Most visitors to Belize will want to experience the white sand beaches and the warm Caribbean water before returning home. But there is so much more to Belize than you may realize. Did you know that Belize is home to the world’s only jaguar preserve? It has become the best place to learn about the Western hemisphere’s largest big cat and the third largest in the world.
Jaguars once roamed freely in an area stretching from the southwest United States to the grasslands of central Argentina. Over the years, their range has been greatly reduced. This is mainly due to road development through crucial parts of the jungle and the burning forests by farmers to plant crops. The species has also decreased significantly in numbers because of its popularity with hunters for its teeth and skin. In addition, farmers will kill jaguars if they believe they are responsible for killing their livestock. Belize has outlawed the hunting of jaguars and has become one of the few countries that has a healthy and thriving jaguar population.
Once fairly common in mangroves, savannas, and lowland forests, jaguars in Belize are now typically found only in the protected preserves. They mostly hunt at night and are known to feast on peccaries, howler monkeys, deer, turtles, birds, lizards, and fish. Jaguars have the most powerful jaws of any big cat and can take down their prey with a single bite to the skull. They are stealthy and are not commonly seen by humans during the day, although paw prints, animal carcasses, and loud nighttime roars are evidence of their presence.
Solitary by nature, jaguars only come together to mate. Jaguar cubs reach maturity by age three and adults can weigh between 100 and 250 pounds, measure up to 6 feet and have a tail up to 30 inches long. Jaguars can be born black with inconspicuous spots beneath their fur or with the more well-known yellow with black-spot coloring.
A trip to the world-renowned Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Preserve is an opportunity to explore the jaguar’s habitat. This 150 square-mile sanctuary was established as a jaguar preserve in 1984 and is home to approximately 200 wild jaguars. The preserve’s main purposes are to provide a safe haven for this endangered animal, conserve the jaguar’s natural habitat, and educate the public.
If you’re looking for accommodations during your visit to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Preserve, Chabil Mar in Placencia is close and convenient. Our award-winning full-service resort has luxury suites and villas surrounded by lush tropical gardens, beach views, and fine dining options.
Visit our website chabilmarvillas.com for more information on Belize, and don’t hesitate to send us an email, or call US/CAN Toll Free: 1-866-417-2377, Local: (011-501) 523-3606, if you have questions or need help in planning a Belize vacation.
5 Terrific Reasons to Visit Placencia Belize in September
In the interest of transparency, we must tell you that there are about 500 reasons to visit Belize in September, but we want to invite you here in a gentle, non-frightening way because the thought of having that many reasons to come could make you feel faint. We’d prefer that your spinning head result from rock-bottom discounts, too much local beer and so many unforgettable memories, you’ll wonder why you never thought to visit here in September before now.
1. Visit Belize in September if the idea of a non-stop party that spans all 30 days of the month is something you’ve always wanted to experience. Even the Christmas and New Year’s holidays pale in comparison. Belize finally gained its independence on September 21st, thus that date serves as an annual anniversary party that triggers fireworks, bands, parades and pageants. You’re invited to attend as many of these celebrations as your energy level permits if you visit in September.
2. September in Belize has especially nice weather, with temperatures running between 77- and 86-degrees F. Sure, Belize remains temperate and beautiful nearly 365 days a year, but September is the tail end of the green season, when Mother Nature grows weary of dispensing life-sustaining rain. In September, showers typically arrive late at night or in the early morning hours—before anyone in their right mind gets up after partying late into the night before.
3. Skip the crowds in September. For some reason, this has become the one month of the year that crowds don’t flock to Belize, and we’re convinced that this is because frequent September vacationers want to keep the secret that there’s lots of room to spread out because Belize tourism in September is at a low point. If over-crowded tours, bars, and hard-to-find accommodations sound like a great time, by all means, wait until December when prices rise and humanity arrives in force.
4. September accommodations, attractions and other amenities are less expensive than comparable rates offered during the other 11 months, so your U.S. dollar will stretch like taffy. Consider the strikingly affordable rates offered by Belize’s top lodging choice, Chabil Mar Villas in Placencia, for example. You’ll find deep discounts on everything from luxury suites to adventure tours. All-inclusive Belize vacation packages are particularly economical. Few travelers realize that September is on the cusp of tourism season, so visitors enjoy the same experience, but with less cash outlay.
5. The kids are back in school! Parents desperate for an indulgent vacation that reminds them of what life was like before lunch boxes, report cards, and sulky teens set the family barometer can rediscover each other at reduced prices. Time to ring Granny to babysit so you can vacation with the person with whom you fell in love. Environs at Chabil Mar Villas are so lush, private, and intimate, that even if you can’t recall a time when the two of you couldn’t get enough of each other, you’ll recapture it. Sure, there’s one long party going on in Placencia during September, but Chabil Mar accommodations are tucked away so exquisitely into the landscape, you might never even know it!
