Kayaking and Snorkeling Belize
Check out Rod’s photos from the trip HERE!
I recently spent 9 days on a real-life Gilligan’s Island! I discovered Half-Moon Caye, a tiny coconut palm forested island on Lighthouse Reef, a coral atoll 50 miles off the Coast of Belize. Nearby is the famous blue hole. A week on Half-Moon Caye guarantees a return to natural rhythms – awakening to the sunrise, sounds of gentle surf and rustling palm fronds, paddling sapphire clear waters, snorkeling amidst nature’s underwater splendor, and no hashtags. Plus, the 80+ degree water doesn’t hurt, either!
After a 10 hour flight, a few hours spent waiting for the rest of my 9-person group to arrive, and a three-hour boat shuttle, Half-Moon Caye came into view. The mile-long island is a World Heritage Site, protected by the Audubon Society due to its colony of Red-Footed Boobies. The island and several square miles of reef are 100% off limits to fishermen. My tour operator, Island Expeditions, was the sole operator permitted to lodge tourists.
Lodging is a misleading term, because we “lodged” in platform tents – each with beds. No super resorts here: exactly what I wanted. There were 12 tents lined up along the shore. Island Expeditions runs a sustainable operation – with water from rain collectors, a well, and composting toilets. Electricity was on four hours per day, just enough to charge your camera batteries. So, we were far from luxury yet far from roughing it. The kitchen served up three sumptuous meals daily. Dishes included Creole fair (lots of bbq), plus conch soup, coconut pie, pineapple and mango, and when we caught fish, catch of the day.
Paddling Lighthouse Reef is definitely living a fantasy. The water is utterly sapphire clear and it’s warm. Inside the reef’s 22-mile long ring, the lagoon is only 8-10 feet deep. The protected waters are packed with an array of life. Our guides were of African, Mayan and Mestizo ethnicity – and they’d switch between English, Creole and Spanish at will. Kayaks included Necky single or tandem polyethylene kayaks, Seaward tandem fiberglass kayaks and a few Boreal Design polyethylene single kayaks – and SUPs. The tandem kayaks were set up for sailing. They also had a selection of Kokatat and Astral PFDs. A good portfolio of boats for a tour operator, I thought.
Our agenda shifted each day depending on weather conditions. Sunrise was followed by 6:30 a.m. yoga with Tisha, from Vancouver BC. After breakfast, we would launch kayaks and paddle out to the reef, where we would snorkel. Day one was mandatory snorkeling and kayaking introduction including wet exits and rescues. As for snorkeling, there is much to see inside the shallow lagoon or where it meets the ocean. There is an easy ‘octopus garden’ 50 yards off our beach with plenty of sea life like parrotfish, squid, turtles, rays, and lobsters. There is the famous World Heritage Site – The 400-ft deep Blue Hole, made famous by Jacques Cousteau. There is a “wall” off the ocean side of the reef where it drops to 12,000 feet. Out there, snorkeling, one can witness ocean going giants like whale sharks or even great hammerhead sharks. Or we could try our luck kayak fishing! Let’s not forget kayak sailing.
My favorite place was the Blue Hole. It’s a 1000-ft diameter shallow coral reef ring surrounding a 400ft deep hole. The reef is super pristine! If you are a diver, you can go down and explore this sunken cave with stalactites etc. As a snorkeler, I could weave in and out of coral and glimpse myriads of schools of fish such as blue tang swimming like synchronized swimmers. There were barracuda, stoplight parrotfish, midnight parrotfish, blue striped grunts, and angelfish. I learned a little about how to free dive – something you’ve got to do in order to get good pictures. There are all kinds of corals – brain coral, stag horn coral, plus sea fans, and barrel sponges.
Closer to Half-Moon Caye, I could just go out at lunch and see tons of underwater life! Just 50 yards off shore, I ran into a shark, and a ray. But I also saw grouper, grunts, trunk fish, butterfly fish, queen trigger fish, turtles and squid.
I tried fishing. Incredibly in only two hours we caught 25 fish on hand lines. We could keep 19 of the fish. We caught red snapper, queen triggerfish, porgeys, and lots of grunts. Back at camp we cleaned the fish, which we shared with local nurse sharks that seem to know when dinner time is! They made a meal for two evenings.
Night life at camp ranged from quiet discussions of the day’s discoveries to African drumming dance, to sing-alongs with Jess Karper, a guide who brought a small National Geographic group through. We had a lot of fun! Jess knows plenty of Bob Marley and Bob Dillon.
One afternoon we tried kayak sailing. We used ruddered tandem kayaks, and the sails were mounted in between the cockpits. I have to say it was fortunate I have a lot of sailing experience, because the guides pretty much said, “Here you go. Sail down to a big stick down the reef and then come back.” I steered and held the sail and my “crew” was Tisha. Remember that sailboats have keels or centerboards, which are like a fin in the middle of the boat. Kayaks don’t have them. So sailing a kayak is more an exercise in getting there without paddling, but not efficiently or in any way IMHO satisfyingly. We all arrived at the stick within one minute of each other…but that was the more downwind leg. On the way back, it was what we sailors would call a close reach – meaning we were more or less with the wind coming from the side. The return leg really “separated the men from the boys,” and I had to use every trick in my sailing skills base to get that kayak going straight instead of sideways, and to land on the island and not miss it entirely and wind up in the ocean. When we turned around at the stick, Half Moon Caye was almost invisible. I had to hold the sail as low and stiff as possible, using my outstretched arm, to spill air, whilst pushing the rudder with my feet so we had the correct angle. Lucky for me I was wearing my Astral Brewer shoes. Others got blisters! We learned to lean into the wind to keep the boat tilted right. Anyway we were so focused we simply doubled down on getting back to the island, and never looked back. When we landed, we were amazed that the others were dots on the horizon! We KILLED IT! We had 30 minutes of swim time before anyone else landed. After the experience, though, I say sailing is for sailboats!
Well, that is how each day unfolded. A snorkel? Maybe SUP? Kayak? Watch the birds? Or, nothing…lie in your hammock and let the noise of the surf wash your troubles away…and as quick as that…it was over. Back to the USA!
