Garifuna settlement day is for sure one of my favourite Belizean holidays- especially in Punta Gorda, one of the major Garifuna communities in Belize. So much fun! Lots of fantastic drumming, dancing, singing, drinking and eating hudut (a delicious coconut curried fish dish with mashed plantains) - a fantastic celebration of culture. A culture that is vibrant and a people that are obviously proud of remembering their roots. Garifuna people are a unique racial blend of escaped African slaves and indigenous Caribbean islanders.

My trusty travel guide provides the following info on the Garifuna people: In 1635 two Spanish slave ships carrying Nigerians were ship wrecked off St. Vincent. Many of the captive Africans swam ashore and found shelter on the island of St. Vincent. The escaped slaves and the indigenous Arawak people of St. Vincent mixed and by 1773, this hybrid people, now known as the Garifuna, was the dominant population of St. Vincent. However, colonial powers eventually drove these people away "more and more British settlers landed on St. Vincent, until there was no question of the British design: the colonial forces would never tolerate a free black community at the very heart of their own slave plantations" (p252 of the Belize Insight Guide). So the Garifuna people fled to Roatan in Honduras and eventually after trouble in Honduras they eventually landed on the shores of Belize in 1823.

For more info on the Garifuna people of Belize out check the website for the National Garifuna Council of Belize Garifuna people continue to fish to support their livelihood and continue to make amazing music and speak a really beautiful language. Settlement day is a holiday to celebrate their landing on the Belizean coast. Yesterday morning at sunrise there was a re-enactment of the arrival of the boats. Many folks had been partying and dancing all night and others (like us) came out of our sleep to the sound of drumming and came to the docks to the see the action. Lots of people were wearing their traditional dress and of course drumming, singing and dancing, waving palms and sugar cane. Following their landing everyone proceeded by procession to a church service.

One of the local NGOs TIDE (the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment) organizes an annual Fishers Festival this weekend. So we spent a good part of the weekend watching all kinds of competitions- from Hudut eating to punta dancing (kids too!), coconut husking, cast net throwing and finally the weighing of the barracuda, jack fish and grouper that were harvested that day! Lots of fun. Last night Jim and I went to our friend Judith's birthday party where her kids, nieces and nephews got a real kick out of our digital camera and teaching us how to punta dance! Super fun!

Going back to Antigua Guatemala, where I had studied and lived five years ago, was a refreshing getaway from hot sticky Belize, and so much fun to explore our old favorite hang outs, visit my host family and of course just take in all of the history, beauty, amazing food, markets, art galleries, book stores, parque central, etc. I love the smell of Antigua in the cool morning- there was something so familiar and comforting about the fresh mountain air, mixed with the smells of coffee and diesel and wood fires burning. The feel of walking down the cobblestone streets, peeking into the colonial ruins of fantastic structures damaged by earthquakes of years gone by, watching the shoe shiner kids laugh and play and work, foreigners off to their spanish classes or grabbing mini buses to tour surrounding areas. So many familiar places and sites, smells and sounds. Looking up at the Agua volcano - damn no wonder that was a hard hike- it is so massive and impressive!! The gorgeous architecture, the colours, the vibe, the food, the people. It was really good to be back. And the city is changing! SO many new restaurants and spanish schools, shops and galleries. There is a LOT of money in that town. But, the city is still very beautitful- it's not growing in a way that makes it lose it's magic i think. Such a fun little city to visit and only a day of travel to get there from where we are in Belize.

We were visiting Antigua so we could meet up with our friend from home Tommy Mo, who was starting one of his GAP tours, cool to meet his group and see him in tour guiding action! Dos pusas ariba! We spent our days walking around the town, shopping, eating, and getting our hair cut (by the end of the weekend all three of us had some locks chopped!). Butl really, we mostly ate- we ate Thai food from Cafe Flor, sushi, desayuna typico (typical guatemalan breakfast) from Riki's, cookies from Dona Luisa's, leche Krishna from Rainbow Cafe (Karine i was thinking of you!!), nachos from Mono Loco's- we hit up all the old favorites and loved it! Jim even managed to get in a meal at Pollo Campero and McDick's (not one McDonalds in all of Belize- or any other fast food chain besides Subway for that matter- pretty crazy!). We saw a great Cuban band play, Tom even got me to salsa, took in a film about Noam Chomsky, and walked through jade and art galleries -novel experiences after living in Punta Gorda- i tell you!.

We also traveled to a little town west of Antigua called Santiago Zamora to visit a really sucessful project run by a group of Kaqchikel Mayan women who have organized themselves to host tourists for an afternoon and show them the different steps of weaving, mat making, coffee grinding and tortilla baking, sell their weavings and textiles, and the money goes to a local health clinic for kids and adults. Seems like a great little project. It was really well done and we all had a chance to try our own hands at grinding some coffee beans- and then to drink the coffee- yum! All in all, it was a really nice little break- and we also got a chance to get a little start on some Christmas shopping... since we have decided to come home for a visit over Christmas! I am starting to get really excited about it : ) It will be great to be with family and friends, catch up, play in the snow, and again- eat lots of great food! (as much as i love rice and beans and chicken/beef/fish/ or pork i do look forward for a change). So I guess, that's it for now. Hope you are all having a great time- any fun Halloween parties happening? Trick or treating and dressing up doesn't really happen here. We did go to our first punta dance party at Southside on Friday night- and the bar tenders did have some halloween gear on...the punta dancing is crazy by the way. Fun but crazy. Take care and lots of love.