(3) Main Varieties of Cacoa Beans
Three main varieties of cocoa are: Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario.  Cacao production in Belize, mainly focuses on Trintario and Forastero varieities.  The Trintario is the most widely used, comprising 80–90% of the world production of cocoa. 

The Trinitario - Trinitario is a hybrid of Criollo and Forastero cacao.  These are normally more resistant to diseases than the Crillo but are not normally found in the wild.  The pods contain up to thirty or more beans varying in colors but rarely white in color.  The outside color of the pod varies ranging from green, light green, red, yellow.  Fermentatin also takes approximately three to five days (3-5 days).

The Forastero - Forastero pods produce up to 30 seeds weighing less than one gram.  The color of the pod varies to green, light green and red, while the inside of the pod is covered in a deep or light purple pulp  It has a strong bitter taste (strongest flavor).  Therefore, the fermentation normally takes about six to eight days (6-8 days).  It is most common in West Africa and South America and it makes up most of the cacao production.

The Criollo - Criollo pods tend to be much rarer, and considered to be a delicacy.  Cacao has lower yields than Forastero and the Criollo tend to be less resistant to several diseases that attack the cocoa plant, hence very few countries produce it. One of the largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela (Chuao and Porcelana). The Criollo mainly used for tine chocolates, contains up to fifteen to thirty white, ivory or pale purple seeds which weight more than one gram.  These have pointed-ended pods, its color reanges from yello to ruddy orange whitle the inside appears almost white.  It has a softer skin, its flower is white with two pink lines.  These do not require a lot of fermentation and roasting to soften them and develop their flavor.  Fermentation takes approximately three to five days (3-5 days).

Belize Exports Annually (Statistics as of 2016)
United Kingdom (34%) $69,273,699. USD
United States (23%) $47,304,948. USD

MAYAN HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPE
4 c. milk
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1 tsp. cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp. water
1/4 c. brown sugar
1⁄4 tsp. nugmeg
3 whole cloves, crushed
1/4 tsp. chili pepper, crushed
1 cinnamon stick, broken up
2 tsp. powdered sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
DIRECTIONS

• Sift the cocoa powder and flour.
  
• Measure out 4 cups of milk. From the 4 cups of milk, slowly whisk about 1/4 cup of it, a little more if necessary, into the cocoa/cornstarch mix until it becomes a paste. If you add milk too fast, you get clumpy cocoa. If that happens, use a hand blender to smooth it out.
  
• When all the cocoa and flour are a paste (no more dry flour,) add the remaining spices (sugar, nutmeg, cloves, peppers, and cinnamon).
  
• Heat the rest of the 4 cups of milk in a double-boiler or a saucepan over medium.
  
• Add the cocoa paste & spices, mix in a hot double-boiler. Stir constantly to keep it from burning.
  
• If you prefer a slightly thicker drink, you can add more cornstarch/water mixture now. Continue stirring on the heat until it's to your desired thickness. Not too long; you don't want to be forced to use a knife and fork. ;D.
  
• When the cocoa is ready (it takes about 10-15 minutes until the flavor and heat level are *just right*), strain the cocoa in a fine sieve to remove the cloves and cinnamon pieces. (Careful, it could splatter - I found out last night. *grrr*) Then add the powdered sugar and vanilla and stir.
  
• If you like, you can put whipped cream on top, add small marshmallows, or add a stick of cinnamon for stirring.
  

Ingredients
1/4 c. coconut oil
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tbsp. maple syrup
1 1/2 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Bar Variations

• Chopped Peanuts
  
• Chopped Almonds
• Fleur De Sel Sea Salt
• Chopped Toasted Hazelnuts
• Peanut Butter

Instructions

1. In a small sauce pan on medium-high melt together the coconut oil, cocoa powder, maple syrup, honey, & vanilla. Whisk until completely melted.
2. Pour in to candy bar mold. If using a mix-in (except peanut butter, if using PB add to everything else being melted), add to candy bar mold prior to pouring chocolate.
3. Freeze at least 15 minutes until hardened. Store in freezer.

The ancient Mayan civilization flourished in the steamy jungles of present-day southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. The ancient Maya classic age (the peak of their culture) occurred between 300 and 900 A.D. before they went into a mysterious decline. The Maya culture has always been a bit of an enigma, and even the experts disagree on certain aspects of their society.

