EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

If you're heading south to Belize or Guatemala, you can't avoid CHETUMAL , capital of the state of Quintana Roo. The city is beginning to assert itself after decades of virtual stagnation, but there are still no "sights" to speak of. The best is the new Museo de la Cultura Maya (Tues-Sun 9am-7pm; US$5) on Héroes, near the corner of Mahatma Gandhi. Although it has very few original artefacts, the numerous interactive displays and models provide a fascinating insight into ancient Maya society, mathematics and cosmology. Chetumal's broad, modern streets (the town was levelled by Hurricane Janet just over thirty years ago) are lined with rather dull, overpriced hotels and restaurants, and with shops doing a brisk trade in low-duty goods - Dutch cheese, Taiwanese hi-fis, American peanuts, reproduction Levis from the Far East, Scotch whisky - to be smuggled into Belize or back into Mexico. Chetumal's surroundings, however, do offer the opportunity for some beautiful excursions, and the waterfront , enlivened by free music in the plaza, has a certain sleazy tropical charm.