it’s unBelizeable!

We started 2024 in Belize — a country, we realized shortly after our arrival, we knew very little about. After living in and traveling extensively throughout the Spanish-speaking world, we usually have a pretty good compass for what to expect in most Latin American countries. Belize, which grew out of settlements started by British buccaneers and pirates on land previously dominated by the Maya and only partially overrun by Spanish conquistadores, does not fit neatly into this mold. After spending the last week exploring the country’s interior region, we’ve learned a thing or two about this land, which, as the tour guides frequently say, is unBelizeable!

Thanks to the country’s British roots, English is Belize’s official language. Thanks to its proximity to Guatemala, Spanish is actually much more commonly used in Cayo District, where we spent last week. Neither is the first language for most Belizeans. That honor goes to Kriol — which, like other Creole languages spoken throughout the Caribbean, is frustratingly incomprehensible for non-local English speakers. Written down, Kriol teased the outer limits of our comprehension. Hearing it spoken at its natural cadence, on the other hand, made us feel a bit gaslit. There are so many clearly identifiable words, and yet our brains could never make enough connections between them to discern meaning from Kriol speech.

Modern-day Belize is probably best known for its Caribbean tourism destinations and Mayan cultural relics. Not having given the country’s history much thought prior to last week, we were surprised to learn that Belize only attained independence from the United Kingdom in 1981. A couple of centuries of British rule left a mark on Belize’s language, food, and geography. Scan a map of the country and one is bound to come across a plethora of names that harken to its British colonial past: Teakettle and Gallon Jug, Cotton Tree and Blackman Eddy, Spanish Lookout and, our favorite, More Tomorrow, an old trading post that has the distinction of being the country’s oldest recognized village.

Belize is barely older than we are, and its independence wasn’t even recognized by its closest neighbor for an entire decade. Guatemala, which attained its independence in the early nineteenth century, claims it inherited Spain’s sovereign rights over land that accounts for slightly more than half of the territory of modern-day Belize. Although Guatemala eventually recognized its neighbor as an independent country in 1991, it has continued to lay claim to the territory, the unresolved dispute finally landing in the International Court of Justice shortly before the pandemic hit. Oral arguments in the case are expected sometime this year.

Belize has maintained de facto control of the contested land since its independence, first with the help of British peacekeepers, and later with its own army. However, tensions along the internationally recognized border have flared from time to time. We saw soldiers patrolling the major Maya sites we visited in Cayo District, most of which falls squarely within the territory claimed by Guatemala. Previously, some of these sites could only be visited under guarded convoy due to insecurity along the border.

Belize is a tiny nation, both in terms of land mass and population. Its 400,000 residents account for a fraction of the 1-2 million Maya estimated to have lived in this territory during the peak of Mayan civilization. As we’ve learned over the last week, the country’s small size belies a wealth of riches: Mayan temples and limestone caves, Caribbean cuisine and Garifuna music, and the second largest coral reef in the world are just some of Belize’s many attractions. We did not initially plan to spend this holiday vacation in Belize, switching our travel destination late in the game due to insecurity in the country we initially wanted to visit. We’re glad we came here instead.