Seats in paradise
Kristen looking out over the shallow reefs and sand flats
Kristen learning to roll a kayak
Jeff learning to windsurf
Kristen and I took an “anniversary trip” to Belize at the start of January.
For a while now, we have been trying to find a way to do a warm-weather vacation in Winter that wouldn’t be boring. And by boring I mean that neither of us can sit on the beach for more than 45 minutes without going crazy. As it turns out, it’s hard to find a beach vacation that is also active, and so we’d more or less given up on the idea of going to the beach.
But sometime over the Summer, Kristen stumbled on Slickrock Adventures, which owns a private island way off the coast of Belize, called Long Caye in Glover’s Atoll. The island has no internet, no cell service, no electricity save for lights in the mess hall, no hot water, rainwater for drinking, composting toilets, and a 3 hour boat ride over rough open ocean to get there. It also has a fleet of sea kayaks, surf kayaks (which you can take into the break to ride the waves), windsurf boards, kite surf gear, stand-up paddleboards, and countless coral reefs within a 1-mile radius. In short, it’s perfect – you get to do tons of activities without ever having to travel – so no packing up and moving from place to place.
Basically it was adult summer camp. There were about 10-20 guests on the island, and 4-5 guides. Each day, the guides would lay out ~3 activities we could do in the morning, and 3 more after lunch. There was almost always a guided snorkel, plus lessons on one of the wind-related sports. The instruction and guiding was absolutely great. And of course you had the option to do something else, but the guides were giving instruction on the pre-determined activities, so we just about always did those. You also had the option of skipping the activity to lie in a hammock, but almost nobody did that.
Which brings me to my next point: the people we were with. The island is very self-selecting. The rustic living conditions and remote location, coupled with the focus on activities rather than relaxation, means that only a particular type of person is interested in the trip. Just about everyone there had outdoors experience, and didn’t mind being dirty for 8 straight days. So of course everyone else was super nice and friendly, and we got along great with all the guests and guides.
We were on the island for a total of about 8 days (Saturday-Saturday). I took 1.5 kite surfing lessons before the wind died out, and also got decent at beginner windsurfing. Kristen did a ton of open-water swimming, and loved kayak surfing. And we snorkeled every day, and did SUP whenever the water was calm. It’s hard to say what we liked the best, since we were having fun with all the activities every day, but the snorkeling was honestly probably the highlight. The water was crystal clear and warm, and we saw tons of cool stuff – gorgeous fish like parrotfish, angelfish (the queen is the best), fairy basslets, jacks, damselfish (the juvenile is the best), pufferfish, hogfish, blue tang, chubb, grunts, trumpetfish, barracuda, spiny lobsters, octopus, bonefish, grouper (big ones), nurse sharks, scorpionfish, butterflyfish, triggerfish, filefish, spotted moray eels, sea urchins, squirrelfish, wrasse, jellyfish, sea cucumber, conch, yellow rays, southern rays, spotted eagle rays, and of course, lionfish. Plus a bunch of others I can’t remember, and super cool types of coral as well.
In all, the trip was truly amazing. We want to go back next year. I can’t really imagine any other way we’d want to take a “beach vacation” in the future.
