Sharyn and Jim Brinker, Creators Of Belize’s Mariposa Jungle Lodge, Reflect On What They Created
by Heather Cassell
It was an adventure of a lifetime for adventurers Sharyn and Jim Brinker when they opened the Mariposa Jungle Lodge in Belize.
“It was a lovely life adventure to create this place,” said Sharyn, who had traveled to 62 countries and was still counting with three more to add to collection last year.
The adventure for Sharyn and Jim at Mariposa Jungle Lodge was ending and a new one: retirement was beginning. The couple sold the luxury eco-jungle lodge that they created to daughter- father hoteliers Ailne and Paul Habib to create a Belize’s first and only vegan wellness lodge in September 2018.
The lodge didn’t begin publicly announcing the transition until March 27 on Facebook.
What they built brought pleasure to their guests and to the local community, especially those who worked with them.
Spinning The Globe
During the early 2000’s, the world travelers were looking for their next adventure as they prepared for semi-retirement from successful careers as a lawyer and a banker. They spun the globe discussing places they had traveled too, especially Africa, as potential destinations to live as expatriates; each other’s personal needs, and their vision for opening a boutique accommodation.
“I’ve always had a passion for travel and we’ve fortunately have traveled extensively,” said Sharyn. “One of the most spiritual trips that we’ve ever had was to Africa … but for many, many reasons that wasn’t the right place for us to go.”
In 2004, the couple planned a trip to Belize. It was their first venture abroad specifically to search for a new home and business. They had no idea the Central American country, the only English-speaking nation in the region that is a gem in the rough would quickly capture their imagination and hearts.
Mariposa Jungle Lodge former owner Sharyn Brinker (Photo: Heather Cassell)
Belize was still very much a jungle, just like the movie, “The Mosquito Coast.” The 1986 film directed by Peter Weir and that starred Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, and River Phoenix who played a family of American expatriates led by Harrison, who played a radical liberal father and husband. He moved the clan to live off-the-grid in the Caribbean and in the process ideologies clash in the tropics when Harrison’s character battled a zealous Evangelical reverend played by Andre Gregory.
Not much had changed in nearly 20 years since the movie when Sharyn and Jim arrived. Aside from the cruise ships that drop anchor outside of Belize City, the country’s former capital city, Belize was an off-the-beaten-track destination virtually untouched by tourism.
“We checked out Belize and much to our surprise it was perfect,” Sharyn said. “The jungle is very spiritual to me. The natural beauty speaks to me.”
Belize is located on the eastern coast of Central America surrounded by Mexico to the North, Guatemala to the West, and Honduras to the South. It boasts of a rich culture, history, and environment.
The country is a diver and eco-adventurer’s dream. It has nearly as many biospheres as Costa Rica boasting nine of the 13 types of forests and just as many species of wild animals, not to mention its ancient Mayan sites that are UNESCO designated for culture and history lovers. Its cayes provide travelers with unique vacations from Caribbean beaches and island parties to secluded private island experiences.
Mariposa Jungle Lodge Tour Guide Agusto Ixtecoc at Mayan ruins Caracol. (Photo: Heather Cassell)
They were only a couple days into their nine-day trip – where they visited the Mayan ruin, Caracol, and enjoyed a horseback ride through the jungle – when Jim casually said to Sharyn over dinner, “I think that we should consider buying property in this area.”
It was only their second night in Belize, it was an atypical move on Jim, a city man’s, part, but it spoke to Sharyn.
The couple cancelled all plans and arranged to be taken property hunting in the jungle the next day.
Three days later they were proud owners of the former Five Sisters Lodge, a small building at the opening of a 40-acre undeveloped property that was what they believe to have once been an ancient Mayan burial site in Eastern Belize.
“The natural beauty is exactly what we wanted,” said Sharyn expressing her love for Belize. “You don’t feel like it’s been developed, it’s still in a pristine natural state. I never get tired of seeing new birds. I never get tired of seeing the beautiful jungle, plants, the trees, the color. I mean it’s just nature at its finest.”
