Ambergris Caye is the largest of Belize's more than 200 off-shore islands. About 25 miles long and narrow, it resembles from the air a spiny backbone, a vertebrae of land divided by discs of irregular grey mangrove lagoons.

About three-quarters of a mile off shore, draped along the beach on the windward side of the island is the longest and most spectacular coral necklace in the Western Hemisphere, the Belize Barrier Reef.

The beach runs more or less parallel to the reef except at a place called Rocky Point, where it reaches out and touches it. Rocky Point is about 4.5 miles south of Boca Bacalar Chico, a partly man-made channel which separates the island from the Xcalac Peninsula and forms a portion of Belize's northern border with Mexico. This channel is, for the most part, narrow and shallow. In some spots it shrinks during low-tide to a stream which can be crossed on foot.

It is in fact so inconspicuous that a Mexican expedition which went to inspect it in May 1898 had to search several days before finding it. The expedition was led by the newly appointed Mexican Consul to Belize,

Brigadier de la Armada Don Angel Ortiz Monasterio and his Vice-Consul, Ingeniero Naval Miguel Rebolledo. They took the boat Ponton Chetumal to the mouth of the Rio Hondo.

From there two members of the expedition left the Ponton Chetumal with a small sailing boat to try to find the mouth of the Boca Bacalar Chico. They anticipated an entrance some 50 to 60 yards wide. After searching several days, they finally chanced upon a fisherman who directed them to Boca. They decided to sail through, but although their boat was only two feet deep they had to push it part of the way. They emerged on the other side of the island to the white caps and the ceaseless roaring of the waves crashing against the reef. Turning south they came across Bacalar Chico, a fishing village inhabited by people of Yucatecan descent who told the Mexicans that the channel had been dug by hand by their ancestors.

The Boca was even shallower than it is now. In 1899, when the Mexicans built a permanent fortress just north of it, they dug it deeper and wider to allow the passage of their warships across the Peninsula. Nonetheless, despite its small size this channel is geographically important, for it has made Ambergris Caye an island rather than the extension of the Xcalac Peninsula it used to be.

Island Geography

Geographically, the island can be roughly divided into three main areas: the mangrove swamps, lagoons and sands; a plateau in the north called Basil Jones after a magistrate who around 1790 owned a lease on it; and the sand ridges which comprise the rest of the island including San Pedro Town.

There are 12 lagoons on the leeward side of the island and into them run numerous creeks. The largest lagoon is Laguna de San Pedro, situated to the west of the town. This body of water extends for over two-and-a-quarter miles and is fed by over 15 creeks and channels.

The Basil Jones area consists of a seaward beach ridge and leeward mangrove swamp with a broad intervening plateau of palm thicket. Parts of the area are covered with a rich black soil which may have been transported to the island by the ancient Maya, the island's first known inhabitants, who used it to grow their crops.

South of Basil Jones the main part of the caye extends for about 14 miles. It consists of a seaward sand ridge between 100 and 500 yards wide, flanked on both sides by mangrove. Within the marshy areas are found large circular depressions rimmed by sand and occasional vegetation. The sand ridge itself, at three to five feet above sea level, is the highest part of the Caye and reaches a height of almost 10 feet at San Pedro Town.

Wind, rain and tides combine to constantly alter the windward shoreline. The sands grow and recede from year to year along the entire length of the caye. From the 1960s to the 1980s, for example, certain parts of San Pedro Town lost as much as 30 feet to the encroaching sea.

At the extreme southern end of Ambergris, the sand gives way to numerous mangrove patches divided by navigable channels which connect the waters of the shoat reef area to those of the main lagoons.

The Barrier Reef

The Barrier Reef lies about half a mile off the windward side of the island. It is the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere and the second longest in the world.

Flying south into Belize, you can see the reef as an unbroken chain of white surf. It runs along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and continues south almost the whole length of the country to the Ranguana and Sapodilla Cayes. Inside the reef the water is shallow, with a blue tinge; outside the reef the water is deep and from the air shows a dark royal blue. On very clear days the reef appears as a narrow yellowish line dividing the two shades of blue.

