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At the fourth annual New York City Hot Sauce Expo, held in April 2016, Belizean legend Marie Sharp was formally inducted into the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame. Noted for being the “quintessential Central American hot sauce”, Marie Sharp’s signature brand of sauces began as a culinary experiment in her kitchen in 1980 and has since grown to become one of Belize’s leading exports.

After relatives and friends continued to clamor for more of Marie Sharp’s sauces, she began her small business in the Stann Creek District of southeastern Belize. Today, Marie Sharp’s line of signature sauces, jams and jellies have become one of Belize’s most recognizable icons and her products are exported throughout Central America, Europe, and the United States.

Still a friendly “Belize-sized” company, approximately two dozen employees work at the modern factory a few miles outside of Dangriga to produce hot sauces in different strengths, starting with mild and continuing to Belizean Heat, Beware, Fiery Hot and “No Wimps Allowed”.

Marie Sharp’s also produces a line of jams and jellies made from locally-grown fresh tropical fruits, with flavors that include banana, guava, mango, papaya, pineapple, coconut and orange. There’s even a red habanero jelly for aficionados of sweet jellies combined with a bit of heat.

Marie Sharp’s is also the premiere manufacturer of Belizean “season all”, a ubiquitous condiment made with annato that forms the backbone of the country’s cuisine. Annato is the seed commonly referred to as “achiote” in Spanish, a popular ingredient in Mexican and Caribbean foods because of its ability to add a warm golden color to dishes.

Chabil Mar, the premiere luxury resort on the Placencia Peninsula, offers guests an exclusive beachfront experience in tastefully appointed villas. The resort includes a bar and restaurant, with plenty of Marie Sharp’s delicious sauces and jellies on hand for guests to sample as well as dishes made with her signature season all Belizean spice.

On behalf of the staff and management of Chabil Mar, we congratulate Marie Sharp and all of her hardworking employees for their success in becoming one of Belize’s most popular and prosperous companies.

In honor of their service and patriotic duty, Chabil Mar resort in Placencia is offering a 15% price reduction on lodgings for active-duty or retired military personnel and their families from the United States, Canada and Belize.

In the past year, Belize has strengthened its relationship with the United States and Canada as part of the “Southern Partnership” and “New Horizons” programs. American and Canadian military personnel are now graciously providing medical and dental care in a number of villages and health clinics throughout Belize. In honor of their service and in recognition that they have only a limited amount of free time to relax in Belize, Chabil Mar now offers these military personnel and their families 15% off all accommodations at the resort.

Chabil Mar, a tropical Belize Caribbean-front resort is located on a private stretch of the Placencia Peninsula in southern Belize. Located just a five-minute walk from Placencia Village, the Belizean-style resort has 19 luxuriously appointed villas and 1 honeymoon suite with an oceanfront view, an onsite restaurant and bar, powerful multi-zone air conditioning and a full range of complimentary services including high-speed wireless internet and bicycle, paddle board and sea kayak rentals.

With the summer season about to begin, now is the time to make your reservation. To obtain the military discount, please contact the resort’s reservations manager. For early reservations, a special offer of one free night is available when you book four nights.

Chabil Mar also offers a number of Belize vacation packages to enjoy the best mainland and offshore adventures that Belize has to offer. Whether you’re interested in visiting mysterious Maya ruins, exploring the rainforest, bird watching or enjoying a leisurely inner tube ride through a series of caves, there’s plenty to do nearby on the mainland. And just a few miles offshore from Placencia is the Belize Barrier Reef, a UNESCO protected site renowned for its rich abundance of colorful marine flora and fauna, the perfect place to dive, snorkel, fish or simply enjoy a spectacular sunset. The staff of Chabil Mar can arrange for a customized tour of land and/or sea sites, including equipment.

To take advantage of these amazing vacation packages and enjoy the 15% military discount, make your reservation today.

It’s understandable that a country as small as Belize (about the same size as Massachusetts) and as young (it only became fully independent in 1981) is not especially well-known outside of Central America. Recently, when the American television program Criminal Minds Beyond Borders decided to base an entire episode (“Love Interrupted”) in the country, locals and resident expats were thrilled to see international attention given to Belize.

Unfortunately, it became evident that the writers of Criminal Minds Beyond Borders had little real knowledge of the people, customs and geography of Belize. As such, we warmly welcome the cast and crew of this prominent American television show to come and see the “real” Belize.

