Location
Location
Better In Belize is located 15-20 minutes south-east of the town of Benque Viejo Del Carmen in the Cayo District. The land is hilly as it is part of the foothills of the Mayan mountain range. The pristine Macal river flows out of the mountains past the property with our ecovillage being the first real sign of habitation it comes across.
GPS Coordinates for the BetterInBelize Ecovillage
UTM coordinates = x: 282201.08 y: 1880235.29 zone: 16Q
Geographic (degrees decimal) = Longitute: -89.04574315706681 Latitude: 16.995872193150863
Geographic (degrees, minutes, seconds) = Longitude: 89 02′ 47.8″ Latitude: 16 59′ 44.7″
Google Earth Placemark = Right click and select “Save Target As” to download placemark file (must have Google Earth installed to open)
There are three small tiers of waterfalls on our waterfront section of the Macal. There is a hydrodam upstream and another one being built downstream which will form a reservoir for canoeing and kayaking.
The area is fairly remote in it’s tropical rainforest paradise. Across the river is the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve and on the other side of the community is the Vaca Forest reserve. The views all around from any point in the community show pristine raw jungle with no sign of human development.
Very close by along the hydro rd. to Benque is the Che Chem Ha cave. This traditional Mayan ceremonial cave was discovered to have more artifacts in it than any of the other ceremonial caves in Belize. It is just a 5 minute drive or less up the road from our ecovillage.
The Cayo District of Belize
The Cayo District of Belize is home of the countries capital city Belmopan and is the largest district in Belize. This was a planned city capital which was created as such to move the capital city out of hurricane territory. The Cayo district is safe from hurricanes and it is the place that many people come to when hurricane warnings occur.
San Ignacio is the larger and more popular destination as the Cayo district capital. It is the hub of ecotourism in Belize. From there people go on tours of the Mayan sites, caving and cave tubing, jungle treks, river-rafting, canoeing, and many more activities. San Ignacio is a very culturally diverse city with it’s sister city Santa Elena just across the bridge over the Macal river. San Ignacio holds the biggest Saturday marketplace in all of the Cayo district with stands of merchants from all of Cayo selling their wares and crops.
This city has a few night clubs and many bars to accommodate a fairly active nightlife. It is also built right on top of an ancient Mayan city, of which the Cahal Pech ruins are a part of.
Further west we come to the town of Benque Viejo Del Carmen. This is a small town on the western border. It consists mainly of mestizo latin americans but also has a sizable Chinese population. This is the nearest town to the Better In Belize ecovillage.
Most of the Cayo District is rainforest jungle ascending into the foothills of the Mayan Mountains. It is also home to the Pine Ridge forest reserve which is a large area filled with predominantly pine trees. All of these wilderness areas are prime locations for observing the variety of animals and birds including the popular howler monkeys, toucans, tapir’s, and jaguars.
The Major rivers in Cayo are the Macal and the Mopan which connect to feed the Belize river (longest river in Belize). Major Mayan archeological sites in Cayo include Cahal Pech, Caracol, Xunantunich, El Pilar, and a few other sites that are still mostly unexcavated.
