We were returning from our ecolodge in Belize’s tropical heartland to the Belize City municipal airport. There, we would take a short flight to the southern state of Toledo. On the way, our driver asked our permission to pick up a woman waiting at a lonesome bus stop in the countryside. He knew her as the wife of a farmer and she was taking a basket of squash to market. We exchanged small talk and when she left the van, she turned to me and said, “Little Belize has a lot of richness but nobody pays no mind.”

Belize may be small, but it is not homogenous. With a population around 321,000, the tiny country enjoys a diversity of ethnicities that is undeniably stimulating and improbably serene. It is indigenously Maya; politically Creole (most business owners and political figures); and the largest ethnic group is Mestizo (of mixed Spanish and Amerindian descent). While those are the biggest populations, at least half a dozen other prominent ethnic groups call Belize their home.