Belize tour 3/5 Hopkins

Took water taxi back to Belize city, then transfer to Hopkins down south by taxi, a two hours drive. Hopkins is a layback beach town, but better maintained than Berlize city and Caye Ambergris. What shocks us is the high humidity here, worse than previous places, sweat pour out the first time.

Cashew fruits

Went to eat at Maximo at the waterfront, recommended by both the taxi driver and our landlord. Wonderful location, and the very well prepared conch in spicy sauce. The first very satisfying meal here.

Hopkins area is where an ethnic tribe Garifuna settled in Belize. They are descendants of a group of Africans taken as slaves in the 18th century and stranded in an nearby island after a shipwreck. They maintained their own language and culture.

We joined a Garifuna cooking and drumming lesson at Palmento Grove.

The cooking class is very hand on, including picking and learn to use machete to open green coconuts to drink; hack open the husk of old coconut using a sharp stick anchored in the ground, chop open the nut, shred the coconut meat to make coconut milk. Very useful hand on tricks to get fresh fragrant coconut milk.

Also interesting is to pound boiled plantain into a sticky pulp, very much like mochi, to serve with coconut mix herb broth and deep fried barracuda.

We are all well exhausted with the work needed to produce a meal in a traditional kitchen in the humid heat.

After that is drumming class, my first experience in playing drum, African style. We are taught 3 different simple tunes, each one practiced repeatedly, progressively faster until it burns in our head.

I appreciate the joy of learning and playing “music” like that.

In the evening, we joined a kayak trip organised by the same Garifuna group, to tour the mangrove swamp area. They are seafarers and catch fish in the swamps. It is an experience to kayak under a starry sky and directed through different pathways through densely grown plants. On the way, managed to see bioluminescence in some dark corners of the sea.