Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

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.

Here’s a quick clip from one of our guests of lunch on the island.

There wasn’t much information in the brochure about nighttime on the island. They said to bring a headlamp, but didn’t mention that you hardly ever need it — I only used it on the rare, velvety-dark, moonless nights.  In fact, if I recall correctly, in all those pages of web and print content, Slickrock never once mentioned the moonlight on the island!

So imagine my surprise one night upon first undertaking the trek to the “facilities” in the middle of the night, and discovering a wonderland completely unhinted at during the day.

Moonlight dusted the island.  Not as bright as day, of course, but bright!  And the moon was only half-full that night.  Silver light reflected off the white, packed-sand public areas, and I could see everything.  I could see the palapas, the dock, and the surf break in the distance.  But most hypnotizingly, I could see the shadows of the coconut palms.  Straight trunks, curving fronds nodding in the breeze, shadows moving like a cat’s tail caressing the sand.  The floor looked like a living silhouette, like a puppet shadow play in the tropical style; palm trunks regularly spaced, curved fronds connecting them, creating dark pathways across the sand.  And not a (human) soul in sight.

That night, and many nights, I didn’t need that headlamp at all.  I could see everything as I explored by moonlight.  I could see hermit crabs slamming their shells down around themselves when they spotted me, and blue land crabs frantically sprinting back to their burrows with a nervous clacketing when THEY spotted me.  I could see Papillon, the island’s enigmatic black bunny, come hopping up to me, hop in a circle around me, stop, hop in a circle around me the other direction, and hop away.  Wait, did something special just happen?

It’s an atmosphere you need only your eyes and your heart to observe.  It purrs, “Don’t go back to bed yet.”

So you wander off toward the middle of the coconut palm orchard, between the “facilities” and the sea kayak palapa.  Halfway there you realize — “Wow, this is exciting!  What if I were a spy, sneaking up on the dining palapa?  Could I make it?”  And the urge to slip invisibly from tree shadow to tree shadow becomes overwhelming.  Sneak, sneak, a kid again in the moonlight.  Don’t let them see you!

Or maybe this is a night for just walking around awhile, absorbing, trying to record and remember how the moonlight feels.

So much of the island is not really about the island, but about how it makes you feel.  For a week, it’s your island, your moonlight, your black bunny.  Explore it!  After all, everybody else went to bed right after dinner, right?  ;-)

Only the moon is watching.

-Susan B., a recent guest in January of 2012

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!

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.

Want to visit Belize and do it all? Our Belize Adventure Week trip spends half of the week in the jungle for whitewater kayaking on the Mopan River, underground rafting and kayaking on the Caves Branch river, caving in Che Chem Ha Mayan pottery cave, and an exploration of Tikal Mayan ruins in nearby Guatemala, the premier ruin in the region. Then the group goes out to our private island for sea kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, kitesurfing, windsurfing, kayak surfing, sport fishing, kayak fishing, paddleboarding, and board surfing. You won’t find another itinerary with this much going on in one week anywhere in the Caribbean! AND we just put 2 dates on sale!

Or, maybe you want to go to Belize REALLY bad, but you only have a few days? Our Adventure Island at Glover’s Reef Second Half trip, only 5 days, is also on sale in late February.

Why don’t you join us?

February 11 – 18, 2012
February 25 – March 3, 2012
Belize Adventure Week, Sat – Sat, 8 nights
10% off, $2155.50 US pp ($2395 regular rate)
http://www.slickrock.com/belizeadventureweek.html

February 28 – March 3, 2012
Adventure Island at Glover’s Reef Second Half, Tue – Sat, 5 nights
15% off, $1100.75 US pp ($1295 regular rate)
http://www.slickrock.com/adventureisland.html

Parrot-Nest grounds

Occasionally I exchange emails with Marcus, the owner of The Parrot Nest in Bullet Tree Falls, Belize. The Parrot Nest is a great, low-cost alternative to the more expensive lodges in Western Belize (called Cayo). Recently Marcus notified me that he has a new aggregated Belize blog; he collects other blog posts about Western Belize and posts them on this collection page. If you are thinking of traveling to San Ignacio, this is a great resource.

