Drove inland to Belmopan, the capital, (an instant town built after Hurricane Hattie destroyed most of Belize City in 1961); stopped to buy bananas and papaya from a fruit stand, then headed southeast down the Hummingbird Highway. It winds through the hills - lush tropical vegetation on either side of the road - saw some small wild Bird of Paradise flowers.
We passed a citrus plant with huge open-top trucks full of oranges waiting to be processed into concentrated orange juice for export.
It rained most of the way. As we moved closer to the coast the landscape changed to flat plain, and soon we turned off onto a rough dirt road to Hopkins. The village is about two miles long, parallel to the beach, and you can walk on the road without fear, as cars are few and far between, and go slowly due to the many potholes. Most people walk or rides bikes to get around.
Our hotel is small (3 rooms) and rustic; the location more than makes up for it: each room has 2 hammocks on the covered porch, and the view is of sand, palm trees and the ocean stretching out to the horizon - next stop Jamaica if you sailed east from here. We saw a lot of colourful birds in the shrubs nearby.
Brad went for a swim, and when he was quite a ways out from shore, heard breathing nearby - there were two manatees swimming about 15 feet from him, coming up for air then showing their backs and tails as they slid beneath the surface again.
The bugs are bad here, so we slathered ourselves with repellant before dark. Besides the usual mosquitos and no-see-ums, there are a lot of Doctor Flies, so-called because they inject an anesthetic so you don't notice them biting; then later the affected part swells to the size of an egg and burns and itches for about an hour.
Dinner had been arranged before we arrived, at a Garifuna woman's house. We could have had iguana, but decided on a seafood meal instead. It was a typical meal of casava bread, fish in coconut broth, with mashed plantain patties, and was served under her mango tree in her yard, with a single lightbulb illuminating the table. We were ten: the four of us, two other Canadians, and 4 Americans on a culinary tour of local cacao and coffee farms.
