The Placencia peninsula is rich in history and enjoys a diverse cultural mix. The earliest residents were the ancient Maya who harvested salt here and were engaged in coastal trading. Placencia, originally called Placentia (Pleasant), may have been named by Spanish travelers but the area was heavily influenced by Scots and Portuguese buccaneers who intermarried with former African slaves. Today the laid back village of Placencia divides its time between commercial fishing and tourism.

The nearby village of Seine Bight is a community inhabited by the Garifuna people, originally from St. Vincent in the eastern Caribbean. The Garifuna are a mixture of Africans and Carib Indians, who speak their own language and maintain a rich distinct culture.

Today Belize's population numbers just under 300,000.  It is the only English-speaking country in Central America. The main ethnic groups include Mestizo, Creole, Maya, Garifuna, East Indian and European, including a number of Mennonite communities.

 
 
 

Belize was a British colony for more than a century and was known as British Honduras until 1973. Belize became an independent nation in 1981. Lying along the Caribbean coast, south of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, the inner coastal waters are shallow and are sheltered by a line of coral reefs, dotted with islets called 'cayes'.  A barrier reef – longest in the Western Hemisphere-- extends almost the entire 174-mile length of the country. The nation’s land area is 8,867 square miles, about the size of the State of New Jersey, and is 67 miles across at its greatest width.

The Maya Mountains and the Cockscomb Range form the backbone of the southern half of the country. There are countless rivers and creeks, many of them navigable by skiffs, canoes or kayaks. A large part of the mainland is forest, much off it under officially protected status as national parks or forest reserves. The climate is subtropical, tempered by trade winds with daytime temperatures in coastal areas ranging from the low 70's to high 80's during most of the year.

 
 

With its many natural, archaeological and cultural attractions, Belize takes pride in conservation and has adopted the concept of Eco-cultural tourism as the focus of the nation’s development efforts.

People from around the world come to catch the adventure in Belize…
It is Mother Nature's Best Kept Secret!