International Costa Maya Festival

First held in 1991 as the Sea and Air Festival, the event was created to promote goodwill between the Central American countries. The Mayan civilisation that spanned their territories was itself a series of warring city states, so there isn't too much historical back-up in this endeavour...

The festival is a carnival of pageants, parades and nightly entertainment shows. There are stalls selling everything from arts and crafts to clothes and food, and fairground rides to keep the kids amused.

A special attraction on the first night is the crowning of the Reina de la Costa Maya. The queen is chosen from a multitude of beauties who parade before their enthusiastic audience in a series of evening gowns, traditional costumes and swimwear.

During the evening performances, entertainers offer festival-goers a wide array of music including punta, reggae, soca, salsa, meringue, cumbia and traditional Mayan music. Their theatrical dances tell tales from the culture and its traditions.

The setting for the festival is the largest of Belize's stunning Cayes, the islands that scatter its coast. White-sanded havens worthy of Robinson Crusoe, they lie along a 150-mile reef, the largest in the western hemisphere.

The Mayans were one of the most impressive and mysterious of the world's ancient civilisations, creating a highly sophisticated style of art and architecture which survives today in the form of marvellous and intricate ruins of temples and palaces. Fascinated by the stars, they also made astrological predictions that have dazzled 20th-century scientists with their accuracy.