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Spanish Lookout Review

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Spanish Lookout

Category: Towns
Location: San Ignacio

Fodor's Review:

The small hilltop community of Spanish Lookout, about 5 mi (8 km) north of the Western Highway (the easiest access is via the paved Route 30 at Mile 57½ of the Western Highway), is one of the centers of Belize's Mennonite community. The village's blond-haired, blue-eyed residents may seem out of place in this tropical country, but they're actually responsible for many of Belize's major projects. They built nearly all the area's resorts, and most of the eggs and milk you'll consume during your stay come from their farms. The women dress in cotton frocks and head scarves, and the men don straw hats, suspenders, and dark trousers. Some still travel in horse-drawn buggies, though many Mennonites around Spanish Lookout have embraced pickup trucks and modern farming equipment. The cafés and small shopping centers in Spanish Lookout offer a unique opportunity to mingle with these sometimes world-wary people, but they don't appreciate being gawked at or photographed any more than you do. Stores in Spanish Lookout are modern and well-stocked, the farms wouldn't look out of place in the U.S. Midwest, and many of the roads are paved. Oil in commercial quantities was discovered in Spanish Lookout in 2005, and several wells now pump about 5,000 barrels of black gold daily.

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