She also enjoyed Belize’s culture.
“I really love being so close to an ancient culture,” she said.
The Vision
The couple set out to create a community-supported, eco-friendly space in the middle of the jungle.
“The people are friendly, warm, [and] diverse. There is just a different level of human relations that is very comforting,” said Sharyn about Belizeans, who are a mixture of Maya, Creole, Mestizo, and Garifuna with a small percentage of Asians and whites.
The couple was introduced to brothers Agusto and Damien Ixtecoc who became their first employees and helped them survey the property and build the lodge.
“If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have known where to chop or what to do because we all agreed that we were not going to destroy anything,” said Sharyn.
“It’s a Mayan site,” she continued saying there were indications through relics they found that the land was a site for Mayan burials. “We built it with total respect for the land and what might be under the land.”
The Lodge
They built six cabanas and the owner’s office and lodge, a main lodge, a pool with a bar and dining area, a hiking trail around the property and a birdwatch tower among other amenities for guests to enjoy on the property.
The lodge can host up to 24 guests in its six themed cabanas nestled in the jungle. The lodge’s chef also caters to guests’ various dietary needs, including vegetarians, Kosher, and gluten-free.
The Jaguar room at Mariposa Jungle Lodge (Photo: Heather Cassell)
They also developed tours for guests, something many properties in Belize provide. Agusto and Damien later became the lodge’s first tour guides taking guests to sites on one of the six half-day tours or nine full-day tours offered.
Guests can choose from cultural tours into local villages, to Mayan ruins and a unique night tour of an ancient Mayan cave nearby called Bol’s Museum Cave; adventurous guided jungle hikes, rafting, and caving and even tours across the border into Guatemala to see Tikal.
Sharyn’s family-like dynamic has encouraged her employees to be creative and the result of that is hand-made furniture made from locally sourced materials, local chefs, and even artwork that decorates the walls of the lodge.
To honor the people and the land the lodge was built on, it became the most Maya-focused accommodation in the area when it opened in 2007. In 2018, Sharyn and her 15-member staff, many whom had been with her from the beginning, built a fogon, an ancient Mayan stove to prepare traditional Mayan food.
Sharyn and Jim installed Mayan fogon at Mariposa Jungle Lodge gives guests the opportunity to see how the Mayans prepare their meals in the summer of 2018. (Photo: Heather Cassell)
“When you cook something on a fogon it tastes a thousand percent better than when you cook it on the stove,” said Sharyn. “We basically try to expose people to Belizean foods and Belizean style eating.”
“We are by far the most Maya oriented [lodge],” she added. “San Antonio is primarily a Maya village. It is inhabited by people who descended from the Yucatec Maya that came down during the Caste Wars.”
Sharyn and Jim faced their own challenges building the lodge in such a remote area. They had to bring electricity and the internet services to the area to provide modern comforts from light to air conditioning and Wi-Fi in addition to the warm hospitality provided by their Maya employees.
“It’s not an impersonal place. Very few guests are impersonal,” Sharyn said. “Most pleasure is when people say it was more than what they expected.”
The main lounge at the Mariposa Jungle Lodge. (Photo: Heather Cassell)
“It’s just very rewarding.”
Sharyn and Jim don’t see the same guests time and again like other hotels and resorts.
“A majority of our guests are international travelers like me who want to see different places,” said Sharyn. “We are thrilled when they do [return], but what is more important is when they send their friends and that happens a lot.”
Sharyn wants future visitors to know that Belize is a “small country” that provides visitors with the “opportunity to learn and experience so much [and] to commune in nature in a very active way.” She wants them to experience the diversity Belize offers.
She’s proud of what her husband and she built in Belize and their experience during their 14-year adventure and is confident the Mariposa Jungle Lodge is in good hands with Ailne and Paul Habib and will continue to thrive under their stewardship.
“We have our own little piece of paradise,” said Sharyn. “It was a lovely adventure to create this place.”
Book your next Belize vacation at Mariposa Jungle Lodge with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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