Orange Walk Town

18,075 - 88.558333333333Koordinaten: 18 ° 5 ' N, 88 ° 33 ' W

Orange Walk Town is the capital of the district of Orange Walk in Belize, Central America, third largest city in the country. It is located 106 km north of Belize City and 50 km south of Corozal on the left bank of the New River.

Population

According to census of 2000 Orange Walk Town had 13,483 inhabitants. An estimate from 2005 showed an increase to 15,300 inhabitants. The population mix is composed of Mestizos, Creoles, Mennonites, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indians and immigrants from other Central American countries.

History

Before the arrival of European settlers, the region had been inhabited over a long period of the Maya, who had built on the banks of the New River is a commercial hub for the movement of goods on the river, which was known under the name Holpatin. The settlement of the region by the Maya dates back to the period around 2000 BC

About 1530 settled the first European settlers in the region; Lumberjack, in search of the then coveted blue wood they flooded over the river to the coast for onward transport to Europe. After a happy story told, which is however not historically guaranteed and therefore is part of the local folklore, the first settlers built a church and planted the church road on both sides with orange trees. In this way, the emerging place was known as Orange Walk.

The loggers attended only for a short economic prosperity of the place. It was not until 1848, with the triggered by the war of the box escape proportion of the population of the Yucatán Peninsula to Belize, the country was strongly populated. The new settlers brought with them, in addition to the Spanish language, also the sugar cane to Orange Walk, which greatly influenced the region in the aftermath economy.

Economy

Orange Walk Town is the center of the cane in Belize, which is why the city is nicknamed Sugar City and the inhabitants thereof are sometimes called Citizen Cane. The total sugarcane production in the country is processed in the Tower Hill Sugar Refinery. The 5 km Set in front of the city Cuello 's Distillery distilled from the crude rum

To the sugar cane monoculture considerable efforts for years to break, to diversify agriculture. The citrus production, cattle breeding and dairy farming now complement the product range.

Of increasing importance of tourism as a new economic sector of the city and the district. Although the city itself offers no unique tourist attractions, but has a solid, medium-sized tourist infrastructure (hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, tour operator, tourist information ) and is therefore suitable as a starting point for excursions to the nearby Mayan ruins. These include the oldest Mayan ruins in the country, the ruins of Cuello, as well as the ruins of Lamanai on the banks of New River or the Rio Bravo Conservation Area in the west of the district.