By David Cohen

Nearly deserted tropical isles, jungles, outstanding scuba diving and Mayan ruins you trip over practically everywhere you turn. Sound interesting? If so, then Belize is your place. I was pushing for a great scuba diving trip, and my wife wanted to actually do something that didn't require us to be sucking on a rubber mouthpiece all the time. Belize was the answer.

We planned our trip with a week of diving at the beginning and four days of mainland touring to finish. Over my wife's objections of isolation, I chose a diving/fishing resort called Manta Resort, located 70 miles off the coast of Belize. Manta is located within Glover's Atoll on a tiny island about the size of a city block. For those that have never been to an atoll, imagine a huge coral ring that forms a lagoon 20 miles long and 4 miles wide. Inside the coral ring it's like a swimming pool with calm shallow waters full of patch reefs and ideal swimming and snorkeling conditions. Outside of the atoll, the water goes from 20 feet to several thousand in less than a quarter mile. There are only four atolls located outside of the South Pacific and Belize has three of them.

We landed in Belize City around noon and grabbed a cab to our hotel for the night. Belize seems to have cornered the market on late 70's American sedans as their choice of taxis. At one time the air conditioning may have even worked. We arrived at the hotel and had the afternoon free, so we decided to head into town. We were warned to avoid Belize City if we could help it, and a woman at the hotel looked me straight in my 6'3" eye and told us to be careful (it's the first time anyone has ever told me to be careful). We made it back to the hotel safely and confirmed what we heard. There's little reason to spend any time in Belize City as there's almost no tourist trade and safety is a concern.

We woke up the next morning, ate breakfast and hauled our stuff down to the dock to await the boat to take us to Manta. We met some of our companions for the week-long stay, including a rowdy group of six brothers collectively known as the "Olson Boys". We piled bodies and gear aboard the boat and began the three and a half hour trip to Manta. There was a cooler full of beer and soda to keep us hydrated for the trip. The Olson Boys wasted no time digging into the beer. The boat trip was relatively easy until we hit a patch of deep, open ocean that provided us with a nice roller coaster ride for about an hour. We pulled up to Manta and it was everything I had hoped for.

Manta Resort is truly the place to get away from it all. There are 12 bungalows on the island, accommodating up to 24 people. Each bungalow is suspended about 6 feet above the sand and has two double beds, a bathroom and, most importantly of all, a front porch with hammock. All meals are served in the bar/dining room which is a thatched hut suspended over the lagoon. Because we were divers, our daily routine was to eat breakfast, go out on the boat for two dives, eat lunch, lounge, maybe go for an afternoon swim or dive, congregate before dinner at the bar (the Olson Boys never missed this part), eat dinner, lounge some more and go to sleep. The only change in our routine was if we chose to do a night dive. The only rule on Manta is never to sit or stand under a palm tree, because a falling coconut can be deadly. They're not kidding. You can hear the coconuts dropping very few minutes, and I had a couple of close calls.

The diving and snorkeling around the resort was great. Outside of the lagoon, we dove on walls and finger reefs, seeing just about every fish that would make a tropical aquarium owner proud as well as eels, rays and plenty of barracuda. Inside the lagoon, we snorkeled among patch reefs, again seeing tons of fish, small stingrays and a few nurse sharks. Because of the isolation of Glover's atoll, the fish, coral and sponge life were pristine and spectacular. We also made a couple of night dives during which we saw an amazing octopus and a brilliant assortment of creatures that come up from the deep when the sun goes down.

After completing our week at Manta (without ever putting any shoes on), we took the boat ride back to Belize City (same cooler with beer and soda, same enthusiasm from the Olson Boys) disembarked and headed to the mountains of Western Belize to stay in a town called San Ignacio. San Ignacio is a gateway to many of the activities that make Western Belize an interesting place to visit. You can visit any of several Mayan ruins, take a canoe trip down a river or through caves or visit the Mountain Pine Ridge (a beautiful national park).

We spent four nights in San Ignacio, and each day we took a day trip to a different activity. On the first day, we took a guided tour of the Mountain Pine Ridge. It was just my wife and I and the driver, so we had the opportunity to go at our own pace. We stopped to see an amazing waterfall that shot out of the side of the mountain and cascaded down 600 feet to the valley floor. We also visited some caves with great stalactite formations. We had lunch at one of the several mini-resorts that are located within the Mountain Pine Ridge park. Our table looked down 200 feet onto another beautiful waterfall. My only word of caution about the Mountain Pine Ridge is to prepare for bumpy travel. There's only one main road throughout the park and it would qualify as a poorly maintained dirt trail in the U.S.

The next day we awoke well before sunrise to travel to the Mayan civilization of Tikal, located in the mountains of Guatemala. Tikal is considered by most archeologists to be the most significant and extensive Mayan civilization and is best experienced by hiring a private guide and minivan to take you from Belize to Guatemala and back. We made the short drive to the Belize/Guatemala border, fought with a few roosters to make our way through the customs house and continued on for an hour and a half to Tikal.

The ruins of Tikal are spread out over miles and miles of jungle. Despite how huge it is, archeologists say that they haven't even unearthed a fourth of Tikal. We found that hard to believe as our guide led us down small dirt paths in the jungle that opened to magnificent temples several hundred feet high and expansive plazas where thousands of Mayans would gather for sport and sacrifice (sometimes the one and the same). It's amazing how such large structures can be completely hidden by the jungle until you practically run into them. Adding to the spectacle of Tikal is a wide variety of animal life. Toucans and parrots are easy to spot in the trees along with howler monkeys and an interesting looking but nasty tempered relative of the raccoon. Our guide regaled us with story after story about Tikal. His knowledge was astounding, and we were glad we made arrangements beforehand to have an experienced guide.

On the way back from Tikal, we stopped in a Guatemalan village to buy some souvenirs. For those that love to collect local crafts while traveling, this stop was a bonanza. We began going from shop to shop, bargaining in a combination of broken English and Spanish. Each purchase involved handing over a bunch of Quetzals that somehow always amounted to between $5 and $7. The most exciting purchases for us were two large wooden carved masks containing serpents and Mayan gods that were painted in brilliant colors. I'm sure some incense filled exotic sounding store in New York City would have sold the masks for $100 or more. We left the village and traveled back to San Ignacio, completing an excellent and full day in Guatemala.

On our last full day of touring in Belize, we took a canoe trip down the Macal River. We traveled about 8 miles on the river, conveniently ending up back in San Ignacio. The banks of the Macal are lined with huge trees and bushes that often hang over the river. Perched along the banks and in the trees are thousands of giant iguanas in colors ranging from green to orange to white. Despite our guides insistence that iguanas are harmless, some of them looked big enough to cart away small children. The locals apparently make delectable meals out of the iguanas (you know the rest . . . tastes like chicken). We passed but thoroughly enjoyed the canoe trip despite a rain shower or twenty.

All in all, it was a great trip and the perfect destination to fulfill a wide variety of interests. Don't forget your bug spray and your hiking shoes.

P.S. A little piece of trivia: The second to last scene of Star Wars shows a spaceship flying over a jungle with stone temples. This shot was filmed at Tikal. So, if you want just a hint of Tikal, rent Star Wars and have the remote control ready for freeze frame.