Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

We are closed from mid-May through mid-November; the first part of the summer is the rainy season, which then becomes hurricane season in the fall.

Each year when we shut down for the season, our crew undertakes the long process of putting away the equipment for the summer and fall to close down our island facilities. This takes Apolitico Salam, our head groundskeeper and maintenance man, about two weeks.

First he has to take apart all the sports equipment and put it in racks or inside the staff cabins. Then he has to decommission the cabins by storing the mattresses and linens, chairs, etc, and nail shut the doors and windows in case of a storm. The kitchen is then stripped of everything except a few items to support Politico, who remains on the island all summer as the caretaker. Last he tackles the solar power systems, removing the solar panels and wind generators for storage, and moving all the batteries to a safe location.

The island is at risk of tropical storms and hurricanes during the late summer and early fall, so everything is stored in protective locations in case such a threat materializes. This series of photos is from Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Ivan hit Jamaica and the Cayman Islands; it didn’t come anywhere near us, but you can see we still had some affects from that storm. This is our old #4 cabana which has now been completely re-built to hold a family of 3 instead of just 2. This cabin was dragged to a different location and is now staff housing.

I’ve been back from the island about 2 weeks now. It hasn’t been an easy re-entry. There are so many things I miss about the island, and not the least of which is having all of my meals cooked for me three times a day by Aurora, Lavern, and Marcy.

I have a lot of favorite meals (since I am responsible for the menu, I do like all of them), but maybe my favorite lunch is Zucchini and Cho-Cho Enchiladas, Lime Rice, Simple Salad, and Fresh Lime Juice.

I made the enchiladas the other day for a pot luck here in Moab. Sadly, even though I used the exact recipe we use on the island, it just wasn’t quite as good (but my friends didn’t know that, they loved these enchiladas.)

You can find the recipe for the enchiladas and the lime rice on earlier blog posts.

Every week we snorkel The Aquarium, just a 1/2 mile paddle from our island. It’s a shallow patch reef surrounded by bright white coral sand.

I am just back from 7 weeks in Belize, and most of that time on our island at Glover’s Reef. It was GREAT!

We last published our cumulative bird list from Long Caye at Glover’s Reef on March 29, 2011. We have a few new additions to the list, we are now up to 95 birds seen on our island! I am not a birder but am proud to report that I identified one of the new birds!

The complete list:

American Redstart
Anhinga
Baltimore Oriole
Barn Swallow
Bay Breasted Warbler
Belted Kingfisher
Black And White Warbler
Black Bellied Plover
Blackburnian Warbler
Black Catbird
Black Crowned Night Heron
Black Neck Stilt
Black Throated Green Warbler
Blue Grosbeak
Blue Winged Warbler
Boat Billed Heron
Brown Booby
Brown Pelican
Canada Warbler
Caspian Tern
Cattle Egret
Cedar Waxwing
Chestnut -Sided Warbler
Cliff Swallow
Common Grackle
Common Nighthawk
Common Yellow Throat
Dickcissel
Double Crested Cormorant
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Wood Pewee
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Great Tailed Grackle
Green Breasted Mango
Green Heron
Grey Catbird
Groove Billed Ani
Hooded Warbler
Indigo Bunting
Kentucky Warbler
Killdeer
Least Flycatcher
Lesser Greenlet
Lesser Nighthawk
Little Blue Heron
Magnificent Frigatebird
Magnificent Hummingbird
Magnolia Warbler
Mangrove Swallow
Mangrove Warbler
Northern Perula
Northern Rough-Winged Swallow
Northern Waterthrush
Olivaceous Cormorant
Orchard Oriole
Osprey
Ovenbird
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler
Pectoral Sandpiper
Peregrine Falcon
Prairie Warbler
Rothonotary Warbler
Ringed Kingfisher
Rose Breasted Grosbeak
Royal Tern
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Sandwich Tern
Scarlet Tanager
Snowy Egret
Solitary Vireo
Spotted Sandpiper
Summer Tanager
Swainson’s Warbler
Tri-Colored Heron
Tropical Mockingbird
Veery
Virginia’s Warbler
White Crowned Pigeon
White Fronted Pidgeon
Willet
Wilson’s Warbler
Worm-Eating Warbler
Yellow Bellied Elenia
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
Yellow Billed Cuckoo
Yellow Crowned Night Heron
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Yellow Throated Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yucatan Vireo

Ospreys are one of the most widespread raptors in our hemisphere, and can be found almost anywhere there is water. Belize is no exception, and hosts a healthy population of this majestic predator, often called the Fish Eagle.

On Long Caye we have several nesting pairs of Ospreys which we observe every day fishing, fighting off competitors, and guarding their nests as they raise their young. Ospreys are particulary agressive while they have chicks in the nest, and are often seen warding off innocent birds such as pelicans, herons, and other large birds in addition to their enemies the Frigate birds and other competing ospreys. A near constant battle in the skies above the island takes place every day.

The island Ospreys also enjoy bountiful fishing around our island, and one can easily watch them as they constantly stalk and catch fish. Watch this amazing short film of Ospreys fishing, it has a particluarly good section in slow motion of how these birds grab their prey underwater.

This is how we exit our kayaks to go snorkeling. It’s one of the first things we teach you after you arrive on Adventure Island.

Within the travel business, Trip Advisor, the travel recommendation site, is widely considered the most significant of the bunch. Travelers trust the user rankings and reviews for their honesty and integrity.  After many years on Trip Advisor, we are proud to announce that today we became ranked as the number one resort on Glover’s Reef.

Below is a recent review one of our guests wrote after returning from a week on our island:

“Best Family Vacation Ever”
Reviewed April 3, 2012
We just returned from the 9 day vacation at Glover’s Reef on Slickrock’s private island. My husband and I travelled with our two sons, ages 10 and 13. To put it simply the week was magical! All four of us had a phenomenal time. Our guide, Marc, took excellent care of us the entire time. We got to enjoy a variety of activities and we all learned something new. The evening lectures were both kid and adult friendly. The food was delicious. The beachfront cabanas, more than we imagined. Even the composting toilets, that scared me a bit at first, were clean and functioned great (no smell, incredible!). We highly recommend this trip to any active family that enjoys the great outdoors. It doesn’t get any better!

When Prince Harry visited Belize as part of Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee tour, Belizeans greeted him with open arms, and the warm hospitality paid off because in this interview he declares that he will definitely return on vacation soon.

There was something so very different
so far from my ken, my experience
sharing a tropical sunrise with her
with my beautiful wife, alone on the beach
Waking before the dawn, sitting together
watching the sliver of light rise
and consume the dark
warm breezes off the easterly shore, sunlight
wafting across us, moving inland
to wake the island
– poem by Raymond A. Foss (2008)
Photo: sunrise from the beach behind the surf dock