A Day on your Belize Vacation at Beaches and Dreams, Hopkins

Get up and grab a cup of fresh coffee, always ready at sunrise, and head out to the dock for a beautiful sunrise

Watch the The Morning fisherman as he heads out to catch the days fish for the villagers

First he'll catch some bait

Then back up to beaches and Dreams Outdoor dining Deck for a Great Breakfast.....of

Angela's Fresh Baked Banana Bread........

....Fresh Fruit

And Frittata

And off to Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve for an early morning hike.

To a fantastic Waterfall

Where you can take a refreshing dip

And see some wild life like this black faced Howler Monkey

                  ..................................... AND LOTS OF BIRDS

THEN BACK TO HOPKINS

Just in time for the kids to go home from school for lunch

So you stop at Innies for a great local lunch yourself

Then back to Beaches and Dreams

For some quality hammock time

while absorbing the acquiescence of a Belizean Afternoon

Still some time for a little kayak

And see that the other guests have been successfully fishing

And play with Ruger for a little while

 

So you ask tony to book your own boat for tomorrow morning

Then its time for Happy Hour and a Shrimp Cocktail at the Barracuda Bar and Grill

Followed by a Seafood Sampler Platter

Or Surf and Turf

And Chocolate Mousse torte for Dessert

And after a fabulous sunset

You can retire to your room

And then, up the next morning to see what the new day will bring.......

You'd better Belize it!

Now offering sizzling summer features from June to November, stay for a week with breakfast for $550 for 2 persons or stay in our new deluxe Beachfront Boutique Hotel rooms for $699 per week with breakfast.

Summer Vacations in Belize

Chasing the Rainbow
This summer was the normal routine as June and July brought pretty dry weather and a busy tourist season at Beaches and Dreams in our little corner of the Universe. August brought a lot of night rains but spectacular weather during the day. The very hot, humid weather of summers past really didn't happen and it was good because our place stayed pretty darn busy, about perfect for Angela and I to be able to visit and plan with guests and not be overwhelmed with super busy nights at the Barracuda Bar and Grill. All in all , it was a great time to be a tourist at our place as we had the time to spend with each guest and be sure they got the trip they wanted.

Fishing was fantastic, 

With great catches of just about all specie, Snapper, Grouper, lots of Barracuda and the usual suspects all making for lots of coolers full of fish. Families were abundant this year and there is nothing like taking a child out to catch their first fish in life, something I've always cherished doing. It is like lighting a lifelong fire in them, not a bad thing. Trips went steadily to the new Zip Line at Mama Noots, our sister resort that we now do complete Jungle and Sea packages with. Only 12 miles away, it offers luxury stays in the jungle with an amazing array of activities, howler monkeys keeping you awake at night and a great onsite restaurant. A 3 night stay there and a 7 night stay here at Beaches and Dreams was a popular choice for couples and families alike. The completely off grid Eco Resort is in the Heart of Mayflower Bocawina National park, which boasts over 7000 acres, a birdwatchers paradise, as well as 5 waterfalls with in hiking distance. 
contact us at www.beachesanddreamns.com for a quote on your perfect all inclusive Belize vacation. Trips to the Mayan ruins, food tours to farms and orchards, Jungle horseback riding, and of course trips to the barrier reef to dive and snorkel all went unhindered this summer.

Magnificent sunsets over Victoria's Peak,

Belize's highest peak, could be viewed as the clouds moved in for the evening, offering a spectacular and unending variety of nightly views. A bike ride along the Sittee River Road at dusk let people take in the Savannah to see the Mayan Mountains as well as watch all of the many birds come to roost for the evening in the palmettos that line the wetlands of the Savannah.

The Barracuda Bar and Grill

was able to offer our usual plethora of Denizens of the deep as well as our house specialties like Belizean Paella or this Seafood Sampler featuring Lobster, Jumbo Shrimp and Fresh Snook filet in fresh herb and lemon sauce, all brought in fresh by the local fishermen. Another popular item offered on a regular basis was our Osso Bucco of Wild Boar. Fork tender and cooked in a Red wine and Herb sauce, served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and finished off with one of Angela's astounding desserts, the Barracuda Bar and Grill has truly become the Foodies place. Previous years has seen us close the restaurant from June to October, but this year the only closed month was September and I think that that will become the norm. We normally don't do lunch at the Barracuda , but on one occasion, we had some vegetarian guests and it was a rainy day.The guests, who had been enjoying a different vegetarian selection every evening at our place, displayed their dismay at the lack of selection for vegetarians at the other beach side resort restaurants in walking distance so I made them a little vegetarian Balck Bean Chili for lunch and we joined them in our outdoor venue as the rain pummeled the metal roof of our deck,

Veggie Black Bean Chili simmering

and we turned lemons into lemonade. 









