Visitor's entering Belize from Mexico will find a beautiful haven
of tranquility just a few miles from the border at Corozal Bay. The
enchanting town of Corozal curls gracefully around the turquoise-emerald
waters of the bay, gently swept by cooling Caribbean breezes.
In Corozal, everything is close to
the sea, even the market, rich in exotic colors and scents, mangoes,
papayas, pineapples, star fruit and habanero peppers. Further along the
shore, you can't miss the bright-yellow steeple of the Corozal Museum, a
beautiful 19 century Customs House. The museum, recently restored,
displays Maya artifacts around a traditional hut built inside the museum
following ancestral techniques. Another permanent exhibition features a
pictorial history of the sugar cane industry- main farming activity
until diversification into crops such as papayas- with samples of sugar,
molasses and rums.
Maya sites also overlook the sea.
Cerros, across the bay, was first Maya trading center, built on the
seaside in 50 B.C. Abandoned 1,700 years ago, it is today a serene,
majestic site in the jungle, inhabited by jaguars, tapirs and 250
species of bird.
Because of its exceptional location
between two scenic rivers, the New River and Rio Hondo, and because of
its tremendous Maya heritage, Corozal has achieved the perfect union of
two cultures, the West Indian beat and the Latin melody, the waves of
the Caribbean Sea caressing the shores of Central America- the epitome
of Belize.
