The sun is shining and the easterlies are blowing in Belize. February kicked off to a fab start with Vela guest Mike Hauty and the staff getting in some awesome sessions. With prices on flights dropping across the board from almost all major US cities, you may DEFINITELY want to include Belize on your upcoming vacation schedule. Come and experience what we are proud to offer as one of the NEWEST Vela destinations.

It was another windy week on the island, and the wind sports were in full swing with kites and windsurfring action adding to the paddle and surfing events. We were able to sail to the neighboring islands and even got some kite action in the surf. Check out some of the shots from our GoPro camera. In addition to these big wind days, we always have enough wind for our beginner sessions, and we see sailors on the water everyday getting instruction from our guides.

Now that X-Mas is here we see large groups on our trips on the island. While it can seem a bit more crowded on the beach and at the surf break, there is still plenty of room to spread out on the water sailing and kitesurfing. The winds usually pick up by late Dec, although we are having a more quiet winter so far this season due to the La Nina climate conditions. But there is still plenty of wind for kitesurfing and our new kiteschool has been jamming with guests enjoying lessons out on the wide open sand flats just west of the island. Windsurfng also has been great on our bigger sails, generally using sails in the 6.2 range.

Everyone enjoys the windsurfing scene:

Beginners love our instructional program which employs our dray land trainer on the beach, then progressing to the shallow warm waters of the protected lagoon. Our instructors follow the students in kayaks to give additional pointers and for towing folks back to the beach if they can't manage to return the first few times. But our beginner boards and small sails facilitate the learning process and before long everyone can successfully manage their rigs and are sailing under control.

Meanwhile, advanced sailors are sailing on long reaches out over the clear waters of the lagoon, or venturing out into the swells of the open Caribbean on the other side of the island. People often sail to the other island of the atoll, or venture across the lagoon among the patch reefs and shallow, clear water.

Back on the beach, the party continues with people resting or soaking up the tropical sun, or just watching the action off shore. Cold beverages are just a short walk way to the kitchen, and if folks want to try paddleboarding or kayak surfing it is easy to switch sports and jump on a kayak to paddle out to the surf.

Come on down and join in on our private-island experience!

We saw a few days of light winds on the island last week, but the surf came up so we jumped in for a few sessions of riding our break in almost glassy conditions. We have an excellent point break where we are able to get long rides down a continuously breaking shoulder. We had riders on surf boards, paddle boards, and surf kayaks. There’s nothing like surfing in 80 degree water, so clear you can watch the bottom rip by underneath your feet, while spotting the occasional ray or silver streaks of fish darting out of the way. 

Here on Long Caye we are busy preparing for our inaugural season as a new Vela Windsport Center. Since mid October we have been busy preparing for our winter adventure tours and building our new Belize Vela Windsport Center. We have set up our gear and are busy constructing our new kite and windsurf building, as well as setting up our sea kayaks, paddleboards, and surf kayaks. The wind has been up and down, common for this early part of the season, but our winter weather pattern hasn't kicked in yet, which enjoys much stronger, steadier winds along with our 'northern' cold fronts which blow through almost weekly where the wind usually blows 25-30 mph for a few days at a time. Meanwhile, we are doing a bit of sailing and windsurfing, and the surf has been great so we're out surfing and paddleboarding our break almost everyday.

The next few days will be quite windy so we'll get footage of visiting Vela Reservations Agent, Jodi, here with her husband Darren, ripping it up on the atoll. 

Cully

And for you aspiring kitesurfers... the Vela Kitesurf School is also offering great first season rates of only $50/hr. for lessons (2 students/lesson) which is far below what most kitesurf schools charge, and few other locations can match our pristine, uncrowded conditions. For more info please check out our wind reports on www.VelaKitesurf.com

When development for this eco-resort began back in 1992, the goal was to create a facility that feels non-developed. Obviously if you build a building, that’s some level of development, but throughout the Caribbean there are very few facilities that are this rustic by design. On Long Caye development means fifteen cabanas, a well-stocked kitchen, solar-powered water pumps, a composting toilet, three dozen sea kayaks, a fleet of windsurf equipment, surf boards, fishing kayaks, kitesurf school, surf kayaks, and a dive shop. There is no maid service; there are no air conditioners or flush toilets. But there is a fridge permanently loaded with Fantas and Belikin beer. It all represents the soft side of adventure travel - right down to the excellent Garifuna chefs who cook your meal and then sit down at the table with you to dine.

Perched on the brink of the continental shelf, the island base of Long Caye lies on the slender coral ring of Glover's Reef, an atoll 35 miles offshore from Dangriga, in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. Every effort has been made to ensure the entire Water Sports Center blends into the undeveloped, natural atmosphere of this tropical island, unspoiled by the modern world. Here the focus is on adventure sports: the water sports center on the north end of Long Caye features all of the sports toys anyone could want! This Caribbean private island is unique in that you can snorkel right off shore. Belize's greatest attraction to board sailors is that nobody sails here! Belize enjoys ideal conditions for wind sports with steady winds, warm water, and a variety of accesses to the sea, allowing easy access to both the waves and swells of the open sea and a launch from our beach into the sheltered waters just off our shore. The average wind speed is 10-20 mph nearly every day, so although some days will be spent on light-wind gear skimming across the flats of the lagoon, other days will provide plenty reason to grab a 4.5 sail or smaller, blasting on the swells or trying your luck in the surf. The warm air and water temps mean you don’t need a wetsuit!

This is THE ultimate spot for Belize adventure travel and PADI dive courses: Long Caye at Glover's Reef rivals many of the world's top-diving sites and is much less visited. When traveling all the way to Caribbean islands, make the extra effort to visit the most beautiful and remote island in the country. Long Caye is just a drop in the ocean: other Belize resorts cannot compete with our location. You cannot make plans for an individual day on the island, nor can you plan to use accommodations only: the way to experience this private island is to come for an Adventure Package, including lodging and meals in Belize City before and after the island stay, transport to and from the island from the mainland, lodging, meals, beer and soda on the island, all national park fees, complete use of our sports gear, and instruction and daily guided activities.