This is Belize, Central America | Part 1 | A brief history tour of Belize #Iwasthinking #Allaroundus

hello everyone how are you doing this is mickey here i hope you're all doing good um i was thinking right and i've got an idea you know when we were growing up those who grew up in ghana they will tell you when we were growing up and you had the opportunity or the chance to travel abroad or something like that your parents would say something they will say oh i wish you can take one of my eyes so that i can see the things that you can see in that country or wherever you're going and i have an idea what about me taking one of your eye right with the help of technology of course and you know everywhere i go say because my my job sometimes take me to some places and some of them are a bit of skill what about if i take you with me in the form of vlogging so i decided for the last two years i've been living in belize belize belize is in central america right it's a very fascinating country it's like i call it a junction nation because it is like the junction for america you know as in u.s and then in the east we've got um the caribbean islands and then in the south you will see all these hispanic countries like guatemala colombia and the rest so this place that i've been living for the past two years is very fascinating and i thought in this video what i'll do is i'll give you a bit of an insight to just an overview of belize so i want you to see how belizeans are like how belize looks as a country so just come on this journey with me [Music] for your safety please remain seated and keep your arms and feet inside the train at all times our trusted trained engineer will be taking you through various beautiful settings that will leave you with a brief insight of culture and history in belize let's get rolling [Music] welcome to the belize rainforest we are very fortunate in belize to have almost 1 million acres of rainforest and wetlands under different types of conservation management this is important for two main reasons firstly it will be there for future generations to enjoy and secondly thousands of insects birds reptiles animals and many varieties of trees and plant life have a safe place to call home belize has a large variety of ecosystems making our country very unique for generations these precious ecosystems have provided food water building materials and medicine for our people belize also has an extensive network of cave systems over 150 miles of caves have been mapped with many more still to be explored one of these cave systems known as atm which is short for akhtun to the chill muknal has been named one of the most sacred caves in the world by the national geographic our next stop is amaya city hey [Music] so the maya civilization was a very strong culture that rose to its climax and descended to its collapse in a period of four thousand years from 2500 bc to 1500 a.d to your left is a temple where priests and the elite would live to your right is a typical kitchen structure and another for sleeping this is where the general population would live the maya domesticated plants corn was the base of most of their food they raised stingless honeybees and traded cotton honey flint salt feathers and jade the maya developed their own calendar using advanced astronomy and mathematics the ancient maya believed that their universe consisted of three layers the water underworld was shibalba the place of right in the middle was earth four-sided and floating in an ancient sea as if on the back of a turtle or crocodile on top was the heavens where hunapu was the supreme god with no form or face who along with many gods took care of the people on earth connecting these three layers was the giant saber tree the secretary of the maya by 300 a.d the classic period was in full swing this was the height of the maya civilization and the size and number of the large temples and palaces grew it is estimated that up to two million maya people lived in belize during the classic period [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] to your right is the early sugar industry sugarcane was introduced into the northern district of corazon in 1848 by mexican immigrants fleeing the caste war and was grown in small amounts for sugarcane rapadora and molasses however it wasn't until the arrival of the american confederates in southern belize in 1865 that this industry took off this sugar mill on display on your right was made in louisiana and brought in by the confederates east indian indentured laborers were brought in to work on these farms and would remain settled to become one of the major ethnic groups in southern belize referred to as cool indian today the industry is comprised of two big factories one in the north and the other in the west of belize over five thousand independent farming families depend on this industry to your left is the chiclet camp in the jungle with real sapodilla trees charlie the chiclero is tapping the tree for its sap chewing gum originated from the sepula tree this large tropical tree grows throughout the northern lowlands and central belize the life of a chiclera was tough as they worked in remote jungle locations insect bites encounters with poisonous snakes and other dangerous animals were a daily occurrence falling from trees was common and getting to a hospital quickly was near impossible a chicleo like charlie here would climb to the top of the tree using spikes on his feet a rope around his waist and a machete in his hand once on top he would proceed to make slanting gashes into the bark working his way to the bottom of the tree the sap would drain to the bottom where a lined bag would collect it once a large amount was collected it would be cooked in huge iron pots then poured into wooden molds that were sized to produce 25 pound blocks of chickley these blocks would be shipped to wrigley company chicago illinois for further processing into delicious chewing gum such as juicy fruit and wrigley's spearmint condom the cutting of logs took place in the dry season gangs of up to 150 men would go inside the jungle and set up camps huntsman would locate the premium timber then axemen like joe to your left would cut it down to cut above the white buttress roots a platform called a bbq was built once a tree was fell they were loaded onto trailers and were then pulled by oxen trains or steam tractor to the river's edge when the rainy season began the rivers would rise and float all the logs down to billy city closer to the city the logs would be chained together from one side of the river to the other this was called a boom the boom kept the logs from going out into the sea when the ships arrived their quota was released for loading most of our logs went to england our national tree the mahogany tree was that the most sought after wood as it was beautiful in color and was easy to work with carpentry tools of the day wood used for local construction were cut using sawmills and the many tools displayed to your right belize is very lucky to have a forestry department that manages our timber resources to ensure sustainability so we are now in a typical caribbean setting next to the sea the garifuna are descendants of west african central african island carib and arawak people they arrived in the early 19th century settling on the southern coast of belize german is an integral part of the culture their music called punta would become the nationally recognized music of belize the costume above the stairs is for the jungle dance ceremony that is celebrated on the last sunday of the year the gryffindor culture allies assisted slavery and the junk on our dance embodies that resistance traditionally california foods are based on ground foods vegetables and marine produce however the single most important food is the cassava also known as yucca the process of making cassava bread is arguably the most important tradition practiced by the garifuna people we celebrate greatness monday on the 19th of november this national holiday was founded by thomas whitson traumas who was a visionary leader for the garifuna people so [Music] we are now on north front street belize city circa 1910 when belize was a colony of england ships coming for logwood sugar chiclet or logs would bring many european and north american products to balance these large sailing vessels and they would load them with bricks which they sold in belize many buildings in belize are built with red bricks hundreds of years old through the peaceful efforts of the father of our nation the right honorable george cable prize belize achieved independence from england on the 21st and kokomba beach we hope you enjoy the rest of your stay the train will be coming to a stop shortly please be careful as you exit the train you