Last week, our village of Hopkins, Belize celebrated Garifuna Settlement Day. This is a national Belizean holiday celebrated each year on November 19. The main event of Garifuna Settlement day is the re-enactment of boats arriving to the shores of Belize. (The side events are parties and drumming all weekend...
Family Vacation from Hopkins Belize to Northern Belize
Summer 2020, we took a family vacation weekend to Northern Belize. We celebrated two birthdays and spent time with friends. I cannot say enough good things about our day trip to Lamanai. Lets start with the fact that you arrive at the site by boat...
Visiting Belize Safely in 2020
Reopening! On October 1, 2020, Belize opened its international airport, after being closed for 6 months. We are welcoming all international travelers including from the USA and Canada. The government of Belize has created a new set of safety protocols and recommendations for hotels, restaurants and tours so that we...
Punta Gorda Overnight: Maya Kitchen, Earthship, Fancy Hotel
After living in Belize for almost 3 years, there are still many parts of the country I do not know well. One area I haven't visited very much is in the south of Belize, Punta Gorda (PG). PG is consider (even) more rural than the rest of Belize; there are...
Maya Immersion with Mom
Mom arrives in Belize! My mom made her second visit to Belize in January, just one month after our Christmas visit to the States. We had planned her Belize trip long before our Christmas trip so it was not intentional to see each other SO soon again, but certainly welcome!...
Hopkins Garifuna Immersion
After living here for a year, there are still a few tours offered by our resort that I have not taken myself. I've heard so many amazing things about the Garifuna Immersion tour from day one, so this past summer I decided to take the kids. The Garifuna Immersion is...
Our mini-break…or Trucks, Buses, Vans and Canoes
A Rough Start The title of this post is referencing an old movie called "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" which is a comedy of errors about a man trying to get home for the holidays. While taking 2 day mini-escape from our resort over Easter break we needed quite a few...
Fay’s Belizean Birthday
Before coming to Belize, I was already anticipating Fay's birthday, which would occur within a couple months of our arrival. I wasn't sure which things would be easy to buy and which things would be difficult to obtain here in Hopkins, so I brought some piñata making supplies. I make...
Checking out Sittee River
On Saturday, we took a much needed break from the business of buying the resort and did some exploring with the kids. We had taken them in to town on our second day here, but they hadn't seen much beyond the resort area and Hopkins Village. One place I really...