Visit our website chabilmarvillas.com for more information on Belize and Placencia, and don’t hesitate to send us an email, or call US/CAN Toll-Free: 1-866-417-2377, Local: (011-501) 523-3606, if you have questions or need help in planning a Belize vacation for the month of September.
The Placencia Airport (three digit code: PLJ) is a small airport that serves the Placencia Peninsula in southeastern Belize. The airport is located directly on the Placencia Peninsula about three miles from Placencia Village on the southern tip of the peninsula. The airport underwent an expansion and enhancement project a few years ago, which included the installation of evening lights. These upgrades enabled the airport to accommodate a higher volume of flights, including evening arrivals and departures.
Placencia Airport has a single paved runway that currently only handles domestic flights, although there are plans in the works to expand an airport in the area in order to receive international flights. Currently, all flights to and from the Placencia Airport are served by the Belizean air carriers Tropic Air and Maya Island Air, both of which have multiple daily connections to Belize City and other destinations across the country, including Punta Gorda and Dangriga.
From Belize City to Placencia, the flying time is around 45 minutes in the air. The Placencia Peninsula measures about 16 miles from north to south and just a quarter-mile wide at the widest point. The unofficial capital of the peninsula is Placencia Village, still largely an idyllic fishing village with a population of around 1,000 residents. The Placencia Peninsula is located in the southeastern corner of the Stann Creek District.
The eastern side of the Placencia Peninsula is composed of beautiful white sand beaches fronting the Caribbean Sea while the western border is a mangrove-lined lagoon teeming with fish and wildlife. Placencia Village holds a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the town with the smallest “main street” in the world, a pedestrian-only 4,000-foot long sidewalk measuring just four feet across. From south to north, there are loosely-defined communities that begin with Placencia Village and continue on to a Garifuna Village named Seine Bight and then onto Maya Beach, at mile six and eight north on the Peninsula.
Popular local events include the End of the World Marathon that first began as a humorous reference to a date on the Maya calendar that supposedly predicted the apocalypse in December 2012 and Lobsterfest, a multi-day beach party and culinary competition held every July to celebrate the opening of the lobster fishing season.
Placencia is rapidly becoming one of the top visitor destinations in the country, with many lovely resorts and inns giving guests access to both the nearby islands on the Belize Barrier Reef and top destinations on the mainland. Nearby attractions include the Cockscomb Basin Nature Reserve (home to the world’s first dedicated jaguar conservation mission), boat tours up the eponymous Monkey River, and the enormous ruins of ancient Maya cities such as Lubantuum and Nim Li Punit.
For more information about visiting Placencia, feel free to chat with our Concierge at: concierge@chabilmarvillas.com or contact our Reservations Manager at reservations@chabilmarvillas.com. Or perhaps you would like to call toll free from the US or Canada: 1-866-417-2377 or WhatsApp us at +501-633-7547.
Easily recognizable from space, the Belize Blue Hole, sometimes known as the Great Blue Hole, is one of the most iconic dive spots in Belize.
Here are 10 fascinating facts about the Belize Blue Hole:
1 – Size and Dimensions
The Belize Blue Hole is almost perfectly circular in shape, measuring 300 meters (984 feet) across and 108 meters (354 feet) deep.
2 – The Largest Sea Hole in the World
The Belize Blue Hole is the largest sea hole in the world. Sea holes refer to caves that were submerged when rising waters covered them. Most sea holes, just like the Belize Blue Hole, were submerged at the end of the last great Ice Age some 10,000 years ago.
3 – Location
The Belize Blue Hole is located approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) offshore of Belize City. The perimeter of the Blue Hole is Lighthouse Reef, a natural coral atoll.
4 – Stalactites and Stalagmites
Divers can explore thousands of stalactites and stalagmites that were formed when the Blue Hole was an aboveground series of caverns.
5 – Jacques Cousteau
Legendary French documentarian and marine biologist Jacques Cousteau visited the Blue Hole in 1971. He later described the Blue Hole as one of his top favorite 10 dive sites in the world.
6 – The Name
The name “Great Blue Hole” comes from British diver Ned Middleton who wrote a book about his career as a diver in 1988 named “Ten Years Underwater”. Although the Blue Hole was charted by the Spanish, no one is sure what name they gave for the region.
7 – Discovery Channel
In 2012, the Discovery Channel ranked the Belize Blue Hole as the #1 most amazing place on Earth.
8 – UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Belize Blue Hole is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, part of a vast barrier reef that is the second-largest barrier reef in the world after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
9 – Charles Darwin
In 1836, on his around the world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin visited the Belize Barrier Reef and declared it the “most remarkable coral reefs” in the entire Caribbean.
