Belize Chocolate and Cacao Tours: Toledo District, the May Cacao Festival and Where to Go

Under the shade trees of a Toledo farm, cacao pods lie split open, the white pulp clinging to the beans, and someone is grinding roasted nibs on a stone until the air smells of warm chocolate. This is the rhythm of southern Belize, where the Maya have tied their lives to cacao for centuries. The experience belongs to the Toledo District around Punta Gorda, and it peaks each May during the Cacao Festival.

Where does Belize chocolate come from?

Belize chocolate comes mostly from the Toledo District, the southernmost and least populated district in the country, where the rainforest is thick and the cacao trees grow in its shade. The district holds the only true rainforest in Belize, a result of its high rainfall, and that wet, green setting is what cacao likes.

The link is old. Toledo has a number of Maya ruins, among them Lubaantun, Nim Li Punit, Uxbenka and Pusilha, and the Toledo Cacao Festival each May celebrates the Maya’s ancient and modern-day links with chocolate. Today the cacao is grown in rural villages reached by bush roads off the paved highway, and Maya families still make up a large part of the story.

A landscape of rainforest and villages

Toledo is a district of rainforest, extensive cave networks, coastal lowland plains and offshore cays, and it borders Guatemala to the west and south, with the Sarstoon River as its southern edge. The climate around Punta Gorda is tropical rainforest, with precipitation high and temperatures warm in every month of the year. Expect green hillsides, humid air and a landscape that feels far from the beach towns farther north.

The villages are varied. San Antonio is the largest Maya village in the district and has waterfalls nearby. Barranco is the southernmost Garifuna village in Belize, and Monkey River Town is a Creole coastal village in the north of the district. Punta Gorda itself counts Garifuna, Mestizo, Ketchi Maya, Mopan Maya, Creole and East Indian families among its residents, so a stroll through town already tells you how many communities share the south.

The Maya ruins around the cacao farms

Chocolate and archaeology go together in Toledo. Nim Li Punit is a Classic Period Maya site with ballcourts and carved stelae, while Lubaantun is built of drystone and has ruined pyramids and stone tombs. Seeing them gives a sense of how long people here have valued the cacao bean, and they make a natural companion to a day among the farms.

The Punta Gorda market, held each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, is another place where the region’s farming life shows. You see produce from the villages, hear Maya languages and Kriol side by side, and get a sense of what the surrounding farms grow beyond cacao.

The Toledo Cacao Festival in May

Every May, Punta Gorda hosts the Toledo Cacao Festival over the Commonwealth Day holiday weekend. It celebrates the history and production of chocolate in the district, and it is the one moment of the year when the whole region turns its attention to cacao. A chocolate and wine event is also listed for May in Toledo.

If you want the chocolate story at full volume, May is the month. Outside the festival the farms and workshops still carry on, and the rainforest setting is the same all year.

Where can you take a chocolate tour?

The place to take a chocolate tour in Belize is the Toledo District, with Punta Gorda as the base, since the town is the capital and largest town of the district and the main point of transportation for people visiting Toledo and the offshore southern cayes.

Punta Gorda as a base

Punta Gorda, known locally as P.G., was a small fishing village before Garifuna emigrants from Honduras settled it in 1823. It sits only about fifteen feet above sea level, facing the water, and several of its hotels draw guests with ocean views. It is also the gateway to well-regarded jungle accommodations, including The Lodge at Big Falls, Copal Tree Lodge and Hickatee Cottages.

Port Honduras Marine Reserve lies just north of town and is a protected area, a reminder that the coast and the rainforest sit close together here. A small airport in Punta Gorda handles domestic flights, with several daily commuter flights on Tropic Air and Maya Island Air.

Reaching Toledo by road

The paved Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway serves the district, along with several bush roads that lead to the rural villages where many farms sit. The Southern Highway from Dangriga to Punta Gorda is one of the best paved roads in Belize, except for a stretch through Golden Stream Corridor Preserve that is being upgraded.

James Bus Line is based in Punta Gorda and runs a regular service to points north, such as Independence, Dangriga, Belmopan and Belize City. That ties the south to the rest of the country for travelers who prefer the road to the air.

Lodges that bring chocolate to the table

Cacao also turns up outside Toledo. The Hilltop Spa at Chaa Creek offers a silky cacao body polish made with locally sourced cacao, a gentle way to meet the bean if you are staying in the Cayo District rather than the south.

Hamanasi, in Hopkins, lists a set of scheduled rainforest adventures, among them a Mayflower Jungle and Waterfall Hike, a Cave and Jungle Adventure and Jungle River Canoeing. These are rainforest outings rather than chocolate tours, but they show how the jungle side of Belize is woven into a southern stay.

What do the tours include?

A chocolate tour in Toledo centers on cacao itself, from the tree and the pod to the bean and the finished chocolate, set among the rainforest farms and villages of the district. The details differ from one farm to the next, so the best picture comes from what the region is known for.

From pod to chocolate

The classic sequence follows the bean. You see the pod on the tree, taste the sweet pulp around the seeds, and watch the beans fermented, dried and roasted. Then comes the grinding, traditionally on a stone, which turns roasted cacao into a thick paste that becomes a drink or a bar.

The drink is the Maya way in: bitter, frothy and often spiced, quite unlike a sweet cup of cocoa. Many visitors find that tasting it where the cacao grows explains more than any museum label.

The village and the culture around it

Because the farms are in Maya villages, a visit is also a look at daily life in Toledo, where the festival celebrates the Maya’s links with chocolate each May. Ketchi Maya and Mopan Maya families are part of the district’s makeup, and cacao is one thread in a wider tradition of farming and cooking.

Add a waterfall, a ruin or a cave

Toledo makes it easy to pair chocolate with something else. San Antonio has waterfalls, Nim Li Punit and Lubaantun offer ruins, and the district has extensive cave networks. Staying at a lodge near Punta Gorda puts all of these within the same region. At Hamanasi, additional rainforest adventures such as the Monkey River Adventure and Bocawina Jungle Ziplining are scheduled based on interest and subject to a minimum number of guests, and can be added for an additional charge if they are not in your package.

Good to know before you go

The U.S. State Department rates Belize Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, because of crime, and says the south side of Belize City has historically had the highest concentration of violent crime.

Toledo is warm and wet in every month, so the rainforest setting is part of the deal. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, which covers the early autumn months, while the Cacao Festival falls in May during the Commonwealth Day holiday weekend. Punta Gorda’s market runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, a good day to see the town at work.