Belize Business Directory- Activities and Adventure > Museums

Banquitas House of Culture

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:23:03 GMT

On New River in Orange Walk, exhibitions display the district's rich history, from ancient Maya ceramics and carvings found at Lamanai, to less ancient weapons and tools of European mahogany cutters and Maya chicleros, the men who tapped trees for the sticky chicle used in chewing gum. Photographs chronicle the town and it's leading industry, sugarcane. Visitors learn about the Maya and Mestizo people who live here now.

Banquitas House of Culture opens 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Friday and 8am to Noon on Saturday.

BENQUE HOUSE OF CULTURE

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:23:03 GMT

At this important new venue in Benque Viejo del Carmen, Cayo District, people take classes in art, music, and dance; participate in forums on local history; see paintings and photos; and discover artifacts from early Benque and it's chicle industry. Located in a former police station and immigration office, the house of culture sprang from the home of local artist and writer David Ruiz in the 1990's. Now run by the Benque Historical and Cultural Association, which also maintains the historic Campo Santo cemetery.

The museum opens 9am to 5pm

Government House of Culture

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:23:03 GMT

This gracious 1814 Belize City mansion, designed by famed British architect Sir Christopher Wren, housed the colonial governors in British Honduras for over 150 years. In 1985 Queen Elizabeth II stayed here. Today Government House of Culture hosts residents and visitors for art and music classes, exhibitions, concerts, meetings, and open-air theater. The refurbished building's colonial character lives on through period furniture, silver and crystal once used by British monarchs, governors, and guests. Lush grounds and singing birds make the site perfect for weddings and other functions.

Government House opens 9am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.

Museum of Belize

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:23:03 GMT

The Museum of Belize occupies a former Belize City prison building, converted in 2002. It would be a crime to miss Her Majesty's Prison on Gabourel Lane in the Fort George area. Built in 1857 to guard hapless criminals, converted in 2002 to guard national treasures, this first Museum of Belize recounts the fascinating history of Belize City and displays the country's rich cultural heritage.
At the new museum's official dedication ceremony, Prime Minister Said Musa told the attendees, "The idea of a Museum of Belize is as old as the struggle for our freedom and independence".
Permanent collections include Maya masterpieces from the epoch 600BC to AD1500. The most amazing exhibit is a replica of the largest carved jade head ever found in the Maya World, discovered at the ancient city of Altun Ha in 1968 by archaeologist David Pendergast of the Royal Ontario Museum. other engrossing displays include a jade pendant from the Maya city of Caracol, a beautiful jade necklace, amazing flint weapons, and intricate pottery.
Rotating exhibits include postage stamps from the Belize Philatelic Bureau, commemorating various fruits, orchards, birds, animals, and the 1937 coronation of King George VI; hundreds of Belizean insects, collected over 40 years by Belizean Meg Craig and her kids; and a collection of brilliant orange, green, violet, red, and iridescent blue morpho butterflies.
In touch with it's own past, the museum retains one restored cell to give visitors a glimpse of prison life in the 19th and 20th centuries. It opens 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, US$5.

Old Belize Cultural and Historical Center

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:23:03 GMT

Old Belize offers an unforgettable experience that will surely provide an excellent orientation and appreciation for the country and people of Belize. The 45-minute tour begins inside a rainforest exhibit that showcases giant tropical trees that tower the path you walk. Inside this display a waterfall and limestone cave depicts the magnificent stalactite and stalagmite formations that scientist say grows about an inch every 100 years!
The tour leaves behind the sounds of the rainforest to welcome the drums and flute of the Maya. In this exhibit, every element has been meticulously and artistically recreated, from the stone temple to the ancient tomb, experience the mysticism as the culture of the Maya come to life.
As you leave the Maya exhibit, you enter the industry exhibits. This exhibit showcases the era which revolutionized the settlement of Belize - the Industrial period. These industries were crucial for the development of the Belize.
In our following exhibits time seems to have been frozen in the 17 th , 18 th and 19 th century. The clanging of old iron tools and machinery could almost be heard through the cold and oxidized displays. Recovered from the forest, covered with overgrown vegetation, these antiques were once employed by the men and women whose hard work laid the foundation for the development of the economy of British Honduras.
Our first exhibit features a recovered estate-type, steamed-powered sugar mill, which remains as evidence of the sugar making process in the middle of the 1800's. The cultivation and production of sugar was one of the greatest contribution of the Mestizos, who came as refugees during the Caste war in Yucatan, Mexico.
In 1890 the US market was introduced to chewing gum or chicle at a World Trade Fair in New Orleans. This led to a boom for the Chicle industry in Belize in the early 1900's. At this exhibit, you can appreciate the complete process; from harvesting to the cooking of this natural and original form of chewing gum.
Sibun Bite Bar and Grill is the place to experience Belizean cuisine at its best! Our Restaurant is ideally situated facing Cucumber Beach and the Caribbean Sea. Our attractive rustic seaside setting provides the perfect tropical ambiance for dining or unwinding.

