Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

Our island is located off the coast of Belize at Glover’s Reef Atoll, a National Marine Reserve. In order to protect the marine life there, the Belize government has prohibited fishing at Glover’s reef for tourists except for sport fishing, or catch-and-release. The only exception is if you are a native and own one of the few fishing licenses issued for Glover’s Reef.

There is one other exception: lionfish — anyone can spear them because they are an invasive species from the Pacific Ocean (the Caribbean is an Atlantic sea). Lionfish are very detrimental to the native species population, and killing them is encouraged. Watch this short video of our guide, Victor Myers, spearing one.

The lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific region, have infiltrated their way into the Caribbean. Their introduction is believed to be a result of hurricanes and tank releases during the early 1990’s. They have been spotted along the eastern seaboard spanning as far north as Rhode Island to as far south as Columbia. Protected by venomous spines, lionfish are voracious predators. When hunting, they herd and corner their prey using their pectoral fins, then quickly strike and swallow their prey whole. With few known natural predators, the lionfish poses a major threat to coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean region by decreasing survival of a wide range of native reef animals via both predation and competition. While native grouper may prey on lionfish, they have been overfished and therefore unlikely to significantly reduce the effects of invasive lionfish on coral reef communities.

Help us do something about this problem! Bring your spear gun with you on one of our island trips!

Airlines are so hard to figure out. I have been watching Belize airfares for 26 years and STILL I can’t predict what they will do. Today when updating our Belize flights page I saw a strange pattern I have never seen before. It may never happen again, but it’s weird, so I thought I would tell all of you about it.

A week and a half ago I checked airfares and they had dropped from 5 cities only: Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, NYC, and San Francisco. So I blogged about it. Today, they dropped from every single city EXCEPT those 5 cities. They went up in those 5. Go figure.

The largest drops were from Philadelphia and Baltimore. Those flights to Belize on March 2, returning March 11, are $160 less than they were 10 days ago. The other 19 cities that I found lower fares mostly show a $100+ savings. The least amount of savings was from Phoenix. The rate to fly from there is $42 less this week than last.

To see the full list with current flights to Belize, visit our Belize flights page.

If you’ve ever wondered what our guests experience while visiting Long Caye in Belize, this 35 min. video, shot by one of our guests and posted on Youtube last October, is a true, full immersion experience. The clarity of the photography is amazing, especially the close-ups of the reef and associated marine life through the crystal clear water.

Construction workers laying new pipes and cables on Burns Avenue in San Ignacio in western Belize have stumbled upon a cache of Maya artifacts dating back more than 2 thousand years. The pottery and human bones were unearthed during work that is part of a $2.7 million dollar beautification project in the small town. The workers were using an excavator to open trenches on the street on Saturday when they made the find. The area is home to the nearby Cahal Pech Maya Site. … Read more

Our guide Victor Myers surfs the Long Caye break on a long board. Great GoPro video!

Victor Myers, one of our trip managers on our island in Belize, just sent me a fantastic new photo from a recent trip. We have the best staff in Belize, probably in the entire Caribbean. I think this photo really shows how great everyone is.

It’s hard to get everyone in the same picture because it’s always someone’s week off, but they must have taken this on Saturday when one boat was bringing out a new shift and the same boat was taking some staff members off. This one has almost everybody.

Standing, left to right: Victor Myers (island trip manager), Martin Ramirez (groundskeeper), Neri Chi (Belize Adventure Week trip manager and guide), Meg Griffiths (kitesurf instructor), Charlie Woodward (island manager), Mark Hyde (lead boat captain), LaVern Garcia (cook), Joelle Bienvenue (island trip manager), Aurora Roches (head cook), Matt Szymanowicz (island trip manager). Seated: Magdaleno “MJ” Yacab (island guide), Cully Erdman, (Slickrock owner), Apolitico Salam (island caretaker), Regan Murillo (boat captain).

La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge  is a grueling multi-day canoe race traveling a perilous river route across the country of Belize. The route runs West to East along the Macal and Belize Rivers, once the only link between beautiful San Ignacio, in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, and the bustling port of Belize City. This is a race for everyone (not just professional racers)!

