We’ve just arrived in Dangriga after a long but worthwhile 5hrs bus ride from Orange walk. Today the partying leading up to the nation-wide celebrated Garifuna Festival has already started; plenty of people roaming the streets with the garifuna flag (yellow: sun, white: peace & black: color of the people) and even more getting ready for the sleepless night coming ahead. Although not very “known” outside Belize, we read about the Garifuna Settlement Day (the official name) on a small blog while doing a bit of background research on the country. The festival is not just partying with no reason, in fact it celebrates the arrival of the first Garifuna descendants on the Belizean coast back in 1802. But the big show is exactly on the 19th of November where a reenactment of the arrival (on boats) and a huge parade, create a unique opportunity for understanding the culture, history, art and traditions of such a unique afro-caribbean mix.
Right from the start, stepping down onto the spiritual land of the Garifunas, feels like being welcomed home after a long time spent away traveling; people stop us and ask “How y’doing guys ?”, “Where you from?” but most importantly the majority tell us the nicest thing you could ever hear: “Welcome to Belize!”. Still excited by the welcome party, we arrive at the only hostel in Dangriga (D’s Hostel)which luckily enough has still some free beds left. Strangely, this hostel doesn’t accept bookings either by phone or internet but works on the “first come, first served” basis. After a quick chat with Donna (the owner of the place) we quickly realise that the minimum length stay is 3 days due to the rooms getting filled during the festival time. We wanted to stay only 2 nights and then move on but what can we do, in the end this is the cheapest place in Dangriga with free rooms and breakfast included as well ! Guess is gonna be three nights then !
Later on, we figure out that the location of our hostel is literally PERFECT to enjoy everything that Dangriga has to offer: close to the beach, beautiful views over the city and
just a couple of meters away from the main city park where nearly all celebrations are going to happen. From our hostels balcony we can enjoy the live concerts going on in the park all night !!! We shared a dorm room with Matt (american) and Clotilde (french), a couple travelling throughout central & down to south america driving in their prepared-for-everything car. Go and check out their history on their blog: WeAreOutOfTheOffice. Since Clotilde is a photographer like Max, during the celebrations they throw themselves into the party with the sole objective of capturing the real feeling of the Garifuna Day.
We have dinner altogether, have a walk around this little coastal town and stop to talk with excited garifunas that proudly tell us interesting curiosities about their cultural heritage. But as everything, there is a price… no sleeping! With music playing for nearly 24hrs non-stop, each new song seems to be louder than the one before, especially at night ! In the end, we have no choice but to embrace the noises and go to bed, tomorrow we need to wake up early (5am) to witness the reenactment day.
And here we are, the four us contemplating the sea with some stray dogs and a couple of garifunas still drunk on rum from the night before. We might have exaggerated on the time. The first boats start arriving at the harbour no less than two hours later at around 7.30-8am! Dang, wish someone told us ! But what can you, better be early than late, right?
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You can listen to the sound of the drums at the horizon and you can hear the garifuna songs following them from far away. As the sounds get louder and the boats get closer, at the spot where the river meets the Caribbean sea, more and more people keep flowing in. Unknowingly, the first welcome boat (by tradition the one that in the past asked for permission to land) ends up landing in the little strip of sand from where a couple more people and us are enjoying the show. VIP pass ! The three men wearing palm leaves as hats and bringing forward the garifuna colors, are finally granted “permission” to land just after a little blessing ritual involving holy water. After a couple of minutes, the time for the men to go back to the boat convoy, all the boats are finally entering the river. People on the boats are singing, waving flags all over and proudly displaying all the traditional colours symbol of the Garifuna culture. At 8am, while this is all happening in the river, the same festivity excitement is alive and rocking on land. Thousands of people all around the bridge, river and real landing spot for the boats (we realised that later) from where the parade will start. Once the people on the first boat land, madness is real. Screams, music, dances, happiness, people moving, people pushing, people jumping on other people: what a crazy parade !
Once the parade has arrived to the church of the town, the mess in both english and garifuna starts and all the real partying slowly fades away. At this point, we go back to the hostel to give ourselves a bit of relaxing before the events following next. In the afternoon, in fact, we not only witness some more formal showing off from the army and a short speech by the president of Belize but we also enjoy the incredibly huge parade where schools of all the country show off their best Garifuna-based exhibitions. More dancing, acrobats, more dancing, music and more dancing! The second parade starts from the park in front of our hostel and loops around the city in what could be called the Garifuna Carnival. Being in Dangriga during the Garifuna Settlement Day has been an unique experience and without doubts, a spot-on opportunity to understand the roots of such an amazing culture like the Garifuna.
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