Girl! Whose ya teacha? Who you playin drums wit? Who you gonna listen to? You listen to me!

We're in Hopkins town now and it's quite the interesting little find. It's got all dirt roads, with many potholes. It is beach front along the turquoise Caribbean ocean. The people here listen to either reggae or hip hop. There are a tonne of dread locked heads in sight, mostly welcoming you with a hello and a smile. There are grass roofed houses and cabanas galore and palm trees and bushes, even more.

We're staying with an artistic, eccentric lady named Trish, at her place, Kismet Inn, and she's pretty interesting. She's 54 and is originally American, from Manhattan and she had an after death calling to come to Belize and make a life here. She died for 3 hours about 11 years ago and took a while to recover and about 10 years ago her calling became clear. Go to Belize. So she did. She came and married a Belize man with the last name Kismet so that she could live here. On one end of town she's known as Mrs Kismet and on the other she is Mrs. Elvis.

Elvis is a laid back Caribbean man with long arms, a head full of dreads and a killer white smile (purchased at the dentist in Guatemala). He lives with Trish and as she puts it he is her "Black Caribbean lover". He grunts and groans at her in a language I have a hard time understanding, when she tells him to do things around the place and he speaks of needing a rest or a nap instead. She says he turns into a clumsy animal when he drinks and he breaks her bikes when he tries to ride home in them, cause he's so hammered.

In any case, he's really nice and so is she. Elvis took Dan and I out for a good time the other night to an open aired, sandy floored bar. There we listened to the men play their drums and turtle shells and dance and sing in a language called Garifuna. I sat down at the bass hand drum and the man next to me, Conrad, taught me a "rhydum" (as he put it) that is typically played here in Belize, forgive me but I forgot the name of that "rhydum".

Conrad was trying to teach me and then Elvis would come in and show me something and then another guy. I was trying to listen to all of them and then Conrad let me have it and asked me who was teachin' me and who I was listenin' to. Anyways, I learnt the beat and kept the beat and had the drummers playing along with me and singing and good ol Elvis was dancing and swinging his long arms around and up in the air. Dan took a chance at the shakers and he did good!

Dan and I are having a great time and we keep breaking out into hysterical laughter about something strange we've seen or something that Trish has done or said, or another great story she tells and I will come and tell Dan and we'll laugh (in good fun of course).

All is going good here and we're really enjoying the people we've been meeting and as always, each others company.

Next stop, coming soon is Guatemala.... which I am a little nervous about.