Only in Ambergris Caye - and to a lesser degree, Caye Caulker - does the reef run so close to a well-populated caye. Here it is an almost solid wall of magnificent coral formation broken only by narrow channels called quebradas. The remarkably clear water inside the reef allows excellent viewing of the fabulous marine life of the area. Rainbow tinged tropical fish, delicate sea fans and majestic coral gardens abound, with a variety of shapes and colours than can keep an observant diver entertained for hours. Outside the reef, the seabed drops sharply in a series of plateaus to depths of thousands of feet. Out here in the blue are found the gamefish: mackerel, kingfish, wahoo, tuna, sailfish, and marlin.

But the reef is more than just a decorative sideshow. Without it the island would not exist, for it serves as a natural breakwater protecting the beach from erosion by the waves, and sheltering the caye and its inhabitants.

The reef is a living wall formed by millions of coral organisms. These corals are carnivorous animals known as polyps, which eat small sea creatures that float by, capturing them with stinging tentacles. Polyps feed only at night, pulling their tentacles back into the skeleton during the day. Within the reef's skeleton live minute blue-green algae. These give off oxygen which the coral polyps breathe; the algae, in turn, absorb the carbon dioxide which the polyps give off, forming thus a genuine symbiotic relationship. Corals are multicoloured varying from gold to red, orange, green, brown and yellow. The soft, living tube-shaped coral polyp protects itself by generating a hard layer of calcium carbonate called the corallite. Colonies of these polyps form the reef structure growing in strange and exotic shapes from which the different varieties of corals take their popular names, such as brain coral, staghorn coral and elkhorn coral.

The reef needs two factors to survive: solar energy and chemical nutrients. The nutrients flow into the sea as plant and animal organic material from rivers and creeks on the mainland and on the caye itself. The organic material is broken down into its chemical derivates by bacteria and other microorganisms, thus providing the nutrients necessary for the growth of the reef.

The warm clear water off the coast of Belize, fed as it is by various mainland rivers and streams, makes up an excellent environment for the reef. The entire island of Ambergris may actually have resulted from the conglomeration of coral fragments along with silt from the Rio Hondo. The 1959 report of the British Honduras Land Use Survey Team notes: "The connected chains of coral islands known as Ambergris Caye was formed from the accumulation of coral fragments, first as a shoal patch. These shoals tend to build up in long lines parallel to the coast of the mainland. It is thought that their orientation may be connected with submarine geological strata rather than being entirely the work of sea currents."

Birds and Beasts of the Island

Because Ambergris is less an island than an extension of the Peninsula with close connection to the mainland, it supports an abundance of wildlife.

Good game animals such as deer, peccary, paca (gibnut), and even the beautiful ocelot can be found here. With the recent expansion of tourism and fishing, the increased human population has almost eliminated these larger species, but the smaller mammals, such as the opossum, armadillo and racoon are still fairly abundant.

The most noticeable wild animals are the giant blue land crabs. They may resemble fearsome extraterrestial aliens as they pop their eyestalks and wave their claws, but they are not in fact as dangerous as they look. With training they can even be taught to eat from your fingers.

The oddest of all crabs are the hermit crabs. These have no hard protective shell over their abdomens and must cover themselves by backing into an empty snail shell and carrying this heavy 'house' on their backs. These are often found high tip on tree trunks, but like all land crabs, they must go to the water to moisten their bodies.

Although there are no poisonous snakes on the caye, two of the larger harmless snakes, both good rat catchers, do live here: the well-known boa constrictor and the blacktailed indigo. A few smaller species, all frog or lizard caters and harmless to man, are also part of the island's reptile population.

The giant prehistoric-looking common iguana, which grows to more than six feet, can be found in the less hunted areas. These are good to eat and local fishermen catch them whenever they can. The 'Wishwilly' or spiny-tailed iguana is a bit smaller. The spines down the back are short, the head is longer and narrower without large dewlaps. It is dull coloured with wide blackish bars on a gray body. Both vegetarians, these giant lizards eat plant leaves, sometimes devastating local gardens, and even grazing like sheep. The 'Cock Maclala', properly called a Central American basilisk, is abundant and often seen posed dramatically on the trunk of a coconut palm. This lizard often runs upright on its hind legs and can actually run over the surface of water this way, a characteristic which earned him a second local name, 'Jesus Christ Lizard'. The small lizard seen all over the Caye is an anole (Anolis sagrei). The females and babies are brown with a silverish streak, but the male is all black and, when announcing ownership of territory, spreads out a lovely bright pink throat pouch.

