BELIZE PEOPLE POPULATION Whilst around 50% are Latino, more than 25% of the population is Creole; descendants of sub-Saharan African slaves who were brought to British Honduras for labour. In addition, Belize is also home to Mayans, East Indians and the Garifuna; people with mixed African and American ancestry who used to live in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. […]
BELIZE – LAND
BELIZE LAND GEOGRAPHY Belize is a rhombus-shaped country that’s around 23,000 kilometres squared in size. Found on the north-eastern coast of Central America, the country is bordered by Mexico on the north, Guatemala on the west and south, and the Caribbean Sea on the east. The north is mostly flat and is dominated by forests, swampy areas and coastal plains, […]
BELIZE – HISTORY
BELIZE HISTORY PRE-COLUMBIAN The first people known to have inhabited the land now known as Belize were a few scattered bands of hunters and foragers back in 2500BC, with the first Mayans taking over in 1000BC, building impressive cities all over. Amongst these were the powerful cities of Xunantunich, Altun Ha and Caracol. POST-CONQUEST Unlike like what had happened in […]
BELIZE – COUNTRY
BELIZE COUNTRY NAME The name Belize is thought to have two possible meanings, both derived from Mayan words. The first is said to come from the word belixe, meaning muddy water referring to the many swamps and rivers found in the country. The second, perhaps more interestingly, is proposed to have come from “bel itza”, literally translating to “The road […]
0.II – Go
0.II – GO I finally got to start this adventure… One I had been planning for years. First it was med school, then it was COVID, then it was work. But finally, I managed to make it happen. And finally, that day had arrived – the 3rd of August 2022. The day I’d finally get to go on a plane […]
0.I – Get Set
0.I – GET SET Seven years ago, at the unripe and non-tender age of nineteen, I left my country, Malta for the very first time. It was a five-day trip to Barcelona. I still remember every single detail, exactly like it were yesterday. My friend, a traveller by all accounts, thought it was absurd how someone like me; adventurous, spontaneous, […]
FOREWORD
FOREWORD Welcome to my travel journal you crazy, beautiful people. This is Marius Brown, your average run-of-the-mill idiot who’s writing about his adventures all over the world during a gap year taken during his medical residency over 2022 and 2023. Okay, here it goes… I am entirely conscious of the fact that in all likelihood, no one but me will […]