A bumpy, 10-passenger plane ride from Belize City takes you over lush green jungles, craggy mountaintops and skims along the vibrant Caribbean Sea, dotted with paradisiacal atolls, before coming to land on a one-strip airport, a slash of dusty red in the midst of thick treetops. This is the airport of Punta Gorda, the southernmost town in Belize, population 5,000.
A bumpy, 10-passenger plane ride from Belize City takes you over lush green jungles, craggy mountaintops and skims along the vibrant Caribbean Sea, dotted with paradisiacal atolls, before coming to land on a one-strip airport, a slash of dusty red in the midst of thick treetops.
This is the airport of Punta Gorda, the southernmost town in Belize, population 5,000.
It's remote, but it's a bustling metropolis compared with Santa Cruz, a Maya settlement that lies a 50-minute trek inland.
The humidity welcomes you like a warm embrace, and the jungle's bustling wildlife provide a looping soundtrack of birdsong, monkey howls and the occasional roar.
It's here, tucked into the safety of the jungle, that the Mopan Maya live. Native to Belize and Guatemala, the Mopans are one of the 28 subethnic groups of the Maya people.
Roughly 10,000 people in Belize identify as Mopan, making up less than 3% of the country's population. So the culture is closely protected by its people.
Belize was the home of some of the earliest Maya settlements, and Maya today make up an estimated 11% of the country's population.
Santa Cruz is accessed via a rough, unpaved road that winds through mountains to open up to a small valley. Here, tight-knit communities living in thatched-roof dwellings grow maize, potatoes and cacao.
It's a lifestyle that has remained almost unaltered for centuries, partly through choice and partly by circumstance. Their very existence revolves around a daily commune with nature, their routines dictated by the seasons.
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Dany
I just hope it is working