Belize, some background and thoughts, p1

May 11, 2016

In the Beginning

I'm trying the travelogue thingy for the first time in ages. I enjoyed my trip so much that I want to share it, though many of you may be bored to death.

Belize is a tiny Central American country on the Caribbean, bordered by Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. It's considered part of the Yucatan peninsula, or so I'm told. Some more tedious facts per Wikipedia "Belize is the most sparsely populated nation in Central America. It is larger than El Salvador. Slightly more than half of the people live in rural areas. About one-fourth live in Belize City, the principal port, commercial centre, and former capital. About 80% of the population are Christian."

I visited two areas, one somewhat touristy and the other, over-the-top touristy. To my mind, Belize is like the Costa Rica I visited 15 years ago... still pristine with much of the country protected. Go there now before people learn that Belize is not in Africa and coke cans strew the land.

The first area I visited was the Cayo district, a.k.a., the jungle. It is inland and in the western part of the country. There are an incredible number of activities available for the active traveler. There's hiking, zip lining, repelling, tubing, rafting, canoeing, birding and last but very far from least, the Mayan ruins which there are plenty of. It's not surprising that much of the population of Cayo consists of Mestizos, people of Mayan (Indian) and Spanish descent. The southern part of the country consists of many Creoles (persons of Spanish and African descent). And there are the Spanish. 

The official language of Belize is English since it was an English colony until 1981, or something like that. Before that, it was British Honduras. It is the only Latin American country whose official language is English. However, it is generally not the primary language of many residents. Spanish prevails, but seemingly, most people speak English also and very well. There's also Creole and a zillion dialects of Indian.

Okay, enough of history. I thought it would be an interesting discussion since no one seems to know much about Belize.