Annually the Belize Tourism Board takes the media on a cross country tour of tourism hotspots. It is like a small getaway for journalists – but don’t get it wrong, we have to earn our keep, making sure our cameras are rolling, and pens are writing. For the BTB – it an opportunity to highlight some of Belize’s prime destinations for the domestic tourism market. And that is why this year they took the media south to Toledo. It is the least visited district but this weekend we found out that it is also the most diverse. Our team of Keith Swift and Victor Noble spent two days in the jungles and on the beaches in Toledo.
Keith Swift Reporting,
We stayed at the Sun Creek Lodge in one of their five jungle cabanas.
Bruno Kuppinger, Sun Creek Lodge
“Here you’re really away from any civilization. We started in
2001 here the first one when we started to chop away the bush and now we are more like a village. We have more and more neighbours coming. The whole area of Sun Creek is 2.6 acres and those are all one acre blocks and you can see in different guide books there is also Sun Creek marked as a village.”
And from the jungle – it was to the cayes – where we chilled on the beach, frolicked in the sea, and there were those who took the plunge.
Felisha Brown, Placencia Breeze
“It was good. I really enjoyed it but we didn’t get to see a lot, I guess due to the weather but hopefully next time we should have….”
Keith Swift,
“Have you snorkelled before?”
Felisha Brown,
“Yeah I did. I really enjoyed it but I am surprised we didn’t get to see a lot out here but you should have went in Keith it was nice.”
We are on West Snake Caye. It is a small island, roughly 2 acres located about 10 miles from Punta Gorda. Those in Toledo say that West Snake Caye is one of the district’s and even maybe one of Belize’s best kept secrets.
Dennis Garbutt, Tour Operator
“This beautiful island right here, the nice sandy beach, we have swimming pool like condition in the water, nice clear water. So people come out here.
Normally when I bring my tour out, they will be able to snorkel, like try out the snorkel stuff, and then we go on the other side of the reef on the other side of the island where we have the fringing reef and then people will be able to snorkel there and see lobster, conch, fish and all the marine species in their natural habitat.
Within these little forest systems here on the island itself, if you see the birds you can look around and even one of the reasons why this area is called the Snake Cayes is because we do have snake on these islands, they are not poisonous ones of course, they are the boa constrictors, the local people know them as owla and those are what we have here at Snake Cayes and there is a lot that goes along with it. We have different birds that migrate here so it is a birder’s heaven as well.
It is unique, you can do all these activities here in the marine area and there is also, we are the foothills of the Mayan mountains so you go up the river, we doing some lovely river tour where you can see the monkeys, you could see the crocodile on the river side, those kinds of things and also kayaking down the river and this is one of the places that you can actually be at a Mayan temple in the next half hour or hour. And so it is a unique spot in Belize. It is one of Belize’s best kept secret.”
Snake Caye West is part of the Port Honduras Marine Reserve.
Dennis Garbutt,
“The unique thing about the Snake Caye is that it is within the Port Honduras Marine Reserve and they are put aside for the purpose of conservation and preservation so they are no take areas and they are expected to help with
the replenishment of the Port Honduras Marine Reserve. I grew up coming out here, I grew up right over at Punta Negra in that area so this is home for me.”
Keith Swift,
“Is fishing allowed?”
Dennis Garbutt,
“In this particular zone you cannot fish but keep in mind the Port Honduras Marine Reserve is 160 square miles and there is only 5% put aside for the purpose of conservation.”
Dennis Garbutt who grew up in the area and now runs his own family based tour company says it is unfortunate that many Belizeans aren’t aware of Snake Caye.
Dennis Garbutt,
“There is not much people that visit here. If you look here today it is just filled with you guys, just us out here rather than seeing a lot of other tourists. That is one of the unique things about Port Honduras. Because of the number of islands that we have and the number of people visiting the area, we don’t have a high number of people visiting the area.
I like the fact of seeing Belizeans out here like I mentioned earlier and I would even like to see more people coming down. That is one of the ways that
we don’t only showcase our country but we also get a chance to enjoy it. People living in the city or even in Punta Gorda Town, they work from 8 to 5 five days a week, people work extremely hard, and this is one of the ways you could just come out, take it easy like the ladies are doing in the back there and just relax and enjoy Belize.”
According to the BTB, that’s why they took us south.
Lorraine Herrera, Product Development Officer
“We pretty much planned the tour so that we can have the local media together to experience what our visitors experience when they come to Belize and also to enlighten and educate our Belizean population about what Toledo has to offer as a destination.”
Keith Swift,
“And then what do you hope that will accomplish?”
Lorraine Herrera,
“They would then feel it fit to come and do a vacation in Toledo instead of maybe going to the States. A lot of Belizean people feel like it is expensive to stay in Belize because the prices are so touristy but on the other hand they can come to Toledo and experience all the activities here at a reasonable price.”
And that could be climbing Lubantuun, venturing into the cave in Blue Creek, or relaxing in the priceless peace and calm of Snake Caye.
The group of journalists also toured Eladio Pop’s cacao farm in San Pedro Colombia and Lubantuun. Sun Creek Lodge can be contacted at suncreek@hughes.net or Sun Creek Lodge.
