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19 March 2008

Belizean adventures: Hopkins [More:]Rather than do a 'how I spent my vacation' post, I thought I'd just skip to the best (and possibly most interesting to others) part. For the last week of my wanderings, I stayed in the small Garifuna village of Hopkins. My friend in Caye Caulker had told me to look up his old friend Jabbar, who runs the Lebeha Drumming Centre and rents some basic but comfortable accommodation. I had a fantastic time (really should've gone there first), and was treated with great kindness and affection by Jabbar, Dorothy, and the incredible drummers who perform there. Here are some links to give you an idea about the village and its people:

A bit about the Garifuna and their history, their music, and an article about preparing Garifuna food in New York. The National Garifuna Council website is also worth exploring if you're interested. Finally, here is a 12-minute recording I made of one of the Lebeha Drummers' punta songs. Enjoy!
A jam session at the centre:

≡ Click to see image ≡

The drummers perform at a local resort:

≡ Click to see image ≡

I'll be posting more photos to my Flickr page as I can, but the slowness of my connection means that this will take a while.
posted by elizard 19 March | 11:26
Awesome! I love drumming, and this sounds like a very congenial group of people!
posted by lleachie 19 March | 11:28
Wow. I want to go. Looks like a fabulous time, elizard!
posted by goo 19 March | 11:30
Ileachie: They sure are. I love what Jabbar is doing, too: teaching the local kids about their culture, and thus instilling an incredible amount of pride in who they are while keeping them out of trouble. As Karim kept saying, "Our culture is unstoppable! You just can't stop it, man!"

goo: If you can, go. You won't regret it. Hopkins is pretty small (around 1000 people), and pretty basic (no bank machine, no hot water in most places, only one place with internet access), but I liked it that way. So far, the tourists are fairly scarce except for the resorts way at the ends of town, though we'll see how long that lasts.
posted by elizard 19 March | 11:36
Oh, and for them as are interested, here's a link to my Belize photoset (in progress).
posted by elizard 19 March | 11:55
Wow. Thanks, elizard!
posted by Specklet 19 March | 12:06
you?
posted by danf 19 March | 13:00
yep.
posted by elizard 19 March | 13:32
I faved so many of those. . .what a great vacation. . tell me, how much per night did you pay for the cabana?

oh to be a cabana boy!
posted by danf 19 March | 13:35
The one at Wish Willy's was $17.50US/night, at the Windschief, $25US/night, and at Lebeha (not yet shown in the photos) a screaming $32.50US/night, but it was much bigger and had a full-sized fridge, as well as a huge section of beach pretty much to myself. The only big drawback (apart from having to go into Dangriga to get cash--it's a shithole, IMHO, and the trip takes the whole morning, but some preparation should help one avoid that) was that sometimes the water at the last cabana would slow to a trickle or cut off entirely, depending on how much water was being used in the rest of the village. Rarely a major inconvenience, though--really, how much does it matter if you have to shower a bit later? Besides, if you're too hot you can go for a swim. Just be sure to do the 'stingray shuffle' when heading in (though it's very rare that anyone actually gets stung).
posted by elizard 19 March | 14:15
Wonderful pictures.
posted by essexjan 19 March | 14:44
Wow I am so envious. Looks like a lot of fun.
posted by arse_hat 19 March | 15:45
Oh, man. Caye Caulker. I love Caye Caulker.
posted by dersins 19 March | 18:56
Looks like a blast... wish we could travel like that. Maybe in a year or two, barring unforeseen complications (health problems, job loss, giraffe stampede). I'd love to take a month or two when I'm off in the summer and Jon could take vacation time/leave of absence and just wander. Gotta first finish paying off the credit cards and save up an "emergency fund" and blah, blah, blah. Maybe when I'm 80...

Glad you had such a great time...
posted by Pips 19 March | 20:05
elizard, the pics are beautiful. I want to go to Belize. That water is calling me.
posted by LoriFLA 19 March | 20:11
Thanks for the compliments, bunnies :) Pips, yeah, I loves the wander. Spent longer in AL than I originally intended, and was going to spend just a few days in Hopkins then push on to Punta Gorda, but loved Hopkins so much I decided to stay. Stopped briefly in Punta Gorda one day and decided I'd made the right decision. (Not to slag Punta Gorda, it just wasn't where my head was at at that point and I'd have missed out on some amazing stuff had I gone.)

Next post (when photos are up): A day in Maya country.

posted by elizard 19 March | 20:29
Indubitably ossem.
posted by ethylene 19 March | 20:39
How do you scratch Tubbs? || Every time you can has, God kills a LOLcat.

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