We left San Pedro on Sunday morning and had beautiful weather to fly.
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| Flying over the citrus groves near Dangriga |
We were able to check into our beautiful new digs extremely early - one of the beauties of traveling during the low season.
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| It's a winner - the Guesthouse |
After being here for a few days I can tell you without a doubt Hopkins is the most laid back, non-touristy place I have ever visited as a tourist. Next down the line is Placencia, Belize. When we had visited Placencia two years ago, we walked away saying it was the most laid back. Not any more.
We came to Hopkins on a whim and at the suggestion of a local woman we had met two years ago while leaving Placencia on a bus. She and her husband were both Belizeans that lived in NYC now. The way she described it made us both put it in our memory banks for a trip in the future. And here we are.
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Our view from the 4th Floor Mirador
The Mirador
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| We pick our mangoes for breakfast from here |
I can now describe it the same way she described it to us. What is the allure? Hopkins is located on the mainland of Belize, directly on the Caribbean but protected by the reef system off the Belizean Coast. It is south of Belize City. The village is made up of Garifunas. They are Black, pretty/handsome, speak their own language and are the nicest, friendliest, most genuine group of people we have ever met. They live as one with nature and are very proud of their heritage and village. One of them explained to us how they operate. They take care of each other and if there is ever a 'bad apple' that pops up either from within or from the outside they won't last. They take care of it. And I don't mean in a violent way; I mean like how every parent used to be parents to kids when you grow up in a small town. You can't get away with doing anything bad. They do not tolerate misbehavior. You can read more about their history here. Yesterday Terry and I were sitting by the beach in the lounge chairs when two little girls about 7 or 8 yrs. old came walking through on their way home from school. One of them could not keep her hands off of Terry. She first touched the skin on his arm, then she started rubbing on his head. Then, she reached down and started touching his belly. We also let the boys riding their bicycles home from school hang on to the side of the golf cart going down the street to get a free ride.
Hopkins is beautiful. The beaches are beautiful and clean, there are nice guesthouses, restaurants are all little wooden buildings mostly with outside seating for a few. There are places to eat and drink, and a few true hole-in-the-wall but really cool bars.
It is a place to come to and get re-acquainted with yourself, nature and to re-think the definitions of "happiness" and "success" and "the meaning of life". We haven't left yet and I am ready to come back. It is a place for reading and doing nothing. It is a place where we thank the Garifunas for sharing their beautiful village with us. Although there are many natural wonders such as waterfalls, caves, and ruins nearby. So there really are things to do, don't get me wrong. We are staying smack dab in the middle of town in a beautiful guesthouse. Locals in their wooden homes surround us. Clothes drying are on one side of us. We pick our own mangoes in the morning, and Mathew (one of the workers here) climbed a tree and got us a couple of coconuts yesterday. He used his machete to open them, we drank enough of the water to make room for some rum then he poured in the rum. Makes for a great refreshing drink...but watch out as it sneaks up on you. But, we're competing with the woodpeckers for the coconuts. Not so much competition for the rum. We're surrounded by food - mangoes, sea grapes, guava, and cashews.
We got up yesterday morning and took a long beach walk north. This morning we took a long beach walk south. There are "fancy resorts" and expat housing to the south. It is all pretty and shiny. Lots of building going on and I imagine some growing pains are being felt. The resorts are outside of the village and self-contained. We scoped out the marina on the Sittee River down south. It was very pretty and the river is beautiful.
Upon our arrival, we were told about the Mangofest. It was going on the day we arrived. How cool is that? We were missing Slugfest 2017 but able to make Mangofest in its place. Sunday evening we walked the short walk to Mangofest and had mango rum drinks, ate conch fritters, ate cheese fries, ate Italian sausage burgers and met James. He and his wife left Canada a couple of years ago and opened Gecko's in Hopkins. He is from St. Lucia originally, dark-skinned and just as nice as the native Garifunas. We ate at Gecko's last night - fried fish, plantain chips and coleslaw while we talked to him about his move and the restaurant business. He said it is always a challenge getting fresh produce into the village. Thus, he was serving plantain chips instead of the planned potato fries. We were totally ok with the plantain chips. Drumming is a big thing here. The music is Carribean/reggae kind of music. At the Mangofest they had a dance contest and we saw some big black booty being shaken in a way I didn't even know was possible. Slugs, did you shake your booties at Slugfest? You see absolutely nobody on a cell phone.
We had casually mentioned at the office that we would like some more of the conch fritters we had at the Mangofest. This morning we were told "Shannon" at Luba Laruga (Garifuna for the sun coming up) was making conch fritters and conch cerviche for us. Just go down to the Luba Laruga for our noon meal. Sure enough...he had it all ready for us.
We really hated missing Slugfest, but thank goodness we had Hopkins and Mangofest in its place.
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