New Years in Hopkins Village and Sittee River

We ended one year and started a new one in Hopkins Village. The ever helpful Clayton from Abacus Cabanas readied the two loner bikes ($10 for ½ a day) and we rode from Hopkins to Sittee River.

We were taking a boat to Glover’s Atoll Resort from Sittee River the next morning. It’s a very small place so we chose to stay in Hopkins Village for New Years. We could have stayed at the lodgings owned by Glovers Atoll Resort in Sittee River and many people do. We had to check-in in advance at Sittee River so the plan was to ride there, check in  and then get a taxi back for the actual trip the following day.

The road between Hopkins and Sittee River was partly washed out because of the rain. The water was so deep in places that we had to get off the bikes and walk them through the water.

 

We found the guest house is Sittee River which is a very small place with lots of bugs. We met some of the guests returning from Glovers Atoll they all said it was an amazing place. We found someone who appeared to be in charge and checked in. I am not sure we really needed to but it made us feel better about ensuring the boat did not leave without us in the morning.

We asked what was further down the road and were told there was an old sugar factory being excavated out of the jungle so we rode there. Serpon Sugar Mill was interesting, the bugs were not too bad and the one guy working there was very helpful. The actual sugar mill has been inactive since 1910 and they are still digging the site out of the jungle. We were the only visitors. We paid $10 Belize each and wandered around. We were told there was a monkey but we did not see it. The guy working there cut us some sugar cane to try and gave us a basic explanation about the process. They are still developing the site and had plans to build paths into the jungle behind.

 

On the way back to Hopkins it started to rain. We stopped in an empty sports field with a small open shelter to put our phones (which we were using for photos) into plastic bags. We were the only people around. Everyone in Belize says hello and stops to talk to you. People were waving from their porches as we rode by on our bikes. So when a car stopped briefly to let a woman out and then drove away.  It did not seem that odd when she came across the field to talk to us.

She asked us if we could help her with a text message from her husband on her phone? An odd request but we looked and could not find one. She asked us where we had come from and where we were going, then she asked how much money we had with us… It was at that point that we started to worry. I told her we were just out for a bike ride so we did not have any with us. But the cell phones had been out when she arrived because we were putting them in bags.

She used her phone to call her “husband” and spoke in the local dialect. The only words we caught were the name of the place we were at and where we had told her we were going. I may be wrong but I am pretty sure it was the guy in the car and we were being set-up. The road between where we were and home was basically empty we would have been an easy target. Rather than going back to Hopkins we went back to the Glovers Guest House at Sittee River. We told the story and everyone agreed it was very odd but we assured that things like that never happen in the area. We stayed there for a while just in case. Our thinking was that if there was someone waiting for us on the road home they would get bored and give up.

We made it home without incident although we did learn latter with the flooding the alligators had moved in and they had been seen around the hip deep water we were walking the bikes through!

It was New Year’s Eve and the owners gave us a ride into town. Like all cars in Belize it had at least one crack in the windshield no one fixes them because you just get more!

We celebrated New Year’s at the Windschief right on the beach, the crowd was mostly expats, a few locals and some stray dogs who were friendly and liked to visit anyone who was eating. The evening started with a screening of Dinner for One. We were told it is a German tradition on New Year’s although we never watched it when we lived in Germany! We had what were easily the best hamburgers we have ever eaten and a few beers each. The whole bill was $44 Belize! The evening’s entertainment was a Belize band called Zero Tolerance and a blues singer named Steev Inglish who was also an expat. They were both very good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_-NM0Rl05A

 

We did not make it to midnight so we walked home in the dark. The only issue was a local dog which we had to detour around.