Belize General Info

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on May 4, 2011

This March when my boyfriend Gerrish Willis and I were on the island, he decided our Nature Trail needed a major overhaul. He spent days deciding what needed to be included, researching the various plants and other subjects included in the Nature Trail, then finally made and placed the markers found along the trail. The trail includes 22 stations, covering blue porter weed, Indian almond, black ma

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on May 2, 2011

View my recent post on the excellent site Adventure Travel Mentor: What to Bring on an Adventure Trip to Belize

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on

The most common local resident on Long Caye is the hermit crab. They are terrestrial crabs that inhabit the island by the thousands, and although nocturnal they are encountered at all hours of the day, everywhere. Most of these hermit crabs inhabit the shells of the West Indian Top Snail (Cittarium pica), a large snail found in the inter-tidal zone on the shores of the island. Hermit crabs are see

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on

Like most other Caribbean nations, Belize has been afflicted with Yellow Leaf (YL) palm disease (also called Lethal Yellowing Disease) for the past 12 years. The disease is caused by an organism that attacks the head of the palm tree where its growth is concentrated, and causes the tree to die when this part of the tree rots away. The organism is spread from tree to tree through the leaf hopper in

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on

I just heard from the folks out on the island and a few days ago an inland bird showed up out there! In the rail family, the Purple Gallinule is not known to fly long distances. I don’t know if it got blown out there or what! I am so bummed out that I missed it! Here’s a photo of the bird on the island.

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on March 29, 2011

We have a birding register in our dining hall. Sometimes months go by and no one enters anything in it, but we have quite an impressive record going back to 1999. Last week I made a cumulative list and found we have collectively seen 82 species on this little island. The complete list: American Redstart, Anhinga, Baltimore Oriole, Barn Swallow, Bay Breasted Warbler, Belted Kingfisher, Black And Wh

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on March 22, 2011

There is probably nothing more closely associated with life on a tropical island than palm trees and their coconuts. As is typically seen throughout the islands of Belize, Long Caye is covered with palm trees; in fact, for many decades the island was a coconut ‘plantation’, with over 1000 coconut palms planted in rows and tended for their production of this valuable fruit. Many of thes

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on March 18, 2011

A few weeks ago we wrote about spearfishing for lionfish, our newest sport on our island in Belize. Lionfish were introduced to the Atlantic basin recently, and arrived at Glover’s Reef just 2 years ago. Now there is a Caribbean-wide mission to keep their numbers down, as they have no natural predators since they are a Pacific fish. They will eventually eat all of the coral fishes in the sma

Posted by Slickrock Adventures on March 12, 2011

What do you do for vacation when you work on adventure island? You think up the most obscure plans for yourself and friends throw in some ridiculous elements and whamo! Epics are born. Most of these plans happen over a drink. I think that part is similar for everyone. Then something happens, I decide it must be done and there is no changing my mind. For the last two months, in between trips at sli