Corozal travel guide

The Northern Highway continues to Corozal (96 miles from Belize City), formerly the centre of the sugar industry, now with a special zone for the clothing industry and garment exports. Much of the old town was destroyed by Hurricane Janet in 1955 and it is now a mixture of modern concrete commercial buildings and Caribbean clapboard seafront houses on stilts. Like Orange Walk it is economically depressed but Corozal is much the safer place. It is open to the sea with a pleasant waterfront where the market is held. There is no beach but you can swim in the sea and lie on the grass. You can check out the local website at http://www.corozal.com.

Between Orange Walk and Corozal, in San José and San Pablo, is the archaeological site of Nohmul, a ceremonial centre whose main acropolis dominates the surrounding cane fields (the name means ‘Great Mound’). Permission to visit the site must be obtained from Sr Estevan Itzab, whose house is opposite the water tower.

From Corozal, a road leads 7 miles northeast to Consejo, a quiet, seaside fishing village on Chetumal Bay. No public transport, taxi about US$10.

Six miles northeast of Corozal, to the right of the road to Chetumal, is Four Mile Lagoon, about a quarter of a mile off the road (buses will drop you there). Clean swimming, better than Corozal bay, some food and drinks available; it is often crowded at weekends.

Across the bay to the south of Corozal stand the mounds of Cerros, once an active Maya trading port whose central area was reached by canal. Some of the site is flooded but one pyramid, 69-ft-high with stucco masks on its walls, has been partially excavated. Take a boat from Corozal, walk around the bay (a boat is needed to cross the mouth of the New River) or do the dry-season vehicular trail from Progresso and Chunox . Trips can be arranged with Hotel Maya and Hok’Ol K’in Guest House, from US$60 for a water taxi carrying up to six people.