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Four hundred square kilometres of the bay and coast north of Punta Gorda are now protected as the Port Honduras Marine Reserve , partly to safeguard the many manatees living and breeding in this shallow water habitat. The cayes and reefs here mark the southern end of Belize's barrier reef, and the main reef has started to break up, leaving several clusters of islands, each surrounded by a small independent reef. The closest of these islands to Punta Gorda are the Snake Cayes , a group of tiny islands in the mouth of a large bay whose shoreline is a complex maze of mangrove swamps. Further out in the Gulf of Honduras are the Sapodilla Cayes , now a marine reserve , of which the largest caye, Hunting Caye , is frequented by Guatemalan as well as Belizean day-trippers. Some of these islands already have accommodation, and more resorts are planned, though at present the cayes and reserve receive relatively few foreign visitors and are fascinating to explore. South of Punta Gorda the coastline is flat and sparsely populated, with rivers meandering across a coastal plain covered in thick tropical rainforest. These include the Temash River, lined with the tallest mangrove forest in the country, and the Sarstoon River, which forms the border with Guatemala. The only village here is Barranco , a small, traditional Garifuna settlement of two hundred people which you can visit through the village guesthouse programme arranged by Nature's Way .
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