Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

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.

Today I am the guest blogger on tacogirl.com, one of the #1 Belize blogs! I have to say I am a little bit excited about it.

The article is about our first run of the Caves Branch River in Belize. We ran the Caves Branch practically before anybody did. It was a very exciting run since we didn’t know what was coming next!

To read about this historic run, visit the full Belize article on her site.

Our Adventure Island package is all-inclusive, meaning that from the time you step out of your taxi at the Biltmore Hotel until we return you to the hotel a week later, everything is provided — with one exception: liquor. We have a refrigerator in which we provide as much beer as a guest might want, but due to the limited amount of electricity available from our solar arrays and wind turbine, we don’t provide ice and therefore, we don’t have a bar.

But the night before departing for the island, before dinner and after the orientation with your guide, guests stop off at a store in Belize City, where individuals can make last minute purchases of items they may have forgot to bring and their own personal stash of liquor, if they choose. And one of the perennial favorites is a local Belizian drink called 1 Barrel Rum.

Here’s what Men’s Journal had to say about it: “The uncommon rum worth seeking out is Travellers 1 Barrel. Made at a small distillery in Belize, it boasts a memorable flavor that’s slightly sweet, slightly nutty, with something unexpected hidden in the lower layers. Tobacco? Coffee? Maybe it’s the suggestion of those flavors, but 1 Barrel is ideal served up with dessert.”

And for guests who visited the island and developed a taste for it, the good news is that 1 Barrel is available in the good ‘ol USA.

One of the most unique and wonderful aspects of our location out on Glover’s Reef is the pristine quality of the 900 patch reefs within the protection of the Glover’s ring reef. Healthy Reefs, an international, multi-institutional effort that tracks the health of the Meso-American Reef, was recently working off the coast of Belize and recorded this great video about the health of the reefs in Belize.

We just searched for flights to Belize from 26 US and Canadian cities and found that many fares dropped since last week. The current rates are below $500 from Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. If you fly from one of these cities, check the rates now!

We checked for rates arriving in Belize March 2 and departing March 11. This is getting into Spring Break time, so I was surprised to find such good deals. These dates correspond with our Belize Adventure Island package.

To view the complete list of updates Belize flight deals, visit our website.