All in all a fantastic summer it was.

Even Ruger 

Got his fill of extra attention as quests were eager to play with him and throw his Frisbee off the dock in an endless game of fetch. One guest even made a great video of him and girls came from up and down the beach to be photographed with him for his Facebook page.

  

You can see his video, 

and "like" him here  https://www.facebook.com/RugerTheBelizeBeachDog



For now, we move into another great season of offering the best that Belize has to offer at Beaches and Dreams Seafront Inn and the Barracuda Bar and Grill....You'd better Belize it!

Delicious Caribbean Menus

The plethora of fresh fish we've been getting at the Barracuda Bar and Grill at Beaches and Dreams has been great this year with regular catches of giant prawns, calamari and a great variety of Caribbean fish, including this mornings catch of Spanish Mackerel , which are running right here in the bight which paints the beachfront here in Hopkins, Belize with all of the colors from the palette every morning. I saw Old Man Nunez just as the sun came up casting his net to catch sprat to use for bait for the abundant Mackerel.

The changing colors of a Beaches and Dreams morning

                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                    

1 cast from Mr. Nunez and he has all the bait he'll need to catch a boatload of Spanish Mackerel

" Buiti Bunafi" (pronounced Bweety Boon-ah-fee) I bid him in Garifuna, acknowledged by a nod from him as he paddled by, eyes scanning  below the surface with barely enough light to see the telltale silver flash that tells him he is on the sprat. He readies his net and in one throw he brings up enough sprat to catch a boatload of the Spanish Mackerel.  I order 10 pounds of filets from him and he is on his way.

The Mackerel have a high content of oil and this makes for perfect smoking. I'll brine them overnight with brown sugar and salt, the way the Athabascans taught me in Alaska with a slow smoldering fire far away from the fish. I'll be able to give the fish a good 8 hour smoke. It will make a fabulous appetizer with pickled onions in sour cream. I'll also mix some of the crumbly smoky goodness with some cream cheese and bread crumbs for a great stuffing for snapper, topped with a delicate Champagne sauce. The smoked  fish will also make add  flavor and texture to our Belizean Paella which is one of the stars of our menu when lobsters are not in season.

Ready for some smoke after a 12 hour brine

Ready to close the lid and let benign neglect take over

 For the Paella, we take our smoked chicken and pork tenderloin and toss it in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, I'll add the mackerel then too. I let these products get hot and flavor the oil with their smokey goodness before adding raw giant prawns and whatever fresh fish and seafood we have that day. To this we add a rich saffron broth and some half cooked short grain rice, garlic and herbs round out the flavor platform and once the rice is done, the Paella is served with fresh roasted vegetables, and, if its for me, a glass of Bolla Pinot Grigio..

The Appetizer of Smoked Mackerel with pickled onions and sour cream will have the pleasure of being accompanied by our signature Sourdough Ciabatta Bread, lightly crisped in the oven. this airy crusty bread is made with a Sourdough Starter I started in Alaska 25 years ago. I brought it down and every time I bake the fresh bread, I take little out and add it to more flour and water and in 3 days, have a new bubbling batch that make finished product chewy and slightly sour.

A fresh batch of Sourdough Starter bubbles with the original sourdough brought from my Alaskan 25 year old starter

 Its just another day in culinary Paradise here in Belize. We meld the past with the present, culturally and gastronomically, borrowing from all cultures to produce some great food right on our little stretch of beach...........You'd Better Believe it!

Fishing Days are here!

Fishing in Belize is one of my favorite leisure time activities and in fact one of the reasons that I came down here. I've become expert at setting up fishing trips to the Belize Barrier Reef after cutting my teeth attempting various fishing methods in the wonderfully diverse fishing habitats that are available in a 7 mile radius of my front dock.
The Sittee River flows into the Caribbean Sea less than a mile to the south, providing a plethora of fishing opportunities both at the mouth and up the river. Incoming tides carry all types of the inner reef denizens like Snapper, Jacks and of course the namesake of my restaurant, the Barracuda Bar and Grill .
Up into the river and fishing the low mangroves form the river mouth upstream, you are likely to encounter monster Snook eager to hit soft baits or better yet, live bait. Also often under the mangrove overhangs are juvenile Tarpon, Mangrove Snapper, and Yellow Eyed Jacks. Through a cut in the mangroves, you can access Anderson Lagoon, home to Tarpon and Snook and also a great place to go on dark nights to see the phosphorescent glowing plankton that inhabit the lagoon,especially during the dry winter months when the salt content is high. There is nothing like a night time visit to Anderson Lagoon spotting crocodiles and Kinkajous while sipping a nice Chardonnay.

