Pilgrimage Valley

Pilgrimage Valley is a small Mennonite settlement in Cayo District, Belize south of San Ignacio. It was founded in 1966 by German speaking Mennonites from other Mennonite Colonies in Belize, to escape increasing secularism. Soon orthodox Mennonites from North America joined them. Constant theft of livestock from across the border to Guatemala became an existential threat to the settlement and many left, going either back to North America, to Upper Barton Creek or elsewhere. In 1980 the settlement seemed abandoned, but later it was recovered. In 2011 it had less than 100 inhabitants.