From Guanacaste Park the Western Highway pushes on towards San Ignacio and the Guatemalan border, while the Hummingbird Highway heads south 2km to the turn-off for BELMOPAN , before continuing to Dangriga. Belmopan was founded in 1970 after Hurricane Hattie swept much of Belize City into the sea. The government decided to use the disaster as a chance to move to higher ground and, in a Brasília-style bid to focus development on the interior, chose a site in the geographical heart of the country. The name of the city combines the words "Belize" and "Mopan", the language spoken by the Maya of Cayo. The layout of the main government buildings, designed in the 1960s, is modelled on a Maya city, grouped around a central plaza. In classic new-town terms Belmopan was meant to symbolize the dawn of a new era, with tree-lined avenues, banks, a couple of embassies and telecommunications worthy of a world centre. Today it has all the essential ingredients bar one: people. Arriving in the market square or bus station, the first thing that strikes you is a sense of space, but unless you've come to visit the government's archeology, archives or immigration departments, there's little reason to stay any longer than it takes your bus to leave.