To see Davis Falls you have to earn it: seven river crossings in a 4x4 lurching along a mud track, and then a hike through dense jungle where the trail barely exists. Only then, amid the mist and the roar of the water, does the second-tallest waterfall in Belize appear: about 150 meters (500 feet) of drop plunging into a pool 23 meters deep. There's no air-conditioned ticket booth or wooden walkways; there's jungle, rock and water. That's why almost no one knows it, and why those who reach it don't forget it.
Davis Falls —also written Davis Waterfall— takes its name, like so many of Belize's geographical features, from a local place name in English, an inheritance of the British Honduras era. The waterfall is in the Sittee River basin, in the Stann Creek District, in the south of the country, in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. It's there, where the jungle highlands descend toward the coastal plain, that the rivers form spectacular waterfalls as they plunge between the rock.
Unlike an archaeological site or a town, the 'history' of Davis Falls is, essentially, that of its geography: a natural waterfall shaped over millennia by the water eroding the rock of the mountains. The waterfall stands out for its height and for being formed of several levels, which makes it one of the most imposing waterfalls in Belize, though also one of the least visited because of its remote location.
The Sittee River, which gives context to the area, is one of the watercourses of southern Belize; it rises in the Maya Mountains and empties into the Caribbean after crossing jungle, mangroves and the coastal village of Sittee River. The whole region belongs to a mosaic of rivers, waterfalls and jungle that makes southern Stann Creek an area of enormous natural value.
The Maya Mountains, the mountain massif that dominates central and southern Belize, are the source of much of the country's rivers and waterfalls. Formed of ancient rocks —among them granites and sandstones— these mountains receive the abundant rainfall of the tropics, which feeds numerous watercourses. As they descend from the highlands toward the coast, those rivers carve canyons and plunge in waterfalls like Davis Falls.
The Davis Falls waterfall is the result of that geological process: over millennia, the water eroded the rock differentially, creating a pronounced drop and several steps down which the river cascades with force. Its considerable height and its stepped character place it among the tallest and most striking waterfalls in Belize, in a region known precisely for its waterfalls.
The setting of the waterfall is humid tropical jungle, dense and rich in biodiversity, in the heart of a little-modified area. The combination of rugged relief, abundant water and lush vegetation makes the area a spectacular natural scene, but also a hard-to-access one, which has helped keep the waterfall relatively pristine and far from mass tourism.
The region where Davis Falls is located was, in pre-Hispanic times, part of the vast territory of the Maya world. The Maya Mountains and their foothills —including the Sittee River basin— were inhabited and traveled by Maya populations for centuries, who made use of the resources of the jungle and the rivers. In southern Belize numerous remains of that presence are preserved, from archaeological sites to caves with ceremonial remains.
During the colonial period, under British rule, this southern area was part of British Honduras and took part in the colony's extractive economy: first the exploitation of fine woods like mahogany, which opened roads in the jungle to remove the logs, and then the expansion of crops like banana and citrus in the fertile Stann Creek region. Human activity was concentrated above all in the lowlands and accessible riverbanks, while the mountainous and hard-to-reach areas —like the surroundings of Davis Falls— remained largely untouched.
That relative inaccessibility was, paradoxically, a blessing for conservation: while other areas were transformed by agriculture and logging, the most remote jungles of the Maya Mountains kept their natural richness. It's that same isolation that today makes Davis Falls a wild and demanding destination.
For a long time, Davis Falls remained practically ignored by tourism, known above all to local inhabitants, hunters and adventurers. Its remote location, in the heart of the jungle of the Maya Mountains, and the absence of formal roads and trails made it a place reached only by those who knew the terrain well. Unlike other more accessible waterfalls in Belize, Davis Falls stayed off the usual tourist postcards.
This condition of hidden treasure is, to a large extent, what defines its current character. While nearby destinations like the waterfalls of Mayflower Bocawina National Park were equipped with trails, ziplines and services to receive visitors, Davis Falls remained wild, accessible only through demanding jungle hikes. That difficulty of access preserved its natural setting and its atmosphere of genuine adventure.
The waterfall thus became a kind of local legend among the nature lovers of southern Belize: an imposing waterfall that reaching was a true feat. Its fame grew by word of mouth and among the region's guides and operators, who began to offer the trek to travelers willing to make the effort, without the place losing its remote and little-visited character.
The fate of Davis Falls is today tied to the flourishing of ecotourism in southern Belize, in particular around the Garifuna village of Hopkins and the Sittee River region. As Belize established itself as one of the world references in nature tourism, the Stann Creek area developed an increasingly rich offering: the Cockscomb jaguar reserve (the world's first dedicated to the jaguar), Mayflower Bocawina National Park with its waterfalls, ziplines and rappel, the Sittee River trips and the Garifuna culture of Hopkins, with its drum music recognized by UNESCO.
In that context, Davis Falls found its place as the most demanding and wild adventure destination in the region: the waterfall reserved for those seeking an authentic jungle experience, far from comforts. The local operators and guides of Hopkins and Dangriga began to organize guided hikes to the waterfall, turning it into a niche excursion for adventurous travelers.
This nature tourism is also a conservation tool: by giving economic value to the untouched jungle and the pristine waterfalls, it encourages their protection against other pressures. The region's challenge is to keep the balance between tourist development and the preservation of an extraordinary natural heritage. For the traveler, Davis Falls remains what it always was: a wild reward at the end of a difficult road, in one of the most beautiful and profound corners of southern Belize.