Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

Belize City has a bad reputation, are travelers to believe all that they hear?

We have been living in Belize City on and off since 1990, and we have owned a house there for years. There are parts of the city you should never go at night, and there are parts of the city you should never go to, period. But the casual tourist would probably never end up in those places anyway, so you shouldn’t worry about that. You should simply take cabs at night, and during the day when you are walking around, be prepared to be approached by someone wanting something from you. The obnoxious Belizeans who pester tourists are in the minority, say less than 1% of the population, but if you are a green tourist, it can seem like everyone wants something from you. For the most part, Belizeans avoid all conflict, so the regular, nice people are just going to walk on by while someone is bothering you. You have to stick up for yourself, the other citizens are not going to come to your defense, that’s not their nature.

The system we developed from years of experience is to ignore those pestering you as much as possible. If they persist, just say, “Thanks, I’m all set.” They are rarely dangerous, but once you acknowledge them, they’re hard to get rid of. What they want is to give you advice on where to eat or something like that, and then ask for a tip for the advice. We have also seen scammers pretend to know you and ask to borrow $20 to pay back later (claiming they work at your hotel, and they recognize you). Others have a sign-up sheet fabricated to look like it is from a local school, asking for sponsors for a sports team. They likely pocket this money. Those are the common tactics; don’t get into any conversation at all with people like this, they will drive you crazy.

We have found taxi drivers to be safe to ride with, in fact the only problem we have ever had is over-charging. We have heard concerns from prospective guests quoting paranoid websites that claim cab drivers in Belize City are unsafe and will hurt you, but we don’t believe this. They simply want to take you where you re going, get paid, and get you out of the cab so they can go find someone else to drive around. Just always settle the price before getting in (make clear it is per cab, not per person, and determine whether they are talking US or Belize dollars.)

Although violent crime is common in Belize, it is almost always between people who know each other: spurned lovers and drug deals gone bad. Rarely tourists are involved. If you put your wallet down, it won’t be there long, but it is rare for someone to grab your purse off of your body.

The bottom line is to avoid Belize City as much as you can. It’s an icky place, don’t spend extra time there. You usually can’t avoid it entirely because you often need to stay there the night you arrive and the night before you depart, so when you have to do that, stay at a good hotel (the Biltmore, the Princess, the Radisson-Ft. George, or The Great House), take cabs to dinner, and don’t walk around at night. The rest of the country is great, the people are wonderful (as are the Belize City-ites you may never get to meet) and you will have a fantastic time.

For more information on Belize, Belize visit our website.

The Macal River, which we run a section of on our Belize Adventure Week trip, has a long history as part of Slickrock’s past trips and itineraries. Slickrock’s founder Cully Erdman led a team on the first complete kayak descent of the river’s stunning canyon around 1990, with only 2-3 portages around the bigger Class VI drops. An earlier expedition had traveled down the gorge with inflatable kayaks, but it took them 3 days because they had to portage virtually every rapid. From this experience, Slickrock began the first raft runs down the second half of the gorge, then recently made accessible by a road down to a new hydro plant which also dried up the river above that point. The run was incorporated into Slickrock’s new Adventure Week trip in the early 90’s.

The new hydro-electric project, which has now added a second power plant, incorporates a large holding reservoir in the upper reaches of the drainage which then release water according to a schedule for electricity production. The water is funneled through a tunnel that contours along an elevation while the river bed falls through the gorge, then the water is dropped back into the canyon at the hydro plant where the stored pressure creates the necessary conditions for power production. To us river runners, this has been a travesty as we have lost a long section of whitewater. The environment has also suffered, as the holding reservoir has flooded a large area of pristine rainforest, including a rare nesting area for the Scarlet Macaw. A long battle against the developers was lost in creating this project. Now, a second diversion and power plant has been completed (just last year) which has dried up the section of river we used to run with our rafts and kayaks for Adventure Week.

The Macal trip was Class IV-V whitewater and a very technical, low volume river run with several portages. We flipped rafts nearly every run while threading through tight rapids, steep chutes, and several waterfalls. But the run was made safe because it is a ‘drop-pool’ river, which means every big rapid ended up in a quiet pool of water where we could collect and regroup all the rafts. Scouting was necessary at many rapids, and we employed safety kayakers on every trip. It was certainly a high adventure trip!

However, the Belize Electricity Board began a new water release program a few years after we began our trips, where they started releasing water only at nights for power production during peak usage times. So, we ended up being able to run the river only during rainy periods when enough overflow and input from other tributaries provided enough water. We were only able to run the river about half the time after that. So after a couple of years struggling with the erratic flows, we quit running that stretch of river and went to the Mopan River in kayaks. This year, we have moved back to the Macal and are running an easy stretch below the second, new power plant.

