Stilt Fishing Shacks on Ambergris Caye, Belize

Ambergris Caye is Belize's largest island, sitting along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef roughly 35 miles northeast of Belize City. Small wooden and corrugated-metal structures like these are built on stilts along the shallow lagoon side of the island, raised above the waterline and tidal flats common to the caye's mangrove edges. Many fishing camps or storage huts for local fishermen working the surrounding flats and reef channels. The island's economy has shifted heavily toward tourism in recent decades, centered on the town of San Pedro, but small-scale fishing remains part of daily life along its quieter shorelines.

Photo taken in January 2022.