Birds are the most remarkable element of Ambergris' wildlife. Most dramatic and first noticed are the abundant seabirds: brown pelicans, magnificent frigatebirds, neotropic and occasionally double-crested cormorants. Laughing gulls, as well as royal, caspian and other terns are seen on occasion, as are brown and red-footed boobies.

During the summer months few shorebirds are to be seen. But in September and October literally millions of these pass south in migration, their calling heard high overhead night after night. Some will break their passage to feed at wave's edge in the daytime, and a few will spend the winter with us.

Wading birds are a different story. While the great majority nest north of us, groups of great egrets, snowy egrets, cattle egrets, green herons, little blue herons and tricoloured herons are permanent residents here, nesting on the smaller cayes such as Cayo Rosario, Cayo Pajaros (Birds Caye), Deer Caye and Cayo Cangrejo. A few great blue herons and black-crowned night herons also nest in the area and can be found on Ambergris at all times of the year. A number of immature yellow-crowned night herons spend the summer with us as well. In autumn, flights of many hundreds of all these birds settle on the mangroves and beaches of Ambergris and on other coastal areas to spend the winter gorging themselves on the multitudes of crabs and small fish. Besides these beautiful species, nesting colonies of tropical waders like the beautiful white ibis ('Cocos') and the nocturnal boat-billed herons ('Coopers') are found here.

Local land birds are friendly and abundant: the brightly coloured red-billed cinnamon hummingbird, the chestnut-headed mangrove warbler, the mangrove vireo, black catbird, golden-fronted woodpecker, hooded oriole, tropical mockingbird, tropical kingbird, white-collared seedeater and the ubiquitous boat- tailed grackle. Ospreys screech from the tallest trees and black hawks hunt the numerous crabs. Less common are the green-breasted mango hummingbird and the mangrove cuckoo. Caribbean doves and whitecrowned pigeons still nest in the more remote areas and the cute little common ground dove walks unafraid in the yards and streets of San Pedro.

The last but perhaps most exciting group of birds on the Caye is that of the migrant warblers. In September and October a massive movement of these small but brightly marked birds moves over and through Ambergris on its way south. Again in April and early May there is a return migration, although it is much smaller in total numbers. Many of these long distance travellers are exhausted and near the end of the their endurance, and they come down to feed. Twenty seven different species have been recorded on Ambergris Caye. Some migrants other than warblers also stop here during their passage.

Warm Temperatures, Winds and Hurricanes

Like most of northern Belize, Ambergris Caye has a long dry season which usually extends from March through May. These months bring steady, often quite strong, southeast winds. The rest of the year, most of a yearly average of 50 inches of rain can be expected. During this period, winds are mainly easterly, but subject to occasional shifts. Mornings, for example, will often bring a light breeze blowing from the northwest, making it an excellent time to dive the deep eastern side of the reef; by noon, however, the breeze may stiffen and haul around to the east.

One significant feature are the Nortes or 'Northerners', violent winter storms which blow in between October and February and pelt the island with several days of rain, winds and rough seas.

Then there is the hurricane season. Despite its name, this period is usually characterized by balmy and delightful weather, although a tropical terror may strike now and then. The most devastating hurricane to hit the island occurred in 1942. It destroyed many homes and the sea crossed the island. Other lesser storms have caused beach erosion and ruined coconut plantations, but never has a single life been lost in a hurricane on Ambergris Caye. Although temperatures are for the most part quite warm - ranging from 89 to 94 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months and from 70 to 85 during winter - the heat is usually tempered by the sea breeze and the weather remains quite comfortable.