Are you looking for a cheap ticket to Belize? Belize flight fares dropped this week in 10 out of 25 cities that we monitor weekly. Fares dropped to Belize from Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Montreal, NYC, and Washington, DC!

Our Flying to Belize page has information on all of the various options and our Belize Flights page has the updated rates.

All guests love thatched-roofed cabanas at Belize beach resorts, but few people realize the effort it takes to build and maintain beach cottages on a remote island. We have built our cabanas with a simple design to avoid big losses should we lose a few to the waves and wind during hurricane season, but the biggest enemy to our structures is rust. The nails in all our buildings rust through in a short time, probably 10 years, right through into the wood. When we tear buildings down or do maintenance, sometimes the nails are as thin as wire (even though we always use galvanized nails of course). This makes for constant upkeep and maintenance, season after season.

To begin, we have to transport all the lumber by boat to the island, which costs us more than the wood itself. Every board, nail, tool, and worker must be transported the 3-hour ride from the mainland. Then, we have to house a crew of builders for months at a time, provide tools, generators, gas, food, and kitchen crew for the builders. It is huge and expensive undertaking.

The thatch roofs give the cabins a true tropical atmosphere, and everyone loves spending time under these coverings, which are completely waterproof. However, we have to bring the thatch in from the jungles of the mainland, we can’t use the local coconut palm thatch because it is not durable. We use Cahune Palm leaf, which last about 4 years. So someone has to go into the jungle and cut the leaf. Then the leaf must be collected and dragged to a roadway. Then the leaves are picked up and hauled to the sea, many trips! Finally the leaf is loaded onto the boat and brought out to the island and unloaded.

After transporting the thatch, we then have to have a crew of 8-10 to install it. Each person positions himself on the roof, one man per rafter, and as the thatch is passed up, they bundle it 8 leafs thick, then tie it off to the pole with a ‘running’ knot from a long cord that will tie off each course all the way to the peak of the roof. The local Mayans we employ know this craft very well, as most of them live in thatch roofed building themselves. You can observe their expert work from inside our buildings, where the rows of thatch create beautiful patterns.

Every year in October I drive down all of the new gear in times for a pre-season building extravaganza. We usually build a new building or two, and re-thatch four or five of our twenty-something roofs. We do this during the rainy season, so we are often held up for days at a time by weather. But there’s no rationale to do it during the dry season, which is BEFORE hurricane season, you might re-thatch several buildings, only to have the roofs fly off before anyone gets to stay in the cabana with the new roof!

This year we built the new Vela kiteschool cabin, we completely remodeled the Iguanaville cabana, we built the new women’s urinal, and rethatched 3 cabanas! We are already discussing what we plan to do next fall.

I get this question a lot and I have a standard answer: at the end of the week you will probably fall to the sand and grab me around the ankles and beg to stay. This is the best island you have EVER seen. NO TIME is enough time on Long Caye. Ask Steever Price, who is joining us this season for his 14th trip! Rich Lawson hasn’t missed a winter on the island since his first trip in April of 2006!

There is no end of cool stuff to do. Sure we have guided tours to go sea kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, kitesurfing, windsurfing, kayak surfing, sport fishing, kayak fishing, paddleboarding, and board surfing (not to mention hammock surfing.) But there’s more. Here’s an incomplete list of island activities we pull out of our hats when looking to for other stuff to do:

-Paddling to the other islands in the atoll (from 2.5 miles to 6 miles away)
-Birdwatching with Mario (in April when birds are migrating north we often see 40 different species in a week!)
-Snorkeling to ‘the Wall’ dive site just 100 yards off the island shore
-Paddling north along the reef to snorkel from the kayaks (or just to see the north part of the reef)
-Kiteboard training
-Paddling to the ‘new island’ forming 4 miles north of NE Caye
-Snorkel (swim) all the way to Middle Caye
-Kayak slalom races
-King of the I-Dock (conquering our inflatable dock)
-Night snorkeling
-Free diving
-All About Coconuts, by MJ
-Snorkeling around the island
-Volleyball
-Hermit crab races
-Advanced kayak instruction to cover rolling and other kinds of rescues
-Island croquet
-Downwind kayak float while snorkeling, then paddle back
-Mafia!
-Advanced scuba diving lessons
-Snorkeling outside the reef in much deeper water north of NE Caye if it’s calm
-Moonlight paddling
-Reef low tide walks
-Reading from the library; we have over 100 titles about Belize and the surrounding area
-Coconut Olympics
-Star gazing
-Costume parties
-Paddling to patch reefs to snorkel from the kayaks

So will you get bored on our Belize sports center? Not a chance.

