Belize Blog – Belizeadventure.com

Our island is located off the coast of Belize at Glover’s Reef Atoll, a National Marine Reserve. In order to protect the marine life there, the Belize government has prohibited fishing at Glover’s reef for tourists except for sport fishing, or catch-and-release. The only exception is if you are a native and own one of the few fishing licenses issued for Glover’s Reef.

There is one other exception: lionfish — anyone can spear them because they are an invasive species from the Pacific Ocean (the Caribbean is an Atlantic sea). Lionfish are very detrimental to the native species population, and killing them is encouraged. Watch this short video of our guide, Victor Myers, spearing one.

The lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific region, have infiltrated their way into the Caribbean. Their introduction is believed to be a result of hurricanes and tank releases during the early 1990’s. They have been spotted along the eastern seaboard spanning as far north as Rhode Island to as far south as Columbia. Protected by venomous spines, lionfish are voracious predators. When hunting, they herd and corner their prey using their pectoral fins, then quickly strike and swallow their prey whole. With few known natural predators, the lionfish poses a major threat to coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean region by decreasing survival of a wide range of native reef animals via both predation and competition. While native grouper may prey on lionfish, they have been overfished and therefore unlikely to significantly reduce the effects of invasive lionfish on coral reef communities.

Help us do something about this problem! Bring your spear gun with you on one of our island trips!

 

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.

The World of the Maya, meaning Belize, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras, made CNN’s list of the World’s Top Destinations for 2012 the network announced Tuesday. CNN’s editors relied on recommendations from four travel experts: Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet; Martin Rapp, senior vice president of leisure sales at Altour; Anne Banas, executive editor at SmarterTravel; and Jeanenne Tornatore, senior editor for Orbitz.com.

The Mayan region was second in the list behind England and beat out Myanmar, Chicago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, The Netherlands, Atlantic Canada, Uruguay, and Orlando in the top nine.

“Some see it as an approaching apocalypse, others as the beginning of a new era. Whatever your beliefs are about December 21, 2012, interest is skyrocketing in the Maya, the ancient civilization known for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America.

The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, and there will be events on the occasion in Belize, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras, Banas said.

If you want to see incredible ruins, Reid recommended skipping the tourist hordes at Tulum and Chichen Itza in Mexico and instead head to places such as Tikal, Guatemala (which George Lucas used as a location in the original “Star Wars”), and Chiapas, Mexico.

Reid was once exploring a site near Comitan, Mexico, and said he was astonished to discover he was the only person there.

“I had a pyramid to myself,” Reid said. “You’re just looking out over this mountainous valley, and you have the complete Mayan site to yourself. It’s an unreal travel experience.”

Join us on Belize Adventure Week in 2012. We visit a Mayan ruin, two Mayan ceremonial caves, as well as run rivers, and kayak and surf on our island 35 miles off the Belize coast.

One of the greatest things about travel abroad is being introduced to new foods and beverages. On the island, that includes a fridge full of Belikin beer, the leading domestically produced beer brand in Belize. The most common Belikin is a light lager beer. A premium lager and a stout beer are also brewed and sold under the Belikin name.

Belikin is brewed by the Belize Brewing Company, Ltd. which is owned by the Bowen family. The Belikin beer brand name was first marketed (according to differing sources) in the late 1960s or in 1971. Its tagline is “The Only Beer worth drinking”.

The name “Belikin” comes from the Maya language and means “Road to the East”. This is a term which some have suggested is the origin of the name of “Belize” (although the most accepted derivation says the name comes from the Belize River, meaning “muddy”). The Belikin label features a drawing of a Pre-Columbian Maya temple-pyramid at Altun Ha.

The brewery is based in Ladyville, Belize District.

Belikin currently exports its Beer and Premium to a distributor in Los Angeles, California. The distributor ships to select high end alcohol stores across the United States.

Being an admitted anglophile, I just had to share my excitement upon learning the news that one of the royals, Prince Harry, will be visiting Belize! Twice while working in Belize I’ve had the pleasure of seeing British royalty visit. Once I was shopping for one of our tours when Princess Anne and her entourage drove by, and another time, Queen Elizabeth stood just 10 feet away from me!

None of my friends can figure out why I care about this stuff, and I can’t explain it either. One of my best friends is from London, and she thinks I’m crazy.

Anyway, I am happy to share with you all the latest scoop on the royal family’s travel plans from British tabloid The National Ledger:

Prince William and Kate Middleton are set to bring the small island of Tuvalu to a standstill when they mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee next year.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge cause a stir wherever they go, and can expect a special reception when they visit the South Pacific island, which has not had a big royal visit in decades.

The couple will also go to Malaysia, Singapore, and the Solomon Islands on behalf of the Queen.

Prince Harry is set to tour Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, while Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will visit Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

The Queen turns 86 in April and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will be 91 next year.

Both will be traveling in the UK for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The details and timings of the visits are still under discussion with the host governments.”

I wonder if Harry would consider coming in March or April? That’s when I will be there!

I always hear about those great deals to Cancun, and I just found one of them. This deal includes air to Cancun and 3 nights at a fancy hotel on the Mayan Riviera for $499 per person. You have to book by this Friday, and travel between Jan 11 and 25.

Visit cheapcaribbean.com to see this deal.

Once in Cancun you can take the Cancun-Belize express bus and join one of our private island all-inclusive packages, including one that is on sale!

Jan 13 – 21
Adventure Island at Glover’s Reef Full Week, Fri – Sat (departing Sunday) 9 nights, $2075 US. Package includes 1 night in Belize City before the trip, 1 night in Belize City after the trip, and 7 nights on the island for sea kayaking, scuba diving, snorkeling, kitesurfing, windsurfing, surf kayaking, board surfing and fishing.