An Outpost of Maya Civilization

The first European contact with Ambergris Caye was made by the Spanish explorers Vicente Pinz6n and Juan Solis, in 1508. The region, particularly the area of Yucatan north of Ambergris Caye, was at the time still well populated with Maya who at first successfully repulsed attempts by Europeans to settle the area. Alonso Davila, who in 1528 was sent by Francisco de Montejo, the colonizer of Yucatan, to find a town in this area and to explore the interior, managed to establish a settlement only temporarily at Chetumal before being forced to retreat from hostile Maya attacks. When Davila finally fled he was pursued and harassed for several miles by the triumphant Maya as he and his men made their slow and difficult way down the coast of Belize in their waterlogged canoes passing to the east of Ambergris Caye.

The Maya were, by any measure, a remarkable people. They flourished in Central America for some 15 centuries and between A.D. 250 and 900 carved out of these harsh tropical jungles a splendid civilization of limestone pyramids and palaces.

The Maya were farmers, growing mainly corn together with ground food, beans, squash, cotton, tobacco and cacao. They also raised domestic animals such as turkeys. Since they were farmers it was important to them to be able to measure time, so they could predict the changing seasons. To this end they studied the movements of the celestial bodies and developed an astronomy so precise that their ancient calendar of 365 days was as accurate as the one we employ today and more accurate than the calendar the first European explorers brought with them to America. The Maya calendar had 18 months of 20 days each with a final period of five days. Every fourth year this final period was adjusted to six days to compensate for the leap year.

During Europe's Dark Ages, the Maya were so scientifically advanced they were able to plot the path of Venus - an elusive planet that is by turns a morning and evening star with an error of only 14 seconds per year. The Maya also developed a system of mathematics and invented a symbol for the zero concept long before the zero sign was used in Europe.

They had a more advanced system of writing than any other indigenous group living in North or South America before the Europeans came. Their hieroglyphics were carved in stone and also written on paper made from the bark of trees.

At the height of their power, Maya city-states stretched from Mexico into Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. Cities such as Caracol, Copan, Tikal, Chichen Itza and Palenque dominated busy trade routes where commodities such as jade, salt, cocoa and pottery were traded from city to city.

Sometime after A.D. 800 the Maya abandoned their great cities in Central America. The reason for their departure is still unknown. It may have ~been disease, exhaustion ~of~ the soil, or a peasant revolt. Meanwhile, during A.D. 900's a new Maya civilization grew in northern Yucatan which lasted about 400 to 500 years.

Therefore, when the first Europeans arrived in Belize, the Maya civilization was already in decline. Nonetheless it was still functioning. The northern part of Belize and the southern part of Yucatan were part of a single Maya principality ruled from a city called Chetumal. This city was located near the present day site of Corozal Town in Belize. Ambergris Caye was a part of this principality.

Little definite is known of the Maya of Ambergris, but the things they left behind give us some indication of the way they lived.

There are on the island relics of numerous ancient settlements. The largest is a Post-Classic site in the area of Basil Jones which features a number of low mounds made from local limestone. There are also areas dotted with well defined shell heaps and an abundance of obsidian flakings, fragments of pottery and an occasional jade ornament or object carved in bone. The soils in the vicinity of these Maya 'fishing sites' are characterized by a deep black top soil containing much fine charcoal. Apart from subsisting on what they could grow themselves, the Maya were supported by the sea and engaged in regular trade with other settlements inland and along the coast. Wild game was also plentiful on Ambergris and must have provided these early inhabitants with a rich and varied diet.

At the time of contact with the first Europeans there was extensive trade activity between the northern areas of Belize, including ancient Chetumal and an area in the south known as Ulna, which is the Bay Islands of the present day Republic of Honduras. The trade centered mainly on cacao, a commodity which was used as money among the Maya. Canoes loaded with clothing, salt, cloth, slaves and fish made the journey south from Yucatan to Ulna and returned with precious cargoes of cacao. At the time ancient Chetumal contained 2000 or more dwellings. Its citizens excelled in commerce and exported maize, honey, wax and cotton garments to Honduras and other places along the coast.

Located strategically in the middle of this trading area, Ambergris Caye must have been a convenient resting place for traders heading up or down the coast. All the traders of the important town of Chetumal had to pass the island to reach their markets by sea.