Across Belize today, you can find sprawling ancient cities with towering pyramids, ball-courts, saunas, monumental sculptures, and enigmatic hieroglyphs—all thanks to the Maya.  From the Yucatan in the north to Honduras in the south, Belize in the east, and Mexico City in the west, the ruins of Meso-America (many of which are over a thousand years old) continue to intrigue and fascinate archaeologists and researchers worldwide.

In an attempt to help you decipher the profound history of the Mayans, we piece together astonishing facts about the Mayans - a civilization that developed its own written language, architecture as well as mathematical and astronomical system.  Here are 30 intriguing things, I bet you didn't know about this ancient civilization.

1. Their Pyramids & Cities are Still Being Discovered.
It’s amazing to think that something as large as a pyramid could elude archaeologists today. But it was only a few years ago that a Maya pyramid was even discovered.  Hidden under what many thought was a natural hill.  Underneath one natural hill, was actually Mexico's tallest pyramid at 246 feet in height, surpassing the 213-foot Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan. 

2.  They Had Kings & Royal Families.
Each major Mayan city had a king (or Ahau). The Maya rulers claimed to be descended directly from the sun, moon, or planets, which gave them divine ancestry. Because he had the blood of gods, the Ahau (king) was an important conduit between the realm of man and the heavens and underworld, and often had key roles in ceremonies. The Ahau (king), was also a wartime leader, expected to fight and play in the ceremonial ball game. When the Ahau (king) died, rulership generally passed to his son, although there were exceptions. There was even a handful of queens ruling mighty Mayan city-states.

4. They Had a Complicated System of Hieroglyphs.
Mayan writing, which dates to the late Preclassic period (300 BCE to 100 CE), is preserved on buildings, stone monuments, rare books, and pottery. While words in the English language are formed with combinations of 26 letters, written Mayan words are formed from various combinations of more than 800 hieroglyphs, each representing a syllable. The system is thought to be the most sophisticated of its kind in Meso-America. Only in the last few decades have they gained the ability to read the glyphs. 

5.  An Archaeologist Accidentially Cracked Mayan Handwriting.
Tatiana Proskouriakoff, a Siberia-born American and trained architect, couldn't find a job in her field.  So she started sketching for a curator at Penn Museum in Philadelphia in the 1930s.  She was invited on an expedition to the Piedras Negras (a Maya site in Guatemala). She was the first to recognize that the Mayas' "upended frog" glyph represented birth and that their “toothache” glyph represented the date the king ascended to the throne, which led to the identification of birth and death announcements, as well as the names of the rulers for a Maya dynasty.

6. The Maya Wrote Books & The Europeans Burned Them.
The Maya wrote books in their elaborate hieroglyphic script on long strips of durable paper made from the inner bark of fig trees. But there are just three Maya codices that survive today: the Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex, and the Paris Codex. (There’s also the fragmentary Grolier Codex, but scholars dispute its authenticity.) Not all of the Maya were literate, as the books seem to have been produced and used by the priest class.  Many of the books fell victim to the damp conditions of Meso-America, others were destroyed by the arrival of Europeans. Diego de Landa, a Franciscan priest from Spain (in Yucatan in the 1540's, describes), “We found a large number of books in their letters (superstition & lies of the devil), we burned them all", which we later regretted.

8. Their Calendars Were Complex.
There was a lot of talk in certain paranoid corners on the Internet that doomsday, was predicted by the Maya calendar, as being December 21, 2012.  This was the date that their "Long Calander" ended after 5,125 years.  This calendar was impressive because it used zero as a placeholder—one of the earliest uses of zero as a mathematical concept in history. Was this the only calendar the Maya used?  No, they also had a 260-day sacred calendar (called Tzolk’in), which was used to plan religious ceremonies, as well as a 365-day solar calendar known as the Haab'.

9. They Didn't Think the World Would End in 2012?
As December of 2012 approached, many people noted that the Maya calendar would soon end. It’s true, as the Maya calendar system was complicated. To make a long story short, it reset to zero on December 21, 2012. This led to all sorts of speculation, from a new coming of the Messiah to the end of the world. The ancient Maya, however, did not seem to worry much about what would happen when their calendar reset. They may have seen it as a new beginning of sorts, but there is no evidence that they predicted any disasters.

