Belize

LOCATION: 1271 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 931-4840 PRICES: Appetizers, $1 to $3; entrees, $2.25 to $15.99 DETAILS: Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. No alcohol, credit cards accepted, lot and street parking. Delivery available.

Ghost Lights A Novel Lydia Millet W.W. Norton: 256 pp., $24.95 Few writers are known for combining dark humor and environmentalism in their fiction; in fact, Lydia Millet may be the only member of that club. For her efforts, in the short story collection "Love in Infant Monkeys," she was named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize. "Ghost Lights," her first book since then, is the middle novel of a trilogy that began with 2008's "How the Dead Dream. " Literary trilogies may be hard to enter midstream, but Millet has made it easy for those not familiar with the first book to start with this one. Her trick?

We read with delight your story on Belize ("Eco-Luxe in Belize," March 8). We just returned from an 11-day trip to Ambergris Cay, Placentia and Gallon Jug. Your description of the diversity of wildlife is true--it is stunning. We enjoyed our stay at Rum Point Inn (you didn't mention it!), telephone (800) 747-1381, just north of Kitty's Place near Placentia. It has its own dive- and snorkel boat. Paddling the calm, mangrove-studded rear lagoon was the most peaceful experience. The food was very good, and the unique concrete-dome cabanas very comfortable.

Spend nights in a cabana under a tree canopy and days hiking in tropical and pine forests or touring ancient Mayan sites on this all-inclusive January trip to Belize. The "January in the Jungle" package features five nights at the Mariposa Jungle Lodge (rustic on the outside, upscale on the inside) near San Ignacio. At the lodge, take an early-morning guided walk in the jungle or relax at the swimming pool or birding tower. Then the excursions begin. A visit to the Mayan city of Caracol, a half-day horseback ride in the jungle, hikes at the Rio Frio Cave and Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve and other sites are on the itinerary.

Reporting from Jerusalem — The fast lane of the New York hip-hop scene doesn't normally merge with the winding side streets of orthodox Jerusalem, but sometimes life makes exceptions. Shot at 15, Jamal Michael Burrow looked to put gang-banging behind him and poured his anger into music. By the late 1990s, he turned a corner and became the rapper Shyne, the next big thing, protégé and comrade to Sean Combs. The makeover nearly complete, his former life caught up with him. A brawl broke out at Club New York, where he was hanging with Combs and Combs' then girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez.

Nineteen people, including 17 Americans, were killed when Hurricane Iris ripped into a tourist boat, flattened homes and devastated crops in this tiny Central American nation, officials and witnesses said Tuesday. A government spokesman said the Americans and two Belizeans died in the sinking of the Wave Dancer, a 40-foot diving boat carrying U.S. tourists and a Belizean crew.

Belize has set aside 100,000 acres of rain forest, or nearly 2% of the country's total land area, for the protection of jaguars, the Belize Embassy in Washington said Wednesday. The government of the tiny English-speaking Central American nation and the World Wildlife Fund, a Washington-based nature conservation group, signed an agreement to expand the world's only jaguar sanctuary thirtyfold.

At an age when most people would be considering a peaceful retirement, Frank and Henrietta King are embarking on a two-year adventure with the Peace Corps. The Kings, both 62, will leave soon for Belize, a tiny country on Central America's Caribbean coast between Mexico and Guatemala. Their commitment to the Peace Corps combines two passions: the wanderlust that has marked their lives and a missionary-like desire to educate others.

Belize isn't the smallest country in the world, but it's one of the smallest. Nor is it the most obscure place in the Caribbean, although it is in the race for that, too. Since the last pirate sailed away more than a century ago, what Belize has needed most is an ambassador, a knowledgeable emissary, to tell American tourists and businessmen what they're missing. This year, they got one. Meet Ambassador Nigel Miguel.

The drummers form a semicircle and settle into their chairs; the rhythm thunders to life. Street dogs scatter like bullets. A dancer jumps before the drummers like a mad strutting bird and jackhammers the ground with his feet. His tall, feathered headdress spins as he turns; his white shirt becomes translucent with sweat, and bands of shells around his knees rattle and shake. Red lips, a pencil mustache and doll eyes are painted on his mask of pink wire mesh.

