Hopkins
Hopkins is a quiet Caribbean town with a few nice places to eat and see. We only stayed a night and not sure we would stay much longer, however it's the stopping off point to get to Glovers Reef which we'd heard a few people saying good things about, unfortunately we didn't have the time.
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| A perfect palm tree in Hopkins |
Getting There
There are a few buses that go each day, some of them direct, others not so much. We got the 12:15pm chicken bus from Dangriga to Punta Gorda and got off at Hopkins Junction. It took about half an hour. From there we got a 10 minute Taxi to Hopkins for 30BZD. According to the lonely planet it should really have been 20BZD but there was no one else there, so we didn't have much bargaining power.Where we Stayed
We stayed in a twin room at the Funky Dodo hostel. The hostel was cool, and social, the showers we nice, though it was all shared bathrooms. The only real downside was how hot it got in the rooms and the gaps around the door to allow as many mosquitoes in as possible.
They also seemed to want deposits for absolutely everything!
They also seemed to want deposits for absolutely everything!
Food & Drink
- Driftwood Cafe - great pizza and beach, though it's pretty far from the main town!
- Thongs - another great place for smoothies.
Journal
We asked the bus conduction to tell us when to get off for Hopkins and he nodded and charged us about 5BZD, it wasn't very much anyway!
We'd barely had time to settle down and we were already arriving at the junction. The conductor let us know to get off and grabbed our bags for us before we jumped off at a very dusty crossroads. There was a taxi driver waiting there to take us to Hopkins. We'd read it should be 20BZD to Hopkins from the junction however the taxi driver wasn't going to accept anything other than 30BZD. Our haggling definitely failed us at this point and after discussing our other options, of which there weren't any, we jumped in. It was only ten minutes in the taxi and the driver dropped us off at our next hostel, The Funky Dodo.
The Funky Dodo is a laid back hostel, within a stones throw from the sea. We actually found the beach wasn't what we expected as it was very thin, and mostly flanked by residential properties, and the water seemed to be a little dirty. We were very hungry so after not finding much (or anything) on the beach we decided to explore up towards the main street to see if we could find any food. We found a place on Kate's list called Thongs Cafe where we grabbed a smoothie and a bit of food. It was nice to stay in the shade as it was extremely hot!
While at the cafe we did a bit of research of things to do in Hopkins. Top of the list was a mini golf course which was just up the road from the cafe which was linked to a bar. What better way to spend an afternoon! We walked up to have a look as I was hoping to beat Kate at mini golf again. Unfortunately when we got there we found the course and the bar seemed to be closed, as we were there during low season the a lot of places were shut for renovations, or just because it wasn't cost effective to stay open. Instead we sat down on the beach, which was still quite difficult to find a spot due to all the palm trees trying to drop coconuts everywhere!
We'd been sitting there for about ten minutes when a dog came to sniff around us. We are usually quite wary of the dogs around as we don't know what their temperament is, and they often don't have owners, not to mention the fleas and other things they might carry. We shooed the dog away at least a couple of times before we allowed him to sit near us under a tree. He looked very dejected and slowly edged closer and closer again till we finally gave up and let him say hello. It was a very cute dog but we decided that we'd rather head back at this point to work out what we wanted for dinner.
As we got up and started walking back we were followed by our new friend. Imaginatively we named him; Hopkins. Hopkins followed us all the way back to the hostel where he was chased out by one of the owners. According to her there are many, many stray dogs in Hopkins and at one point she had more than ten as she kept on taking them in. She told us that they all act very cute as a ploy at getting taken in. I'm still not sure about this as we definitely met some stray dogs with terrible temperaments, and even more dogs with owners which were just plain aggressive. Eventually we had to sneak away so Hopkins couldn't follow us and we felt very guilty indeed.
We decided we'd head up to the north end of the town for dinner at a place called the driftwood cafe. They supposedly did great pizza. We started off on the walk and we quickly walking in the middle of the road to avoid being too close to any dogs that might jump out from the properties at the side of the road. It ended up being an extremely long walk, so long in fact that a few other people who were also looking for the same place asked if we knew where it was. We replied that we thought you just followed the road until it pretty much finishes.
