In 1989 Dr Thomas Mathew (Anesthesiologist in Bluefield WV. USA) and his wife Tessy Mathew came to Belize for a diving vacation.

They found Belize to be very similar to Kerala, India-spice capital of the world. Kerala (Malabar coast) was the planned destination for many European explorers including Christopher Columbus who did not make it to Kerala but found the new world. Like many who moved plants around the world (like Nutmeg to Grenada, and Cardamom to Guatemala) Mathews decided to experiment with Black pepper, Cinnamon, Vanilla and Clove by importing seedlings from Kerala.

The spice plants thrived in Belize, and very soon curious visitors started showing up in our new spice farm. This was the beginning of our Spice farm Tourism. Very soon Spice farm was expanded to include a beautiful water garden, an exotic fruit tree garden, an amazing fragrant garden, Essential oil garden, thereby qualifying to be called Belize Spice farm and Botanical Gardens,  but the popular name for this popular tourist spot remained as Spice farm. The number of guests who visit spice farm went up and currently is about 20,000 /year. The guests include domestic and foreign, students from every district in Belize and Cruise line guests.

We made Tropical Magnolia Resorts to accommodate guests who wanted to spend more time in Spice farm.  The Resort was made with Teak we planted 31 years ago. No tree was cut from rain forest to build our cabanas. We use Solar energy to heat our swimming pool, and as an energy source for hot water in the Cabanas. I guess we can say we are close to nature and claim our “carbon footprint” is rather small or insignificant.