Our trip to the Mayan ruins of Lamanai was quite interesting. We were joined by a crazy woman from Australia and her native Belizian, unofficial tour guide, Mandingo. The woman was a combination of a paranoid schizophrenic and bipolar depressant on an extreme high. She spent the first 15 minutes cursing her official tour guide for "changing his story regarding the f*@%ing cost of the trip, which was giving her a f%#*ing headache and ruining her day," in between telling incomprehensible dirty jokes and laughing hysterically at herself. Regarding the cursing, it was evident to everyone else there her guide was saying the same thing she originally understood, although she just didn't seem to understand anymore.
After this initial turmoil, we headed to Lamanai via a small boat. The trip along the jungle-lined river took a little over an hour and was met with frequent sightings of cool looking birds and a couple of alligators. I saw only water splashing during the first sighting, but I saw beady little eyes lingering above the water during the second sighting. My first real alligator. The ruins were fairly minimal, but we did make a short, albeit steep and exhausting, climb to the top of the main temple. The view was amazing.
Upon returning from Lamanai, we headed straight to Dangriga, a small beach town full of Garifuna influence, Punta Rock, and Chinese food. It was quite unexpected to go out for dinner in this Caribbean influenced town and find only Chinese restaurants open, all serving the exact same menu varieties of Chow Mein and Chop Suey. Unfortunately, it was Monday and there wasn't much going to showcase the Garifuna influence outside of the mid-week wake, which was quite a party in the village. We were invited, but unable to find our friends or the location. The people here are great. Very friendly and similar to Jamaicans in their slow paced, 'one love' views of life and continuous spliff smoking.
We headed to nearby Hopkins beach for a day. We were going to attempt to scuba dive, hoping to find the nearby whale shark. Upon arrival, we learned that the whale shark was coming in about 5 or 6 days, supposedly he feeds off of spawning fish 3-4 days after the full moon, and there were no afternoon trips for any other kind of diving. We gladly spent the rest of the day on Hopkins beach. It was quiet, secluded and very relaxing. In the evening we had a great dinner, pleased to be out of Dangriga for a non-Asian variety, and listened to some Punta Rock
drummers. Our friend from Dangria offered to come have dinner and pick us up, but wasn't able to make it due to car failure, so we took a shuttle home. The shuttle driver was our bartender and he drank the local bitter (Belizian alcohol) and smoked a blunt on the drive back. Good thing there wasn't anyone else on the road.
We also ran into our old friend from Lamanai, Mandingo, who is pictured on the left. In Hopkins, there is a great drumming center where locals go to jam on the drums. We headed down for a great private session of drumming and even got a lesson. It's not as easy as it looks.
I would definitely suggest Hopkins and Dangriga as great places to visit. They are quiet places, not a lot of tourist. The locals are friendly and the vibe is very Caribbean. Hopkins has a bit more variety in restaurants, a few bars open midweek, the drumming center and is an easy launching point for reef dives and to get to some of the Caye islands in this region of Belize. Placencia is said to be a better launching point for whale shark sightings. I am heading there tomorrow.
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