Ask most people where Belize is and they will ask for a map. Little wonder the tiny country in such a secret, wedged as it is between formidable Guatemala and the vast Yucatan Peninsula, a morsel of jungle confronting two giants. facing out to the caribbean, Belize seems ready to break out from land and drift out to sea.

But Belize was no secret to the Maya. Like the Moroccans of the western Hemisphere, this region overflowed with sophisticated trade and profound culture, mystical religions and mighty kingdoms. Great rulers and priests lived here, and so did artists, writers and aristocrats. One city, the jungle-veiled Caracol, boasted nearly 200,000 residents just under Belize's population of today. Two thousand years ago, Caracol crushed its neighbor Tikal, Guatemala, and its ruled the Maya world for more than 100 years.

Belize's 300,000 residents are themselves a phenomenon, an improbably diver blend of Creols and Maya, Mennonites Chinese, Arabs, Mestizo (spanish-Indian) and Garifunas (Black Caribs). English is the countries first language, but there are five other major languages, including Maya. Belizean history speaks not only of ancient Maya civilizations but of New World out laws, British pirates, black loggers, East Indian slaves and Yucatan refuges from the Caste war-who gave the little country a tenacious pioneer mentality. The same frontier mentality permeates today's Belize which is fittingly called "The Adventure Coast."