Recent articles posted on his blog included a photo tour of San Ignacio via public bus, a plea for financial assistance form the Cayo Outdoor Theatre, a San Ignacio restaurant review, and an article about 36 weddings that are planned for December 21, 2012 (the end of the Mayan calendar) at Cahal Pech Mayan ruin!

His aggregated blog is called the Cayo Scoop! Best of Cayo’s Online Magazine.

Belize was recently named one of the Top Budget Travel Destinations for 2012 by budgettravel.com.

“Belize tends to be overshadowed by its neighbors: Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica, which in 2010 saw twice the visitor arrivals that Belize did. Yet this English-speaking nation has plenty to recommend it, including a bounty of exotic birds, stunning Mayan ruins, and the world’s second-largest barrier reef. On top of all that, Belize is also one of the region’s biggest bargains.”

Meg Griffiths was out on the island our first week of the season teaching wind-sports. She sent us a report via Belize City!

Waves, windy days, calm days and glorious sunshine; we couldn’t have asked for a better first week on the island, and the Thanksgiving celebrations were pretty fun too…

Everyone got involved in the surf kayaking as the waves built over the first half of the week. 6ft faces on the inside for the guides to show off their awesome paddleboard skills and little waves on the outside for the beginner surf kayakers. The water is super warm, not a wetsuit in sight, boardies all round.

The wind gave us a three perfect kiting days. Our trainer kite sessions with our 2m kite were great fun, everyone got involved. Two of the guys loved it so much they went straight on to a ‘big’ kite lesson; this is the first stage of learning to kiteboard. We head out on our teaching raft to the pristine and incredibly perfect ‘sand flats’ and the students learn to fly a full size kitesurf kite, they get pulled around, learn to get lift and of course how to stop! Davis Farrar of Carbondale, CO said: “It was exhilarating to get the kite in the air and feel the power of the wind as I learned to use the kite to pull me through the water, it was great fun; I highly recommend it.”

The windsurfers also got out for some ‘ripping’ sessions on 5 and 6m sails. We have a wide variety of equipment from beginner to expert. Our calm lagoon provides a perfect haven for the newbies while the regular windsurfers were out in deeper water screaming along reaches well over a mile long. I got a couple of great sessions in the strong winds then when the wind dropped to 9m kite weather I hopped on my kite board and demo-ed a few aerial tricks, landed some on my feet others ended in a big splash…so much fun.

Just when we were thinking a nice easy snorkel over the wall would be popular the wind cooperated completely and gave us a completely calm windless day and perfect visibility to check out the ‘wall’ 30ft below, grouper, lobster, lion fish, small sharks and even a turtle.
Turkey and the works was served up for Thanksgiving dinner after cocktails on the surf dock.
Long Caye life…its so great.

(All photos by Bryony Swan.)

When you sign up for one of our Belize trips, you will receive a “What to Bring” list in the mail. You might think all you need is a couple of t-shirts, your swimsuit, and a toothbrush, but there are a few other things you will need to fully take advantage of our adventure sport program. You can request the full Belize packing list from us by email, but in a nutshell the other items include a dive skin, booties, mask, fins, snorkel, and flashlight. In addition to this, you still need your t-shirts, shorts, raingear, and toothbrush, plus a few other items.

So it IS possible to do it using only carry-on luggage, but in my opinion it is not worth it.

The Belize airport is small, you get your luggage quickly, and at best you will get to your initial Belize destination about 15 minutes faster by doing carry-on only.

And what do you sacrifice? If have seen people leave their fins at home, or buy these horrible tiny fins just to avoid checking luggage. I don’t get it. You go to one of the top snorkeling destinations in the entire world, and you don’t bring your fins, just to save 15 minutes?

That’s nuts!

To see our full Belize packing list, shoot me an email and I’ll send it to you: slickrock@slickrock.com.

Here’s a list of airline carry on luggage rules. Belize airlines are Continental, American, Delta, and US Airways.