All our favorite trips have the same thing in common:  We return home with the sense that something foreign has now become familiar.  Staying at Ka’ana Boutique Resort, with its focus on sustainability and cultural authenticity, helped me feel this way about the entire country of Belize.

Set in the jungly Cayo District near the scruffy, bustling town of San Ignacio, Ka’ana is the first luxury spa resort in Western Belize.  Open since 2007, this little slice of paradise features everything you’d expect in a swanky stay:  High-threadcount sheets, a spa, an elegant restaurant, even a wine cellar.  However, with its committed staff of young locals, casual vibe and eco-friendly agenda, it feels more like a landed estate that’s been returned to everyday Belizeans.

I’d attribute this impression to the passion of Belizean resort director Ian Lizzaraga.  At Ka’ana, he’s eager to create an environment defined by his country.

For instance, the pottery, jewelry and woodwork for sale in the lobby gift shop is all made by Belizean artisans. Paintings in the rooms depict mystical Mayan scenes, reflecting the resort’s proximity to the sacred site of Xunantunich (zshoo-NAHN-too-neech).  The grounds are landscaped with (helpfully labeled) indigenous trees and plants.  Several spa products feature the country’s exquisite chocolate.  Ian’s even been toying with the idea of replacing Ka’ana’s present, cumbersome wooden room keychains (which could easily double as weapons) with a small MP3 player, stocked with a full spectrum of Belizean music.

At Ka’ana’s restaurant, La Ceiba (named for a huge tree sacred to the Mayans), chef Sean Kuylen creates elegant dishes that reflect both Belize in particular and Central America in general.  The resort’s gorgeous organic garden allows him to keep much of his cuisine local in the extreme, but the proteins are also sustainably farmed.  Menu standouts are jerk chicken with cumin yogurt, salmon cooked on a cedar plank, and the bright bite of lemon meringue pie, but be sure not to miss the grilled  jalapeño cheese made by Mennonite farmers in the Belizean north.

Also, don’t skip the cocktails.  (Unless non-alcoholic is more your style, in which case you should go for their fresh-from-the-garden coolers in flavors like ginger, mint or hibiscus.) The bar here manages to be slick, modern and cozy at the same time, and makes a tangerine mojito that’s a vacation in itself.  Or, try a spot of nance (nahn-cheh), a mellow brown sugar liqueur made by fermenting one nance berry for months in the bottle; hard to find at many resorts or even at the airport duty-free, Ian introduced this sweet apertif to our travel bloggers group as an everyday drink in Belize.

Booze aside!some of my favorite moments in Belize happened at Ka’ana.   One afternoon, I treated myself to a float in the palm-fringed infinity pool, a soft rain erasing my memories of drought back home in L.A.  Later in my casita, I moved my still-drying sneakers only to disturb a tiny frog, olive green with black speckles.  Carefully, I scooped him up between a water glass and a small dish (that had recently contained handmade Mayan chocolates) and set him down outdoors on the rain-slick front porch.  Off in the tangled trees, his brethren could be heard croaking the song of a healthy ecosystem.

Ka’ana aims to keep this song going.  In addition to using low-energy lightbulbs, recycled paper products and local hardwoods, the resort now employs a Sustainable Adventure Tourism Director.  Eager to take guests to parts of the nearby Mopan River and surrounding broadleaf forest they might otherwise miss, the SATD also aims to encourage replanting of the area’s over-harvested forest corridors, giving wildlife a chance to move more freely between habitats.  A resort plan is forming that would allow guests to make a lasting contribution to the community by planting some of these trees themselves

I loved being a sponsored guest at Ka’ana, and hope to return someday in a spirit of pure romance.  Who knows!maybe in December 2012, in honor of Mayan Doomsday.  Wouldn’t mind one bit if this was the last place we ever saw on Earth.

By: Melanie Waldman http://www.travelswithtwo.com/

A big highlight and memorable moment for me was hanging out in the kitchen of Ka’ana Boutique Resort with the personable, talented and passionate Chef Sean Kuylen (pronounced kwee-ln), born and raised in Belize.  With the bubbly enthusiasm of a little boy, he was bouncing around the compact space wanting to show me the ingredients he was using, tell me about his ideas for future dishes and have me taste a bit of this and and that. With a foundation in classic French cuisine, he trained for 2 years in kitchens in San Francisco and Florida, and now finds his inspiration from everywhere he turns. Watching him prepare the smoked red snapper, he exclaimed with a wide grin, “I stole this from Disney World! They had cedar-planked salmon. I saw the cedar trees here and said, hey they’re not poisonous, let’s do it!”  And so he did; he finishes off the fish with a flambé that would make a fireman flinch.

As Ka’ana owner Ian Lizzaraga explained, Ka’ana is where you’ll find “the Belizean experience on a 5 star level.”  Their values of sustainability and cultural authenticity are apparent on the grounds, in the rooms and in the restaurant La Ceiba, named after the native tree to Guatemala, sacred to the Mayans. The team is taking the traditions they grew up with and giving them a current interpretation. As seen in their spin on a piña colada for example- a sugar corn colada, reminiscent of their childhood snack of corn ice cream with cinnamon. They’re taking advantage of local products including brown sugar, cacao and coffee;  and they’re using organic produce from their beautiful garden just outside the restaurant.   The basil and arugula you’ll see on your plate will have been collected from the garden right before service.  And as above, your fish may be smoked on cedar wood, from the tree just outside your room.

Of course I was most interested in Chef Kuylen’s desserts, but I have to say, months later, I am still thinking about his corn dukunu.   It was a component in a larger dish ““ sautéed Mennonite pork sausage with chipotle and guava tomato chutney served over Mayan dukunu, the latter a roasted corn and coconut milk tamale.  I also tasted it in its pure form as a purée and knew I would want to recreate it at home in my own kitchen.  The purée, in the bottom casserole above right, was a masterful play on sweet and salty, with a healthy kick of spicy too ““ zoom in on the chef’s gallon jug of habanero hot sauce! That caught my eye and I thus proceeded carefully during meals! Enjoy the recipe below, that the chef generously shared with us here (and not only because I begged for it!). But most of all, stay tuned for the next post! Chef Kuylen shares some sweet recipes too!

Chef Kuylen’s Corn Dukunu

1 cup canned sweet corn
6 oz yellow cornmeal
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
1 cup coconut milk
4 oz smoked bacon, diced

Combine all ingredients except the bacon in a food processor and mix forming the dukunu batter. In a saucepan render the diced bacon and add the prepared batter stirring constantly preventing it from sticking. Cook for 15 minutes until the batter gets thick and golden yellow in color. Adjust the seasoning and enjoy with fish, chicken or sausage.

Alternative: this batter can also be steamed forming a firm Dukunu Cake.
Render the bacon and add it to the raw corn batter. Spoon the batter in foil or corn husks and seal the ends. Set in a pot of shallow water, cover and steam for 45 minutes forming a traditional Dukunu Tamalito. Once cooked, carefully open and enjoy

By: Kerrin Rousset http://mykugelhopf.ch/