11.  They Saw Their Gods in the Sky.
The Maya were obsessive astronomers who kept very detailed records of the movements of the stars, sun, moon, and planets. They kept accurate tables predicting eclipses, solstices, and other celestial events. Part of the reason for this detailed observation of the heavens was that they believed that the sun, moon, and planets were gods moving back and forth between the heavens, the underworld (Xibalba), and the Earth. Celestial events such as equinoxes, solstices, and eclipses were marked by ceremonies at Maya temples.

14.  Their Bible Still Exists.
Today, experts lament how so little is known about the Maya today, and how this entire culture has been lost.  Yet one remarkable document that has survived is the Mayan Bible (Popol Vuh). This sacred book describes the creation of mankind and the story of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the hero twins, and their struggles with the gods of the underworld. The Popol Vuh stories were traditional ones, and at some time a Quiché Maya scribe wrote them down. Sometime around 1700 A. D., Father Francisco Ximénez borrowed that text, which was written in the Quiché language. He copied and translated it, and although the original has been lost, Father Ximénez’s copy survives.

15. They Were More Violent than Originally Thought.
The traditional view of the Maya was that they were a peaceful people, content to gaze at the stars and trade with one another for jade and pretty feathers. That was before modern researchers deciphered the glyphs left behind on the statues and temples. It turns out that the Maya were as fierce and warlike as their later neighbors to the north, the Aztecs. Scenes of wars, massacres, and human sacrifices were carved into stone and left behind on public buildings. The warfare between city-states got so bad, that many believe that it had much to do with the eventual ​decline and fall of the Maya civilization.

16. They Painted Human Sacrifices Blue.
The Maya cities fought frequently with one another and many enemy warriors were taken captive.  These captives were usually enslaved or sacrificed.  High-level captives such as nobles or kings, were forced to play in the ceremonial ball game against their captors, re-enacting the battle they lost (afterwards sacrificed).  The vivid pigment known as Maya Blue has long fascinated archaeologists because it’s incredibly resilient, surviving for centuries on stone monuments even in the harsh conditions of Meso-American jungles. But this cheerful color was also used to identify those who would be sacrificed.  When the Maya wanted to please the rain god, they painted human sacrifices blue.

17. They Played Extreme Sports.
The Maya played a game known as Pitz, on ballcourts.  Players would try to pass a heavy rubber ball (about the size of a soccer ball) without using their hands while wearing equipment to protect their ribs, knees and arms. The ultimate goal was to get the ball through a very high stone hoop. Playing the sport wasn’t exactly a pastime, but rather an important ritual, and losing could mean death.  

18. They Had Pretty Intense Beauty Regimens.
The Maya were not content with simply donning clothes and makeup to make themselves beautiful. In childhood, males and females alike had their head bound to artificially deform their skulls into an elongated shape, which probably signified their social status. The Maya also drilled holes into their front teeth and inlaid them with jade, pyrite, hematite or turquoise. They basically invented the grill.

19. They Took Ritual Enemas. 
For the Maya, consuming hallucinogens and intoxicants were the best way to talk to spirits.  They drank substances like balché, which was made with fermented (and possibly psychedelic) honey. But to get inebriated more quickly, and perhaps to avoid vomiting, they may have administered alcohol and psychoactives through the rectal route. There are a lot of scenes on Maya pottery depicting enemas in a ritual context. Researchers investigating the effects of an ancient ritual enema in the 1980s did some self-experimentation and tried it out for themselves, and reported that their results “certainly support the theoretical suggestion that alcohol is absorbed well from an enema.”

20.  They Traded Extensively.
Trade made up a big part of the Mayan way of life.  The Mayan people were keen traders and merchants and had trade networks from Mexico throughout Central America. They traded for two sorts of items: prestige items and subsistence items.
The subsistence items included basic necessities (like food, clothing, salt, tools, and weapons). Prestige items were things coveted by the Maya that were not crucial to daily life (for example: bright feathers, jade, obsidian, and gold). The ruling class treasured prestige items and some rulers were even buried with their possessions, giving modern researchers clues into Mayan life and who they traded with.

