Belize population (354,000) is sparse, multicultural and young.  Belmopan is the capital but is not as populated as Belize City , which  is a populated center, with an estimated of eighty nine thousand (89,000) residents.

 

Diversity in this country doesn’t stop with its forests.  The people who share the land come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds including Maya, Creole, Garifuna, Mestizo, East Indian, and Chinese.  But the first to inhabit Belize were the Maya who began cultivating a rich and complex civilization thousands of years ago.

 

Belize is tiny country tucked between Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the west and to the east, the warm waters of the Caribbean. Belize is home to a wealth of biodiversity and roughly a quarter of the area within its borders is under some kind of environmental protection.

 

Ancient Mayan Ruins look out over vast expanses of tropical rain forests.  The magnificent beaks of toucans and vibrant plumage of scarlet macaws flash brightly against the myriad greens of strangling figs and cohune palm trees.  Howler monkeys call and swing playfully in the branches overhead.

 

Along the coastline, waves crash against sparkling beaches.  Sea cows float through mangroves and further out into the ocean, a whale shark glides past the corals of the barrier reef filtering plankton from a glimmering expanse of blue.