Jan 13 – 18
Adventure Island at Glover’s Reef First Half, Fri – Wed (departing Thursday) 5 nights, $1295 US pp
Package includes 1 night in Belize City before the trip and 4 nights on the island for sea kayaking, scuba diving, snorkeling, kitesurfing, windsurfing, surf kayaking, board surfing and fishing (final night in Belize City is not included).

Jan 17 – 21
Adventure Island at Glover’s Reef Second Half, Tue – Sat (departing Sunday)
5 nights, $1295 US Package includes 1 night in Belize City before the trip, 1 night in Belize City after the trip, and 3 nights on the island for sea kayaking, scuba diving, snorkeling, kitesurfing, windsurfing, surf kayaking, board surfing and fishing.

Jan 14 – 21
Belize Adventure Week Sat – Sat (departing Sunday) 8 nights, $2395 US on sale for 10% off: $2155.50 US. Spend half of the week in the jungle for whitewater kayaking, underground rafting, caving and Mayan ruins, and half of the week on our private island for sea kayaking, scuba diving, snorkeling, kitesurfing, windsurfing, surf kayaking, board surfing, and fishing.

January is a great time to visit Belize as it is a small down season in the middle of the busy season. Lodging options and tours are not full at this time of year.

I left Moab at 6:30 am this morning and drove to Grand Junction, Colorado. “Junction” is the big city to us. Moabites go there to see doctors and buy stuff. Today I finalized our color Belize brochure for printing. (It is already available to download from our home page.) When I return from Belize a week from today, I get to pick up a few boxes of them on my way home. We won’t do the big mailing until September, when everyone really starts thinking about their winter vacation.

I’ve never been to Belize in July. Years ago I went in August. This was when Cully and I flew down to look at Northeast Caye at Glover’s Reef to see if we wanted to rent it. It was something like 1992; I was around 36, which would make him 41 at the time. We stayed with the Lomonts at their resort on Long Caye (the island we now own) and they took us over to NE Caye to look at it. It was abandoned… it had just four semi-run-down buildings which we later fixed up. We took one look at it and said ‘we’ll take it.’ It was a huge change, from camping for free on islands on the southern Barrier Reef (Laughing Bird Caye, Silk Cayes, Pumpkin Caye and Ranguana Caye) to paying $5000/month. But it was our OWN ISLAND. What an amazing thing… we never regretted it.

I remember sitting on the porch of what is now our #11, watching a humongous thunderstorm over Honduras. The mountains there are very high, and my memory is we could see their silhouette in the lightning flashes. I wonder if we really could? I’ll have to ask Cully if he remembers that too.

So I am curious to see Belize in July. The forecast is Scattered T-Storms, Scattered T-Storms, Scattered T-Storms. Maybe I’d better go shop some more and find a good travel umbrella.

The reason I am going at this peculiar time of year is to take a travel agent tour. The Belize Tourist Board is hosting a ‘Fam’ tour for ‘Priority Wholesalers’, and oddly enough, they targeted me as one. In 5 days 12 of us are going to tour 28 hotels! We will stay each night in a different part of Belize: San Ignacio, then Mountain Pine Ridge, Placencia, Hopkins, and finally Ambergris Caye. Along the way we will supposedly also have time to also tour Cahal Pech Mayan ruin and go snorkeling at Shark Ray Alley off Ambergris. I hope we survive it.

I am really looking forward to meeting the other travel professionals on the tour. When you live in Moab but run a business in Belize, you don’t get to talk shop with anyone, ever.

I’ve learned one thing already and I am not even to Belize yet. When you have been avoiding getting a smart phone and you finally decide to make that leap, from simple texting and talking and saving contacts to typing on a virtual pad and accidentally putting your phone in airplane mode and downloading apps and syncing your email… DON’T do it the day before you leave for a big trip when you are dependent on the phone. The learning curve is astronomical! I have been stopping at every Verizon store I see to corner unsuspecting clerks. Once I get to Belize there’s no Verizon store, so I guess I’ll have to break down and open the book that comes with it.

It is always exciting when I finish the Belize brochure each summer. It’s a huge decision deciding what photos to use because we have so many more than we can fit into our 12 page catalog. I JUST finished it… it’s not printed yet but it’s ready online! Please check it out, and send me an email and let me know what you think. (And if you find a typo, let me know by next Thursday when I go to the printer in Grand Junction to finalize it!) [slickrock(at)slickrock(dot)com]

Download Slickrock’s NEW Belize brochure

Starting next season, Nov. 2010, Slickrock will be offering a slightly new itinerary for our Adventure Week trip. The outline of the trip will remain the same, with half a week inland and a half week spent on our island. The new changes will occur on the inland part of the trip, where we will now be including a day trip to Tikal, Guatemala, where our group will have the opportunity to explore the largest Mayan ruin ever restored. Huge temples and sprawling building complexes spread out over several square miles of jungle, now protected as a National Park. Tikal is world famous in representing the highest architectural achievements of the Mayan civilization.

In addition, we will see a new Mayan ceremonial cave at Che Chem Ha, were a multitude of artifacts and a deep ceremonial chamber are explored. Later that same day we then descend a section of the Macal River with sit on top kayaks, threading through easy rapids as we exit the stunning 1500′ high gorge.

Our third day is spent running the underground chambers of the Caves Branch River, where we navigate 3 miles of caves in sit on top kayaks. This adventure remains the same as in our previous itineraries, and is probably the most exciting day of the trip.

Returning to Belize City, we take our shuttle boat out to the island on Wed, where we enjoy the myriad of water sport adventures that have made our island the premier adventure sport location in Belize. We have now added paddleboarding and kiteboarding to our roster of activities, but our surf sports , sea kayaking, and snorkeling remain ever popular as our featured events.