21.  The Mayan Culture & Tranditions.   
The Ancient Maya civilization may have fallen into decline a thousand years ago, but they still existed when Spanish conquistadors arrived in the early 1500s. Like other American peoples, they were conquered and enslaved, their culture erased, their books destroyed. The Maya people proved more difficult to assimilate than most. For 500 years, they fought hard to maintain their culture and traditions. In Guatemala and parts of Mexico and Belize, there are still ethnic groups who hold fast to their traditions, language, dress, and the religion of their ancestors.

23. They Appreciated a Good Sweat.
The Maya built sauna-like structures out of stone or adobe that were used for health purposes and ritual cleansing. Sweat houses have been found at various Mayan sites such as, Tikal (in Guatemala) and Hoya de Ceren (a Maya village in El Salvador), buried in volcanic ash around 600 CE. The earliest known sweat-bath was uncovered at Cuello, in  northern Belize. At 3,000 years old, it predates the famous bath houses of the ancient Roman empire.

24. They May Have Domesticated Turkeys.
Turkey's were first domesticated by the Maya. Turkeys weren’t just used for food; the Maya's also kept them for bird parts like bones and feathers, to create fans, tools, and musical instruments. Mexican turkey bones dating to the Preclassic Maya period were discovered at the archaeological site of El Mirador in Guatemala. This location was well outside of the species’ range in the wild, leading archaeologists to conclude that the Maya had domesticated turkeys by this point.

25. They Were Chocolate Eaters.
Over 3500 years ago, the Olmecs of Meso-America became probably the first to realize that with some work you could consume chocolate, but the Maya turned it into an art form. Archaeological evidence suggests the Maya were processing cacao at least 2600 years ago. The chocolate they produced, wasn't anything like the chocolate we eat and drink today.  The Maya would mix cacao with water, honey, chili peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients to make a foamy, spicy drink.  Maya art and hieroglyphs suggest drinking cacao was an important part of celebrations and rituals; the Dresden Codex, for example, shows an image of the god of sustenance K'awil holding a vessel with cacao beans. 

27. Archaeologists Still Debate Why the Civilization Went Into Decline.
The civilization was really hitting its stride at the peak of the Classic Maya period (300 to 660 CE). Things started to decline in the 8th & 9th centuries.  Maya cities in the southern lowlands (which once boasted of populations up to 70,000 people), were abandoned. Scientists and archaeologists have pointed to a variety of culprits to explain what happened, including drought, rampant raiding and warfare among Maya city-states, migration to the beach and over population, or perhaps some fatal combination of those things.

28.  No One Knows What Happened To Them.
In 700 A.D. or so, the Maya civilization was going strong. Powerful city-states ruled weaker vassals, trade was brisk, and cultural achievements such as art, architecture, and astronomy peaked. By 900 A.D., however, the classic Maya powerhouses like Tikal, Palenque, and Calakmul had all fallen into decline and would soon be abandoned. So, what happened? No one knows for sure. Some blame warfare, others climate change, and still other experts claim it was disease or famine. Possibly it was a combination of all of these factors, as the experts can’t seem to agree on one root cause.

29. They Did Not Vanish. 
Sure, many of the great Maya cities were mysteriously deserted, but the people didn’t disappear. The descendants of the Maya are still around today, many of them living in their ancestral homelands (like Belize & Guatemala), where Maya people actually make up a majority of the population. “Maya” is really an umbrella term for many different indigenous ethnic group who may speak different Mayan languages such as Yucatec, Quiche, Kekchi, or Mopan.

30. Their Artifacts & Monuments Are At Risk.
In Guatemala and Belize, locals use the word "huecheros" to refer to people who loot archaeological sites. Illegally excavated vases, statues, and other artifacts from Maya sites have made their way into the illicit antiquities market, and looters’ tunnels destroy archaeological sites in the process. In one striking example, a pyramid was cut in half by looters at the Maya city of Xultun in Guatemala. In some cases, Maya antiquities have been returned to their country of origin. The Denver Art Museum returned a carved wooden doorway lintel to Guatemala in 1998 when the artifact was found to have been taken from El Zotz, a Maya settlement just west of the great city of Tikal.

The Maya people of Mexico and Central America form one of the largest indigenous populations in the Americas. With over 4 million people who identify themselves as Maya, this is an extremely diverse group.  Some Maya live in the steamy jungles of the Yucatan peninsula, others in the rugged highlands of Guatemala, still others in the country of Belize.

