Happy Go Luckie in Hopkins

Happy Birthday to me! We just finished two weeks on the beach in Hopkins, Belize. It is a small coastal fishing village of a few thousand people. It is a Garifuna settlement, the people are descendents of shipwrecked African slaves and Island Caribs with a distinct culture, language and music; especially drumming. I am going to write about our experience in Hopkins while my Daddy helps with the details.

The day after we arrived in Hopkins, Ailsa and I had our hair braided. It took 5 hours! That night we had Miss Marva's Hudut - a Garifuna stew of fish, coconut milk and mashed plantains (we all helped them mash the plantains) - while we listened to a drumming concert. Our family got called to the front and had to do a dance that showed something we do at home, so we did a conga line pretending to shovel snow.

On most days we enjoyed swimming in the ocean at least once if not more, reading books and relaxing. It was very hot, but there is no ice cream store. Daddy made dairy-free sorbets for us. He made Coconut, Mint Dark Chocolate, and Pineapple flavours. My favourite was the Coconut.

On my birthday, we went on a snorkelling adventure to see the second largest barrier reef in the world. Our guide was Luckie from Happy Go Luckie Tours while Beaver drove the boat. They spoke Garifunian to each other. First we saw Bird Island, where the Frigate birds puffed up their red gullet sacks like a balloon to attract a mate. Then we went snorkelling near Carrie Bow Caye. We saw starfish, stingrays, a nurse shark, eel, sea cucumber, anemones, barracuda, and tonnes of colourful fish and reef corals. We saw hundreds of conch shells, and Luckie found a live one so we could feel the rubbery conch while it was still in its shell! We had a BBQ on Bread and Butter Caye for lunch before snorkelling again at Wee Wee Caye. It was my favourite experience so far on the trip.

On our last day, we all took a drumming lesson. Jabbar taught us different punta rhythms and beats. We still need a lot of practice.

Before we left we were each given a Horse-eye seed. In some cultures they believe the seeds are lucky. I think we were lucky to be in Hopkins.