When we got there we found a great beach area with a volleyball net, beach chairs, and a few huts. It was what we hoped to find further down the beach near our hostel. We sat down and ordered a pizza to share. The pizzas are on the expensive side so sharing is a good option, we were satisfied with half each! As we were finishing the other people who had asked us for directions earlier asked us if we wanted to share a cab back. We jumped at the chance as it was getting dark and we didn't fancy the walk back.
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| Kate cooling down at the Funky Dodo Hostel |
The Funky Dodo is a laid back hostel, within a stones throw from the sea. We actually found the beach wasn't what we expected as it was very thin, and mostly flanked by residential properties, and the water seemed to be a little dirty. We were very hungry so after not finding much (or anything) on the beach we decided to explore up towards the main street to see if we could find any food. We found a place on Kate's list called Thongs Cafe where we grabbed a smoothie and a bit of food. It was nice to stay in the shade as it was extremely hot!
While at the cafe we did a bit of research of things to do in Hopkins. Top of the list was a mini golf course which was just up the road from the cafe which was linked to a bar. What better way to spend an afternoon! We walked up to have a look as I was hoping to beat Kate at mini golf again. Unfortunately when we got there we found the course and the bar seemed to be closed, as we were there during low season the a lot of places were shut for renovations, or just because it wasn't cost effective to stay open. Instead we sat down on the beach, which was still quite difficult to find a spot due to all the palm trees trying to drop coconuts everywhere!
We'd been sitting there for about ten minutes when a dog came to sniff around us. We are usually quite wary of the dogs around as we don't know what their temperament is, and they often don't have owners, not to mention the fleas and other things they might carry. We shooed the dog away at least a couple of times before we allowed him to sit near us under a tree. He looked very dejected and slowly edged closer and closer again till we finally gave up and let him say hello. It was a very cute dog but we decided that we'd rather head back at this point to work out what we wanted for dinner.
 |
| Relaxing at the beach before we were interrupted |
As we got up and started walking back we were followed by our new friend. Imaginatively we named him; Hopkins. Hopkins followed us all the way back to the hostel where he was chased out by one of the owners. According to her there are many, many stray dogs in Hopkins and at one point she had more than ten as she kept on taking them in. She told us that they all act very cute as a ploy at getting taken in. I'm still not sure about this as we definitely met some stray dogs with terrible temperaments, and even more dogs with owners which were just plain aggressive. Eventually we had to sneak away so Hopkins couldn't follow us and we felt very guilty indeed.
We decided we'd head up to the north end of the town for dinner at a place called the driftwood cafe. They supposedly did great pizza. We started off on the walk and we quickly walking in the middle of the road to avoid being too close to any dogs that might jump out from the properties at the side of the road. It ended up being an extremely long walk, so long in fact that a few other people who were also looking for the same place asked if we knew where it was. We replied that we thought you just followed the road until it pretty much finishes.
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| A long dusty walk to the driftwood cafe |
When we got there we found a great beach area with a volleyball net, beach chairs, and a few huts. It was what we hoped to find further down the beach near our hostel. We sat down and ordered a pizza to share. The pizzas are on the expensive side so sharing is a good option, we were satisfied with half each! As we were finishing the other people who had asked us for directions earlier asked us if we wanted to share a cab back. We jumped at the chance as it was getting dark and we didn't fancy the walk back.
Five minutes later and we were back at the Funky Dodo where we had showers and caught up on some sleep. For breakfast the next morning we headed back to Thongs as soon as it opened. We planned to catch the Chicken bus from Hopkins to Placencia which came at 9am. The breakfast was good, and came with extra fruit which we appreciated and then it was quickly back to the hostel to pack our bags and head to the bus stop which was actually just a hut about thirty metres away from the hostel.
We waited at the bus stop for about ten minutes before the bus arrived. I ran and put the bags on the bus and as I was closing the door the bus started to move. I quickly shut the door and sprinted round to the door to jump on just in time (At least that's how it went in my head, I think actually the bus driver just saw me in his wing mirror and stopped). And that was our one night in Hopkins!
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