Orchid Garden Restaurant-Museum

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:23:03 GMT

The Orchid Garden Restaurant is a full service, fine Belizean / Taiwanese cuisine, located at mile 14.5 Western Highway. We provide exceptional quality meals, in a natural and pleasant dining atmosphere. The restaurant with its stone wall is complimented by bamboo windows. Our natural mahogany log tables and hanging orchids enhance the tropical rainforest environment. Come and dine with us to have an unforgettable experience before you leave Belize.

Belize History in Bottles Museum is the first public display from Mr. Emory Kings bottle collection. He is considered by many to be a foremost authority on Belizean History. The museum features bottles from as far back as 1670. Displays include glass & ceramic used for wine, whiskey, champagne, jam, beer, cosmetics, food, medicine, and ink.

Emory King: The Man Behind the Bottles: The name Emory King is probably recognized by more people in Belize, (and thousands of people abroad) than any other, except the Right Hon. George Price, the Father of our Country, and Hon. Said Musa, our Prime Minister.

In the 1960s he found an antique bottle lodged in the mangrove along the Belize City sea front. That started him collecting old bottles found in Belize. He is not sure how many he had found, bought and traded for over the years. He has graciously allowed us to display a selection here in the Museum.

Also Please feel free to visit our on site Butterfly Farm

The Garcia Sisters

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:23:03 GMT

Enjoy the art, music, medicines, and meals with a Mayan family. Sit down to a meal of Mayan tradition, cooked on a homemade open hearth stove, where the corn based cuisine tempts the taste buds with delicious tamalitos boiled in plantain leaves, tortillas, porridge, mouth watering desserts, and fresh brewed tea made from lemon grass, ginger, or pimiento leaves. Walk the Maya Medicine Trail through the jungle, as well as the beautiful botanical garden. Take a guided tour through the Tanah Mayan Art Museum, and develop a sense of timelessness while you learn about honored rulers, elders, priests, and gods who are still revered by the Mayans of today. Visit The Art Center where handcrafted jewelry, dolls, masks and sculptures offer the opportunity to take part of the rich Mayan culture home with you. And just three miles from the lodge you can explore an ancient musical Mayan Site, Pacbitun, meaning "stones set in the earth."
People travel from all over the world to be treated by the herbal remedies of the rain forest and the traditional practices of the Tanah villagers. The knowledge of how to use hundreds of varieties of medicinal plants, prayers and secret stones known as "zax tuns" has been passed down from their ancestors. The Garcia Sisters have gained much of their knowledge from their uncle, the most famous and respected Belizean bush doctor, don Elijio Panti.

Plants are very important to the way of life in Tanah. For example, the cohune palm nuts are used for jewelry or to extract oil for cooking, while the young shoots when boiled or fried make a delicious snack, and the roots can be used for a blood tonic. In Tanah's botanical garden a vine grows which quenches a day's thirst. Plants provide the villagers with definite cures for asthma, arthritis, baldness, among others. It is through communion with nature, preservation of traditions, and a holistic lifestyle that the Mayan Herbal Remedies and Teas can be shared.

The Garcia Sisters discovered "art" after they began carving slate years ago. They came to realize that something moved from within the depth of their souls which expressed itself through an incredible energy and vision into action.

But the sisters also remember the words of their father who said, "Are you going to eat stone? Who is going to buy stone? People buy food, not stone." And for the first years he would not help his daughters as they pursued their need to carve. Still the women toiled over the stone for it was their father who taught them, "When I say I'm going to do something I'm going to do it."

So several years later when the daughters found their father carving a large jaguar they were surprised. It was then that they learned about their father's own carving experience. As a boy he had no money and would carve bowls from limestone to exchange for food in order to survive. And now The Garcia Sisters are able to make their art part of their survival. They exhibit in galleries around the world, teach art classes, and have made it possible to purchase their original Mayan art through Art Center Exports. The Art Center purchases and promotes the preservation of the Tanah Mayan Art Museum and the Mayan culture.

Once a year, the Garcia Sisters need to collect their raw material. This is a time of renewal, re-energizing, and to put it very simply, a very happy occasion to look forward to.

Slate is normally collected from creeks and river beds. The Garcia's own special place, "secret" in reality, is hidden deep within the Maya Mountains. Not any slate will do. Even at this "secret garden" only specially selected pieces will return to Tanah. The very sight of the creek bed to which the sisters return to yearly, is in itself, refreshing to the human spirit. The act of walking through the creek bed, getting soaked, putting hands on the earth, and feeling the smoothness or roughness of new stone revitalizes both the body and spirit for the Garcia family of artists.

And how is the slate collected? Maria Garcia says, "You are drawn to the stone. The stone is also drawn to you and your vision." Each chunk of new slate taken back will have a special purpose. These stones, some small chunks others very large and bulky, have to be carried back on the shoulders of the individual family members to their truck on the roadside a few miles upstream.

With the new stones safely back at Tanah, they will be stored respectfully in closed sheds or buried underground. The renewal has been completed. The Earth has released her children into the caring hands of the Garcia Sisters, making it possible to now offer some of these magically transformed pieces of delicate art work to the public.