"Hopkins - a Quiet 'Backwater' in Belize " a Hopkins Travel Page by Bwana_Brown

After finishing our first six days in Belize on the off-shore cayes ('Caye Caulker' and 'Ambergris Cay') and in the tropical forests of the 'Belmopan' area, we were keen to explore along the less-heralded southeast coast of the country. In the course of my research into our trip to Belize, the tips of VT-members "paradisedreamer", "diver-x" and "MrRandMcNally" had made the village of Hopkins appear quite in-keeping with my tastes. It had that off-the-beaten path sound to it with a chance to see what life was like in a 'non-tourist' area of Belize. It was a simple matter to get there with the rental vehicle we had for this 3-day section of our three weeks in Belize, so off we headed from Belmopan, down the beautiful Hummingbird Highway. We were accompanied on these three days by Canadian friends that we had first met on Caye Caulker and, although we had no accommodations booked as we headed southeast, it turned out to be a very enjoyable part of our trip! On the morning we left Hopkins, I came across these two young boys raking the sand in front of their parents restaurant before the school bus arrived. This little village of 1100 people, along with it's larger neighbour of 'Dangriga', are both home to a unique sector of the Belizian population - the Garinagu, a cultural mixture of Carib islanders and West Africans captured for slavery. All the Hopkins details are in my Tips!