The largest island of Belize with a length of 25 miles and a width of a little more than one mile in some places is called Ambergris Caye, one of some 200 cayes dotting Belize’s coastline. It is located just off the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and surrounded by the glittering shallow waters of the Caribbean Sea. The coastline of Ambergris Caye is protected by the 190 miles long Barrier Reef, which is the second largest coral reef on the globe.

 The history of Ambergris Caye goes back to the days of the Maya, when it was a trading post and the Marco Gonzalez ruins at the southern tip of the caye and the Basil Jones site to the north as well as numerous home sites that have been recently excavated in the heart of San Pedro town give evidence to a former Maya population of 10,000. The Maya also dug the small channel between Mexico and Belize to dispose of a trade route from the bay of Chetumal to the Caribbean Sea. Whalers and buccaneers followed the Mayas and finally Mexican refugees fleeing the Caste War arrived at Ambergris Caye, the ancestors of the majority of the present day residents. Nowadays tourism is the most important income source for the islanders, but in the past the island’s economy was dependent on the coconut industry, followed by the fishing industry.

 San Pedro Town is the only inhabited area on the island clustered with wooden houses decorated in Mexican or Caribbean style; you can still find some buildings with the English colonial architecture, too. The atmosphere of San Pedro Town is that of a small bustling fishing village and the mahogany skiffs are still in service for charter fishing and diving.

Gift shops, boutiques, bars, cafes, and restaurants adorn the Barrier Reef Drive and the Pescador Drive (the former Front and Middle streets). You can feel the friendliness of the people when getting out to walk in the small streets of the town and watch their lifestyles as they are doing their daily chores. T-shirts, and shorts, barefoot compose the typical dress code of the "Sanpedranos" who are speaking their own island dialect mixing up English, Spanish, Creole, and Maya all at the same time. Since the eighties when mostly Mestizos (Maya-Spanish) lived on the island the population has changed a lot simultaneously with the picking up tourism and nowadays Ambergris Caye is home to a colorful mixture of Creole, Maya, Central American refugees, and Americans.