Last week was another windy week on our Belize island, and the wind sports were in full swing with kites and windsurfing action adding to the paddle and surfing events.

We were able to sail to the neighboring islands and even got some kite action in the surf. Check out some of these shots from Victor’s GoPro camera; he sent these shots as soon as he got off the island.

In addition to these big wind days, we always have enough wind for our beginner sessions, and we see sailors on the water everyday getting instruction from our guides.

We hope you will decide to join us someday soon on one of our outdoor vacations before all of our trips are full… March is filling up!

You can check availability on our website: http://www.slickrock.com/belizetravelavailability.html

Meg has been sending several reports while she is taking some much needed R&R.

It was a busy Christmas and New Year period on the kiting front with plenty of students leaving as happy new kitesurfers. The easterly trade winds allow for perfect conditions and the sand flats provide the ideal environment with no obstacles and miles of shallow water to master kite flying and board start skills. As one student commented, “everything was perfect…all in all it was an incredible trip and kiting was my favourite part” (Mickey Syrquin, Dallas).

We’ve also had fantastic surf and some awesome paddle board and surf kayak sessions in beautiful clean waves at the sweet right-hander just 200 ft off the island. The volleyball matches have been in full swing with the local staff and guests playing every evening at sunset. We of course did a bit of celebrating…costume party on Christmas Eve, everyone got involved and we had a fun afternoon making costumes for both kids and adults…everyone got creative, we even built ourselves a Christmas tree from palm leaves. There were also a few evenings on the Vela deck and around our fab new table under incredible stars. It has been a great holiday period in the sun.

We sure are getting a lot of calls from Canada lately, and we just found out why. Slickrock stars in a feature article in Westworld Alberta magazine called “Sun, Scenery, and Serenity“.

“While many private islands make a lot of noise about forgetting the outside world, this one means it. The Robinson-Crusoe-style haven promises to go easy on the environment, with just 15 rustic cabanas, composting toilets, solar-powered water pumps and no AC (who needs it, when you’ve got cool Caribbean breezes?), while offering guests the opportunity to learn windsurfing, kayaking, stand-up paddling, surfing and scuba – just a few of the activities on the menu. Of course, on this adrenalin-pumped getaway there’s also the prospect of indulging in some good old hammock time.”

Meg Griffiths, our Belize kitesurf instructor sent us a description of her recent busy weeks on the island.

When a kiter imagines their ideal, fantasy kite location they undoubtedly think warm, clear water, 15 knots, white sand, palm trees and good beer. Add to that 3km of waist deep sand flats, an isolated dream island with both surf and flat water, plus the occasional giant spotted eagle ray meandering by and you get Long Caye at Glover’s Reef, the best kitesurfing in Belize.

The easterly trade winds consistently provide perfect conditions, and a great wind angle for the surf break and flat water spots alike. The sand flats less than 300m from the island provide a perfect teaching environment where we launch from a raft in waist deep water. Shallow, warm water, no other kiters and no obstacles to worry about; students progress quickly with almost 100 % of their kite course being hands on in the water and leave as extremely happy new kitersurfers.

Long Caye is also a fantastic freestyle venue, I compete on the British freestyle tour when I’m in the UK and spend my winters training new tricks, this is the perfect place, where else could I find a huge, shallow flat water area, and have it almost all to myself on my days off? Whether you are a beginner, a wave rider, just want a big kite flying experience or wish to learn unhooked tricks Long Caye is the place. Once you’re ‘kited out’ there is incredible diving just 100m off the island where the atoll drops off to……ft, paddle boards, surf kayaks, surf boards, windsurf equipment, sea kayaks and enough patch reefs to satisfy even the most enthusiastic snorkeler, and of course, some very well positioned hammocks. The team on the island are fantastic and laughs are plentiful, sunsets are stunning, the food is awesome and stars are insane….I’m a very lucky kitesurf instructor!

Last week we woke up the day after Christmas (Also my 29th birthday) to find a turtle nest had hatched. The weather was poor and we were planning a low tide walk in the pools out of the wind on the backside of our island anyway. It turned out to be the sweetest low tide walk ever. We found about 15-20 Turtles and walked them out across the tide pools and out beyond the breaking waves. Great Christmas/ Birthday present for everyone.