Manta Resort is the only thing on Glover Reef, about 120 miles, give or take a little, from Belize City.   On Saturday, the Manta Resort folks picked up a rowdy and anxious group for a several hour boat trip out to the atoll.  On the boat we learned valuable survival skills such as opening a beer bottle with the (closed) cap of another bottle.  Amazing how fascinating this simple task can be to grown men!  Within the first 30 minutes of the ride we had formed an informal "Survivor" vote, and selected the person most likely to be voted off the island quickly (you know who you are!)   

I left on the fourth day.  IMHO, this was the perfect length for the visit - the three-day version would have been too short and the seven-day version would have been too long.   I think we would have resorted to drastic measures against some of our members by that time.

The mid-week launch returns to Dangriga.  It's a much shorter trip (1-1/2 or 2 hours), and also a *much* smaller boat (with a very shallow draft - which will become significant in just a minute).   As we approached Dangriga, Egbert explained that shooting the approach would be tricky - that one could rarely get into Dangriga unless the tides were just right.  Silting of the entrance has caused some very shallow sandbars.  He was optimistic that with only three people in the boat we might be able to float in if he cut the engines and trimmed it right.  

No such luck!  We beached it in a big way on a sand bar.  Unable to go forward or backward, churning up the sand with the propeller, Egbert and David were finally forced to jump ship (in about 2 feet of water!) and pull the boat off the sandbar.  

The transportation alone was a worthy adventure!

My apologies to Annette Globke, whose photo I  pirated from the web