Belize is a small country with a lot to see and do.   Only 60 miles at its widest point from West to East, and 180 miles from North to South, Belize has a mere 250,000 people, but with an incredible amount of diversity - Creoles, Garigunas, Mestizos, Europeans and three separate Mayan populations.

    As a former British colony called British Honduras, Belize is the only English-speaking nation in Central America, and when I visited in 1999 the currency was pegged to the US dollar at the rate of $1US = $2BZ.   Belize isn't especially cheap by Central American standards, a bottom of the barrel room (like the one I had!) is $US15, and the most common form of transport on Ambergris Caye, a golf cart, is $US50 a day!   However, Belize is much cheaper than most other Caribbean countries.   I mostly stayed in the town of San Pedro on Ambegris Caye, near the border with Mexico, but I did a one or two day side trip to Guatemala, mostly to see the magnificent Mayan ruins at Tikal.

    Belize first became popular as a destination for people chasing after sport fish, but the biggest drawcards nowadays are ecotourism attractions.   Belize is very conscious of ecology, with 24 separate nature reserves protecting a large proportion of the country, and covering both the jungle and sections of the reef.   There are lots of jungle birds and animals, as well as water birds.   And unless you keep your eyes shut (as many people do), you'll see plenty of lizards and iguanas, as well as insects like butterflies and dragonflies.   However, the main reason I came here was to view the underwater attractions.   There are spectacular fish and coral structures, including the second longest barrier reef in the world (after Australia's Great Barrier Reef), three of the only four coral atolls in the Western Hemisphere, and the Blue Hole, a perfectly circular hole in the middle of one of the atolls.  The water for miles around is only 30 feet deep, but the hole itself is 400 feet deep and just over 1000 feet in diameter, and it's possible to dive down 130 feet to view flooded caves complete with stalictites and staligmites (the whole area used to be above water).