Everything you might want to ask before you come.

Yes. Every visit to the island — experiences and stays alike — is booked in advance. There are no walk-ins, so please reserve before you come and the family will be ready to welcome you.

Choose an experience, pick your date and the number of guests, and place your reservation online. We confirm by email, normally within 24 hours, and arrange payment with you then.

For a stay, send a stay request from the Accommodations page. It’s a request, not a charge — nothing is paid until we confirm.

Yes, prices are per person unless a listing says otherwise. All prices are in US dollars, and a 12.5% tax and fees are added at checkout.

No. Tips aren’t included in the price. They’re never expected, and always appreciated by the people who host you.

Yes. Traditional Kayak Fishing, for example, welcomes a single guest and takes groups of up to eight. Two things do need numbers: the road transfers from Belize City, San Ignacio and Placencia need at least two people, and the online Garifuna language class runs with at least four.

We host small groups and large ones — families, schools and universities, tour operators, companies and reunions. Tell us your numbers on the Contact page and we’ll plan the day around them.

For retreats, study-abroad programmes, private events and wellness packages, a 50% deposit secures your dates and the balance is due seven days before arrival.

Our family. Each experience is hands-on, led by the Martinez family and our elders, and capped at a small group — so there’s time to ask, to try again, and to talk.

On Kalipuna Island, on the north side of Hopkins Village in southern Belize, where Fresh Water Creek Lagoon meets the Caribbean. Belize City is about two and a half hours away by road, and the island is about twenty minutes from the highway.

On the northern side of Hopkins, at the estuary where the lagoon meets the sea — locals call it Hawaii. If you’re staying in Hopkins, we pick you up from your hotel for free.

By kayak — a short, calm paddle across Fresh Water Creek Lagoon, about five minutes, included in the price of every island experience. If you’d rather not paddle, a boat crossing is available at extra cost; just tell us when you book.

No. The lagoon is calm, flat water and your guide sets the pace. Wear shoes that can get wet and dry quickly.

Yes. Add a round-trip transfer when you book. It’s an air-conditioned vehicle — about two hours each way from Belize City or San Ignacio, and about an hour from Placencia. Transfers are priced per person with a minimum of two, and the per-person price drops as your group grows.

Our Garifuna Cultural & Culinary Adventure is also sold as a package with the transfer included, for less than booking both separately.

Please confirm your arrival time with us at least an hour ahead. Missed boat departures caused by guest delays may incur additional transfer fees, and shared boat transfers are non-refundable once scheduled.

It depends on what you book, but a day with us is hands-on. You might pick herbs in the garden, pound green plantain for hudut and eat it at our table, put your hands on a primero drum, weave a basket with one of our elders, or paddle the mangrove channels. Every experience is led by our family and capped at a small group.

And if what you need most is quiet, that’s here too. Nobody will hurry you through any of it.

From about two hours — a drumming lesson, the Farm to Table cooking class, the guided lagoon tour — to full days of seven or eight hours that combine the island with a rainforest hike, the bioluminescent lagoon or a Maya cacao farm. Each listing gives its length.

No. Most guests have never played a Garifuna drum, woven a basket or pounded plantain before — that’s where everyone starts. You learn by ear and by hand, from the family and our elders, with enough time to finish what you begin.

• Sun protection and insect repellent (we also have natural repellent).
• Light clothing, and shoes that can get wet and dry quickly for the kayak crossing.
• Swimwear, if you’d like a swim in the sea at Hawaii afterwards, on your own time.
• For the herbal healing experiences, a spare set of clothes for after the salt water bathe.

We provide cultural attire to change into for the cultural part of the day.

Yes. Tell us when you book and we’ll prepare a vegetable option for vegetarians, or an alternative such as chicken instead of fish.

A Garifuna dish of fish simmered in coconut broth, served with green plantain pounded smooth in a mortar. On our cooking experiences you make it yourself — grating the coconut, pounding the plantain — and then eat it at the same table we do.

