Vacation, something we are all wanting and needing very badly at this point. Since they finally opened up Belize to where the locals are free to travel around the country once again, we thought we would take a little mini-vacation and head over to the coast. We chose to go to Hopkins for a few days since it’s only a 2 1/2 hour drive from our place. We had a great beachfront room at Hopkins Bay Resort where we overlooked the beach and sunrise every morning.

The weather was not the perfect sunny and calm beach days we were hoping for. The days were windy and cloudy with some heavy rains mixed in every so often, but we made the best of it. Since there weren’t really any good pool or beach days, we decided to take the hour drive down to Placencia one day for lunch. We had our minds set on going to Barefoot’s Beachfront Bar for their ultimate lobster grilled cheese sandwich, and it did not disappoint.

While we were in Placencia we just had to stop in at Big Titty Rum and get a bottle of their locally made rum. This time we thought we would try their Big Titty Vanilla Rum, they also had some other flavors, but this one sounded interesting. I’m not a big rum drinker, but I do like Big Titty.

Of course, being on the coast we had to go fishing. Kelley and I are used to open-water ocean fishing, not river fishing, but we really wanted to catch a tarpon since neither of us ever have. In the Sittee River, you need to cast up and under the mangrove trees, which means sometimes you catch the trees, not something we are used to when fishing in the ocean. And when the lure does get stuck in the trees and you pull it really hard, sometimes it will come at you fast and stick its treble hooks in your leg. Another thing about river fishing in Belize that we are not used to, is that while you are casting your lures, you have an eight-foot crock swim in front of you. Definitely not a place you want to go swimming.

We did see a few manatees swimming by in the river and we even did manage to hook and lose a couple of small tarpon. It was still a great day on the river fishing even though we had to be up at 4:30 am and didn’t catch anything. The guide told us that in late November the big tarpon are thick in the river, so that will be the next time when we will try to catch our very first tarpon.

Because of what’s going on in the world they had to cancel all the Lobsterfest parties on the islands this year. We look forward to Lobsterfest, so about a week ago we called our lobster guy (yes, we have a guy) in Hopkins about getting 50 or so lobsters for us and our friends. The waters have been a little rough and muddy from all the rain, but he did come through for us. So this year we will have our own little Lobsterfest up in the Jungle. We will throw some on the grill and everyone else can bring their favorite lobster dish for everyone to try. We’ll see how it goes and maybe we could start doing a jungle Lobsterfest every year.

Well, that was our fourth of July weekend, but now it’s back to tending to all the plants and other never-ending projects around here. We hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend and was able to have a mini-vacation somewhere. Hopefully, soon we can all start planning those much needed big vacations once again.