There are 8 divisions for the race:

• Male
• Female
• Mixed
• Masters
• Dory
• Intramural
• Pleasure craft
• Family Adventure Race

The race occurs each year in March, coinciding with Baron Bliss Day. This year (2011), the canoes will leave San Ignacio on March 4 and arrive in Belize City on March 7. The teams, which race for station prizes along the way, battle for the major cash prizes awarded at the end of the race.

Why not come to Belize early, and either watch the canoe race or join the team, and then go out to our island right after? Our private Belize island will be waiting for you!

Often our groups on the island get together for sunset while we gather for cocktails and conversation about another exciting day. Sometimes we watch it from the point, but this time of the year it is better to go out to the sandbar so you can see it hit the horizon instead of seeing it set behind the island. A few weeks ago we shuttled everyone out to the sandbar where we had chairs and snacks set up to go with island libations.

Last week we had a very small group so we set up a few chairs on our iMat (an inflatable pad we use as a float set up in our ‘harbor’) and Matt, our guide, towed 4 of us out to the sandbar using a paddleboard. We had a great party while the sun set over the calm seas. The biggest challenge was to make it back to the island (only 100 yards…) before it got dark!

That’s Long Caye in the near-background.

We have recently begun our latest new activity, paddleboarding downwind to the neighboring islands on the atoll on our new SUP Cruiser boards. These high displacement boards are especially designed for longer distance paddling rather than short excursions or surfing.

The hull has a ‘V’ shape and a pointed bow with a 6″ thick center volume, and the boards are as light as a feather. Thus, one can travel 3 times the distance per paddle stroke as on a conventional paddleboard. On our second trip to both Middle Caye and SW Caye, we brought along two sea kayaks, and switched people at the half way point to allow more participation. It also worked out well in enabling paddlers to rest, as the paddle to SW Caye is 6 miles.

Paddling downwind over the sand flats is exciting, since the higher viewpoint afforded on a paddleboard allows one to see many more reefs, fish, and rays in the shallow, clear water. We even had a large nurse shark spook and swim right under a paddle board! At SW Caye, we were then able to tour the island and enjoy a few cold drinks at their over-the-water bar before our shuttle boat arrived to tow the boards and give us all a ride back home. I think this new sport is going to be VERY popular!

The tow back home to Long Caye.

I am on the phone all day, five days a week, answering questions about Belize. Because it is an 800 number, and because when people call they get a real person who is willing to talk to them and can answer most of their questions, I end up talking to wide variety of people for a long time. Many of them are clearly not suited to visit an eco-resort way out in the middle of the ocean, but I figure why not help them anyway, maybe it helps Belize in general. So I do a lot of talking.

Lately there seems to be a new pattern with some of my calls. I have been hearing from people very worried about things they ‘heard’ from ‘someone’. Once they get a real person on the phone, they pour out these concerns, seeking my opinion. They are extremely concerned about rumors they haven’t tried to verify, and they are making decisions based on these rumors. Some of these rumors are preposterous!

Yesterday a gentleman was very concerned about ‘Third World’ dive operators who had ‘faulty air mixtures’ in scuba tanks. Someone had told him about this, and he was not sure he wanted to go to the Third World to dive. I said, but wait, it’s not a mixture, it’s just air that has been compressed! I told him that I have been working in Belize 26 years and never, ever had heard any problems with faulty ‘air mixtures’ in scuba tanks. And besides, Belize is not really the Third World (is there a Second World?) He sounded somewhat reassured, but still seemed anxious to believe the ‘someone’ who claimed that dive operators in Belize are somehow degrading the quality of scuba tank air!

Another caller told me that she ‘heard’ that Belize City taxi drivers will rape you; that it’s not safe to take a cab from the Belize City airport. What? I have taken zillions of cabs in Belize City. They don’t want to have sex with you, they just want to take you where you want to go and get paid the going rate for it!

Someone told another person that traveling to Tikal from Belize is unsafe. I replied that there have been a few problems over the years, but not recently. And if you are super concerned all you have to do is use a Guatemalan guide. Would-be Guatemalan road warriors do not bother their countrymen who have paying passengers. Still, she opted not to go to Tikal at all, because someone told her she would surely be attacked.

The bottom line, when you hear a rumor, search for similar claims on the internet. If these things were true, they would be all OVER the internet. It’s not hard to put your fears at rest. You definitely cannot believe everything that you hear.