Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Oct 19, 1999 Hopkins Village Part 2There are a few more things I want to relate about my visit to Hopkins before I forget. Hopkins is primarily a fishing village, the fishing boats (really slightly enlarged rowboats in a variety of colors mostly blues) are just pulled up onto the beach. "Our" boat, that is the one that is beached right in front of the Tipple Tree, is jointly owned by two older men, probably in their 70s. They go out very early in the morning, about 4:00 am when I was there. Debbie says that sometimes they stay out for days, living and sleeping on this small boat. I think this must be an exaggeration, because surely the fish you catch the first day aren't much good by the 3rd or 4th day even if you have them in a cooler, right? Well, anyway this day, they came back around 4:00 pm with a boatload of fish and immediately drew a crowd. They were cleaning and selling fish, we could see, sometimes just a few, or a fish steak or two, sometimes a whole gunnysack full. But there were many more children staring into the boat than seemed reasonable for what must be a common occurrence in the village. Eventually we strolled down to see what was up. The two fishermen had lots of snapper of various kinds, and a few large barracuda and some other fish I have no idea what they are--all of them caught on a handline, no mean feat with a barracuda. But the star of the show was a 6 foot, black-tip shark, also caught on the handline. I can't imagine their being willing to haul that thing into the boat. Sharks are reputed to be hard to kill and even harder to dress out. And I believe it. Some very tough and experienced old fishermen. And someone explained to us that shark was excellent eating and the shark oil was used in many natural remedies and would bring the fishermen a very good price. I was just as glad I wasn't around for the rendering process. The night before there had been bonfires all up and down the beach. When I asked if this was usual, Debbie said, no, but since there is no trash service in the village and since all the houses are made of untreated wood, everyone waits for a very still night to burn trash. And of course they all do it at one time. I didn't mind, though, it kept the sand flies away for a while. I got really chewed to pieces in Hopkins and am still feeling the effects. Yesterday, though, Laura (the Dangriga wine maker, retired Canadian teacher) gave me a dose of antihistamine for the itching and so I would sleep and I feel much better today. I also learned that DEET has absolutely no deterrent effect on sand flies (although it will soften fingernail polish nicely), but if you coat yourself in oil (mineral oil, baby oil, cooking oil, whatever), it's supposed to keep them from biting and also clog them up and kill them somehow, by drowning I think. Haven't tried it, could be hard on the sheets. My other Hopkins fishing story is this. I saw lots of pelicans fishing and frigate birds. It's interesting because you can tell where the schools of fish are by watching the birds. And some of the dogs can too. As soon as he saw several catches by the pelicans, the neighbor dog swam out into the shallows, paddling around in circles, peering intently into the water. Then, CHOMP, grab a fish, swim like hell for the shore and toss it down so you can eat it at leisure. Probably why the dogs survive and the cats don't. A cat can't learn to fish like that. Things are improving on the home front, besides the bed I now have a water cooler and a stove. Hooking up the stove was a project. This is Therese's old stove. She got a new one when they moved into their new house. The fact that I could use the old one was just enough of an excuse, I think. When she first offered, I said I couldn't use it because there was no gas in my apartment. But of course, you just hook a tank of gas to it with a copper tube and some fittings and that white joint tape. Very nice addition to the kitchen decor. At least the tank is white. Kurt the young (19) programmer here at Naturalight hooked it up for me, but I have to admit I haven't used it yet. It smells just the tiniest bit "gassy" and I'm waiting until the (properly mature and experienced) neighborhood handyman comes back from his trip to the states to check it out. And I have a visitor from the states coming this weekend (a friend, I mean, one of you, a recipient of this newsletter), so there may not be any new messages for a while. But I'm excited and we're sure to have more adventures to report. Two can be much braver than one |
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