As soon as you land, you see “unBELIZEable” posted everywhere as a tourism slogan, it’s also hash-tagged all over insta, and written as the album name for a vacay on your friends “feis”. I wasn’t 100% sure of what to expect when I started planning my trip to Belize, but my goal with all the traveling I do, is pretty much always the same. I just want the experience, I want to live the culture, know the people, see the beauty, and eat all the food.

I started by reaching out to people that I knew had already visited Belize and reading travel books written about it and finally decided that Hopkins Village is where I wanted to be. Si quieres saber why I chose Hopkins over San Pedro or Placencia, shoot me a message y te cuento.

Getting to Hopkins sounds like a way longer trek than it actually is. Once you fly into BZE, you can drive to Hopkins, which is about two and a half hours, or you can take a puddle jumper to the airport in Dangriga (15min flight) and from there it’s a 30-40min drive to Hopkins. I obvs puddle jumped and auto pilot said i was a pro at flying, soooooo pa’ que sepan, basicamente, soy pilota –

I stayed at Almond Beach Resort, where you can find info for here, in one of the Beachfront Thatched Casitas, where the beach was literally at the bottom of the steps of the deck. Having this room with an amazing ocean view is what popped me out of bed at 5:15am, after one sleepy eye slowly opened to see bright colors in the sky –

Almond Beach is not right in the middle of Hopkins Village, it’s a little out, but not super turbo far, so I rented some sweet wheels to get me around, and was able to zip around the dirt roads, explore, and eat all the delicious Garifuna food –

Another reason that I wanted to go to Belize, was to go diving. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to dive the Blue Hole, because there were no trips going out while I was there, which is a shame because now that just means I have to go back, BUT! I did not miss the opportunity to dive the second longest barrier reef in the world with Belize Underwater, which has an amazing team, and the dives were fantastic –

Ok, back to Hopkins. I absolutely fell in love with this town. The people were so kind and genuinely happy to help, answer questions, and share everything they know. The dirt roads, the wooden houses, the children running around playing, the coast, the fact that I am a female that travels alone and never once felt weird going out, parking my sweet whip and walking around day or night; it all just added to the charm that the town offers.

I cannot wait to go back and breathe the beautiful air of Belize. Next time I will for sure stay at Almond Beach again, eat some Hudutu at Innies Restaurant again (because it’s the bomb), and hopefully dive the Blue Hole! I also plan on visiting San Pedro, Placencia, and some cayes, and will most def let you know all about it once I do.

Now I’m going to leave you with 10secs of the sound of the ocean on an unBELIZEable Sunday morning –

xo.mangó

instagram: @sheicab