The Maya people are well-known for the beauty, quality, and sophistication of their textiles.  Women have traditionaaly created textiles in Maya society, and textiles were a significant form of ancient Maya art and religious beliefs.  They were considered a prestige good, that would distinguish the commoners from the elite.

Maya textiles are pretty easy to identify becuase, they stand out.  Characterized by vivid colors of every shade imaginable and covered in geometic and animal patterns, these textiles "stand out" and demand your attention. 

Besides the basic appearance, one of the keys to understanding any textile is knowing how it is made.  Maya textiles are woven, as poosed to being embroidered.  The first step is making the threads that will be woven together.  Today, Mayan weavers generally use cotton or wool threads, which can be purchased in Maya markets.  

Different patterns, represent social and religious significance.  The following is a brief description of just some of the symbols used in Maya woven textile fabrics.  Hope you enjoy my blog, this has really been fun putting this together.

BATS - To the Mayan people, were the guardians of the underworld (or caves).  The bat is worshipped for its rule over the darkness, and its powerful sign to mark against enemies. 

BUTTERFLY - The butterfly with its wings spread, represents freedom.  This freedom is sometimes compared with that of the weaver, with her ability to weave wild stories into her textiles.  The white butterfly indicates good news, the black butterfly indicates bad news. 

THE CROSS - The cross has ties to both Mayan and Christian religion.  The four points represent the four directions of the winds, which give life to crops and mankind.  The Mayan cross is made from four types of corn:  white, yellow, red and black.    The cross also signifies:  dawn, darkness, water and air.

CORN - Is a particulary important symbol in the Guatemalan textiles.   Mayan mythology tells the story of how corn created mankind.  White corn was used for the bones, yellow corn was used for the muscles, black cork for the eyes and hair, and red corn for the blood.  Corn for this reason is not just considered a source of food, but has ancestral, ceremenoial significance.

THE CUP - Cymbolizes the importance of sharing with others.  In modern Guatemala this symbol has become a fusion of Mayan and Christian beliefs.  It is sometimes understood as the cup Jesus shared with the disciples during the last supper.

THE DIAMOND - Is one of the most important symbols, and can be found in most of Trama's products.  It symbolizes the arms of the weaver, with her body at the bottom, and her textiles at the top.

THE DEER - Is considered a symbol of strong, stable, regal energy by the Maya.  They respresent all of the animal kingdom.  Deer also encompass the four levels of being, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  The energies of the deer also signify the binding forces between an individual and their family.

DOLLS - Represent the connection between women, Mother earth, and Ixchel, who is the gooddess of medicine, midwifery, the moon, and weaving.

DOVES - Are the queens of the heavens.  These femine birds provide nourishment for the Maya people and renew the fruits of life.

THE EAGLE - The ancient people understood the eagle's calls as a warning that an earthquake or stomr was on its way.  In ancient Mayan mythology, one face of the double headed eagle represents good and the other represents evil.  The creature itself represents contemplative thought when focused upon, this symbol assists in accessing inner wisdom and facilitiates focus.

THE FLOWER - Motifs used in weaving are usually the native flowers of Guatemala like:  roses, pansies, gladioli, and cactus flowers.  All of these flowers bloom abundantly throughout the year.  The Mayans view flowers as symbols of life and fertility.

THE INUP - Is the Tree of Life, which represents the life of man, birth growth, reproduction and death.  It also indicates love as shown in the union between the two people who make up the two parts of the tree.  The fruits represent their offsprings.  Many sacred rites are performed under the branches of these trees.

MAYAN GODS - Are frequently depicted with jaguar attributes.  The jaguar is said to have the ability to cross between worlds, as represented by daytime and nightime.  The world of the living and the earth are associated with the day, while the spirit world and the ancestors are associated with the night.

THE LION - Is often woven by young women to deomonstrate a desire to be courted.  As the king of the jungle, the lion symbol is a keeper of goods, wealth, and good luck.  Sometiems the lion is read as a representative of anger, and is therefore never used in huipils that are worn during happy events.

THE OWL - In Mayan mythology, the owl is a symbol of death and destruction.  These nocturnal birds of prey are the mysterious messengers of dark powers.  For the Kekchi people, the owl's hoot is an omen of death.

THE PITCHER - Symbolizes the head of a woman from which her wonderful ideas for patterns and color combinations in textiles are poured.

