The Trek Stop DGC is a very tight and technical nine hole course located far west in the Cayo District, on the outskirts of the tiny town of San Jose Succotz. The course was installed in the mid 90's on a fairly small portion of the land considering the Trek Stop owns 22 acres. However, each hole has a unique design which makes for a very challenging layout.
Located in a very dense jungle, the course made the simplest shot difficult, as any mishap could absolutely ruin one's score. Off the fairways and around the property, the land was littered with several varieties of trees, plants, and flowers, including several kinds of palms, fruit trees, and medicinal plants which the ancient Mayans used for healing. Wildlife was another benefit to playing the course. While playing, the course was filled with several species of birds, butterflies and other insects, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals.
The course itself seemed to do a nice job providing the essential properties which make a course good, including baskets, tee signs, and designated tee pads. The baskets, although home-made, were very similar to M-14's. They didn't catch very well but, considering there were no other courses in the country let alone any disc golf retailers, they were perfect! Tee pads all had wooden slabs marking the front of each tee box, and were all dirt, but once again seemed appropriate for the amount of foot traffic the course received. Eventually, it would be nice to see something more permanent, or at least more secure, considering the wooden markers seemed to move around some. The tee signs were made of metal and were bright white with red arrows directing first time players toward the tee pad. Each sign was labeled with a number, similar to the baskets, but did lack distance and major obstacles.
The course design was well thought out, with tee one starting behind the Tropical Wings Nature Center, and ending near the center of the Trek Stop facility in front of the Nature Center. The flow of the course worked well, as my wife and I were the only ones playing during all five rounds. None of the fairways crossed, although many of the tee pads were close to the previous basket, and baskets two and nine were within about 50 feet of one other. What I was most impressed with, along with the overall difficulty, was how cleared out the underbrush was on the fairways. Without this being done, like the rough, it would have almost made the course unplayable. Foliage maintenance was apparent, with trees trimmed accordingly, and grass cut regularly ON THE COURSE.
Elevation was present and optimized on holes 4-7, with the remainder of the holes flat. The course seemed to favor neither a right nor left-handed player, with four holes fairly straight, 2 holes dog legging left, 2 holes dog legging right, and 1 hole allowing for either approach. No hole was really epic, but several stood out due to their tight and challenging layout (holes 3 and 7). NOTE: Below in the "other" section, I went through a hole by run down considering most will never have the opportunity to travel to Belize so I thought it would be nice to give everyone a better sense of the course layout.
Camping, restrooms, running water, etc, can all be located on sight considering the Trek Stop has many backpackers and worldly travelers continually coming in and out of this place. Cabins will run visitors anywhere from $15-38 US/night, and camping $5 US. However, I do recommend paying the extra for your own shower and bathroom considering the Trek Stop is Eco Friendly and uses compost toilets, which can get quite ripe, and the shower uses rain water which can run out if too many people use it within a short amount of time. If you camp, just know that it truly is a jungle out there and at night the forest comes alive!!!