2
Land and Creatures

With an area of only 8866 square miles (22,700 square kilometers), Belize is slightly larger than Massachusetts, Wales, or nearby El Salvador. From the western land border with Guatemala to the Caribbean edge is never a distance of more than 75 miles. From the Rio Hondo at the Mexican frontier to the short southern border with Guatemala along the Sarstoon River, Belize stretches a total of 180 miles. These are the dimensions of a mini-state, and yet, Belize is a land of physical variety, from humid coastal swamp to coral islets to pleasant upland plateaus.

The northern half of Belize is a plain that was once the bed of a sea. Over thousands of years the waters receded, eventually to be covered by a thin layer of soil, scrub vegetation, and dense tropical hardwood forest. But the ripples of the old sea bottom remain in the shallow north-south valleys, water-filled depressions, and low ridges of today's landscape. Where the forest has been cleared—mainly near the Mexican border—the land is productive. Northern Belize yields almost all of the country's sugar, the main export, as well as the subsistence crops of corn and beans. But large parts of the north have been undisturbed by farming and settlement since the Classic Mayan era, more than a thousand years ago.

In the north, the coastal area is neither land nor sea, but a sodden, swampy transition between the two, thick with mangrove and grasses, and bordered by tussock grasses, cypress and sycamore where the land truly separates from water, more than ten miles inland. This fringe is suitable to waterfowl, a paradise for bird-watchers, but hardly fit for agriculture, and less so for human settlement. And yet, by historical circumstance, Belize City and a number of lesser settlements sit squarely and uncomfortably in the swamps.

Toward the center of Belize, the landscape gradually wrinkles. Great inland stretches are covered by sandy soil. Barrens of southern pine—"pine ridge" in local parlance—alternate with stretches of savanna. Throughout the central region run river valleys, carpeted with soil washed down in floods from higher elevations to the south and west. Their fertility attracted the Maya of the Classic period, who erected one of their greatest ceremonial centers at Xunantunich, along the Belize River. Today, farming in the valleys is expanding again, along with cattle grazing.

In southwestern Belize, the land rises dramatically to the granite plateaus and peaks of the Maya Mountains. Victoria Peak, in the Cockscomb range, is Belize's highest point, at 3800 feet. Abundant rainfall runs off to the northwest from the highlands in a number of streams that eventually join the Belize River. To the southeast, short rivers rush through a slope combed with overhanging ledges and caves, carrying sand, clay and silt that over the years have enriched the coastal belt and created beaches.

Southern Belize is a true tropical rain forest, low-lying and wet, with a dense cover of palms, ferns, lianas, and tropical cedar. It rains through most of the year in the south, and annual precipitation can total 150 inches or more, while the north of the country receives less than 60 inches of rainfall, and is dry from November to May.

Offshore of mainland Belize, a shallow submarine valley and ridge run parallel to the coast. The visible peaks of the ridge, ranging from ephemeral pinpricks to substantial stretches of sand, coral and swamp, are the islets that Belizeans call the cayes. Parallel to them, and just beyond, is the 200-mile-long coral barrier reef, second in extent only to Australia's, with its abundant marine life. Together, the cayes and barrier reef are what attracts most visitors to Belize.

Most outstanding about the Belizean landscape is that its native flora and fauna, and not people, are dominant. Centuries after buccaneers first turned from plundering ships offshore to plundering inland forests, Belize is still mostly empty of human settlement, in part even unexplored. Despite all the swamp and granite mountains and pine barrens, a good portion of the country—nearly 30 percent by one estimate—consists of river valleys and plains suitable for agriculture. And yet, only a small fraction of agricultural land is used in a country that imports much of its food. The carrying-off of the land's resources is, in large part, the history of British Honduras. The settling of the countryside and the exploitation of the land in a rational manner are major preoccupations of a new generation of Belizeans.

This subject could fill a few books—there are well over 5000 species of plants in Belize, with many waiting to be classified—but here are some plants that are typical of the climatic zones and agricultural areas of Belize:

Along the swamp coast of northern Belize: mangrove, grasses, ferns and sedges.

In sandy coastal areas and on the cayes: palms, including coconut palms; and the cohune palm, which yields an edible oil, and the nut of which burns nicely as charcoal.

Inland from the swamps: cypress, sycamore, bamboo, sedges and tussock grasses, giving way to scrub vegetation, palmetto and scattered taller trees, such as the Santa Maria (used in construction for its termite resistance).

Farther inland, and along river valleys: logwood, also known as Campeche wood, Belize's original export, found along river banks; mahogany, which has a more scattered growth pattern; rosewood; zericote; Spanish cedar; sapodilla (the chewing-gum tree); ironwood (practically indestructible, and still surviving as lintels in some Mayan temples); amate (wild fig); ceiba (kapok, or silk-cotton); bullet tree; allspice; breadnut; strangler fig; and all kinds of orchids, bromeliads and lianas occupying the available air space. Much of the hardwood forest of Belize may be second growth that appeared after corn patches were abandoned by the Maya. The forests of a few thousand years ago were possibly quite different from those seen today.

In the sandy and poorer soils: pine, with some growth of oak.

Major commercial crops: sugarcane, oranges, grapefruit, rice, red kidney beans, bananas, corn, pasture grasses, cacao.

