3 Best Sights in Belize

You can visit the source of one of Belize's best-known exports, Marie Sharp's Hot Sauce, made in about a dozen different heat levels from Mild to Beware. The small factory, with about 25 workers and still a Sharp family business, is open to interested visitors weekdays, but for a tour it's best to call in advance. Besides the factory tour, you can also see the entire selection of products manufactured by Marie Sharp, and most are offered for sale along with Marie Sharp T-shirts and tote bags. The products are sold in nearly every grocery in Belize and sit on tables in most restaurants in Belize. 

Marie Sharp's main office is on 3 Pier Road in Dangriga, where there also is a small shop.

From cacao beans to final candy bars, you can see how chocolate is made at Cotton Tree Chocolates, a small chocolate factory on Front Street in Punta Gorda. It's associated with Cotton Tree Lodge. You'll get a short guided tour of the chocolate-making process and you can buy bars of delicious milk or dark chocolate. Cotton Tree Lodge also offers guests a program on sustainable cacao growing, producing, and harvesting.

One of Belize’s most offbeat sights are these ruins of a 19th-century sugar mill, now eerily engulfed by the jungle over a century after its abandonment. Sugar once fueled the economy of this region, and American Southerners fleeing the defeated Confederacy established the Serpon Plantation after the Civil War. At its peak, the steam-powered mill produced 1,700 pounds of sugar a month. By the early 20th century, mills in northern Belize were able to harvest and generate sugar more efficiently, and Serpon ceased operation. You’d think the heat and humidity would have taken their toll, but the cast-iron equipment remains remarkably well preserved with little rust. You can visit the site on your own—it’s a tad hard to find—and hire a guide at the small information center at the entrance. Hopkins and Placencia tour operators can also arrange visits.