Located between Mexico and Guatemala, the tropical country of Belize is widely known as one of the friendliest, most welcoming places on Earth. A melting pot nation harmoniously blending indigenous peoples like the Maya, Creoles, Mestizos, Garifuna, Lebanese, Mennonites, Chinese, and North American expats, Belize is a mostly rural, friendly country where sipping on beachfront pina coladas and barefoot dining on fresh-caught lobster describe an ideal day on the mainland.

Offshore, divers and snorkelers from around the world enjoy some of the most vibrant, diverse marine ecosystems in the world. The Belize Barrier Reef is home to thousands of colorful tropical species, including anemones, sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, snapper, dolphins and the largest fish species in the ocean, the whale shark. The largest coral reef in the Western Hemisphere, the Belize Barrier Reef is home to half a dozen of coral species, tiny creatures whose calcium excretions form the backbone of this unique biosphere.

Placencia

Should the cast and crew of Criminal Minds Beyond Borders take us up on our invitation to come see and explore Belize, we highly recommend a trip to the beautiful Placencia Peninsula in the southeast of the country. With 16 miles of gorgeous coastline along the Caribbean and miles of lush mangrove lagoons, there’s plenty to see and enjoy. We also recommend a trip to Placencia Village at the southern tip of the peninsula, home to some of the most friendly people in the country.

For the ultimate experience in Belizean hospitality and luxury, a stay at Chabil Mar is highly recommended. With its own stretch of private beach, the guests in the 19 well-appointed villas can enjoy a full range of modern amenities as well as fine dining at the on-site beach front restaurant.

Chabil Mar is a proud sponsor of the Annual Placencia Regatta, an event where sailing clubs from all over Belize, about 20-25 Opti sailing boats, compete for a ranking Regatta. Organized by the Placencia Sailing Club ( PSC), the event teaches children how to race and sail and will be held in Placencia Village on May 21 and 22.

According to the description on the PSC’s Facebook page, the event helps youths to realize that sailing does not only play a huge part of their rich heritage but the learning, skill, fun and excitement involved in it can help strengthen their mental and physical capabilities as well as improve their leadership skills, self-confidence and self-esteem.

Established on January 2012, the Placencia Sailing Club was founded by Shelly Bradley and Alan Usher of the Belize Sailing Association and Alvin Cabral Jr. and his wife, owners of Placencia’s Belize Sailing Adventures and South Waters Resort.

The race for this year will start on a part of a beach that is located in middle of Tipsy Tuna and Cozy Corner. The spectators of the race are advised to bring binoculars so they can see up-close the exciting action unfolding throughout the race.

Come and join us in supporting all the sailors from various clubs and from all over Belize who will compete for the ranking Regatta.

For more information about the Regatta, please click on the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/PlacenciaSailingClub.

In an effort to titillate viewers, the American television series Criminal Minds Beyond Borders recently portrayed the idyllic town of San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye in Belize as a den of thieves, murderers and criminals. In an episode entitled “Love Interrupted”, the peaceful island that served as the inspiration for Madonna’s 1986 hit “La Isla Bonita” was transformed into a ghetto of criminality and international intrigue.

It’s difficult to know whether the producers of the program were trying to be intentionally insulting or were just demonstrating ignorance. Aside from using a few seconds of stock footage of the real San Pedro Town, the entirety of the episode was a mishmash of incorrect information and scenes shot on a Hollywood sound stage.

The episode featured an American couple defying the laws of physics by arriving at the tiny airfield in San Pedro in a jumbo jet while showing B-roll footage of the Philip Goldson International Airport in Belize City on the mainland. The episode’s couple then further defied reality by renting a car in San Pedro, an impossibility as the only form of transportation available to the public are bicycles, scooters and electric golf carts. The hapless couple then got lost in a series of mountains that have yet to be mapped on an island that is almost entirely flat before getting chilly enough to build a fire in a tropical country where temperatures rarely drop below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hollywood “creativity” then transformed the welcoming and friendly people of Belize into coldly rude hotel employees serving as foils for the kidnappers who ultimately ruined the honeymoon vacation of the protagonist couple. Adding racist insult to injury, an American actor badly mangled the Kriol dialect popularly used throughout Belize, inappropriately adding Spanish words. In the final twist, one last indignity to Belize was included when local Mayans were depicted as savage cannibals who prey on tourists.

Placencia, one of the most beautiful spots in Belize, was not featured in the show. But below are some photographs of the real Belize to contrast with the Hollywood images portrayed in the episode:

The staff of Chabil Mar applaud the prominent American television program spotlighting Belize but strongly urge producers to conduct more research before attempting to portray the country in the future.