Costa Rica & Belize

Glen Putnam

Belize and Costa Rica, two Central American country cousins, are becoming increasingly popular with ecologically interested tourists seeking warm-weather destinations. The American dollar goes a long way in both places, and interliners can save even more with their airline employee discounts.

Visitors come to fish, dive, hike, swim and sun on sandy beaches, and search for exotic—and elusive—animals. The two countries are simultaneously similar and unique. One holds remnants of pre-Christian culture; the other was admired by Columbus. Choose one or both with an open mind, a sense of adventure and a reverence for the natural beauty you are guaranteed to discover.

Belize, formerly known as British Honduras until winning its independence in 1981, is on the east coast of Central America and bordered by Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south. Belize comprises an area just slightly larger than Massachusetts and has a population of some 200,000. English is the official language and about 75 percent speak "Creole" English.

With the second-largest barrier reef in the world, stretching some 185 miles through the Atlantic Ocean, it's no surprise that diving is the biggest tourist draw in Belize, though long ago, buccaneers dodged around cayes and into mainland inlets after successful plunder on Caribbean seas.

Scattered along scores of coastal cayes (pronounced "keys"), Belize's resort and dive centers offer scuba and snorkeling options which many consider some of the best in the world. Access to the cayes is primarily through Belize City. The largest and most popular of them is Ambergris Caye, situated about 35 miles northeast of Belize City.

Caye Caulker is 20 miles from Belize City, while St. George's Caye is closer still, just nine miles away. Placencia, another popular dive location, is about 100 miles to the south.

Farthest away is Light-house Reef, the site of the Great Blue Hole, a nearly perfect circle 1,000-feet in diameter and 400-feet deep, and is the farthest atoll from the coast.

About 30 miles north of Belize City are the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha, the national park that is the pride of the nation. Here the nine-pound head of sun god Kinich Ahau was discovered in 1968. It is the largest jade carving ever recovered that dates from the Mayan culture, which first emerged in 1500 B.C. and reached its zenith from about 300 A.D. to 1000 A.D.

A more modern attraction, the Belize Zoo, is about 28 miles west of Belize City and houses jaguars, snakes, monkeys, tapir and pacas, which are called gibnuts in Belize and are considered a delicacy by natives.

This Central American country has a tropical climate, no dictators, no wars and reclines along a Caribbean sea teeming with fish. In Belize, forty percent of the population is of mixed ancestry and are called Creoles. Many are descended from the first Scottish pirates and wood merchants and their African slaves. About a third of the people are mestizo (mixed Spanish and Indian), and ten percent are Indians, mostly Mayas. The remaining 17 percent is split about evenly between the Garifuna, descendants of Black Caribs, and immigrant whites from Europe and North America.

The concern for Belize is whether in its quest for tourism and economic stability it can remain an ecological paradise and avoid the destruction of the substantial rain forest covering much of the country. Time will tell.

The Monkey River region of Belize, where egrets, herons and other waterfowl are numerous, is similar to the Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Here one can observe the centuries-old ritual of green turtles (chelonia mydas) laying their eggs on a primitive beach across the lagoon from Tortuga Lodge.

Tortuguero is a tropical labyrinth of canals, creeks and rivers teaming with jungle flora and fauna. Here one shares the Costa Rican rain forest with the red poison dart frog, toucan, howler money, caiman, three-toed sloth, green heron, and scores of other birds darting through the 100 species of large trees and palms. World-class tarpon and snook swim in the sea and in numerous inlets feeding into the steamy jungle.

Natives of Costa Rica (called Ticos) are mostly descendants of the Spanish explorers who stopped by the "rich coast" (thus the country's name, courtesy of Columbus) on the search for gold and treasure, little of which was actually found in Costa Rica. Except for the blacks on the Carribbean coast, most of the three million Costa Ricans resemble the modern-day Spanish.

