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I wondered if a forwarding address of “Paradise” was sufficient. Dad simply nodded his approval. “Yep,” he said. “This’ll do.”

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Destinations

Article
Bones Alone

Belize’s Cayo Espanto is the kind of deserted island a guy with a private jet and fly rod could really get used to.

By: Conway Williamson
August/Sept 07 , Page 70

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Since I was around 8 years old, I have had a fascination with life on a deserted island. It was that year, as a third grader, when I dressed up as Robinson Crusoe, taking first prize in my school’s Halloween costume contest. Daniel Defoe’s story had hooked me, and ever since I’ve been preoccupied with the idea of living in a bamboo hut and drinking from a coconut shell. Now, though, as I’ve grown accustomed to life’s luxuries, I’m a little less interested in the more rugged aspects of castaway life. Don’t get me wrong — I still want to fall off the map and disappear for a while, reemerging in the real world only after a thorough bout of rest and beard-growing. But in the current iteration of my fantasy, the weather would, of course, be perfect year-round and I’d need world-class bonefishing just outside my front door. To really top it off, I’d also need a world-class chef preparing gourmet meals for me, served seaside at my open-air villa by a personal, full-time houseman (or housewoman, but that’s a slightly different fantasy), who is completely at my service 24 hours a day.

Just a little deserted island with life’s most basic necessities . . . that’s the dream. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I recently learned that such a place actually exists, and it’s just off the coast of mainland Belize, an easy three-hour flight from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

After a little due diligence confirmed that this was, indeed, the very place I’d been dreaming about all these years, I called my dad, who happens to share my love of luxury roughing it. Eight seconds of difficult persuasion later, he was in and sworn to secrecy. We then coined the name of our mission: “Operation Shipwreck” had begun.

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