After Thursday's extravaganza, it might be the right time to think about the lightest meal of the day - or the meal that affords us the rest of the day to burn off some calories, anyway. Forget pancakes. How about savory Taiwanese crullers dipped in super-fresh soy milk, house-made longaniza sausage with eggs, sweet Belizean ducunu (they're like logs of unfilled tamale made with fresh corn grated off the cob) or poached-egg soup with hand-patted tortillas? Whether on La Brea Avenue or Bolsa Avenue, early-morning options abound.

Reporting from Jerusalem — The fast lane of the New York hip-hop scene doesn't normally merge with the winding side streets of orthodox Jerusalem, but sometimes life makes exceptions. Shot at 15, Jamal Michael Burrow looked to put gang-banging behind him and poured his anger into music. By the late 1990s, he turned a corner and became the rapper Shyne, the next big thing, protégé and comrade to Sean Combs. The makeover nearly complete, his former life caught up with him. A brawl broke out at Club New York, where he was hanging with Combs and Combs' then girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez.

The five-day "Jungle Love" package includes activities such as a zip-line canopy tour in the rain forest, guided nature hikes, visits to Maya archaeological and petroglyph sites and an inner-tube float down the Macal River. Dates: Available through May 15 Price: $1,999 for two, including all accommodations, meals and ground transit, including airport transfers, all applicable taxes and service charges and all activities listed above. Airfare not included. Info: Mariposa Jungle Lodge , Cayo, Belize; (304)

LOCATION: 1271 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (323) 931-4840 PRICES: Appetizers, $1 to $3; entrees, $2.25 to $15.99 DETAILS: Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. No alcohol, credit cards accepted, lot and street parking. Delivery available.

Chirmole , a high-intensity soupy sauce as black as squid ink, is poured over tender poached chicken and holds a single hard-cooked egg. This classic Maya dish, dubbed "black dinner" in tiny Central American Belize, is based on darkly charred chiles, ground to a mud-colored paste with a litany of seasonings as complex as that of any Oaxacan mole. It's easy to go through several baskets of corn tortillas mopping up every trace of its toasty, hauntingly pungent liquid. Chirmole is a weekend indulgence at Flavors of Belize , one of the first new restaurants to offer this cuisine in a very long time.

I just returned from Ambergris Caye, and it is paradise. We stayed at two resorts, both amazing. We enjoyed excellent snorkeling. The people are friendly and speak English. I could go on and on about this place! Ambergris Caye visitors center, http://www.ambergriscaye.com Ronda Pressley, Manhattan Beach

For years, tour organizer Lascelle Tillett has been leading nature lovers to see rare Morelet's crocodiles, stately Jabiru storks and other wonders in this tiny Caribbean nation. So it came as something of a shock when he ferried a small party to a spot near Belize's coral reef two years ago and encountered a floating mob. "There must have been 600 people in the water, and the boats were lined up like cars," said Tillett, director of S&L Travel & Tours.

CIVILIZATIONS come and go in this remote Central American outpost: Mayan Indians, British colonizers, African slaves who fled here from neighboring Honduras. As the years pass, monuments turn to ruins. Voices fall silent. But the timeworn music of this unique cultural crossroads stubbornly survives. Once in a while it may even flourish. Whenever that occurs these days, Ivan Duran is likely to be hovering somewhere nearby, microphone in hand, digital recorder at the ready.

A federal court jury last week acquitted a Los Angeles police officer of attempting to illegally export guns to Belize for a private security business he owned. Federal prosecutors had alleged that LAPD Officer Johnny Augustus Baltazar illegally shipped a safe packed with firearms and ammunition to Belize in July 2007. The cache included eight .40-caliber handguns, two 9-millimeter handguns and more than 1,500 rounds of ammunition. Baltazar had bought most of the weapons at the LAPD police academy store for his Belize business, Elite Security.

MYANMAR Keepers of tradition Antonia Neubauer, president of the tour company Myths & Mountains, said, " 'The Tribal People of Myanmar' trip is one of my personal favorites." It includes traveling to the country's don't-miss urban and architectural locales, full of imposing pagodas, and to villages to meet tradition-keeping locals. This 19-day experience includes visiting open-air markets, boat-riding on Inle Lake, watching a myth-conveying puppet show and exploring a Buddha-filled cave.