Orange Walk - Culture

Orange Walk District, Belize,— Imagine waking up to the thrilling sounds of the rainforest: serenading howler monkeys, peeping tree frogs, and squawking parrots. This is how nature's alarm clock starts your day at the jungle lodges of Belize's Orange Walk District. Later on, you may take a horseback ride along jungle paths to unexcavated Maya temples, canoe across a quiet lake surrounded by wilderness, or hike along nature trails in search of such exotic flora and fauna as spider monkeys, ocelots, and the rare Agami heron. The next day, you may visit an orchid farm, a coffee plantation, or even a traditional Mennonite community, whose plainly dressed residents make fine furniture by hand and grow bountiful crops without the benefit of modern machinery.

Your options expand as the sun sets in a blaze of colour. At the luxurious Chan Chich Lodge, you can relax in the swimming pool or Jacuzzi that are steps away from your cabana, surrounded by 250,000 acres of private nature preserve. Nearby, at the simpler accommodations of the 240,000-acre Rio Bravo Conservation and Management area, you may hear resident biologists and archaeologists lecture on the cutting-edge research they are doing in the adjacent forest. After all, La Milpa, the third-largest archaeological site in Belize, is only a few minutes away. Further north, at the eco-friendly Lamanai Outpost Lodge, situated in a perfect location for canoeing and birding, you could spend part of the night cruising the country's largest lake, spotting crocodiles that hunt along its perimeter.

For those with an interest in ancient civilizations, Orange Walk's premier attraction is the Lamanai ruin, a partially excavated cluster of sky-scraping pyramids, magnificent tombs, and carved limestone monuments occupied for more than three thousand years by the mysterious Maya. The fascinating history of this sprawling city, which resisted colonization by 16th-century Spanish priests and 18th-century English plantation owners, is told in a small but excellent museum. From atop the 112-foot main temple, a panoramic view takes in hundreds of square miles of rivers, lakes, jungles, mountains, and savannah. Hiking trails through the tall forest surrounding Lamani bring visitors face-to-face, with enormous hand-carved masks, abandoned ball courts, and looters' trenches. In the green canopy above, troops of howler monkeys mark their territories through eerie growls.

Getting to Lamanai is a delightful, 90-minute adventure via safari-style boat up the New River, a slow artery of emerald-green water that twists and turns through dense tropical foliage. Guides point out colourful flora and fauna along with way, which may include tiny insect-eating bats, spider monkeys, ospreys, iguanas, herons, egrets, storks, and the northern jacana, a bird whose super-wide feet are especially adapted to life on a lily pad.

An incongruous sight midway along the New River is the Iowa-style grain silos and cornfields of traditional Mennonite farmers. Arrangements can be made to visit these hard-working people, easily identified by their plain clothes and horse-drawn carriages.

Further downstream, tours of an orchid and bromeliad farm yield a close-up look at nearly one-third of the more than 300 species that are native to Belize. The family that operates this facility, has a special government permit that allows them to gather these gorgeous flowering plants from parts of the jungle, that are being cleared for farming and logging. A few varieties can be purchased for the return trip home.

The main city of the district is Orange Walk Town, a hard-working community that earns its livelihood mainly from the surrounding sugar cane and citrus plantations. Most residents are of Mexican or Maya origin and many speak Spanish as well as English. Although Orange Walk is less tourist-oriented than other Belizean communities, the town nevertheless has a wide range of restaurants, hotels, banks, and other services, including professional guides and outfitters. The latter can easily arrange tours of the previously mentioned destinations, as well as daytrips to the country's biggest rum distillery, the Maya ruin of Cuello, Crooked Tree Bird Sanctuary, and Ship stern Nature Reserve.

Sugar has been the most important crop in this district. The sugar cane is used for making Belizean rum at the Cuello processing plant as well as for making molasses and sugar. Citrus, papaya and beef cattle are also produced in this district.

Although the Orange Walk District has no coast and is considered the least visited district, it boasts the remains of two ports, Mundy and Cairns, that were the scene of battles, between earlier inhabitants of the district and Belizean settlers. The Orange walk District is also known for pristine forests. The Rio Bravo Conservation Area covers a large portion of the District. The land is managed by the Programme for Belize, and is carefully managed for sustainable development. Tourism is on the rise in the Orange walk District, due to healthy populations of tropical wildlife and the rich archaeological sites just now coming to light.