Coming out of the Anderson Lagoon Bar Mouth and heading south a mile, will bring you to Sapodilla Lagoon. At Sapodilla Lagoon at first light after a full moon phase, the Tarpon are voracious and hit anything that hits the water for about an hour after sunrise.

Trolling out to the reef and the inner reef is always a smorgasbord of fishing activity. Big Barracuda, King Mackerel, Jacks, Wahoo, and all varieties of Snapper are common catches along with the occasional Cobia. Once at the patch reef, you can change to some lighter gear and drop fish sardines for the smaller Yellow Tail and Silk Snapper, Grouper and amazing array of other fish. This is always great for kids as the action is almost omni-present and everyone on the boat can try at once. bring your snorkel gear and when it gets a little warm, jump in for some world class snorkeling .


Don't filet all those small snapper yet though, if its a calm day. you can head out through one of the cuts in the reef and find yourself drop fishing with larger gear with the live snapper in 200-400 feet of water where you never know what, or how big, of a fish you will catch.

Also with in this 7 mile radius of fantastically diversified fishing are the flats. World renown for its permit and bone fish, fly fisherman come from all over the world in hopes of getting the fly fishing grand slam in one trip. the Belizean Grand Slam consists of Bone Fish, Permit, Tarpon and Snook.

Come back to the Dock at Beaches and Dreams and ask to borrow one of our ultra light poles and cast out to the 2 O'clock position for grunts and small snapper that hang in the small patch of reef there and a full day of fishing is complete.


Well , almost complete,but not until you got a plate with pesto baked snapper filet over roasted vegetables and a glass of Pinot Grigio in front of you! From your fishing chef in Belize.....You'd Better Belize it!

Morning in Paradise

 As the sun rose over the Caribbean Sea

this morning, our catamaran, The Watuna, bobbed gently as I sipped my freshly brewed cup of Guatemalan coffee on the front porch. The catamaran has stayed moored out front for easy access for our Belize fishing, snorkeling and sailing trips. It can take up to 12 people and it was awaiting a tour this morning for a trip to the Barrier Reef, which lies just 5 miles off the coast of Hopkins, Belize. The guests were still mostly sleeping while my wife readied her usual breakfast delicacies for their enjoyment before heading out for a day of snorkeling the fabulous Belize Reef, which still teems with a plethora of colorful coral and fish.

    An Herbaceous Frittata

was on the menu this morning as the warm Caribbean Breeze and cacophony of birds are the usual alarm clock for slumbering guests at Beaches and Dreams. A few will meander out to get  coffee and head out to the dock to bid the day good morning and possibly contemplate how they can make the  vacation last.

      Fresh Fruit and Yogurt

help to round out every morning's menu. Caribbean fresh fruit from the markets and farms all across Belize are a must and once you've tasted just picked ripe bananas, papaya and starfruit, the at home supermarket varieties will never compare again. The yogurt is made at the Mennonite Dairy near Spanish Lookout in Northern Belize.[

           Freshly Baked Pastries

are always a must to fortify vacationers for various trips into Belize's Jungles, like the 2 nearby National Parks, Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve and Mayflower Bocawina
National Park, both great hiking destinations and a Bird Watcher's paradise. That's the great thing about Hopkins, we have all that Belize has to offer within just a short radius. Hopkins is bordered on the East by the Sea, with the best beach for swimming in Belize and to the west lie the Maya Mountains with a fabulous Savannah in between. The wetland Savannah is full of  birds like the Jabiru Stork and the Roseatted Spoonbill, Whistling Ducks, Tiger Herons  and Pigmy Kingfishers.

 Yes, I feel lucky to live in a place

where Scuba Diving, Snorkeling the second Largest Barrier Reef in the world, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Bird Watching, world class hiking and jungle experiences, Mayan Ruins, River Cave Tubing, Zip lining and of course just hanging out on a great piece of beach are all at my finger tips, and contemplating the days activities over one of Angela's great breakfasts is always a great way to start the day in Hopkins Belize.................You'd Better Belize It!