Thursday, May 26, 2011

Hopkins and Placencia

This weekend was a long one as we got Friday off as well as Monday for Victoria Day (God save the Queen!). Since we had four days to dedicate to travelling we decided to make the 5 hour trek down south to a small village named Hopkins and a larger more touristy area of the country, Placencia. After debating and researching ways to avoid taking the beloved city bus (plane or boat) our diminished bank accounts made our decision for us...so on the bus we went down to Hopkins.

Hopkins-

It was another hot bus ride but we finally made it and trekked around the village to find a place to stay. We ended up at a placed called Lebeha which is a drumming school as well as accommodations. We scored a great beach front cabana which was spacious and filled with our friends the trusty ants of Belize. After our trek to find this place sulls commented "okay I think we are all feeling a bit down" so we decided to ball out and get some amazing pizza and quesadillas from a beach front restaurant. After this we were feeling much more rejuvenated. We spent the day lounging on the beach and met some local kids who we made a trade with, our Canada frisbee for their mango wrangling abilities. They came back with shirts full of mangos, the only downside of this trade was that they decided to eat most of the mangos and left us with only one. I guess thats how they roll here. They also put on a show for us, doing flips off logs on the beach as well as singing and dancing our fav song Tornado! They ended up loving us so much they tried getting into our cabana but the wrath of their mothers came into play and they scurried home.

That night we got to go see a garifuna drumming show which was unreal! The 3 guys drumming were around 18 and were amazing, we have video evidence to prove it! We also got to see a little boy dance punta to the drumming (poh will show this to everyone when we get home!) In addition to the drumming the owner of the school was playing an instrument out of turtle shells, not something you see everyday.

We had to get up early for our next adventure so we hit the haaaaayyyy.

Placencia-

Our Placencia adventure began with a ride on the Hokey Pokey water taxi...that's right, the hokey pokey taxi,  We got to our destination and began deliriously searching for a place to stay.  We ended up at "Evans Place" and were treated to double beds, mini fridge and AC (hello sleeping through the night!  Sully did not even have her usual angry night thrashes).
We took our hungry bellies to lunch and were sadly disappointed.  We had ketchup nachos and wilted soupy salad...and expensive to boot!  Cat's cheese level has never been so high.  However, we tried the local conch (even Sulls) which was tasty.

The rest of the day was spent shopping, reading on the beach and researching scuba/snorkeling places for the following day.  That evening's dinner was a hearty bowl of Cornflakes and bananas topped off by the best gelato of life!  Outside of the gelato place, Poh was in her own world "punta-ing" and unbeknownst to her, "John Wayne" was fast approaching in such a stealth manner.  Sulls and Krust just observed, quite amused.  John Wayne as he called himself showed Poh how to feel it, and shimmy around.  The lesson ended in a dance-off which Poh claims she won.

We continued on to the Barefoot Bar where we enjoyed some Lighthouse lagers and salbutes..yum!  Sulls' heat rash was consuming her life.  Poh was scared as she was hit multiple times by a lady claiming to be the ex-wife of a Vancouver Canuck.  Kit couldn't wait to go home and watch The Voice on t.v.
The next day was the first separation of the 3-headed Canadian monster.  Sulls needed medical attention which consisted of frozen wash cloths and vitamin E gel which frankly did nothing.  She chilled hard on the beach and got some solid t.v. time.  Kit took the plunge (literally) for her first saltwater scuba diving trip at the Laughing Bird Caye (literally the most beautiful, tiny magazine worthy island).  She had a solid guide and saw some beautiful coral, fish and crazy ass jellyfish.  Poh trekked out for her second snorkeling adventure (due to her panic-ridden first trip) and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  Kit and Poh claimed they both felt like Ariel.  We were all reunited and vowed to never separate again.

Alas, we were all starving by dinner time (shocking we know) and were in search of some much anticipated local seafood.  Went to De Thatch, right on the beach and dug into what became one of our favourite meals.  Poh almost peed herself in excitement from mashed potatoes.  Sulls was most happy to chow down on BBQ chicken and we finally got salad sans mayo (note:  Kit rejoices).  Then, we went to gelato again, obviously, and outside we met..picture this:  a French Canadian, an Israeli dude (hilarious!) and guy from Oregon traveling together. Hilarious conversation ensued.

With our new friends we decided to head to the Barefoot Bar again and shared some laughs and some beers. Sulls had a most interesting night with her French Canadian companion who admired her wrinkles (yep! for real) and lovingly described her as "mango blueberry icecream with dark chocolate chunks" in contrast to Kit as keylime and Poh as lime sherbet "because it is sour" (thannnq u).  At one point during the night, Kit tried to save Sulls, but Cat literally had the chair pulled out from under her and her belongings were thrown onto the table (what a gentleman!).  The Frenchman was ensuring that his beloved had a place to rest her weary limbs much to her dismay and disgust.  After multiple refusals to beach invitations and mothering of children, Sulls got tired and we decided to end our evening.  We went home to our sweet AC and t.v. and passed out hard.

The next day we bussed back to our homebase and were pleasantly surprised with one lag of the trip being on a coach bus.  Ballin!
That's all for now...

love,
The Belizean Trio

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