Toledo
The Toledo District is approximately 200 miles from Belize City. With the new Southern Highway, traveling south by car or bus is a scenic ride through the rolling hills of the Hummingbird Highway, then onto the Southern Highway. Local air travel is also available, with both Tropic Air and Maya Island Air having offices near the airstrip in Punta Gorda, the main town in the Toledo district, with about 4300 residents.
From Belize City to Punta Gorda is a comfortable and scenic four-hour car ride, or five and a half hours by bus. Toledo is an agricultural and fishing district and most of its people live in small villages. Hotel accommodations here are in the budget category. With a population of just under twenty-three thousand people, it is Belize's least populated district and the headquarters for adventure travel in Belize. Yet the diversity of the various ethnic backgrounds of its people makes Toledo a microcosm of Belizean culture.
Hurricane Iris in October 2001 swept through many of the small Mayan villages, flattening many of these villages; today, many of the guest house programs are operating again, and the orchards and fields are back up. Still, one year after Iris swept through, the odd piece of roofing zinc could still be seen hugging a tall tree.
