Belizean cuisine is inspired by British, Mexican and Western Caribbean cooking. Since Belize is a melting pot of culture, it has adopted dishes from many different countries. The basic ingredients are rice and beans. These are often eaten with chicken, pork, veal, fish or vegetables. Coconut milk and fried plantains are added to the dishes to create a truly tropical taste. Exotic ingredients include armadillo meat, venison, iguana, iguana egg, and fried paca. Conch soup is a traditional dish. It has a characteristic taste and thick consistency due to added okra, potatoes, yams, cassava flour and a touch of toasted habanero. Belizean food is almost always served alongside white rice in coconut milk.
The most common dishes that you will encounter in Belize are the following:
Mestizo- Tamales, Relleno, Escabeche, Empanades and many other corn food.
Creole- The famous Rice and Beans, sere, and other dishes with may include cassava and yam.
The major sports in Belize are football, basketball, volleyball and cycling. There are smaller followings of boat racing, track & field, softball and cricket. Fishing is also popular in areas of Belize. The Cross Country Cycling Classic is one of the most important Belize sports events. This one-day sports event is meant for amateur cyclists but has also gained a worldwide popularity.
On Easter day, citizens of Dangriga participate in a yearly fishing tournament. First, second, and third prize are awarded based on a scoring combination of size, species, and number. The tournament is broadcast over local radio stations. Prize money is awarded to the winners.
Belize's National Basketball Team is the only National Team to have major victories internationally.
The black orchid (Encyclia Cochleatum) is the National Flower of Belize. This orchid grows on trees in damp areas, and flowers nearly all year round. Its clustered bulblike stems vary in size up to six inches long and carry two or three leaves.
The black orchid flower has greenish-yellow petals and sepals with purple blotches near the base. The "lip" (one petal of special construction, which is the flower's showiest) is shaped like a valve of a clamshell (hence the name Encyclia Cochleatum) and is deep purple-brown, almost black, with conspicuous radiating purple veins.
The National Tree of Belize is the Mahogany Tree ("Swietenia macrophylla"), one of the magnificent giants of the Belize rain forest. It rises straight and tall to over a hundred feet. In the early months of the year, when the leaves fall and new red-brown growth appears, the tree can be seen from a great distance. The tree puts out a many small whitish flowers. The flowers blossom into dark fruits, which are pear-shaped capsules about six inches long. The mahogany tree matures in 60 to 80 years.
The Keel Billed Toucan ("Ramphastos sulfuratus") is the National Bird of Belize. It is noted for its great, canoe-shaped bill and its brightly coloured green, blue, red and orange feathers. There are toucans in open areas of the country with large trees. It is mostly black with bright yellow cheeks and chest, red under the tail and a distinctive white patch at the base of the tail. They make a monotonous frog-like croak. Toucans like fruits. They eat by cutting with the serrated edge of their bills.
The Tapir or Mountain Cow (Tapirello Bairdii) is the largest land mammal of the American tropics. The tapir is a stoutly built animal with short legs, about the size of a donkey and weighs up to 600 pounds. Its general color is dusty brown with a white fringe around the eyes and lips, white tipped ears and occasional white patches of fur on the throat and chest.
In spite of its local name, the tapir is not a cow. It is closely related to the horse and is also kin to the rhinoceros. The tapir is a vegetarian. It spends much of its time in water or mud shallows, and is a strong swimmer.
The National Animal is protected under the law thus the hunting of the tapir is illegal.
Notes
Michael Landon
Michael Landon (October 31, 1936 - July 1, 1991) was an American actor. He is best known for his roles on the TV shows, "Bonanza", "Little House on the Prairie", and "Highway to Heaven".
Titanic
The RMS "Titanic" was a British passenger ship. It was built by Harland and Wolff ship builders, in Belfast, for the White Star Line company. She sank during her first trip at sea.
Before she sailed, many people thought it would be almost impossible for ships of this design to sink.
At 11:40 on 14 April 1912, during the "Titanic"'s first trip, she hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. The iceberg broke the "Titanic"'s hull (bottom), letting water into the ship. The "Titanic" sank two hours and forty minutes later at 2:20 on 15 April.
As she sank, the "Titanic" split in two. The wreck killed over 1,500 people. Only around 705 people survived. It was one of the worst shipwrecks that was not during a war.
One reason why so many people died was that the ship did not have enough lifeboats for everyone on board. The "Titanic" had 20 lifeboats with room for 1,178 passengers, only a third of the number of passengers the ship could carry. It actually had more lifeboats than was needed by law (it needed 16 with room for 990 passengers). This was because the laws in the UK were out of date. They did not say that a ship needed enough lifeboats for all passengers. They only said that a ship weighing more than 10,000 tons needed 16 lifeboats (the Titanic weighed 46,000 tons). Furthermore, the White Star Line believed that the lifeboats on the "Titanic" would only be needed to take passengers a short distance to a rescue ship.
Higher class women and children were allowed on the lifeboats first, and passengers who sailed in first class (which meant that they paid for better rooms on the ship) were allowed on before other passengers. Few of the poorer people who had paid less (called second class and third class passengers) got out safely.
Another reason so few people survived was that the radio was off on the "SS Californian", the ship closest to the "Titanic". The "Californian" crew did not hear about the accident. Also, the "Titanic" did have flares but they were white.Back then(and still now),red meant emergency and other colors were used for identification (White=White Star Line).The Californian and other ships saw the flares but they didn't think of the flares as distress signals. Another ship, the "SS Carpathia", did hear about the accident and collected all 705 survivors.
This had several reasons:
Many of those who died didn't die because they couldn't leave the ship before it sank. They died of hypothermia, while they were floating in the cold water (which was only a bit over the freezing point at that time). When the MS. Carpathia arrived, at 4.10 ship's time, they were floating dead bodies in the water. Many lifeboats rowed away from those who were in the water shouting for help. The people in the lifeboats were afraid the lifeboat would capsize when people entered it from the water. Only lifeboat Number four returned to the shouting people in the water. Five people could be rescued, but two of them died in the lifeboat. Around 3 am ship's time, 40 minutes after the sinking, the last calls for help ceased. After 3am, lifeboat number 14, commanded by Officer Harold Lowe returned. He could save another three people. He had emptied the lifeboat and let the people in the boat enter other boats beforehand.
The following table gives a listing of those who died and those who survived, grouped by age, gender and ships class. Children are those up to age 12. It is taken from a report to British parliament of 1912. There are other lists, with slightly different numbers.
The last survivor of the Titanic disaster to die was a woman named Millvina Dean. She was the youngest passenger on board, as she was then a baby of only nine weeks old. She died in Ashhurst, Hampshire, England on 21 May 2009 aged 97.