A jam session at the centre:

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The drummers perform at a local resort:

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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.

Awesome! I love drumming, and this sounds like a very congenial group of people!

Wow. I want to go. Looks like a fabulous time, elizard!

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.

Oh, and for them as are interested, here's a link to my Belize photoset (in progress).

Wow. Thanks, elizard!

you?

yep.

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!

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).

Wonderful pictures.

Wow I am so envious. Looks like a lot of fun.

Oh, man. Caye Caulker. I love Caye Caulker.

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...

elizard, the pics are beautiful. I want to go to Belize. That water is calling me.

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.

Indubitably ossem.