We fought the terrible road for another 25 miles to our next stop, Dangriga. We were just passing through to find out the prices for a boat to the cayes so we could go on our way North. The border crossing to Guatemala is quite far North in Belize so for us to see everything we wanted to it meant we would have to drive all the way South and then back on ourselves to get to Guatamala.
Dangriga was busy so we didn’t hang around for long and we were as per usual, on a schedule to get to Punta Gorda for a certain date as we had been making plans for a wedding.
We decided to spend the night in Hopkins where we boondocked on the beach. We found a hostel (The funky Dodo) that let us use their cold shower and bathroom and then settled down for the night. We watched the sea brew up a storm and then the rain came. I was sure we would be washed away to sea it was such heavy rain…anyway, we didn’t get washed away but one side of Peggy was nice and clean! The rain comes side ways in Belize!
The next morning we watched the family next to where we were parked slaughter their pig and then set off to Placencia…’where the best beaches in Belize mainland are’. We picked up several people on the road, the rain was still coming and going and the busses are so few and far between we carried families drenched through so far and then picked up a local who took out boat tours. We asked him if there was somewhere for us to camp for the night and he said ‘sure mon, I show you da good spat to stay’ so he told us we would be fine to park up on the beach front for the night so that is just what we did. With our saved accomodation money we treat ourselves to lunch out. Alex had Conch fritters and I had the local fish it was lovely but such huge portions…we eat little and often but ate until we were fit to burst. We watched a storm come in just as we were about to walk back to the van so waited for it to pass with a coffee. Once we had let our massive meal settle we went and sat on the beach, Alex carved a stick he had found into a fishing ‘spear’ and I started reading up on Guatamala. As we sat in the sun we watched 3 dolphins frolick in the shallow water in front of us. Once Alex had finished his fishing spear he was excited to try it out so armed with his snorkel and mask he went to get in! It was dark by the time he had adjusted his mask to fit and got in upto his waist so we will have to save it for another day!
The next morning we were woken up by the usual general morning sounds, parrots, dogs, people chatting, bottle collectors on the beach and fishing boats getting ready to start their day. We made the most of our early start and set off to Punta Gorda where we were meeting Reyes, the chairman of the TEA Belize who had been kind enough to agree to help us plan our 12th wedding.

Find out what happens next on our travelling wedding adventure!