxe cabanas welcome guests with Belizean mahogany floors, balconies, and walk-in showers.

Neighbourhood taste treats abound. Stroll down the white-sand beach to the Belize Chocolate Company, an elegant shop that offers handcrafted chocolates like “Chili Caramel” and “Maya Temple” made from domestically grown cacao beans.

Live it up with local rum and baby back ribs with guava BBQ sauce at Maxie’s, an upscale corner establishment. Or experience the exuberant Garifuna culture – blending African and Caribbean Indigenous heritage—with live dancing and drumming as you devour fish steak with bananas and vegetables cooked in coconut milk at the Black & White Garifuna Restaurant.

Photo courtesy of the Belize Tourism Board.

Photo courtesy of the Belize Tourism Board.

For adventure-seekers, Ramon’s Village Resort specializes in fishing and diving expeditions. It is hard to top the thrills of a guided Hol Chan Marine Reserve snorkelling excursion. In blissfully warm and clear waters burgeoning with dazzling tropical fish, close-range yet non-threatening encounters await with nurse sharks and sting rays.

Eager to explore more Maya mysteries? Hop on a Tropic Air flight at the nearby San Pedro airport to join Lamanai Eco Tours in the mainland’s Orange Walk District. The tour begins with a winding motorboat ride 40 kilometres up the biodiverse New River. Keep your eyes peeled for creatures from bats and cormorants to boa constrictors and crocodiles.

The Lamanai archaeological reserve—whose name means “submerged crocodile”—boasts awe-inspiring buildings like the Jaguar Temple amid strangler figs and incense trees. And there is a noteworthy Canadian connection: the Royal Ontario Museum’s David Pendergast mapped nearly 1,000 structures here between 1974 and 1986.

Xunantunich. Photo by Lucas Aykroyd.

If you leave Lamanai amid the din of fat raindrops and howler monkeys raging in the jungle, rest assured that the sunny peace of the Great Blue Hole is not far away. Pleasures are beautifully balanced here in Belize.

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