Dressed in camouflage and armed with a machete, Narcisio looks like a guerrilla. But this is quiet Belize and Narcisio is a farmer. He uses his machete to cut the fruits before opening them with a stick to avoid damaging the delicate seeds.
“Theobromine,” he says. “A food from the gods and packed with 40 times more antioxidants than blueberries.”
He’s talking about cocoa. We are sitting in a jungle where its trees nest under the canopy and Montezuma oriole birds flutter, for a bean-to-chocolate experience. “Did you know that the Mayans drank chocolate in 1,800 BC?” asks Narcisio.
Then I go to the Mayan Center, where their descendants still grind cocoa beans by hand on stone rollers. They make the most delicious chocolate (80 percent) I have ever tasted.
Belize is a compact and politically stable country with impressive cultural wealth and biodiversity. Most places are accessible by car and road signs warn of the crossing of numerous exotic animals, such as tapirs, jaguars, reptiles and armadillos.
Teresa Levonian Cole travels to Belize in Central America. Above, Tobacco Caye, an island off the country’s coast.
Its popularity as a holiday destination is increasing, helped by the fact that the former British Honduras still has English as its official language.
A visit in 2022 by the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge often comes up in conversations. “That’s where Kate sat,” Narcisio says, pointing to the stump I now occupy. ‘She said she had no idea where chocolate came from!’
Following in the royal footsteps, my next stop is the town of Hopkins, where I will have lunch at The Lodge at Jaguar Reef resort. I enjoy a delicious lobster and conch ceviche at their Big Dock Bar, while a manatee plays in the Caribbean waters.
Above, locals perform a traditional Garifuna performance in the village of Hopkins.
Teresa checks in at Ka’ana Resort, in San Ignacio, where you can spot elusive toucans (archive image)
But it is the Garifunas who brought me to this place. His ancestors were shipwrecked in 1635 when a Spanish slave ship broke up off St. Vincent. A century later the Garifunas arrived here with their distinctive Afro-Caribbean culture.
I feared the Garifuna Experience would be artificial, but I am welcomed to a music and dance performance; the highlight is a lesson from Grammy-nominated Warren Martinez on traditional instruments. Meanwhile, the women teach guests how to cook traditional hudut (coconut fish stew) over a wood fire.
My driver Dirk remembers how the villagers dragged William and Kate to dance as we traveled to my hotel, Itz’ana in Placencia. My large beach loft overlooks fine sand, meters from the ocean.
Highlight of Teresa’s trip is picnicking at ‘desert’ Laughing Bird Cay
Teresa visits the Mayan ruins of Xunantunich, home to the second tallest structure in Belize
Once a hippie hangout, Placencia is now the place to be for Hollywood’s finest, thanks in large part to film director Francis Ford Coppola, who opened his 25-villa Balinese-style Turtle Inn here in 2001. .
Today, elegant hotels line the peninsula, whose main town remains a charming mix of colorful Caribbean-style houses, wood carvers and beach bars.
I snorkel with huge loggerhead turtles amidst schools of nurse sharks. But best of all is a picnic in the Laughing Bird Cay desert.
No visit to Central America is complete without visiting a Mayan ruin. So we headed inland to Ka’ana Resort in San Ignacio, surrounded by lush tropical gardens (where you can spot elusive toucans).
I join a horseback expedition to Xunantunich, its ancient pyramid, the second tallest structure in Belize. The site is deserted, except for a family of Mennonite farmers dressed in 17th-century Dutch style, like extras from the movie Witness. They are a great community in Belize, they tell me, and they are showing the sights to visiting American relatives.
This country is full of surprises, and with islands like Tobacco Caye and South Water Caye yet to explore, I’ve barely scratched the surface in a week. Reason enough to return (I hope).