• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

Lunch on a cacao farm.   (Photo: Adam H. Graham )

Belize’s coast is home to a large Garufina culture (descendants of West African slaves shipwrecked in 1565), but the food represents a mix of African, East Indian, Chinese, and British influences. Eat whole fried snapper, snook fillets, and juicy pork chops while lounging around Emery’s (702-2929; $3 to $10) screened-in patio, under a Caribbean-style thatched roof.

Look for the Marian’s Bayview sign just above the Titanic Bar and behind the market. (722-0129; $4 to $11). On a third-floor, open-air terrace, you’ll eat cahume cabbage and iguana as well as a variety of East Indian curries, all of which should be washed down with one of Belize’s two favored beers, Belikin lager or stout.

Spend the day touring a cacao farm and you’ll be rewarded with a humble but homemade lunch of caldo (spicy chicken soup), warm handmade corn tortillas, and kaku (cocoa drink) in a farmer’s home. Tours ($51 for three-hour tour, lunch is $6) are hosted by Mayan cacao growers Cyrila and Juan Cho (501-666-3444, juan@theorganicchocolatemaster.com), who sell their beans to the prestigious (and fair-trade) Green & Black's chocolate.

Published on Jan 22, 2009 as a web exclusive.