2003-11-29 Belize Zoo 2003-11-30 Rafting the Caves Branch 2003-12-01 Jungle Biking and Cave Tubing 2003-12-02 Rafting the Macal 2003-12-03 Kayaking the Sibun 2003-12-04 Island Day 1 2003-12-05 Island Day 2 2003-12-06 Island Day 3 2003-12-07 Lamanai Ruins

Day 7 (Thursday, 12/4/2003)

Fortunately, the winds had died down enough by morning to make for safe passage to Glover's Reef.  All of us loved the jungle, but we were more than ready for a change of scene.  The group of eight and Neri piled into the van for the 90-minute drive down the Hummingbird Highway to Dangriga, where we transferred ourselves and our luggage onto a small boat for the two-hour crossing to Glover's Reef. The seas were rough, and most of the passengers were feeling a bit queasy by the time we landed on Long Caye at around 11 AM.  The clouds had lifted to reveal a beautiful island day, which, from talking to the sea kayaking tour group that was already there, had been a rarity that week.  Upon landing, we were given the nickel tour of the island (which didn't take long, because the island is only 14 acres in size), and we were introduced to the guides in residence.

Long Caye is privately owned by Slickrock Adventures as a base of operations for their tour packages.  It sits on the very edge of Glover's Reef, so the seas to the north and west of the island are very shallow and ideal for snorkeling.  There is a small ledge off to the southeast of the island that makes for good snorkeling as well, but only a few hundred yards off of the island's east coast is the continental shelf, where the depth drops to thousands of feet over a distance of only a few hundred yards.  "The Wall", as they call it, is thus a premiere scuba diving destination because of the close proximity of both a reef and deep water.  For those who don't dive, Long Caye is equipped with a wide variety of sea kayaks, surf kayaks, and windsurfing equipment.

The island is somewhat more rustic than Ian's.  There is no electricity (other than a few battery-powered lights) and no running water.  The outdoor showers consist of a large raised tank, with water pressure supplied by gravity and heat supplied by the sun.  There is also a shallow, sulfurous well from which you can take a "bucket shower" (or "egg bath", as we called it because of the smell), but this is really only useful for washing the salt off before lunch if you plan to go out on the water again later.  The island's state-of-the-art composting toilets, Slickrock's pride and joy, have been featured on the cover of "Outside" Magazine.  Although Long Caye is a bit rougher than Ian's, it has marked advantages as well, such as the lack of bugs and snakes and other critters, as well as the continuous cool breeze.

Due to its location right on the continental shelf, the island is a sitting duck for major hurricanes, and the Slickrock facilities have been devastated four times in the past 15 years.  Each time, the hurricane shifted part of the island and forced Slickrock to relocate the various buildings as they were rebuilt.  One can look out the kitchen window over a shallow portion of the reef to the north of the island and see the pilings from one of the previous kitchens.  Each time, they have rebuilt the island more efficiently than the time before and have continued to improve its robustness, but in many ways, Long Caye is like a Zen sand carving, a monument to the impermanence of all human constructs.

After we finished the tour, had a bite to eat, and got settled into our palapas, the certified divers headed out for a dive while the rest of us went snorkeling off the southeast edge of the island near the wall.  Once our faces were in the water, we were treated to an unbelievably clear view of the reef.  We could see the bottom so well that it almost gave me vertigo.  We swam a zig-zag path through a channel in the reef with depths varying from 5 to 30 feet, then we swam around near the wall for 30 minutes or so before returning to shore.  After washing up, I took a sunset hike around the southern tip of the island before heading in for dinner.

Every night after dinner on the island, there was some form of organized competition.  This night's event was an almost indescribable game called "penis croquet", so named because the croquet "mallet" consists of a rock affixed to one's waist by a 3-foot piece of dangling rope.  The goal in penis croquet is to be the first to move an unripened orange across the room using only the "mallet" and a series of hip gyrations that would probably get you censored on the Ed Sullivan show.  Oh, heck ... Just look at the picture.