When the jittery nerves of commuting, the glance-over-the-shoulder look in dark streets, the hesitation while opening mail - when all that starts to wear - there's another way of life not so far away.

Just across the Caribbean Sea, there's a peaceful and open partnership among all the cultures, a tolerance that seems unfathomable by an outsider.

Life in Belize is about the people, like the tortilla-making Mestizo in downtown San Ignacio, or the Guatemalan grandfather down the street who writes poetry, or the Mestizo mother a village over who proudly shows off her family portraits, or the 79-year-old Mexican widow who talks to her Spanish-speaking birds in the middle of downtown San Ignacio.

A drive through Belize
Jacko Middleton has lived in Belize all his 66 years. He has been driving a cab for 20 of them.

Bumping along the dirt roads of the Cayo District in southwest Belize, he ignores the rattle of his rickety white station wagon. Clicketyclack. Clicketyclack. The cab driver causally wipes off the mud that a passing car splashed up onto his cheek. He tenderly smiles at his American passengers.

He breaks the awkward silence by reciting Creole proverbs and sharing childhood jokes. His whistling laugh makes the doorless wooden houses outside the car window almost disappear. Middleton, like most Belizeans, sees beyond the boarded up businesses and non-air conditioned homes with concrete floors that first greet tourists in this Central American country.

For Middleton, life in Belize is about taking care of others and making them happy first. He starts and ends each day by taking care of his blind 90-year-old mother. He spends time in between making tourists smile.

"I had some Canadian tourists that I was running for the whole day from 7 in the morning," said Middleton, who has been driving a cab for 20 years. "We got back here at 7 o'clock at night because I stopped on the way and gave them a little story about the little bushes that I know and about the little trees that I know about and they enjoyed it."

Belizeans will proudly brag to tourists all they know about their country's natural treasures - the Mayan ruins, the second-largest barrier reef in the world, the rainforests and caves. But when it comes to differences in cultures, the country's motto is "Everyone is Belizean." The Western Caribbean country ranks as one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse countries in Central America. Mayan, Mestizos, Mennonites, Creoles, Chinese and Garifunas compose an ethnic medley of faces. Everyone, and every four-legged thing, is a potential friend.

"It's when you are friendly with people, people get to know you," said Middleton. "I was born under a free star - a friendly star. I was born on a Monday morning at 10 o'clock during the day. That's why I am friends with people. The way that you were born or the star that you were born under is." Sticking his head out of the cab, he pauses in mid-sentence to talk to a lost dog. "What doggie, what are you doing here? Man you're far away from Cayo, man."

A warm welcome to San Ignacio
Magdalena Zetina, a native of Mexico, peeks through the yellowish green banana leaves in her yard to catch a glimpse of the strangers walking by in downtown San Ignacio in the Cayo District. She's used to tourists and the townspeople stopping in front of her two-story wooden home to admire the eight caged birds on her second-floor balcony.

Her life in downtown San Ignacio is simple. Amid the sound of hammering, scooter horns, wind chimes and distant shouting, she sits on her patio and talks to her Spanish-speaking birds. She waves to passersby, some who know her by name and others who know her simply as the bird lady. Even the rain is welcomed.

"Oh yes. I love when my plants get rain. Ayeeh. Happy," the 79-year-old says with a toothless grin. But a gentle rain, not the 140 mph winds of Hurricane Iris, which ripped through Southern Belize on Oct. 8 leaving more than 13,000 homeless.

"It pulled everything. Now if he want to come back he can come back. I am not taking nothing [in]. I'm tired," Zetina said.

Even Zetina's birds welcome anything that's moving.

"Buenos Noches" the lime-green parrot recites during a mid-afternoon visit. While Zetina sits visitors, her granddaughter Jadda Awe shows off the birds upstairs.

"And these are the American birds," the 10-year-old points to two oversized gray pigeons in a cage. "They like to fight too much."

Working for others
The two Mennonite teenagers giggle behind the counter of an empty ice cream parlor in the village of Spanish Lookout, east of San Ignacio in the Cayo District. Rhonda Wolfe, 15, and Marie Woelk, 23, work at Western Dairies in addition to their daily chores at home, where they help their mothers sweep, cook and do laundry. All across Belize, the Mennonite community is known for constantly working.

The Mennonites, many of whom speak German, colonized Spanish Lookout in the late 1950s. Their innovations in agriculture and furniture-making have advanced the country.

"When we started Spanish Lookout it was a lot harder because there was nothing," Woelk said. "They had to work at the wood to get the bush away. It was all bush, with roads full of mud. It was very ugly."

Now Spanish Lookout is a sharp contrast from the villages before and after it. The rolling fields of freshly mowed grass, citrus trees and vegetables dotted with country-like, two-story homes align the main highway that stretches the length of the village.

The Mennonites are known across Belize for their dedicated work ethic and religion. They are members of one of the earliest Protestant sects. And while the two girls share a religion, they respect their differences in beliefs - modern vs. traditional. Wolfe, who dons a white cap, is allowed to wear jewelry and jeans, while Woelk, who wears a traditional black cap, cannot. And a Mennonite in Belize is considered an independent adult at the age of 21.

"Twenty-one. It's a big step," explains Wolfe, who is six years away. "Until then, the parents have a say in what you can and cannot do."

