Friday morning found us heading over to Hopkins Village on the Caribbean coast. About a 2 hour drive down the Hummingbird highway, definitely the most beautiful drive in Belize.

Our mission was to deliver a care package to Shelly, from her parents Dave and Ellen Redden who have a place in Cholla. Shelly is a school teacher in Hopkins and needed a few things, and it just happened that we were headed that way.

On the way into Hopkins we picked up a nail in the tire, a nice guy on a bike let us know that our tire was getting low. So we pulled over and went across the street to a little beach restaurant to see if anyone in town could fix it. They did point us in the right direction and a guy got on it right away. After the tire came off we saw that the bead was pulled away from the tire and it was unsafe to drive. Long story short, we needed another tire.

There is only about 1200 people in Hopkins, but not single used tire to be had. A tire was ordered from Dangriga about 20 miles away, I’m pretty sure it came by bus. Nothing to do now but wait for a crappy used tire. So back to the little beach restaurant where the guy had helped us and we ordered some of the best fried conch and cold Belikins around.

After lunch we checked into a nice little beach cottage at Jungle Jeanie’s. Turns out she is originally from Canada and has been here for 35 years. Not sure her age, but she definitely has some, anyway she jumped on her paddle board and took off like a pro.

After a cool dip in the water and a shot of Moonshine it was time to go meet Shelly.

Ended up meeting her at a little beach bar everyone goes after work. By this time her boyfriend had shown up and it turns out he had just became a Belizean citizen today, so time break out the tequila. It was approaching our bedtime so we handed off the bottle of Mexican Moonshine to them to help in the celebration.

Next morning up early to see if another tire had arrived, and it had, yippie! So now back on the road to San Ignacio, along the way we came to a wetland area and out in the middle were 20 or so big storks, we had seen the at the Belize Zoo but never in the wild, what a treat. After we got back to San Ignacio we stopped into the big open air market. They have the biggest and freshest produce you have ever seen, plus spices, meats, etc.

By now we thought we should go check on Ruben since it had been two days since we last saw him. Wow is he a hard worker! At the end of our driveway he has a 50′ x 80′ opening where the main house will be and another 30′ x 30′ area in the trees cleared where a guest house will go. Making progress fast.

On the way out from the property we come across a 3′ iguana just sitting in the middle of the road, he eventually scurried off into the bushes. A little bit further down the road we saw flocks and flocks of parrots flying around, so we stopped the car and got out.

They just kept coming and landing all around us within 50′ or so. There we literally hundreds and hundreds of parrots everywhere. Definitely an experience we will never forget.

Right now sitting on the porch with a cold Belikin and writing this blog for the second time and wondering what adventure awaits us tomorrow. Yes the first Draft just went away somewhere out in space.