Arrival in beautiful Belize
Trip Start
Nov 06, 2009
1
333
354
Trip End
May 28, 2011
Dangriga, Stann Creek, Belize
Sunday, May 1, 2011
It was a rough hour's ride on the open sea during which we suffered blistered fingers from gripping on to the wooden benches for dear life, brusied bums and elbows from whacking into the sides/ (very hard) seats of the boat with every bump, and it didn't do poor Risto's bad back any favours either.
I found my thoughts wandering between contemplation over:
a) whether manatees - of which there are apparently many in these waters - bite or not (and if so how hard, and if not could I perhaps hitch a lift with one back to shore if the boat capsized);
b) whether death by drowning or shark mauling would be preferable; and
c) why the hell had we decided to get on a boat ever again rather than having learnt our lesson from our previous not so distant Trigana/Capurgana hellboat experiences...
Fortunately we didn't capsize or get attacked by sharks, and although very painful it still wasn't quite as bad/long as the Trigana/Capurgana trips. However it was wonderful to step on land again.
Also rather strange to step into a land where English is the official language again, and where the currency is dollars, but with the Queen's head printed on them (and Belizean 25 cent pieces look just like our old 5 pees did before they got shrunk).
Anyway, after a very easygoing customs check ('What is in your bag?' 'Clothes and stuff' 'Ok, proceed') we hopped on a bus to Dangriga, a couple of hours up the coast.
Dangriga is the cultural and spiritual centre of the Garifuna people, who settled there after coming over from Honduras in the 1830s.
Formerly named 'Stann Creek Town' after the creek that runs through it, the place was renamed Dangriga - meaning sweet or still waters - in the 80s after a Garifuna cultural revival.
These days the population is still largely dominated by Garifuna, with some mestizos, criollos, and a surprisingly large number of Chinese, who appear to own all the local supermarkets and a large portion of the restaurants [we later discovered that this is not the case only in Dangriga, but in many parts of Belize, as many folk from Hong Kong relocated here when Hong Kong was given back to China].
It's a slightly ramshackle but very cheerful and friendly town. The laidback locals live mainly in wooden clapboard houses raised on stilts to catch the Caribbean breeze, and the beach is dotted with mango trees and coconut palms.
We stayed at the super friendly Val's Backpackers, a stone's throw from the beach - the perfect place to unwind Belizean stylee after a long day's boat and bus travel.