10 – Experienced Divers Only
Due to the challenges of diving the Belize Blue Hole, only divers who have completed at least 24 divers are allowed to explore the Belize Blue Hole.
About The Belize Blue Hole
Long a secret known only to Belizean fisherman, the Belize Blue Hole became famous in 1971 when legendary marine biologist and undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau visited the site.
Cousteau and his crew aboard the Calypso explored the depths of the Blue Hole, confirming that it had been created thousands of years ago when rising tides flooded a network of caves. Declared by Cousteau as one of the top 10 best diving spots on the planet, the Belize Blue Hole is located approximately 60 miles (100 km) from the coast of Belize.
A nearly perfectly circular body of water, the Belize Blue Hole is surrounded by the Lighthouse Reef Atoll. Divers can use the shallow waters of the atoll’s lagoon to begin their descent to the now-flooded cave that contains stalactites and stalagmites up to 40 feet (12 meters) in length.The coral atoll surrounding the Belize Blue Hole has an inner ring of shallow, lighter colored water that forms a natural ring around the deeper sapphire waters of the flooded cave.
Thousands of years ago when the cave flooded, the Belize Blue Hole was formed, a vertical entrance over 980 feet (300 meters) across with a bottom more than 400 feet (125 meters) below the sea’s surface today.As divers descend into the Great Blue Hole, the dark waters start to become more clear, allowing for an impressive view of the flooded cave network that is home to a variety of marine life, including a few elusive hammerhead sharks.
Due to the complexity and depth of the dive, only experienced divers are permitted to explore the majestic underwater formations that make the Belize Blue Hole such a unique dive site.
The Blue Hole is located along the Belize Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site part of the second-largest barrier reef system in the world.
An almost perfectly circular area of dark topaz water encircled by the Lighthouse Atoll on the Belize Barrier reef, the Great Blue Hole is one of the most intriguing and popular places to dive anywhere on Planet Earth.
Facts About The Belize Blue Hole
1.) The Blue Hole measures about 1,000 feet in circumference and is more than 400 feet deep. It is the largest natural formation of this type found anywhere in the world.
2.) The Blue Hole was formed at the end of the last Ice Age when rising seawaters flooded a series of enormous caverns. Geologists have determined that the caves first formed about 153,000 years ago and were completely submerged approximately 15,000 years ago.
3.) The Blue Hole is approximately 60 miles offshore from Belize City and is part of the Belize Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
4.) In 1971, famed French marine biologist Jacques Cousteau visited the Blue Hole with his boat Calypso, declaring it one of the top 10 diving spots on the planet.
5.) The underwater caves of the Blue Hole are filled with giant stalactites, proof that it once existed above water.
6.) The Blue Hole is home to several species of sharks, including bull sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, and the elusive hammerhead shark.
7.) In 2012, the Discovery Channel ranked the Blue Hole as #1 on its list of 10 Most Amazing Places on Earth.
8.) The Blue Hole is visible from space, easily identifiable by its unique circular formation and location within the midst of the greater Belize Barrier Reef.
9.) The name “Blue Hole” was coined by the British diver Ned Middleton in his book “10 Years Underwater” published in 1988.
10.) Due to the complexity of diving required, the Blue Hole is restricted to experienced divers only with a minimum of 24 completed dives.
What It’s Really Like To Dive The Great Blue Hole
The Mysterious Belize Great Blue Hole is a large underwater hole off the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 100 kilometers (62 mi) from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is perfectly circular in shape, over 300 meters (1000 ft) across, 3140 feet circumference and 125 meters (410 ft) deep.
It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last glacial period when the sea level was 400 to 500 feet below present time and was dry land. Last glacial period began about 120,000 years ago and end about 15,000 years ago. Reaching the maximum extension 26,500 years ago. At the end the ocean began to rise, the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed.
Believed to be the world’s largest feature of its kind, the Great Blue Hole is part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a World Heritage site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The hole itself is the opening to a system of caves and passageway that penetrate this undersea mountain. In various places, massive limestone stalactites hang down from what was once the ceiling of air-filled caves thousand of years before the end of the last Ice Age 15,000 years ago. When the ice melted the sea level rose, flooding the caves. This process occurred in stages. Evidence for this are the shelves and ledges, carved into the limestone by the sea, which run the complete interior circumference of the Blue Hole at various depths.
The Blue Hole is a “karst- eroded sinkhole.” It was once a cave at the center of an underground tunnel complex whose ceiling collapsed. Some of the tunnels are thought to be linked right through to the mainland, though this has never been conclusively proved. Notable are the large population of sharks such as lemon, black tip, reef, hammerhead, and bull sharks.
Mysterious and legends always have been around the Belize Blue Hole.
This was the entrance to Xibalba?. It’s the kind of underwater geology that inspires speculation about aliens creating geometrically perfect anomalies, mermaids and monsters living in darkness.