Ambergris Caye was probably also important as a source of seafood for the Maya. Because of its proximity to the reef there was an abundance of fish and shellfish to be found there. These could be brought back to Chetumal by traders returning in ballast. The presence of several salt lakes also made the island important as a source of salt for the ancient Maya.

Finally, because of its strategic location at the entrance to the Bay of Chetumal, Ambergris Caye must have been of tremendous military importance to the Maya. It is quite likely, in fact, that they garrisoned the island during periods of impending attack.

It is not known what became of the Maya of Ambergris Caye. However, it is probably safe to speculate that they suffered a fate similar to that of their mainland brothers, who were decimated as a result of the European conquests and exposure to exotic European diseases. In the first 150 years of European contact in Mexico the indigenous population was reduced by over 80 per cent due to the effects of epidemics of European diseases. Since Ambergris Caye was associated with the Maya city of Chetumal and easily accessible to all persons passing down the coast by sea, the result must have been similar there.

However, despite the ravages of disease the Maya in Belize continued to resist the encroachment of British lumbermen into their territory well through the eighteenth century.

Pirates and Stolen Treasure

Though abandoned by the Maya, Ambergris Caye did not remain uninhabited for long. By the beginning of the 17th century, English, French and Dutch pirates were attacking the ships and towns of the Spanish Empire in the New World. These pirates needed remote retreats and safe harbours where they could care for their boats, rest their crews, hide their treasures and obtain food and water for their next raid. Ambergris Caye probably served such a purpose. Like Cayo Cosina (later to be known as Saint George's Caye) it was a place which could readily provide fresh water and food in good supply. The discovery of small treasure-troves on the island and of gold coins washed up on the beach together with old bottles suggest that it was visited often and its abundant resources utilized.

Ambergris Caye also served as a source of food for the woodcutting camps which multiplied along the river banks and further into the interior of Belize as the logwood, and later the mahogany trade developed, making Belize one of the major providers of these two valuable wood products for the British and European markets. Turtle and manatee harvested and dried on the cayes were staples in the early logwood and mahogany camps. Ambergris Caye, with its plentiful supply of these creatures, undoubtedly supported several turtle fishing camps.

The first firm evidence of a permanent British settlement on Ambergris Caye comes from the Archives of British Honduras of 3rd December 1828. In a Magistrates' Meeting of that date it was stated "on report that a party of Spanish troops from Bacalar had landed at Ambergrease key and committed outrages on British subjects resident there, the officer of Police with 20 soldiers was sent to release them."

The Maya past, present and future are an important part of the Belize experience. This history of the Maya continues today in over half the population of Ambergris Caye. To the people here on the island, this is more than a series of memories carved in limestone or glazed on pottery. A majority of the people who will greet you and feed you and dive with you here on the island have the blood of Maya running in their veins. This area long served as the maritime headquarters of the Chetumal Bay Maya population. The boat builders and maintenance crews, along with the fishing industry, kept Ambergris Caye as a very important segment of the Maya economic system.

Ambergris Caye served as a trade center for the Maya. It is estimated that during the height of the Maya civilization, a civilization that lasted six times longer than the Roman empire, over four thousand canoes were present on the water on any given day. Vast quantities of goods flowed up and down the coastline of Belize and the Yucatan. So important was access for trade that the Maya literally created Ambergris Caye. It was once the southern tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The Maya dug a canal to allow access to the sea for their dugouts, forming the present day island of Ambergris Caye. For a brief history of the island of Ambergris Caye. For a more detailed look at the Maya history of Ambergris Caye.

Of the many empires and cultures that flourished in preconquest Mesoamerica, the Maya have enjoyed the best press. The European travelers who rediscovered their ruined cities imagined them idealistically as a spiritual, artistic and pacific people. They were, it was said, the Greeks to the Aztecs' Romans. To this day, their majestic temples at Palenque, Uxmal, Chichen lzta and Tikal are among the most admired pre-Columbian sites.

"Today we know much more about these peoples," writes Mercedes de la Garza, a Mexican expert. "But this does not mean that we have the absolute truth and that the 21st century will not reject many of our interpretations, just as we have discarded those of the 18th and 19th centuries."