Belize Trivia

1. Off the coast of Belize, near the town of Dangriga, there is a tiny island that was badly damaged by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. It is named after a crop which is believed to have been cultivated there. What is the name of this island?

From Quiz Belize: Flourishing Under the Shade

Answer: Tobacco Caye

The tiny, egg-shaped Tobacco Caye (approx 200ft x 400ft in size!) is in the Stann Creek district. It has a permanent population of about 20 people; there are no schools, so child residents have to board at school on a nearby island, coming home at weekends. Tobacco is believed to have been cultivated there by the Puritan settlers who lived on the island in the 17th century. Although Hurricane Mitch did significant damage to Tobacco Caye in 1998, it has since been rebuilt, and tourists wishing to go there must take a boat from Dangriga on the mainland. (None of the other cays listed exist. I made them all up.)

From Quiz Belize It Or Not

Answer: British Honduras

English buccaneers began to exploit the woodlands of Belize in the early 17th century. The name Belize possibly comes from one such pirate, whose name was Peter Wallace. The Spanish called him "Ballis" and his name was supposedly given to the recently discovered Belize River. Later that century, the British began to settle in the area and gradually began to run it politically. No formal claim on the land was made, however, until 1862 when it was declared as "British Honduras". The name persisted until 1973 by which time Britain had stepped away from the day-to-day running of the country allowing Belize to prepare for independence.

From Quiz Belize: Flourishing Under the Shade

Answer: September

Formerly known as British Honduras until it changed its name in 1973, Belize became independent from the UK on 21st September 1981. On 21st September, Independence Day is celebrated all over the country, with an official ceremony and a parade in the capital, Belmopan, and local festivities elsewhere. For instance, Orange Walk has its own carnival. National Day, meanwhile, is on 10th September and commemorates the Battle of St George's Caye, when British settlers (known as 'Baymen') repelled Spanish invaders in 1798.

From Quiz Belize It Or Not

Answer: Guatemala and Mexico

Despite once sharing a name, Honduras and Belize are not contiguous and do not share a land border. The two countries are separated by a strip of Guatemalan land about 30 miles wide that borders Amatique Bay.

From Quiz Belize: Flourishing Under the Shade

Answer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle's Delight stands 3687ft (1124m) high, and can be found in the Cockscomb Range (so called because of its jagged shape) of the Maya Mountains. It remained nameless until 1989, when Sharon Matola, founder of the Belize Zoo, came up with the name after being inspired by a passage in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel 'The Lost World'. An unofficial alternative name for the mountain, Kaan Witz (Mayan for 'sky mountain'), has been coined by locals.

From Quiz Belize It Or Not

Answer: Tropical

According to the Köppen climate classification system, a tropical climate is not necessarily defined by geographical location. Rather, it is the mean temperature that defines the classification of the climate. Belize, however, does fall within the tropical region between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, with the north of the country at around 19°N and the south, around 15°N. Belize has distinct dry and rainy seasons. The dry season runs from January to April in the north of the country and from February to April in the south.

From Quiz Belize: Flourishing Under the Shade

Answer: May to June

The climate of Belmopan is what the Köppen Scale describes as a tropical monsoon climate, due to its proximity to the ocean, with frequent thunderstorms and heavy amounts of rain during the wet season. The dry season is short in contrast, lasting from approximately January/February to April/May. Belmopan was not the original capital of Belize; it became the capital after the previous capital, Belize City, was devastated by Hurricane Hattie in 1961.

From Quiz Belize: Flourishing Under the Shade

Answer: A giant sinkhole

The sinkhole in question is the Great Blue Hole. Surrounded by corals, it is part of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, Belize's only UNESCO National Heritage site, and is 406ft (124m) deep. Believed to be the world's largest underwater sinkhole, it's home to several species of fish, including basking sharks. In 1971, Jacques Cousteau led an expedition to the sinkhole, finding limestone caves beneath the surface with enormous stalactites and stalagmites.

From Quiz Belize: Flourishing Under the Shade

Answer: Boil up

A boil up (or 'bile up' in the Kriol language) is a culinary mishmash of 'ground food' (root vegetables), boiled eggs, pig tail and tomato sauce, though sometimes onion sauce is preferred. The root vegetables are generally plantains, potatoes and cassava, though some recipes also use carrots and yams. It is sometimes accompanied by a 'boil cake', a kind of dumpling.

From Quiz Belize: Flourishing Under the Shade

Answer: Mahogany

In the early days of British settlement of Belize, logging was one of the principal industries of the island, hence the tree, the wooden ship and the woodcutting tools on the flag. Although it was initially logwood that British loggers in Belize sought, the price of logwood collapsed due to over-saturation of the market, and the loggers moved further inland in search of mahogany instead. There, they met with resistance from the indigenous Maya. The mahogany tree is the national tree of Belize. The leaves circling the two men on the flag are also mahogany leaves.

From Quiz Belize It Or Not

Answer: It had the narrowest main street in the world

Placencia is a town with a population of around 1,000 people that is situated at the end of a narrow peninsula in the south of the country. It attracts many tourists for its laid back atmosphere (to the point of horizontal - hammocks essential), its beautiful lagoon and the nearby rainforest. Its main street is just four feet (or 1.2 metres) wide, making it, according to the "Guinness World of Records" in 2000, the narrowest main street in the world. The original street was destroyed in a hurricane in 2001 but was rebuilt to the same size a year later.

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