I explored the bottom of the Blue Hole perimeter (3,140 feet circumference). To do this I dove down twice, reaching the depth of 375′ feet which took 4 to 5 hours of diving each day.
Video Music:
Start to 2:18 min. “Dawn From Four Sea Interludes” by Benjamin Britten 2:18 to 4:37 min. “300 Violin Orchestra” by Jorge Quintero 4:37 to End “Groove Armada” from Tomb Raider Soundtrack
Video and Blog courtesy of Ramon Llaneza
If you would like to explore the wonders of the Belize Blue Hole, the resort of Chabil Mar has a comprehensive scuba diving vacation package that includes a guided trip to the Blue Hole.
Visit our website Chabilmarvillas.com for more information on Belize and Chabil Mar, and don’t hesitate to send us an email, or call & chat with us via WhatsApp Free Worldwide: +501-633-7547, Local: (011-501) 523-3606, if you have questions or need help in planning a Belize vacation.
Belize is located in Central America between Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and Guatemala. Belize is the only English-speaking country in the region and has a long coastline on the Caribbean Sea.
Although relatively small, Belize has an incredibly diverse landscape, including misty mountains, enormous waterfalls, pristine rivers, savannah, jungles teeming with wildlife, massive cave systems, and hundreds of offshore islands along the Belize Barrier Reef, the second-largest barrier reef in the world.
Misconceptions About Belize
Is Belize an island?
No. Belize is on the mainland of Central America, although it does have hundreds of offshore islands.
Is Belize located in the Caribbean?
Belize has a Caribbean culture as well as a lengthy coastline along the Caribbean, but Belize is not technically “in” the Caribbean as it is located on the mainland of Central America.
Is Belize located in South America?
No. Belize is in Central America. For purists that only consider South and North America to be true continents, Belize would be located in North America.
Is Belize in Honduras?
No. Belize was called British Honduras back during the colonial days, but it got this name because the southern part of the country opens onto the Bay of Honduras. Today, Belize and Honduras are two separate nations separated by a narrow band of land belonging to Guatemala. It takes about two hours with a boat to travel from Punta Gorda in the south of Belize to Puerto Cortez in Honduras.
What’s the Right Way to Spell Belize?
Over the centuries, Belize has been spelled lots of different ways, including Belieze, Belise, Balize, and Beleez. The official name of the country in English is Belize, which you better “Belize” matters to the people who live there!
Facts About Belize
The official location of Belize is 17 degrees 15 minutes north and 88 degrees 45 west.
Belize has approximately 360,000 people.
English is the official language of Belize but other languages spoken in the country include Spanish, Mennonite German, Maya, and Garifuna.
Belize is about two hours flying time from Miami or Dallas/Houston.
Belize has 240 miles (386 km) of Caribbean coastline and hundreds of offshore islands.
Belize has a landmass of around 8,860 square miles (22,960 square km), just a bit bigger than the state of Massachusetts.
The highest point of land in Belize is Doyle’s Delight at 3,688 feet (1,124 meters).
Islands in Belize are known as “cayes” (pronounced “keys”).
Belize Maps
Map of Placencia Belize
Map of Placencia and Chabil Mar
Only about 2,000 year-round residents live in the village located on the southern tip of the Placencia Peninsula. The village is a fifteen-minute stroll along the beach or 5-minutes by bike, kayak or paddle board from Chabil Mar. (Click on the Map for Larger Image and to Zoom)
Belize Map in relation to Central America
Belize shares its northern border with Mexico and is bounded on the west and south by the nation of Guatemala. (Click on the Map for Larger Image and to Zoom)
Placencia Reef and Dive Locations Map
Many of the best diving spots along the reef are just minutes from Chabil Mar. This map shows these, including Laughing Bird Caye and Gladden Spit. (Click on the Map for Larger Image and to Zoom)
Belize Diving Map
Diving locations in and around the Belize Barrier Reef are numerous, and this map shows the best spots. (Click on the Map for Larger Image and to Zoom)
Belize Atolls Map
Often described as a “coral atoll”, an atoll is a ring of coral that has a lagoon in its center. The circumference of the atoll is dry land, and Belize has hundreds of these atolls in the Caribbean up and down the Belize Barrier Reef. (Click on the Map for Larger Image and to Zoom)
Belize Geography Map
Belize has a varied geography, with rolling hills and higher elevations in the southwest and west to lush agricultural flat lands in the north and southeast. Rainforest and jungle occupy much of Belize, and the country has a long coastline on the Caribbean with hundreds of offshore islands. (Click on the Map for Larger Image and to Zoom)
Map of Placencia, Belize
This 16-mile long finger of land is located on the coast of southeastern Belize in Stann Creek District. Chabil Mar is located just north of the village on the eastern side of the peninsula. (Click on the Map for Larger Image and to Zoom)
Follow Us!