A taste of Belize
Natalio and Luciana Castaneda could feed all of the more than 13,000 townspeople who live in San Ignacio and its sister village, Santa Elena, at NL's Tortilla Factory. To make more than 18,000 tortillas a day, Luciana and co-worker Rosa Canul form an assembly line inside their crammed corner store that sits at the entrance to downtown San Ignacio.

Starting with buckets of corn kernels, they wash the corn, cook it in water and lime juice, wash the corn again in a spinning machine, grind it, then mix a big batch of corn paste. They cut tortilla circles from the sheets of paste, cook them, pat the hot tortillas to check their thickness and finally weigh them on a hanging scale.

Even through this long routine, their faces show peace and quietude. They rarely stop to talk or rest. Inside the open-windowed, sun-lit room, they work from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. A humming noise, like that of a window air conditioning unit, lends a rhythm to work. This beat comes from the motored rollers that flatten the tortillas and then carries them to an oven.

Corn tortillas are a staple in Belize, and the Mayan and Mestizos carry on the tradition of their mothers who made them from scratch. Luciana and Canul are Mestizos, a mixture of Spanish and Mayan descent and also considered the largest single ethnic group in Belize.

Canul and Castaneda gently pat each tortilla as if it were a baby. And they do this for a living. Often, there is no money left after paying off the business' bank loan and employees' salaries.

"If you don't have anything, you can smile," said Castaneda, whose only vacation from work was when the tortilla cutter broke in August. And even then, Castaneda worked at a snack shop serving fast food and midday lunches. "Maybe [smiling] will maintain courage to overcome. We should live one day at a time. That's Belize."

Outside the factory, cars rattle by, roosters and lost dogs wander past. The aroma of hot corn tortillas entices regular customers and tourists to the counter of NL's. Here, the Spanish-speaking women quietly, but proudly, hand out samples of their work. White, black and all skin colors between meet at the counter.

"We are one. We are Belizeans," said Canul, 35. "Everyone has a different type of eating, different type of dress. It's beautiful."

Natalio Castaneda, the husband of Luciana and the "N" in NL's, said the beauty of his country used to be a secret to tourists.

"A couple of years ago, the tourism industry wasn't as good. Foreigners were not aware that a place like this existed," Natalio Castaneda said. "Since then, Belize has been more exposed. People get to know we have nature, virgin nature, that hasn't been tampered with. [Belize] is quiet, it's calm. Foreigners like that. We offer a tranquil place."

An open-door policy
Inside Carmen Hernandez's home in Benque Vieja, east of San Ignacio, there's a feeling of family. From the street, visitors can see inside her life by looking at the portraits that cover her walls from the ceiling to the concrete floors. Her five children and nine grandchildren smile out at her. She purposely leaves her door open for people to stop by and chat.

As she talks, she wipes off the dust on the glass that protects a faded colored-pencil drawing of her daughter, who lives in California. Her wrinkled, spotted hands grip the frame as she shows off her children. She's afraid to let the treasured picture go.

"I like my country," said Hernandez, born in Belize to a Guatemalan mother. "I have been in California. I don't like the way of living. You have to stay indoors and you don't come out. Here we leave the door open. People pass. We talk.

"You can have your door open all day. In the States, it's all different. Doors and windows have to be closed."

Finding peace
Back in San Ignacio, a grandfather has trouble moving around. With an injured knee, Eusebio Requena spends most of his life inside a three-room wooden home protected by a fence of woven wire. His passion is writing poetry and telling stories.

Sitting up on a crumbling yellowed egg-crate foam mattress, he retells a story about his long wait in the hospital to receive treatment. The flowered sheet that covers the open window flaps behind him. His grandchildren and great grandchildren lie on the matching twin foam mattress next to his. They listen as he recounts the story of his hospital stay. His moral: People are never as sick as they think they are until they are next to others who are hurting more.

Requena rubs the knee that he injured almost 50 years ago when he fell from his bicycle.

"I put my hand down and it felt like it was burning," Requena said. "I don't think in those days they had X-rays. Nine years after that happened, I was having trouble."

After numerous doctor visits, Requena was faced with the decision of finding money to pay for a $2,000 surgery (in U.S. dollars) to amputate his lower leg or live with never being able to bend his knee again. Because he had little money, he chose the later.

While it's painful to move, Requena does occasionally leave his house to absorb the beauty around him. Belize, known for its three Rs - reefs, rainforests and ruins - is "just like paradise" to Requena.

"Sometimes when I feel lonesome I visit the forest and be alone and then come back," Requena said. "I find myself happy when I hear the little birds singing. I think they are singing because they are happy."

He wrote a Spanish song titled "Belize Independente" after Belize gained Independence in 1981. "Somos un pais pobre pero independiente," he sings. "We are a poor country but we are a free country."

A lasting impression
Most tour guides and books will focus on the wonders of Belize - its Mayan ruins, caves, and rainforests - while glossing over the beauty of its people, how they live and how easily they get along. Perhaps the source of their joy lies in others. Perhaps it's their open-door policy that turns strangers into friends. Or perhaps it's people such as Middleton, the cab driver, who strives to make others happy.

"It's a pity you are going too early," he tells his American passengers. "Otherwise I would have given you a tour and let you be happy before you leave our country."