Last Night in Hopkins

Hopkins has been very laid back...there isn't a lot to do in the town and with a fairly large geographical separation between the town and the resort area, there aren't a lot of options for activities if you're on foot and located in one or the other. It seems, too, that most businesses shut down between 1:00 and 4:00 PM as well.

For all it's quietness, I do like Hopkins. People are friendly and it's easy to get around on foot. Our apartment owner, Damien, is so helpful and our beach cottage so convenient and wonderfully located right on the beach that I would highly recommend this town for a low-key Belizian holiday. We have found great food in all the places we've eaten too. I think you can explore the inland areas of Belize quite conveniently from here.

Yesterday we got a ride down to the resort area because Hopkins Underwater Adventure, the dive shop opened by a Calgarian recommended by Adventures in Scuba, is affiliated with the Beaches & Dreams Resort down there. Unfortunately, Declan, the owner, was unavailable and the company was not planning any dives for Sunday (today) so I didn't get that chance to ask him about relocating and opening a business here. We arrived in that area around 1:00 and decided instead to bar hop our way back to town. This is when we discovered so many places were either closed or did not take payment from non-guests of the resorts.

One restaurant in the Jaguar Resort was open and took payment so a great lunch was had by all. Off we went until we found the Tiki Bar at the Dreams open, and we ended up sitting there for about 5 hours, working our way through their local rum menu. Bryan got drunk fast off their Coco Island Iced Tea, a mixture of three rums, gin, brandy, and one other liquor. We had him home in bed by 7:30. Scott seemed fine but must have poured himself a pretty strong rum back at the beach cottage because he and I found ourselves at this cute little restaurant/night club right on the water called the Swinging Armadillo. We had the staff up dancing for a bit until customers came in for their nice meals over looking the waves. We didn't stay too long and I found my drunk fiancé out on the balcony waiting for us, wondering where we had been. So I had to out him back to bed while I think Scott stayed up a bit longer, enjoying the ocean air.

Needless to say, both guys were quite hungover today. On out ride home last night in the taxi, Scott somehow booked us in for a cave tubing tour with the driver. Well, upon rising this morning, no one really wanted to go and it was going to be quite expensive, so the driver was not happy with us at all. I'm not sure what went down but Damien and his staff had to help get rid of the guy!

We ended up being very lazy today, everyone napping and reading, taking in the sun. I love how it feels so raw here - no tourist trap feeling, no vendors really, just being in a beachside town, living kind of like the locals. Except probably a lot lazier!

We found a nice local place for dinner tonight where a Belizian visitor gave us the lowdown on how families cook and eat traditionally. Our food was great, yet again. We have returned to the cottage and it's starting to rain so I think it's time to get back inside, pack up and get ready for our trip over to Ambergris Caye tomorrow.

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