Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

Belize snorkeling video filmed at The Aquarium, near Long Caye at Glover’s Reef, Belize.

If you’re heading to Belize to snorkel or scuba dive, and if you already own an iPhone, you might want to consider this inexpensive alternative to buying an underwater camera. The article on CNet, reviews the TAT7, an underwater case for the iphone 4 or 4s. “It’s a $90 case that its makers say will let you use your iPhone 4/4S (running iOS 5) to take photos and video at depths of up to 100 feet.”

Belize was once again chosen as an international first pick, this time topping the list of perfect destinations for diving and snorkeling. On March 24th, 2012, ‘The National’, one of the few English newspapers based in the United Arab Emirates, with a circulation of over 40,000 and supporting 200 staff writers posted across the globe, nominated Belize as the second-best snorkeling location in the world.

According to the newspaper, “The Hol Chan Marine Reserve is perfect for a day trip for snorkeling at the reef while observing a wide variety of fish including jacks, snappers and barracudas. You can spot turtles gliding, dolphins playing nearby and manatees swimming and congregating in the grassy sea beds.”

This rating is now being added to a list of accolades Belize has received for snorkeling and diving. “This has been a really great year for us, because this top 10 nomination for snorkeling comes on the heels of our beaches being ranked 7th, 8th, and 9th in Central America by Trip Advisor, the world’s largest internet travel website,” said Yanick Dalhouse, Director of Marketing and Industry Relations for the Belize Tourism Board. “These awards are absolutely fantastic and only validate what Belizeans have been raving about for years.”

Glover’s Reef is famous for its pristine coral reef environment, which means snorkeling at our Long Caye island resort affords our guests easy access to some of the worlds most amazing marine life. The photo below is quite typical of what our guests might see while diving in our lagoon, especially if they’ve been quenching their thirst with a few of the local Belikin beers.

Last week we served lionfish on our Belize island. Our island is in a Marine Reserve, and fishing is prohibited by guests except for catch-and-release sportfishing. But lionfish are the exception. Lionfish are a Pacific fish and only recently got introduced to the Caribbean. They have no predators are are voracious eaters. They are a problem. We have blogged about this before: http://belizeadventure.com/2011/07/lionfish-an-invasive-species-in-belize/

We are doing our part, and dang it was tasty!

Lionfish for breakfast!

Just off the island for a few days and I have something I have been looking forward to writing about!

Darin Laird and his wife Mary just joined us for their second Glover’s Reef trip last week, and I am so glad I was on the island with them. Darin brought out a super nice telescope and it enhanced an already great week. For any astronomy buff who is thinking of joining us on our private island in Belize, you might want to do the same!

Darin was into astronomy when he was a kid; his parents bought him a telescope when he was young. In the year 2000 he finally had enough money to purchase a good scope (he used his entire tax return). He was living in Austin, Texas at the time, and he joined the local astronomy club. He reports that’s when he really started learning about the different objects of the sky, not just the planets, but also nebulae, galaxies, stars, and star clusters.

He moved to Pittsburg (where they still live) the next year and kept up with his astronomy a few years more, but then he pretty much quit in 2003. Live took over, I guess. Seven years later he and Mary came out to Glover’s Reef with us; they were there for the New Years trip in 2010. He told me that one night he woke up to go to the bathroom and voila! he looked out off of his cabana porch and saw the Southern Cross for the first time! He was blown away!

He thought “I wish I had a telescope here.” So when he got home be purchased a really nice telescope that he could travel with. He bought a Tele-vue 85, which is an 85 mm scope. And he started counting the days until he could return to Glover’s Reef to look at the sky.

He thought a lot about how to travel with a scope. He decided he would only carry it on, as it is so expensive he didn’t want to risk theft or damage. So the scope has to fit into carry-on size luggage. He does check his tripod and his mount. But the scope and eyepieces all fit in his special carry-on case. He knew that theft wasn’t a problem with theft on the island as he had been here before.

He also has an 8 inch Dobsonian and a 5 inch Mac-Newtonian scope, but he leaves them at home because they are too bulky.

He says that our Limiting Magnitude is about 6 on the island. He explained that the Limiting Magnitude is how dense of a star you can see with the naked eye. He says a Limiting Magnitude of 6 is about as dark as you can get.

When he got here last week, everyone on the trip was very interested in his telescope. His trip leader, Charlie Woodward, told him that no one had ever brought a telescope on one of our trips to his knowledge, and I agree. We looked at Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. We also got to see all of the deep sky objects near the Southern Cross.

Darin says there were two highlights for him, astronomy-wise, about his trip this year: the Eta Carinae nebula and the Omega Centauri globular cluster. This is the first time he has gotten to see these objects because you have to be far south, with a dark sky, to see them. At Glover’s Reef we are at 17 degrees North, and quite a bit of the southern sky is available.

Another highlight was Mars, which is currently in opposition, so it was a bright and as big as it is going to be this year. Also, we had a new moon for his trip, so the stars were not washed out. He also thought that the Orion nebula was absolutely gorgeous. He said it was the best he has ever seen it since our sky was so dark.

He looked at the two galaxies in the Big Dipper, M81 and M82. He could see them together in one eyepiece. He looks at these often near Pittsburg, but he said that our dark sky made them stand out more than he has ever seen them.

Every once in a while a guest of ours shows up with something to teach us, instead of it being always the other way around. Thanks Darin for making last weeks’ trip so much better! [photos by Larry Staples]

Long Caye Wall is one of our most spectacular snorkel and scuba diving sites, easily accessed from Adventure Island on Long Caye at Glover’s Reef, Belize. A short swim from shore brings you to the edge of the atoll where the sea floor drops away from 40 feet to 3,000 feet in less than a mile. Jacques Cousteau claimed this was one of his top 10 favorite dive sites in the world!

This was the personal highlight for me during my week on the island, “flying” above at the surface looking down on a spotted eagle ray as it “flew” above the seabed 20 feet below me.

Actor Ted Danson, (Cheers, Becker, Curb Your Enthusiasm) posted an informative article on the Huffington Post today detailing the struggle in Belize to save the Belize Barrier Reef (and offshore atolls like Glover’s Reef) from the potential dangers imposed by offshore drilling. Danson writes:

In Belize, thousands of citizens are in an uproar about the government’s determination to drill for offshore oil. The government, represented by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, was just narrowly re-elected – but despite a clear message from the people, it continues to ignore the significant outcry against offshore drilling.

A petition calling for a national referendum on the question collected 20,000 signatures, a full 10% of the voting population and a larger sampling than the law requires in order to trigger a vote. But the government disqualified 8,000 of the signatures and has continued to refuse to budge from its pro-offshore drilling stance. Danson concludes his piece by calling upon citizens everywhere to become involved:

The love and concern for Belize’s reef reaches far beyond the country lines. There are countless people from all over the world who have developed a special connection to this breathtaking country after swimming in its lovely waters or diving in its reef – all thanks to its pristine natural resources. We all hope the government, which loves Belize’s barrier reef like we do, will hear the concerns of the people in Belize and around the world and ban offshore oil drilling in Belize’s waters to help protect its barrier reef and its natural heritage.