Belize is a small Central American country of 22,000 square miles (about the size of Massachusetts) and 250,000 people. It lies south of Mexico on the Caribbean coast. Formerly known as British Honduras, it became an autonomous republic in 1981. Belize still maintains close ties with the U.K and uses English as its official language in government and education. Most people speak Spanish and creole or a native language as well as English. The population is of mixed ancestry, about 60% nominally Roman Catholic, with a growing minority of Protestants from a variety of sects. Education is an important priority all over the country and the literacy rate is probably at or above 75% and climbing. GDPpc is about $3000 - $4000.

The Belize economy is based on agriculture, primarily on sugar and bananas, but includes a growing ecotourist industry, especially along the barrier reef islands of the Northeast coast.

Sunrise at Caye Caulker, Belize (all photos and sketches: :mmcconeghy

Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker - tourist country

Cayo Province - biology (under construction)

Guatemala countryside

In Guatemalan villages

Tikal Mayan ruins

playground painting in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye

Guatemala borders Belize. It has about 100,000 square miles (about the size of Tennessee) with nearly 13 million people. The population is divided between about half Spanish-speaking people of mixed ancestry, and half of primarily Mayan ancestry speaking three major and about twenty minor native languages.

pig watches peasant woman baking bread in Peten 2002

Nominally Guatemalans have the same average income as people in Belize ( GDPpc), about $3000 - $4000, but the distribution of wealth is extremely unequal -- the top 10% of the population receiving over 45% of the income and the lowest 10% receiving only about 0.6% -- that is, only about 1 / 75th as much. (In the USA for comparison, the poorest 10% receive about 1/15 as much as the richest 10%). This uneven distribution is reflected in the lifestyles of the rich and poor -- Guatemala City has a modern infrastructure that contrasts dramatically with extreme poverty in the poorer districts of the eastern slope. During the last forty years of the 20th Century this inequity led to violent Civil War and over 80,000 (some say over 100,000) violent deaths.

peasant farmer plants corn by traditional methods in Peten 2002

stick and mud peasant houses in Peten province (photo:mmcconeghy)

In Peten province the dry season lasts from about March to May. At the end of the dry season the peasant farmers slash and burn the brush that has grown up in the fields. This adds a few nutrients to the soil, yet the soil is still very poor and thin -- too thin to plow, and they have no tractors or draft animals, anyway -- so farmers plant by poking holes in the soil with a stick and dropping seed corn into the holes. This is very inefficient farming, the yields are poor and the population remains malnourished despite their best efforts.