Garden crops (most as noted by Eric S. Thompson, the ethnologist and archaeologist, around the Indian village of San Antonio in the 1920s): avocados, black beans, bread-nut, cacao, sweet cassava, bitter cassava, chaya (a spinach-like plant), chillies, cotton, custard apple (anona), vine and tree gourds, guava, hemp, jicama ("Mexican potato"), corn, mamey (zapote, or marmalade fruit, or mammee apple), nance, papaya, pineapple, hog plum (jocote), squash, sweet potato, tobacco, tomato, banana, breadfruit, coconut palm, dwarf royal palm, grapefruit, okra, onion, orange, plantain, rice and yams. Though grown in small home plots, many of these fruits and vegetables are rarely marketed.

And here are the names of a few species jotted down over several minutes during a walk through Suzi's garden at Maya Mountain Lodge, with random notes:

soursop; kalanchoe; poinsettia; chenille plant (monkey tail); mango; anthurium (flamingo flower); Boston fern; lace fern; pathos (climbing taro); prayer plant; begonia; episcia; spider plant; diefenbacchia; bird's-nest fern; lobster-claw heliconia; sorosi; snake plant; cowfoot (piper petatum); papaya; caladium; trumpet tree; cup of gold (chalice vine); sky vine; sensitive plant; bougainvillea; areca palm; fig; aurelia; Century; periwinkle; maiden hair fern; life plant; milk and wine lily; ginger lily; Spanish thyme; four o'clock; baboon cap tree; walking iris; crown of thorns; ixora; crimson ixora; coffee; ti plant; aloe vera; cassia; camellia; crabbu (nance); fan palm; golden shower tree; guava; jackfruit; night-blooming cereus; nigh-blooming cereus; zericote; nutmeg; heliconia; poinciana (or flame tree, blooms once a year); dwarf poinciana (blooms all year); annatto (called ricado in Belize, achiote in Guatemala, used as a food coloring); elephant ear, or macal, which has an edible tuber; chaya, callalou (amaranth) and other edible greens; plumaria (locally called "frangipani"); lemongrass; pineapple; banana; hibiscus; Surinam cherry; cacao; tamarind (loved by cutter ants); cow's foot, a large-leafed plant used to treat stomach problems; coleus; the butterfly or orchid tree; coconut palms; sapote; anona, or custard apple (sweetsop); ficus; croton; philodendron; orange-colored Jamaican lime; Indian almond (used for shade); dwarf bird of paradise; ornamental ginger; Malay or "molly" apple; star jasmine; Arabian jasmine; avocado; cashew; orchids (at least 24 varieties); velvet apple.

The cast of Belizean characters is not limited to Mayans, Mennonites, Creoles, Garifuna, and White Men. There are kinkajou and King John Crow, wari and jaguars, by these and other names. I once ran into a fellow at the Maya Mountain Lodge whose sole activity was to classify insects in the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve. He daily discovered species that had never before been "described in the literature."

For most of the history of Belize, and British Honduras before it, creatures were part of what was "out there," in the sometimes-dangerous hinterland that was entered for farming and hunting.

But an extraordinary turnabout has been accomplished in only a decade or so, and the jaguars that were once hunted have now been taken into the Belizean family.

The patter of a guide at the old Belize Zoo expresses that affection:

Forest animals include: opossum (six kinds), howler monkey ("baboon"), spider monkey, anteater, armadillo, squirrel, skunk, otter, porcupine, agouti, coati, bats, paca ("gibnut"), fox, raccoon, kinkajou ("nightwalker"), kuashi, jaguar ("tiger" in local parlance), margay, jaguarundi, puma, tapir ("mountain cow," actually related to the horse), the ferret-like tayra, or "bushdog," peccary ("wari"), deer, antelope, ocelot, crocodiles, sloth, and assorted others, from lizards, iguanas, boas ("wowla"), fer de lance and other poisonous snakes down to toads, frogs, snails and the lowly and destructive parasol ("wee-wee") ant.

Over 500 bird species in Belize include ducks, geese, kites, kingfishers, quail, pheasant, partridge, turkey, crane, pigeon, the great curassow, crested guan, curlew, snipe, ibis, stork (including the rare jabiru, illustrated on paper currency), heron, pelican, grampus, frigate bird, seagull, grackle, egrets, buzzards, nightjar, hawks, osprey, spoonbill, vultures, hummingbirds, owls (spectacled, great-horned and others), toucans ("billbirds"), macaws, and many other members of the parrot family. Bird-watching areas abound in the many habitats of Belize, but one of the most notable is the Crooked Tree wildlife sanctuary (see page 183).

Fish are mentioned elsewhere, with regard to sport fishing. Among the additional species found in rivers are bass and trout (the latter stocked in the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve). Lesser species are the cichlids, banded tetras, mollies and toothcarps that will be familiar to some visitors as aquarium fish.

Offshore on the cayes, turtles were once a staple of the diet of buccaneers and pirates. Green turtles, named for the shade of their fat, are a traditional delicacy, growing to well over 600 pounds. Loggerheads, lagra in Belize, have large heads and heart-shaped shells, and grow to 300 pounds. Hawksbills have pointed faces and a hooked beak, and overlapping scales, prized for combs and jewelry.

The nesting grounds of all turtles are threatened by resort development, and pollution of the sea with traps and garbage starves, chokes, strangles and poisons them.

While the government is encouraging agricultural expansion, with the land-clearing it entails, it is also setting aside national parks to preserve native plants and animals. Reserves include Guanacaste Park near Belmopan, the extensive Mountain Pine Ridge, and the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary in the south.