No. The salt water bathe, the copal smudging and the walk through the herbal garden are cultural experiences about Garifuna healing traditions and plant knowledge. We explain each practice before it begins — what it is, what it’s for and where it comes from. They don’t replace medical care, and we make no medical claims.

Yes. There’s a garden where the plants are still grown to be used, a spiritual centre holding our family’s books and artefacts, and water on every side. A massage with our certified therapist — two hours, beginning with a walk through the herbal garden and healing trail — is available by reservation on our Wellness page.

Usually, but not always. Bioluminescence depends on conditions — a bright moon or heavy rain can dim it. We’d rather tell you that now than promise it.

Yes. We have two rooms among the trees, Anichigu and Isieni, a few steps from where we cook, drum and gather. Each is solar powered with a private bath, a private porch and wifi, and sleeps four — one queen bed and one bunk bed.

Both rates are for double occupancy, plus 12.5% tax and fees. Additional guests are $12.50 each per night, up to four people in a room. All prices in US dollars.

Send a stay request from the Accommodations page with your dates, your plan and the room you’d like. We check the dates and confirm by email, normally within 24 hours. Nothing is charged until we confirm.

Yes. Pickup from Placencia, San Ignacio and Belize City can be arranged — tell us where you’re coming from and we’ll sort the transfer. The crossing to the island is by kayak, or by boat on request.

Yes. We run live classes on Google Meet, each priced per person:

• Culinary Roots: Garifuna Cooking Live — one hour, cooking a Garifuna breakfast, lunch or dinner in your own kitchen.
• Garifuna Vibes: Virtual Drum & Dance — one hour with a Garifuna drummer and a dancer.
• Garifuna Language Journey — one hour with a Garifuna language instructor.
• Roots & Remedies — a 30-minute virtual herbal walk with a Garifuna herbalist.

A device with a stable internet connection. For the cooking class, your own kitchen and the ingredients on the list we send ahead — it includes substitutions for anything hard to find where you live. For the drum and dance class, any surface will do as a drum, and a little space to move. If you’d like a real Garifuna drum, we can ship one to you as an add-on — ask us when you book.

No. The classes are designed for beginners. The language class starts from the basics — numbers, letters, pronouns and simple sentences — through games and conversation rather than drills, and works as a refresher too. It runs with at least four participants.

This covers cultural, culinary, kayaking, drumming, wellness and group experiences.

No-shows, including missing the scheduled boat transfer without telling us, are charged in full. Early departures after check-in are non-refundable.

Many of our experiences run rain or shine, and light rain or cloud doesn’t qualify for a refund. If we cancel because conditions are unsafe — severe storms, lightning, flooding, high winds or an unsafe lagoon — you can reschedule, take a credit, or receive a refund, minus a 10% processing fee for card payments.

We strongly recommend it. It protects you against airline disruptions, illness, weather delays, family emergencies and other interruptions that our own policy can’t cover.

Because every booking supports cultural preservation, local employment and the preparation needed to deliver our experiences well. Musicians, guides, cooks, food and transport are arranged for you in advance. We aim to stay fair and flexible wherever we can, while protecting the people whose livelihoods depend on it.

The Martinez family. Uwahnie Martinez spent fourteen years in banking until a policy barred her from speaking Garifuna at work — her own language, in her own country. She resigned, came home to Hopkins and built Palmento Grove instead. It is Garifuna owned and run, rooted here since 2007. Our story.

The Garinagu are an Afro-Caribbean people indigenous to Belize; Garifuna is the language, and the word we use as an adjective. Garifuna language, dance and music are inscribed by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Here the language is spoken every day.

Palmetto and mangrove — the two trees of the island habitat that surround the retreat. The island itself is known as Over Johnson, and the three women said to have first lived on it gave Hopkins its Garifuna name, Yugada.

It stays in the community that made the culture — local employment, and the preservation work we fund, including the Eco-Cultural & Entrepreneurship Summer Camp we sponsor each year for local youths: language restoration, arts preservation and cultural wellness. Gari-CAAP.

We were named Cultural Experience of the Year at the Belize Tourism Board’s 2025 National Tourism Awards.