Caliente restaurant in San Pedro, Belize.

A long wooden dock stretches into the Caribbean Sea just north of Matachica Resort & Spa on Ambergris Caye, constructed in a distinctive chevron pattern common to many of the island’s piers. These docks serve as essential access points for small boats, snorkeling excursions, and water taxis, reflecting the island’s long reliance on marine travel. At the end of the pier, a shaded palapa provides a quiet spot overlooking the protected waters inside the Belize Barrier Reef, where shallow seagrass flats and calm tides have supported fishing communities and tourism infrastructure for decades.

A wooden pier extends into the Caribbean Sea on the eastern shore of Ambergris Caye, topped with a palapa-style shelter commonly found along the island’s waterfront. These simple wooden structures serve both locals and visitors, offering space for fishing, small-boat landings, and relief from the midday sun. Just offshore, the shallow coastal waters give way to the darker blue of the open sea, with the white line of breakers marking the crest of the Belize Barrier Reef—the second-largest reef system in the world and a central part of the island’s history, economy, and marine culture.

A view along the eastern shoreline of Ambergris Caye, where rows of coconut palms and small wooden docks line the edge of the Caribbean Sea. This stretch of coast reflects the island’s gradual shift from a quiet fishing community to one of Belize’s primary tourism destinations, driven in part by its proximity to the Belize Barrier Reef just a short boat ride offshore. Despite this growth, the outer edges of the island still retain long undeveloped sections of shoreline, shaped by storms, tides, and ongoing efforts to balance tourism with coastal conservation.

A sailboat in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic