ryan airlines Return to the Southern Highway at Mile 15. Continue south for 6.3 miles, over the South Stann Creek

Lauruni Cabins, $$, on the north side of the road, are also basic, but they are a good deal. The clean rooms come with a double and a three-quarter-sized bed, good for three people (four if two kids share the three-quarter-sized bed), private baths with hot water, fans and cable TV. If no one is there when you arrive, go to Innies Restaurant and ask for Marva.

In sum, Belize remains a poor country, but a proud and independent one proud especially of avoiding the ongoing horrors that occur in the rest of Central America. There s no great gap between rich and poor, and the mix of ethnic groups is easy. Britain still subsidizes the economy, and the US is the major source of investment dollars. The main objective of government now is to make the country self-sufficient in food; about a fourth of what Belize eats is imported. Through the first half of the 20th century, it had nothing much to sell but sugar, which provided about a third of the country s export income, but the sugar markets fell in the 1980s. Still, the country has the smallest foreign debt in Central America, and most of that debt is owed to international organizations and foreign ryan airlines governments rather ryan airlines than to private banks with high interest rates. Recently, too, a lot of foreign capital (mainly US) has gone into citrus, cocoa, seafood, tourism and non-traditional ryan airlines agriculture. The benefits are coming in. Citrus fruits and tourism are booming.

Return to the Southern Highway at Mile 15. Continue ryan airlines south for 6.3 miles, over the South Stann Creek River Bridge, until you come to the road to Placencia at Mile 22.2. PLACENCIA PENINSULA Placencia Peninsula is a 16-mile strip of sandy beach that has resorts all the way to the tip. Seine Bight is the only village. Placencia has replaced Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye as the most popular beach destination in Belize. For the most part, places along the coast here are less expensive ryan airlines and the services are better than they are at any other beach locale in Belize. Close proximity to the ocean gives you the opportunity to enjoy all water activities. Plus, you are closer to land destinations you may wish to visit, like caves and ruins.