THE QUETZAL - Is the national bird of Guatemala, and one of the most important textile symbols, often present in traditional cltohing, in a number of modern Mayan dialects, the name means "treausred" or "sacred".  Legend has it that long ago, the Quetzal would sing beautifully, but has been silent since the Spanish conquest.

THE ROOSTER - Like the turkey is associated with marriage.  In some Mayan communities, proposals are accompanied by the groom's family presenting the potential bride's family with between one and three roosters, depending on how they regard their prospective daughter-in-law.  Those who received three roosters can feel proud that the mother-in-law is please with the union.

THE SERPENT - Appears frequently in Mayan textiles as a representative of the representing god Gucumatx, the creator of the world.  This zigzag design can also signify mountains, which provide clean air and protection from sickness.

THE SUN - Represents the radiant energy that contributes to the motion of the universe.  It's also symbolic of the god of corn, to whom the Maya pray to ensure a good harvest.

THE TURKEYS - Often tell the stories of weddings.  The turkey represents a propsal.  Once a Mayan couple are engaged, the groom's family will spend the next two years fattening up a turkey until the day of the wedding.  The groom then presents the dead turkey tot he parents of the soon-to-be-bride.  If the groom is rich enough, he will also give the bride's family bread and money.

Kekchi Indians - Northern America, is not the only country that took land away from the native Indians. 

The history of the Kekchi Indian people (in Belize), dates between 1870's and 1880's.  This was the time when large numbers of Kekchi Indians (and their families), escaped from Guatemala to Belize.

Guatemalan dictator Justo Rufino Barrios made the export of coffee the backbone of his government in the 1870s.  Barrios expropriated land belonging to the Catholic hierarchy, as well as communal lands held by Mayans (by 1877), Barrios had virtually eliminated communal ownership of land in Guatemala. By 1880, coffee accounted for 90% of Guatemala's exports.

Many of the Kekchi Indian people fled Guatemala, as the government took away their land.  They either stayed & were forced to become slave labor for coffee plantations, or they fled to Belize.   

The Kekchi you see living in Belize today, are descendants from the families who chose to flee Guatemala to Belize.  These families chose not to become part of the forced slave work force for the coffee plantations.  Today you find the majority of the Kekchi Mayan people, living in the Toledo District (the southern part) of Belize. 

The Maya people have been in Belize for at least several thousand years.  Their first recorded settlements in Belize date to about 1,200 B.C., and their civilization rose to prominence from about 900 B.C. to 900 A.D.  What about the Maya today?  As Mayan civilizations declined, small villages, towns, and groups of people continued to survive as subsistence farmers, even as their governing cities and nobility collapsed.  When the Spanish arrived, Maya civilization was already declining.  The Spanish encountered very fierce resistance to their attempts to conquer Maya territories.  Slowly they gained ground, but not without high consequences, including periodic outbreaks of violence against the Spanish.

The Maya populations remaining in Belize when Europeans first arrived were scattered in three provinces, running from north to south.  These were know as Chetumal, Dzuluinicob, and Manche Chol provinces.  In addition to the scattered populations of Maya peasants living in Belize, periodic upheavals in the neighboring countries of Mexico and Guatemala caused Maya refugees to flee into the relative security of Belize.  The first of these major refugee influxes occurred with the Guerra de Las Castas, beginning in the 1840's.  Like the Mestizos, many Maya fled south from Mexico at this time to settle in northern Belize.  These Yucatec Maya settled into life as small farmers, and also became incolved in sugar cane production.

In the 1880's, two other groups of Maya, known as the Mopan and the Ke'hchi, fled neighboring Guatemala to settle in Belize.  The Mopan Maya were fleeing from the Peten area of Guatemala because of heavy taxation, military conscription, and forced labor.  They settled primarily in Cayo District.  The Ke'kchi were fleeing from the Vera Pax area of Guatemala and settled primarily in Toledo District.  Both were and are farmers who continue to live, for the most part, in small villages.  In Toledo District, the Mopan and Ke'kchi make up the majority of the population.  Today, the Maya make up approximately 11% of Belie's population.

The Maya today continue to live mainly in rural areas, with many of their villages sited along rivers and their tributaries, and to engage in agriculture, fisheries and the timber industry.