Belize , a Natural Beauty

Source:www.viajeros.com

The first surprise visitors to Belize experience is corroborating that most people there are a mixed sauce, of Africans, Latinos and Europeans.

During the times of the Conquest, this territory didn't attract the Spanish due to the fact that the population was minimal and the scarce depth of the waters did no permit their ships to sail them.
What for the Spaniards was a disadvantage was beneficial for English and Scottish pirates, who considered the coral reef barrier a natural protection.
By the end of the eighteenth century the British government had already claimed possession of Belize , whose main activity were sawmills, above all mahogany exploitation.
The huge demand for this product transformed Belize into a prosperous colony. African slaves were brought in order to help in production. Later on, and owing to the War of Castes in the Yucatán Peninsula , many Mayas and Mestizos sought refuge in Belize ; during the nineteenth century; also some British moved to Belize .
The ethnic diversity inhabiting this tiny piece of land was witness of the diverse events that shaped the country. Their lands were home to Creoles, Mayas, Mestizos, Garifunas (negroes with Carib indians' blood) and Menonites; it wasn't until 1981 that Belize was officially acknowledged its independence and sovereignty.

This small extension hides countless natural beauties. The longest coral reef of the occidental hemisphere extends facing the littoral, second of the planet after the Australian one, paradise for lovers of the submarine world. These reefs emerge in the form of small islands or keys, giving the blue waters infinite crystalline tones.


The authentic tourist capital is San Pedro, a town of sand streets and colorful wood houses, in the Island of Ambergris . This key is a swampy mangrove, mostly inhabitable, but along the Oriental coast there's a succession of small hotels and bungalows, most only accessible by sea.
The city has barely half a dozen tropical bars and most of the hotels are distributed in a myriad islands, keys and uninhabited atolls of the largest coral reef in the North hemisphere, running parallel to the coasts of Yucatán and Belize.

Those arriving to these remote places know perfectly well what they're looking for. That's why few people come here by themselves. They do it in pairs to dive, swim, love... even, get married.

The most famous of Belize's national parks, the Mountain Pine Ridge, beautiful space of dense forests, dramatic valleys and turbulent rivers, was the place chosen by Francis Ford Coppola to install the Blancaneaux Lodge, jungle hotel whose luxurious cabins, misleadingly rustic, hide among flowers and exotic tropical plants up high on a cliff hillside, with the joyful and bubbling waters of the Preservación River on its bottom. It's impressive to watch the wide granite bed over which the waters have chiseled the roads from above.
Today, and owing to its natural beauties, tourism is a fundamental part of Belize 's economy.