brother from another mother

Watching the bus drive away in a cloud of dust from where I had jumped off at Hopkins, a little Garifuna town on the coast just south of dangrega, I initially thought I must be in the wrong place. There isn't that much beaten track to get off of in Belize, but wandering down to the beach and not seeing a sole is quite a refreshing change from the tourist circuit.
Being the sucker for advertising I am my hostel choice was made primarily on which place had the prettiest signs, and with there only being one to chose from I was welcomed into the Kismet Inn

by the wonderful Tricia and the manically depressed Zar. Kismet is a beautiful wooden shack on the beach created in a very flower power/ woodstock/ summer of love vibe, by a very flower power/ woodstock/ summer of love only white lady in the village.
Taking Zar (who won't leave the house alone now after he watched his brother being killed by crocs)

up to the lagoon you see how the future of this little (200 person) fishing village is shaping up under the hands and shuvvels of foreign developers; rows of identical prefab $1/2mil magnolia timeshare houses driving land prices sky high, making hopkins 3 times its size, creating a casino, golf course and marina out of the lagoon changing the ocean floor which will inevitably move the fish further away from the hungry village. Rahh!! When I were a lad, all this were fields and all that. Might get broadcast rights and start a new series of tropical neighbors from hell or something...

The people here are unbelievably friendly, with locals dropping by to give you a fish all fried up ready from their catch of the day and stopping for a chat in the street as you're sauntering down to the store.


Unfortunately having to leave Tricia's wonderfull mango snapper with papaya chutney for Placencia to get the boat over to Honduras. This place didn't even try to hide its blatant greed for foreign money though, with little mini Dubai-stylee island housing developments being sculpted all the way down the main land spit,

it is really sad to see this beautiful country being changed in to another Floridian executive village.
Although watching the dolphins playing in the bay made up for everything, even though as typical Belizian time applies and the boat isn't actually leaving for another 3 days! Can't belive I'm getting impatient and frustrated for having to spend another few days in tropical paradise with the mini gangsters...