Location and Pictures

Location:

Belize is a small country in Central America where English is the official language. The English spoken by most people is a Creole dialect. The population of Belize is ethnically diverse with Mayans, Garifunas, Creoles, Mestizos, and refugees from neighboring countries living together without much ethnic tension. There are also small groups of Mennonites who still speak an old form of German as well as Chinese and Indians. Although Belize was "discovered" a few years ago as a tourism destination, the tourism industry is still not highly developed and one can still travel through Belize without enduring resorts that cater to the beach crowd, except on Ambergris Caye, the largest caye on the barrier reef. Considering the small land area of Belize, there is a surprising diversity of ecosystems: wetlands, riparian, coastal, and montane, that have not been impacted by humans to the degree that natural areas have been affected in other Central American countries. The barrier reef off the coast of Belize is spectacular where marine ecosystems remain largely undisturbed and where one can still observe ocean mammals, manatees and dolphins, just by boating from one caye to another.