Amatique Bay is a large

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

in the

Gulf of Honduras The Gulf of Honduras or the Bay of Honduras is a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea, indenting the coasts of Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. From north to south, it runs for approximately 200 km (125 miles) from Dangriga, Belize, to La Cei ...

, along the eastern coast of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

. It stretches from

Santo Tomás de Castilla Santo Tomás de Castilla, officially known as Mátías de Gálvez though it popularly retains its former name, is a port city in the Izabal Department, Guatemala. It lies at Amatique Bay off the Gulf of Honduras and is administratively a part of ...

in the south to Punta Gorda in the north, where it opens to the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. Its south-eastern limits are marked by a small

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

known as

Punta de Manabique Punta de Manabique is a small peninsula that separates Amatique Bay from the Gulf of Honduras. It is located on Guatemala's east coast, some 20 km north of Puerto Barrios (). The peninsula was declared a wildlife reserve in 1999. The reserve i ...

where a $27 million gas terminal is planned Most of the bay is part of

, while the northwestern portion is part of

. The bay receives the runoff from three major rivers: the

Moho River The Moho River is a river of Guatemala and Belize. The river is navigable year round between Santa Teresa and the mouth. The size of the Moho basin is 1,188.5 km² (458.9 sq ml). See also *List of rivers of Guatemala This is a list of rivers ...

in Belize, the

Sarstoon River The Sarstoon River () is a Central American river that forms part of the international border between Belize and Guatemala. The source of the 111-kilometer-long river lies in Guatemala's Alta Verapaz Department. It flows eastward, serving as the ...

forming the border between Belize and Guatemala, and Dulce River in Guatemala. The main ports in the bay are

Puerto Barrios Puerto Barrios () is a city in Guatemala, located within the Gulf of Honduras. The city is located on Bahia de Amatique. Puerto Barrios is the departmental seat of Izabal department and is the administrative seat of Puerto Barrios municipality. ...

and

Livingston Livingston or Livingstonemay refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North Am ...

(Guatemala), and Punta Gorda (Belize).

References

External links

* *

Sources

Bodies of water of Guatemala Bays of Belize Belize–Guatemala border Bays of Central America {{Belize-geo-stub