Hol Chan, Mayan for “little channel,” covers 19km2 of coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forest near San Pedro. Established during the 1990s during a time of increasing tourism and declining fishing industry, the area covers 4 zones which have differing biomes and permitted activities.
Ambergris Caye is the largest island in Belize, running 40m long but only 1.6km wide. Inhabited by the Maya in pre-Columbian times, the island was also popular with 17th century whalers, gradually turning to tourism in the early 1970s. Modern ‘San Pedranos’ are of Mexican descent with some Creole influences and it is said that you are not a true San Pedrano if you don’t know how to fish.
The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300km section of the 900km long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second largest coral reef system in the world, which Charles Darwin described as “the most remarkable reef in the West Indies” in 1842. With only 10% of the reef properly researched, it is already a recorded home to 100 species of coral and 500 species of fish and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1996.
Mexico Rocks is a shallow complex of some 100 clustered patch reefs along a limestone ridge. Popular with both snorkelers and SCUBA divers it was recommended for preservation in 1978 and officially recognized in 2015.
Steven took us to special places in Belize, both in San Pedro and Caye Caulker, where you can buy a bag of sardines and hand feed the local tarpon. Growing 4-8 feet long and weighing 60 to 280lbs, you have to be a little extra cautious in this process, just keep your palms flat as they really burst to the surface with force.
These fish are interesting for a number of reasons. Their modified swim bladders allow them to breathe air, surviving in oxygen-poor waters of brackish marshes but also leaving them tethered to the surface to breathe.
This flexibility around air also lets them take large gulps for short bursts of energy such as lunging for sardines, and this same jumping makes them popular game fish, although they are typically released afterwards as their flavour is not great.
Given how widely advertized it is right from the airport, Secret Beach is certainly more of a “wink” secret than an unknown gem. In fact, it is possibly the most visited area of Ambergris Caye and perhaps all of Belize.
Until very recently, all development on Ambergris Caye was along the (eastern) reef side as the fishing, diving, and trade winds that brought people to the island were all there.
However, in the last decade developers have built a road through the mangrove lagoons that form the centre of the island, making the (western) leeward side more accessible. Currently there are a number of scattered residences being built up along this road, but whether they are foolhardy or ahead of the curve remains to be seen.
Fortunately, the drive to and from the beach was a big enough part of the outing to fill out the day and provide some fun stops and detours to along the way.
Established in 1986 and deriving its name from the nearby mountain ridge which (to some) resembles a roosters comb, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is 400 square kilometers of rainforest. One of its key reasons for creation was to preserve jaguar habitat, and it remains on of the premiere sites for these cats in the world.
With only a single morning of hiking near the entrance, it is unsurprising that this is as close to a jaguar as we got.
The park consists of two water basins (west and east) with access and trails getting more difficult the further west you venture. Wildlife highlights in our self-guided hike include coati, aracari, toucans and guans. There were also some tracks we believed to have been recently made by a tapir, but that was as close as we came to sighting one.
Tucked between the Cockscomb mountains and the Caribbean Sea, Hopkins is the Belizean cultural center of the Garifuna population, hosting its own community holiday and drum ceremonies. In 1942 the nearby village of Newton was devastated by a hurricane and Hopkins was built to replace and rehouse its residents.
Hopkins itself was a pleasant place to spend a little time with some very enjoyable food but not more than a few days of activities. The north end of the town (Baila) was quite touristy while the south end (False Sittee) was a sprawl of enormous fenced houses, typically with multiple boat launches tucked underneath.
