Blue Creek Vacations, Blue Creek Vacation Reviews, Tourism Guide

Blue Creek Vacation Guide

Blue Creek is a village in the Toledo District of southern Belize (not to be confused with Blue Creek in Orange Walk), founded by Kek'chi and Mopan Maya families from San Antonio and Aguacate, is now also home to a number of Mennonite families.

The Blue Creek 200-acre rainforest preserve is a 15-minute hike along a trail leading to the IZE Research Centre and a deep pool of clear water perfect for swimming (the parking lot and trail is on the right just before the village bridge). The Preserve's lush rainforest is home to enormous bromeliads, orchids, cohune palms, and heliconias, and many medicinal plants. There are hundreds of birds here - including the keel-billed toucan - and the roar of the howler monkeys can be heard nearby.

Further upstream is the Hokeb Ha Cave, with its large entrance carved from the summit of a hill where the Creek gurgles up from underground. Many Late Classic Maya ceramics have been found inside the cave, as well as an altar, and archaeologists believe the cave was used specifically for ceremonial purposes. The limestone caves are full of pristine crystal-clear mineral pools and lagoons, with a water temperature of a constant 75 degrees. Cave swimming trips are a popular activity (for safety, you must be accompanied by a guide and local guides can be hired in the village or at the Research Station). With life jackets and headlights you swim into the cave to visit one or more waterfalls, and view the impressive stalactites and stalagmites.