On the 11th June we caught the 6:30am ferry from Caye Caulker back to the mainland and then a bus heading south. I (Simon) remember thinking that we had actually started going south - the correct direction to South America. We had missed the bus to Hopkins so we got dropped on the side of the road at the turn off and after 10 minutes or so were able to hitch a lift the last few miles into town with our new friend Diane who we met on the bus.

We found it difficult to find a place to stay in Hopkins because no one seemed to be around in the middle of the day but eventually after much sweat we eventually found a place on the beach. It was over budget but had a kitchen so we could save money and cook for ourselves for the first time in nearly a month. The rest of the day was very relaxed exploring the town and deciding what to do the following days. I had imagined Hopkins to be a small, undeveloped, rustic place but it has a population of 2,000 and was quite developed - I guess after being in the Lonely Planet for at least the last two editions it's no longer a secret. There was also a lot of plastic rubbish on the beach - apparently it washes in from Honduras. Near the smarter hotels it had been cleared.

The next day we did a snorkelling day trip to Tobacco Caye, 10km off the coast, with Diane. The boat dropped us on the island for 4 hours to explore, have lunch and snorkel. The island is only 5 acres so we walked around it in 10 minutes. It's mainly beach huts for rent on the north side and poorer and some abandoned buildings on the south side. Apparently they've been abandoned since hurricane Mitch in the 90s (I think) as it's too expensive to repair or demolish them. We were going to stay a few nights on Tobacco but had decided just to visit for the day since Belize was hitting our budget. We had a great lunch of fish, rice and beans and chatted to the cook who preferred living on Tobacco than Miami - I can see why but I would eventually get very bored. Then in the afternoon the boat picked us up and took us for some more snorkelling near the reef, which was pretty great. At some points the water was very shallow and the coral in these parts had sadly taken a battering from the snorkelling over the years.

Our third and last day in Hopkins was very relaxed. I (Simon) found a great beach bar to watch Holland smash Spain 5-1 and Australia unfortunately lose 3-1 to Chile in the World Cup. Apart from that Katy chilled in a hammock.

Simon