Belize.

Belize should not be part of Central America. Belize is- in culture, people, and landscape- the carribean.

At first we had planned to skip Belize entirely and just head through to Guatemala... but the more we read about this tiny country the more it interestd us. It used to be part of Guatemala, who gave it to the British in exchange for a road (which still hasnt been built). The British then kept it as a colony until it became independent in only 1984. So its about as old as I am. Their main language is English, and all their buildings are of carribean style made out of wooden planks with big porches. The people are mixed, inland are the fairer mayans while on most of the coast everyone is black, speaking with almost jamaican accents.

We spent the night in the ex-capital and biggest city of Belize City. It was tiny (50,000 people), dingy, and falling apart. I loved it... it was so interesting to see a stereotypical backwater town, and so strange that it was the biggest city in the country. We arrived at 9pm and everything was closed, we woke up the next moning, and everything was closed. The few stores that were open had huge metal bars everywhere. All the houses were either falling apart or deserted. Even the larger ones, in the 'fancy' part of the city were empty and peeling. It was like this city had been forgotten 20 years ago... and everybody living here is too busy smoking weed or drinking to care.