Day 3: Off to the Island (Hopkins to Hideaway Caye)

I woke up this morning to another variety of sounds. Birds chirping, people talking, some sort of loud flapping that I think was either sheets or maybe the hammocks being tousled. Either way, I cannot wait to get to the island to have a peaceful nights sleep where I can finally sleep in. After I got up, I had a cold shower, went to the grocery store to get some snacks for on the island, then ate breakfast. For breakfast I had some homemade coconut bread that I had bought from two local boys the night before with yogurt, a banana, and orange juice. The boys had come through the streets and hostel selling it to people for only $1BZD ($0.50USD). It was delicious. Sort of a wheat bread that was mildly sweet. Then, I put on my bathing suit and headed down to the beach. It was already too hot to just sit on the beach, so I waded out to my knees and just walked around watching the fish swim by. There were two other ladies in the water, some people walking along the beach, and a man raking the seaweed up. I thought it was strange that he would be paid to rake seaweed every morning. But I just assumed that the resort I was in front of wanted to look nice and have cleans and for guests to lay on. However, I later learned that this is because of the trash that floats up onto shore. Honduras has a trash dump that is on the shore so that when the tide comes in, it takes trash out to get ride of it - and they designed it this way! This afternoon when boating out to the island, we even saw a refrigerator floating by. Anyways, I stayed at the beach for about an hour before going back to the hostel to pack up.

After checking out of the Funky Dodo this morning, I caught a taxi down to pick up my aunt and uncle then head to the marina. The taxi driver was not pleased when I said I wanted to go to the marina because the roads are so bad down there. All the roads in Belize are dirt except for the three highways. Hummingbird highway, the southern highway, and the northern highway. Apparently they're so bad because all the property down that way is private so no one wants to pay to fix the roads themselves.

Once Brett, Barb, and I were at the marina, we ate lunch at the restaurant there. We had burgers with plantain and Cassava root chips that were delicious! Dustin (of Dustin & Kim - the owners of the island) met us there and took us out to the island. The views were breath taking. You could see exactly where the reefs were and the drop offs based on the color of the water. The trees on the distant islands looked like sky scrapers from afar. We even saw a seaturtle swim right next to the boat!

When we arrived at Hideaway Caye (pronounced key), we were greeted by Kim, Byama - or Ama for short (their daughter), Caye (their big rottweiler), and Maya (their little dog.) There is a wooden path that leads to their house, the cabana, and the restaurant. Everything here they hauled to the island and built themselves! So many people dream to escape to and island and live off the land, and they've done it! Hideaway Caye even has a restaurant and bar on it. Boats throughout the day will come and anchor out, then dinghy ashore to enjoy some food or refreshments. Kim and Dustin are completely self sufficient on the island between the restaurant and bar and the cabana.

They built the cabana first, then the restaurant which has a loft that they lived in until their house was built. The original purpose was the cabana, and the restaurant just came along afterwards. Then, they built their house after a few years ans before having Ama.

Once we were settled, we all took a nap for a few (~3) hours. We woke up around 5 maybe? Who knows, it's island time now. There were some guests there from a sailboat that had moored in the bay. They were doing a four night chartered sail on a catamaran around Belize. Of all the places in the world, we met a couple from Bainbridge Island, WA! They mentioned that their son had done something similar to me where he took five months off after college, but he biked (as in bicycle) across the U.S.! I couldn't believe it. Apparently he also wrote a blog that includes conversations with various people that he met.

Then, after they returned to their boat, Dustin and Ama took Barb and I out for a sunset kayak around some nearby islands. Key went too even though he broke his back about two months ago climbing through the mangroves. It was great rehab and exercise for him though. Once we returned, we hung out in the restaurant a bit where Kim served us dinner. She prepared skewered shrimp with pasta, fresh made bread, and a garden salad. The shrimp was delicious - well really it was all delicious - and it was so good to have a salad again!

On the way back to the cabana, I happened to looked up, and could not believe how incredibly bright the stars were! I've been places were there is not a lot of light pollution, but nothing like this. I could see stars that I've never seen before. I could even made out Orion and not only his belt, but also his feet, sword, face, and bow - which Barb pointed all of them out to me. The view was absolutely stunning.

Tomorrow, I can not wait to go snorkeling after breakfast! That is definitely what I am looking forward to the most on this trip.