The rich Mayan culture never penetrated as far south as Costa Rica and the few indigenous groups not decimated by war and disease fled to isolated regions of the country; therefore, there is little interesting native art for sale.

However, Costa Rica does savor the integrity of its 15 national parks (12 percent of the land is in parks and biological reserves), as well as reaping the rewards of universal health care and a highly literate populace. It is bounded by two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic, and its neighbors Nicaragua, to the north, and Panama, to the south. The country has the oldest democracy in Central America, and the Costa Rican army was constitutionally abolished in 1948. It boasts the highest standard of living in the region, and you can drink the water from the tap. The beer and coffee are great.

In northwest Costa Rica, you can have coffee or cocktails on the veranda of Arenal Lodge, cool and clear at 2,200 feet, and enjoy a view through the lush arroyo of the perfectly framed Arenal Volcano brooding in the distance. Nightly treks to the active volcano are available. In the tranquil Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, the quiet is occasionally pierced by the shrill of the elusive and resplendent quetzal, but you must be lucky to catch a glimpse of this exotic red and green bird. Take a guided tour, and don't miss the butterfly garden.

The American Quakers founded the settlement and they sell cheeses. Monteverde is a four-hour drive from San Jose, so plan to spend at least one night in the park. A typical afternoon downpour could find you sketching ark designs in your lodge. A competent guide or group leader in Belize or Costa Rica can make a great difference in your enjoyment of the trip.

If you're not part of an organized group, join a day tour or consider hiring a guide by the hour. In the Manuel Antonio National Park on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, one credible tourist swears his guide coaxed a dusky capped flycatcher from a tree and onto a trail one morning.

A nature walk through one of Costa Rica's 46 national parks, biological reserves and wildlife refuges can reward the visitor with sightings of the scarlet macaw, toucan, leaf-cutter ants, coatimundi and more.

In Southern Belize, the village of Placencia is a peaceful Creole fishing settlement where Mike's, a locals' watering hole, welcomes tourists who join in swapping stories about fishing, diving and sailing. Laughing Bird Caye and the rain forests surrounding the Monkey River are nearby. In Hopkins, near the Sittee River, Garifuna villagers perform dances reflecting their centuries-old African ancestry and you can sample fresh gibnut, a large rodent that some claim "tastes like chicken."

The world's only jaguar reserve is at the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, south of Dangriga. Near Gale's Point, you can visit limestone bat caves and swim in a lagoon with manatees. An excellent way to explore both Belize and Costa Rica is to join other eco-adventurers on a cruise along the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica or the Carribbean coast of Belize.

The small ships these tours typically employ are agile enough to allow up to 100 passengers to visit remote coastal areas, uninhabited islands and isolated cayes. Here guests enjoy nature walks with naturalist guides, snorkeling and scuba diving in secluded coves, sea kayaking up narrow rivers, waterskiing, beachcombing, deep-sea fishing and more.

Depending on your luck, daily walks could turn up black-headed trogans, green kingfishers, great kiskadees and other exotic creatures. On a three-hour walk into the small Curu Biological Reserve at the southeast end of Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula, one group spotted 31 different species of birds, plus various squirrels, numerous lizards and three different types of monkey—the white-faced Capuchin, the spider, and the mantled howler, the last of which you hear long before you see them.

The ships cruise at night while you sleep so that no time is lost traveling. Each morning you awake in a different locale, ready for a new adventure. During the day, small rubber dingys ferry passengers to and from the beach for the various nature walks, snorkeling or village excursions. From the top deck of the ship, cocktails are spiced with sunsets of orange, rose and violet hues.

Off the west coast of Costa Rica, the sun sinks into the Pacific. In Belize, the sun goes to bed behind the Maya Mountains. Eco-tourism is nowhere better experienced than aboard the small ships that ply the Costa Rican waters from Puntarenas to Golfito and along the barrier reef of Belize.

Glen Putman is a freelance writer from Los Altos, California, who writes about interesting people, places and things.